Book Writing & Publishing

Most first-time authors don't hire the wrong editor. They hire the right editor at the wrong time, which costs the same amount of money and gets them a fraction of the value.

I've been editing nonfiction and memoir for two decades, and I hear a version of this every few weeks. Someone finishes a draft on a Tuesday and wants to book a proofreader for the following month.

Fiction editor Allison Buehner of Golden Editorial gets the same email, constantly, from self-publishing authors who assume proofreading is all editing is. We talked about it at length on this recent episode of Write the Damn Book Already, and I want to lay the whole thing out here, because nobody hands you a map of this when you decide to publish a book.

The four types of book editing, in the order they happen

Here's the short version, and then we'll go deeper on each one.

Developmental editing looks at the book as a whole. Structure, pacing, argument, character, whether the thing delivers what it promises....

Laurie Notaro has landed on the New York Times bestseller list something like eight times. (She isn't sure of the exact number.) She's also not sure how many books she's written, which I found so delightful I nearly came out of my chair. She drives a 2008 Mini Cooper, lives in a 1,500 square foot house, and has earned out on exactly one book.

Laurie came on the podcast to talk about I've Got a New Complaint, her new essay collection out September 8 from Little A, with a title borrowed from a Nirvana lyric. We did talk about it. We also talked about getting fired, getting dropped by her agent over email, and being told no by nearly everyone for thirty years.

The math on a writing career is not what anyone tells you There's a story floating around out there where you land the book deal and then you're set. Royalties roll in. You buy a house with a library in it. You become insufferable at parties. Laurie's response to that: "Hardly anyone ever earns out." She said it plainly, as s...

If you are trying to figure out how to write a memoir and you keep stalling out on one specific worry, that being what your mother is going to say, you are in extremely good company. Joyce Maynard has hosted memoir retreats for more than 25 years and well over a thousand women, and she says the same question comes up every single time.

Men do not ask it. Women ask it constantly.

How do I tell an honest story about my life without hurting the people in it?

I got to sit down with Joyce for the Write the Damn Book Already podcast a few days after her fourteenth novel, In Wonderland, came out. I had one goal going in, which was to not ask her a single question she has already answered a thousand times. We were in Guatemala by minute four, so I think it worked.

Here is what came out of it, and why it matters if you are a first-time author sitting on a story you are not sure you have permission to tell.

Who is Joyce Maynard?

Short version for anyone who is new to her work. Joyce ...

If you're a first-time author staring down the query trenches or wondering whether you even have the right to call yourself a "real" writer yet, this episode is for you.

My guest, Eli McCann, wrote a debut novel titled Stitched based on stories about his mom's drama-heavy, quilting group (I think of it like the Real Knitters of Salt Lake City), and the story behind how it got made is a massive testament to the power of refusing to shrink yourself to fit someone else's idea of marketable.

Eli is a lawyer, a longtime humor columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and a writer who built a massive storytelling following on TikTok and Instagram a full year before his book ever came out—on purpose. But also, and this is one of the (many) things I admire about him, he knows it's not all about the numbers.

We talked about why he built the audience in advance (and how), what happened when publishers told him his book would be a hard sell because it centers older women, and why he refused t...

Ten books in, Meg Mitchell Moore still doesn't know what her plot is going to be when she starts writing.  

Meg Mitchell Moo

Ten books in, Meg Mitchell Moore still doesn't know what her plot is going to be when she starts writing.  

Meg Mitchell Moore has published ten novels. And she still starts most of them with no idea what's going to happen. No outline, no plot, sometimes not even a reason her characters are in the room together. She figures it out as she goes, often with her agent's or editor's help.

If that sounds like it shouldn't work, that's kind of the point of this conversation. It does work. It's worked ten times! And I love how honest Meg is about the fact that her first drafts are a mess and revisions are where it all comes together. 

We also get into the parts of book publishing that show up in very few highlight reels. Meg talks about learning, book by book, how much of a "big author moment" (the 10-city tour, the massive publisher push) is actually the auth...

