Announcing The Bird's Eye, a Substack on a book's journey to publication

The Bird's Eye is for anyone who wants to be a little birdie peeking in on what happens to a book once it gets accepted by a traditional publisher. It’s also sort of a resilience story for creatives.

Forty-two isn’t old unless you’re a flamingo. Yet it took me a long time to reach a dream I’ve had since my tweens, when it seemed like the best way to impress a crush was to write a novel. As with most long journeys, I outgrew the motive for starting, but I then spent a 20-year editorial career working with writers and their manuscripts, and witnessing their struggles and triumphs in tandem with mine. From discarded drafts to big bylines, from online courses to MFAs, from dead letters to a debut novel, I learned it’s all valuable in the long view.

I’m starting a Substack to celebrate not just a birthday, but a milestone. My novel, The Skin and Its Girl, comes out on April 25 from Ballantine Books. Follow along for two or three concise emails a month. There’s a biweekly “Seed for Thought” on building community and growing in your craft. There’s also a biweekly “Journey to Publication” post, with an insider look at the work of writing, selling, revising, promoting, and marketing a traditionally published novel, plus advice on doing it well within your means. And some months I’ll have a guest post from people I admire who overcame a lot on their way to awesomeness; a passion project can be tough going, and I’m after their insights on resilience, perspective, and grace.

If you’re asking, “What’s a Substack?” it’s like a blog post, but delivered to your inbox in a non-annoying way. It’s a way for me to write about the details of my publishing journey, but only for the people who are interested in a couple of updates a month. And it’s easy for readers who haven’t yet heard of The Threepenny Editor to find the information and tell their friends.

You can read a sample post here, “Find the Right Agent,” on the five lessons it took me 20 years to learn.

Thanks for checking it out. I hope you’ll give it a subscribe.