SORRY NOT SORRY

and other things that have improved my life this June

Here’s a roundup of the best writing and publishing-adjacent (emphasis on adjacent) resources I’ve found this past month.

Here are my favorites from 🌼 June🌼

🌼This list of 90ish things author Kate McKean did to promote her book does such a great job making the not-always-visible labor of traditional publishing transparent. A must-read for anyone about to launch their first book!

🌼 I was on social media almost constantly during my own book launch season. I needed to be. And now, I need to be on it less. This has helped me dial it back.

🌼 I’ve directly asked friends who’ve read Famished to rate and review my book on Goodreads and Amazon (if you enjoyed my book, it would mean so much to me if you did it, too! Those reviews are so important when it comes to visibility and the algorithm).

One friend recently told me she appreciated the confidence in my direct ask — ha! This spirit of not apologizing and just saying what we need during launch season is something Kristin Du Mez talks about in this brilliant piece on how to promote a book

🌼 I’m happy it’s summer, in part because that means my favorite ice cream flavor is back

🌼 Brianna Bell’s writerly advice she’d give her younger self is so hopeful and wise. If doom and gloom and AI are getting you down, read her take on why the publishing industry will never die

🌼 This essay has connected quite deeply with some of what I’ve navigated in my professional life re: the feeling of being an outsider looking in

🌼 Somehow one of these found its way to our home, and I totally understand why they’ve gone viral

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Thanks for reading this roundup! Tell me in the comments — what’s the best writing/publishing-adjacent resource you’ve found this month?

New posts are always free; but after a month, all of this actionable advice moves behind a paywall. Some of the content behind the paywall include:

— The exact pitches that landed bylines at HuffPost, Newsweek, NBC News, Slate, Salon, and more.

— The Tiny Love Story prompts that led to publication in The New York Times.

— Backstory about how I positioned myself for interviews in outlets like The Atlantic (with my name and website in the first line of a widely shared essay).

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