This episode quickly got personal because I'm elbow-deep in my first novel after six nonfiction books, and Angela Brown writes the kind of fiction that makes one feel quite seen. 

Angela is the author of Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time, Some Other Time, and her newest, Ways to Find Yourself. And I will fully admit I read the prologue the night before we recorded and had a moment. Not a cute moment. A "why am I like this" moment. So we start there, obviously. 

But this conversation goes way past my feelings about her book (though we do talk about her characters, her sneaky habit of naming them after real people in her life, and the "what if" questions that kick off each of her novels). We get into the actual mess of writing fiction: how she doesn't always know where a story is headed when she starts it, the time an entire book arrived in the shower (why does all our best thinking happen there?) and she wouldn't leave her desk for two hours because she was afraid it would v...

In this episode, novelist and screenwriter Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men, Kaleidoscope) shares book writing tips on ditching the rules, writing a novel by accident, and what's really changed in publishing.

He's published six books (so far), three of which he's sold to Hollywood. And somehow, he managed to write his latest novel entirely by accident. He set out to write a short story. Then it got longer. Then it was a novella. Then it was 80,000 words and he had to admit he'd written a whole book, mostly at night, while still juggling film and TV work. 

We also talk about what's changed in publishing since his Random House days (Hint: mid-list used to mean stable; now everyone's terrified of it), why chasing trends is a losing game when a book takes years to reach shelves, and why there are no rules for how long a chapter should be, except the one that matters: Don't make me want to stop reading.

ABOUT ERIC GARCIA

Instagram: @ericgarciathewriter

CLICK HERE TO HELP YOUR ...

In this episode, I chat with children's book author and illustrator Erin Thorburn. (She also happens to be my best friend.) We wax not so poetic on book writing, publishing, marketing children's books (her lane, not mine), and navigating the creative industry with humor and properly set expectations. 

CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:

• Challenges of publishing (and marketing) children's books
• Marketing strategies for authors
• The myths (and, of course, truths) of our experiences building both confidence and community
• How to navigate industry egos and rejection without making it mean you should quit (or just plain quitting) 

CONNECT WITH ERIN THORBURN

Website: thebestofthesouthwest.com

Instagram: @erinofthesouthwest

CLICK HERE to download the Self-Publishing Starter Kit (it's free!)

Nadia Hashimi's newest novel (her seventh published book), City of Widows (William Morrow), releases in July 2026. 

She's already published four books for adults: The Pearl that Broke Its Shell (which is an international bestseller), When the Moon in Low, A House Without Windows, and Sparks Like Stars, as well as two middle grade novels, One Half from the East and The Sky at Our Feet. 

Our conversation was both fascinating and enlightening as we talked about Afghan culture, the importance of discipline in creative work, and Nadia's writing process. As a mom of four and pediatrician, her schedule most certainly doesn't allow for "easy" writing blocks, and her encouraging, honest words will no doubt reassure new and seasoned authors alike.

CONNECT WITH NADIA HASHIMI 

Website: nadiahashimibooks.com

Instagram: @nadiahashimibooks

CLICK HERE to download the Self-Publishing Starter Kit (it's free!)

Writing compelling stories is not an easy task!

In this episode, Ann Garvin (who will release her 7th novel, Tell Two Friends, in September 2026 with Lake Union) discloses the often messy, unglamorous truth of how a story actually starts. For her, that's usually as some tiny thing Ann can't stop thinking about, long before it has a plot or even characters attached to it. 

We talk about how to take that one nagging "kernel" of fascination and slowly build a book around it, and why your characters' flaws are usually what make readers care. Ann also walks through a deceptively useful trick for getting unstuck: asking, "What's the worst possible thing that could happen to this character right now?" (and then doing that to them).

Whether you write memoir, self-help, or fiction, this conversation is really about the same question every writer eventually has to answer: What am I actually fascinated by, and am I brave enough to explore it further? No matter how you're published or wha...