Here is my absolute favorite example: Cat rescuer and creator of the TikTok account @PoetsSquareCats Courtney Gustafson's POETS SQUARE: ESSAYS ON CATS & COMMUNITY, a memoir-in-essays, which tells the brutal and tender stories of cats the author has saved (or failed to save) as a lens to explore everything from poverty and mental health to morality and misogyny, pitched as H IS FOR HAWK with an internet habit, or WINTERING with a few dozen feral cats, to Libby Burton at Crown, in a pre-empt, by Caroline Eisenmann at Frances Goldin Literary Agency (NA).
She was a student of mine and when we had a call to talk about trying to get an agent I was like... um... you will have no trouble. I'm so glad they leaned ALL THE WAY IN on the wonderful weirdness of this story.
For some reason I spent this morning reading the Publisher's Weekly deal announcements (which I never do!), and I kept thinking how poorly written most of them were! So it was a delight to read your post just now and have you do this excellent and very satisfying close reading! :)
It’s so frustrating! They could be doing so much more, and thank you. It is so satisfying to read them after reading a book too and rewriting them in your head.
Oh my: #relevant. I've been thinking a lot about how I can make my weird book sound less weird but this giving me some new food for thought. thank you!
I'm realizing I never got to see my pub announcement. Do you have the magical ability to look it up? My jacket copy ended up not being great so I'm curious what they said. Lightning Flowers is an easy book for me to cold pitch in person--I constantly sell copies in bars and hot springs just chatting with people-- but for some reason the energy has never translated well into industry summaries.
Essence (and voice!) are such hard things to describe!
Here you are:
Best American essayist Katherine Standefer's LIGHTNING FLOWERS, who, having had a defibrillator implanted at age 24, questions the benefits of medical technology and the environmental and social costs associated with such devices, to Tracy Behar at Little, Brown, by Bonnie Nadell at Hill Nadell Literary Agency (World).
Here is my absolute favorite example: Cat rescuer and creator of the TikTok account @PoetsSquareCats Courtney Gustafson's POETS SQUARE: ESSAYS ON CATS & COMMUNITY, a memoir-in-essays, which tells the brutal and tender stories of cats the author has saved (or failed to save) as a lens to explore everything from poverty and mental health to morality and misogyny, pitched as H IS FOR HAWK with an internet habit, or WINTERING with a few dozen feral cats, to Libby Burton at Crown, in a pre-empt, by Caroline Eisenmann at Frances Goldin Literary Agency (NA).
"WINTERING with a few dozen feral cats" gets me EVERY TIME
SO. GOOD. So thoughtful! There’s so much good here!!!
She was a student of mine and when we had a call to talk about trying to get an agent I was like... um... you will have no trouble. I'm so glad they leaned ALL THE WAY IN on the wonderful weirdness of this story.
For some reason I spent this morning reading the Publisher's Weekly deal announcements (which I never do!), and I kept thinking how poorly written most of them were! So it was a delight to read your post just now and have you do this excellent and very satisfying close reading! :)
It’s so frustrating! They could be doing so much more, and thank you. It is so satisfying to read them after reading a book too and rewriting them in your head.
Oh my: #relevant. I've been thinking a lot about how I can make my weird book sound less weird but this giving me some new food for thought. thank you!
Make it weirdER! ⛸️
Really nice post. Anything with chartreuse is always a win for me.
Agreed! Name a funky color and I’m there!
If only there were a comma after “Now”
My pub announcement included the term eco-thriller 😳 and i was too much of a newby to realize I could veto that... sigh... next time!
I'm realizing I never got to see my pub announcement. Do you have the magical ability to look it up? My jacket copy ended up not being great so I'm curious what they said. Lightning Flowers is an easy book for me to cold pitch in person--I constantly sell copies in bars and hot springs just chatting with people-- but for some reason the energy has never translated well into industry summaries.
Essence (and voice!) are such hard things to describe!
Here you are:
Best American essayist Katherine Standefer's LIGHTNING FLOWERS, who, having had a defibrillator implanted at age 24, questions the benefits of medical technology and the environmental and social costs associated with such devices, to Tracy Behar at Little, Brown, by Bonnie Nadell at Hill Nadell Literary Agency (World).