26 Comments
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Leslie Pietrzyk's avatar

As always, love your energy, enthusiasm, and smarts! Also, love that necklace!!

Bea Mannes's avatar

Me too.

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

I owe you an email and I am on family vacation!! So, I’ll be back to you monday, we are going to DO IT!!!

Leslie Pietrzyk's avatar

No rush! Have fun on your (deserved) vacation--though, it may be you'll want a separate vacation to recover from the family vacation, lol.

L.C. Killingsworth's avatar

The thing I love about this approach so much is how accessible it feels. (If also how totally exhausting.) A while ago, I started a doc with all the podcasts/newsletters I run into related to themes in the memoir I'm working on so I could potentially pitch them one day, and it got long fast. It's comforting to have!

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

yes, long fast! There is actually SO MUCH out there that there’s no reason for us to feel competitive AND/OR exhaustive!

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Love this Cassie! So glad the energy is shifting - new birth is always hard (it comes with the death of the old) but this is a beautiful time to be a book lover and writer.

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

It really is! there’s so much richness to be found across so many types of publishing too!

Bea Mannes's avatar

How do you keep all of this in your head all of the time? It must be a volcano in there. Amazing thoughts, amazing writing. You will always get where you want to go, because you just don't give up.

Elisa M. Speranza's avatar

For those of us with tiny presses, it's all about local. My second novel launched in May, and I've had such lovely coverage in indie media, a local NPR book podcast, bookstore newsletters, and other writers' blogs and Substacks. I've had packed rooms for author talks in multiple cities where I have personal connections and history. It may not be the NY Times, but it's very satisfying.

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

🎉🎉🎉 indie books are mostly all I work on (like 90%) and it’s such a satisfying space!

Terese Svoboda's avatar

Books more than ever!

Victoria Waddle's avatar

I find this encouragement to take up the small opportunities very hopeful. Thank you.

Kathryn Mockler's avatar

Love the reveling in the scraps take! I feel like that's my MO.

Beth Kephart's avatar

Your list of placements at the end (each substack newsletter) proves your point repeatedly. You know how to tell a book's story and you know who wants to listen. My Life in Paper, your work on it, is a testament to that. Miss you.

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

<3 this means so much to me and you bet I saw Philadelphia on those Foreword Awards big and beautiful!!!!

Beth Kephart's avatar

SO lucky. SO blessed. Thank you for noticing that!

Jocelyn Jane Cox's avatar

Cheers to scraps and whosacahoots! And this whole post

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

I think that’s my children’s book title! LOL

Kristin D. Sanders's avatar

Love this, and the nod to improv's "yes, and..." at the end. (My client Randy Fertel writes about the power of improv!)

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

Ah yes! So many improv techniques in publicity, I think. That ability to both land and to pivot, and timing!

Lisa Rogak's avatar

THIS. >>So, my connections to media are less important than say—my ability to tell a good story about a book, to create an atmosphere around a book, to understand what conversation should be created and what could get us there.<<

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

I really think this is where we’re at!

Judith Newcomb Stiles's avatar

old formulas? Established long ago by businessMEN. You have great insights and a great outlook. Thank you for writing this.

Cassie Mannes Murray's avatar

Judith, I’m so happy to see you here!!!

Pressley Baird Frevert's avatar

Not the point of your post (my comments never are), but: I had my 10th birthday party at the Scrap Exchange and it remains a highlight of my childhood!