Great article! For me, all of the "business" writing involved in writing is painful: proposals, cover letters, etc. I always feel like I am being too stuffy and robotic when I am attempting formality, or too familiar and enthusiastic when I am trying to be casual. And when I mix the two, I just come off as weird! ARGH! This is why I write poetry and not business-y things!
Joy, I'm working on a BP now, too. Why is it so darn hard? I agree the memoir was easier to write. Now that the book's done, edited, and revised, why can't agents and editors just read it? Good luck with yours!
I’d love analytics on published pieces! A fellow essayist for Insider asked me if I knew stats, and I said no, and we agreed it would be nice to know this info. But I can see from the editor’s perspective what a slippery slope that could turn into, having to feed back analytics to so many writers, and some might even annoyingly ask for ongoing updates. What would be cool (maybe?) is if the the stats on web pages were automatically transparent/visible!
Thanks for the tip - I just asked for a "mini-review" of my essay from the editor I'm currently working with. Some editors already do this upon acceptance of a piece, or when introducing a writer during a reading. Kudos to them!
Thank you, Joy, for this essay. Speaking as a former lit mag editor, for both a college-sponsored and an indie, what you describe would have totally overwhelmed me and my staff. What you say at the end, about writers needing things to add to their list of reasons to keep writing--lit mag editors need the same things to keep editing! In my experience, editors burn out much more quickly than writers, so this is important discussion to have. How can we help keep one another going and growing? I’m curious if anyone reading this has further ideas about how information could be shared?
Joy, you did absolutely the right thing by turning sections into stand-alone essays that were published.
Had you done one more thing, you would have had metrics, comments + pre-orders.
* * * * * * That is: sent it out to your list - - but via a service that provides metrics such as "open rate" - - as a free teaser to your forthcoming book [yes, even though no publisher was attached yet]. In exchange for a comment, those people would be promised a discount code or another incentive.
Great article! For me, all of the "business" writing involved in writing is painful: proposals, cover letters, etc. I always feel like I am being too stuffy and robotic when I am attempting formality, or too familiar and enthusiastic when I am trying to be casual. And when I mix the two, I just come off as weird! ARGH! This is why I write poetry and not business-y things!
Joy, I'm working on a BP now, too. Why is it so darn hard? I agree the memoir was easier to write. Now that the book's done, edited, and revised, why can't agents and editors just read it? Good luck with yours!
I’d love analytics on published pieces! A fellow essayist for Insider asked me if I knew stats, and I said no, and we agreed it would be nice to know this info. But I can see from the editor’s perspective what a slippery slope that could turn into, having to feed back analytics to so many writers, and some might even annoyingly ask for ongoing updates. What would be cool (maybe?) is if the the stats on web pages were automatically transparent/visible!
Thanks for the tip - I just asked for a "mini-review" of my essay from the editor I'm currently working with. Some editors already do this upon acceptance of a piece, or when introducing a writer during a reading. Kudos to them!
Thank you, Joy, for this essay. Speaking as a former lit mag editor, for both a college-sponsored and an indie, what you describe would have totally overwhelmed me and my staff. What you say at the end, about writers needing things to add to their list of reasons to keep writing--lit mag editors need the same things to keep editing! In my experience, editors burn out much more quickly than writers, so this is important discussion to have. How can we help keep one another going and growing? I’m curious if anyone reading this has further ideas about how information could be shared?
Joy, you did absolutely the right thing by turning sections into stand-alone essays that were published.
Had you done one more thing, you would have had metrics, comments + pre-orders.
* * * * * * That is: sent it out to your list - - but via a service that provides metrics such as "open rate" - - as a free teaser to your forthcoming book [yes, even though no publisher was attached yet]. In exchange for a comment, those people would be promised a discount code or another incentive.
Much good luck on your memoir!
I was published in Soft Star magazine on substack. The number of readers for my poem was displayed at the bottom of the page for all to see.
Is Joy Victory a real name?