this is a great essay. Thanks for your candid assessments. I also worked a bunch on a book proposal that got widely rejected in 2020... I am now grateful i didn't end of spending two more years working on that project, and instead found a much better book subject for me in 2024. Best wishes for the home stretch of your pregnancy.
same here re: yours, I've been loving all the little previews of archival research you share!! and TO BE CLEAR that first half has gone through *a lot* of editing/revision since December lol but I just meant I had a welp here it goes first draft of it by then
Thank you for these thoughtful insights! Wishing you a safe and easy delivery (I always say the last little bit of pregnancy is Nature’s way of making you excited to go into labor 🤣🤣)
I remember reading and appreciating your Vox piece on motherhood decisions a while back - so cool to get a glimpse into this longer trajectory and looking forward to the book!
This is all so relatable and helpful. This point really stands out: "One of the biggest things I hadn’t thought about before is that each nonfiction chapter should really be built around one main argument/idea. This is different from a chapter topic. This is a chapter point."
My points were a little too squishy in the proposal (more like topics), so when it came time to flesh them out, I really struggled. A big part of me needing a deadline extension for my book (lol) was that I at some point finally landed on better points for each chapter. That made everything *so* much easier, and I knew I'd discovered an important part of the process!
same, my points were definitely not developed enough in my proposal. which in some ways is okay, because I sharpened what I thought over time with researching, but definitely in retrospect I could see the time be more efficiently spent if I had gone into the research process knowing more clearly what I was looking for. and like i know it's okay, to cast a pretty wide net of thinking and then narrow down, but as you said, I feel like I now have a better understanding of what authors who write lots of books must do earlier on in the process
This was such a good read. I liked the 'is this an essay or a book' question. I have a parenting book proposal that I've been sitting on for a year (am waiting for my dad brain book to come out first before going back to my editor with another pitch) and I'm considering just posting parts of it on Substack so I can get some feedback and see if it gets traction.
Also, keeping a word count tracker in Excel and trying to hit a word count target every day was totally the way I slogged through my writing process...sometimes you just have to crank it out.
thank you Darby! yeah it does seem like the act of workshopping ideas and even full chapters on Substack is becoming more and more common? (Or in the case of Abundance, I feel like a lot of those ideas first appeared in op-eds/articles the two of them wrote.) It's nice to both stress test things early and get early signals on audience reception
this is a great essay. Thanks for your candid assessments. I also worked a bunch on a book proposal that got widely rejected in 2020... I am now grateful i didn't end of spending two more years working on that project, and instead found a much better book subject for me in 2024. Best wishes for the home stretch of your pregnancy.
thank you Katherine! and i am so, SO excited for your book
i'm so excited for your book!!! and also cannot get over this: "I researched and wrote half my book prior to December 1."
i'm in awe, truly
same here re: yours, I've been loving all the little previews of archival research you share!! and TO BE CLEAR that first half has gone through *a lot* of editing/revision since December lol but I just meant I had a welp here it goes first draft of it by then
Thank you for these thoughtful insights! Wishing you a safe and easy delivery (I always say the last little bit of pregnancy is Nature’s way of making you excited to go into labor 🤣🤣)
thank you so much Ivana. and lol yes fingers crossed
I remember reading and appreciating your Vox piece on motherhood decisions a while back - so cool to get a glimpse into this longer trajectory and looking forward to the book!
thank you Ali!!
This is all so relatable and helpful. This point really stands out: "One of the biggest things I hadn’t thought about before is that each nonfiction chapter should really be built around one main argument/idea. This is different from a chapter topic. This is a chapter point."
My points were a little too squishy in the proposal (more like topics), so when it came time to flesh them out, I really struggled. A big part of me needing a deadline extension for my book (lol) was that I at some point finally landed on better points for each chapter. That made everything *so* much easier, and I knew I'd discovered an important part of the process!
same, my points were definitely not developed enough in my proposal. which in some ways is okay, because I sharpened what I thought over time with researching, but definitely in retrospect I could see the time be more efficiently spent if I had gone into the research process knowing more clearly what I was looking for. and like i know it's okay, to cast a pretty wide net of thinking and then narrow down, but as you said, I feel like I now have a better understanding of what authors who write lots of books must do earlier on in the process
This was such a good read. I liked the 'is this an essay or a book' question. I have a parenting book proposal that I've been sitting on for a year (am waiting for my dad brain book to come out first before going back to my editor with another pitch) and I'm considering just posting parts of it on Substack so I can get some feedback and see if it gets traction.
Also, keeping a word count tracker in Excel and trying to hit a word count target every day was totally the way I slogged through my writing process...sometimes you just have to crank it out.
thank you Darby! yeah it does seem like the act of workshopping ideas and even full chapters on Substack is becoming more and more common? (Or in the case of Abundance, I feel like a lot of those ideas first appeared in op-eds/articles the two of them wrote.) It's nice to both stress test things early and get early signals on audience reception
Thank you, this is really helpful 🙏🏻
As someone deep in the weeds of my manuscript, I really appreciated this.
Yay Rachel, on both pregnancy and book-writing fronts! <3
really interesting especially to me, someone who always wonders if i will ever write a book! thanks for sharing so transparently
i'm glad!! and I think you will!!!!!!