Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I recently separated my TBR pile by genre and discovered the plethora of craft books I have neglected. Luckily, I have invited my peer, Ross Nunamaker from the Greater Lehigh Valley Writer’s Group, to assist me on updating this list. Full review of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft for paid subscribers at the end of this newsletter.

My free list of writing resources, including books, is located under the resources tab in the menu bar. Or you can click here.

This was spurred by my recent purchase of A People’s Guide to Publishing, second edition, which I will use in my spring semester publishing course at Northampton Community College that discusses how to put a book together. (Wednesdays on Zoom, 2 to 3:20 p.m. if you are interested— and I’m told local seniors can attend for free.)

So many writing- and publishing-themed books to review and revisit…

1. The original version of A People’s Guide to Publishing is still worth the price of admission. It came out in 2018, but I purchased it after the pandemic as I got more serious about my own publishing business. This is not a beginner, hobby press guide. This is the real deal: how to build a profitable business and sustain your efforts. That’s why I want my students to read it and why I purchased the new edition.
2. I had to buy a new copy of The Rebel Bookseller by Andy Laties. (That might also be an interesting text for PUBL102…) I leant mine to someone and now can’t remember who… just like what must have happened to Jennifer Bartlett’s poetry collection Autobiography/ Anti-Autobiography.[Both Joe Biel and Andy Laties can teach you vital lessons about how book publishing really works and show you the two sides— bookstore and publisher— and save you some growing pains.]

Books/Memoirs for Writers/Writing/Publishing

1. Adrian, Kim. The Shell Game. I have read several of the essays in this, including one by local author Lee Upton. If you want to explore creative non-fiction in a fresh way, this book will show you the diversity of the “hermit crab essay.” Authors borrow forms from police reports, resumes, syllabi, crossword puzzles even self-assessments… as structure for their essays.
2. Cohen, Bryan. Booked for Life: How to Write and Market a Book to Fill Up Your Coaching, Courses, or Agency. I backed this one on Kickstarter and received my electronic copy yesterday. Bryan is the CEO of Best Page Forward and has a successful Amazon Ads management business and self-publishing podcast.He’s one of these gurus who I’ve never read their fiction. Which I suppose is better than my feelings about Joanna Penn. I respect her success as a creative, but I don’t like her writing.I took one of Bryan’s basic classes on using Amazon Ads as part of my grant from the Pennsylvania Creative Entrepreneurship program. I learned a lot, and he focuses on how to make small amounts of investment go farther, whereas another class I took discussed spending more to find the readers more likely to become fans… Anyway…Bryan’s epub is only 118 pages, so the paperback is probably be more like a chapbook. None of these self-publishing, Amazon-reliant “experts” offer anything hefty (and I’m being literal here). The Amazon-based successes and phenoms I have seen follow quick-and-dirty processes. Keep books short, release a lot of them, and use simple templates that facilitate easy production. Many of them don’t even invest in ISBNs. That does not negate their advice.

2. Herron, Rachael. Fast-Draft Your Memoir and Refill. Rachael is one of my all-time favorite authors and heroes. Her thriller HUSH LITTLE BABY is a must-read. Her first book, Stolen Things, is also good but more predictable and ordinary. And her memoirs are amazing. And her podcast is the best. She’s renamed it over the last couple years. But she always does an annual “money episode” where she breaks down how much she made traditional publishing versus self-publishing versus teaching, etc. This is handy knowledge.
3. I backed her latest memoir on Kickstarter last week (someone keep me off Kickstarter, okay?) because I love her and her first memoir. The latest one is Refill: A Perhaps Overly Ambitious Year of Creative Experiments in Reclaiming Joy. I tried to talk myself out of backing it, because I must have 50 books I need to read and another 100 I’d like to read just to support other authors…BUT… As a reward for increased backing she offered the electronic materials for the workshop she used to teach at Stanford, Fast-Draft Your Memoir, AND for a little bit more she would include an audiobook… and I bet my dear Nancy Scott would love this as much as I would… and I have to get this medical advocacy memoir of mine done.
4. Le Guin, Ursula. Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story. Thanks to Ross for sharing his experience with this one at the end of this newsletter.
5. Livesey, Margot. The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing. Speaking of Nan, she found this one and we read a sample and I had to have it. Copyright 2017, fantastic book design (not as good as the first edition of People’s Guide to Publishing). The titles alone: “Mrs. Turpin Reads the Stars: Creating Characters Who Walk Off the Page,” “Hush, Shut Up, Please Be Quiet: Letting our Characters Tell and Show,” “Gustav and Emma: Finding the First Novel” and “How to Tell a True Story: Mapping our Narratives onto the World,” among them. Admit it— you want to read those! What great titles!
6. Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. I watched the movie at one point, and figured I should give the book a read. Jeannette Walls childhood experiences molded her into the writer she is today. How does a writer become a writer? This memoir suggests that perhaps the right amount of creativity and family dysfunction.