✨It’s Time To Let Out That Breath You Didn’t Know You Were Holding✨

Dennis James Sweeney, Jeanette Horn and Jacqueline Friedland's advice for not just surviving but thriving on the path to publication

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

Sure it’s a cliché, and not a day goes by without some Bookstagrammer or other rolling their eyes at a screenshotted passage that includes this overly familiar exhalation descriptor, but clichés are clichés because they’re true, and that held-breath feeling is never more apparent than when you’re an emerging author querying or out on sub (still, we all know better than to put it in our own books, right? Right???). 🫁😮‍💨😂

Fortunately for you, our beloved, oxygen-deprived subscribers, today’s issue is packed with advice and insights designed to help you not just survive but thrive as you make the long journey to publication.

In today’s essay, Dennis James Sweeney (author of publishing guide How To Submit) likens the journey to swimming underwater, and offers a series of tips for reframing your approach to the process so that it actually supports your writing practice instead of draining it. 🙏🏽

We’ve also got a Q&A with novelist Jeanette Horn (her debut, Play, With Knives is out now!), whose ten-year journey to publication is a reminder that it takes as long as it takes (and nobody can hold their breath that long). Jeanette has a lot of great insights to share, including how to deal with someone hating something you’ve written—and make it work for you!🙌🏽

Finally, we’ve got a video by Jacqueline Friedland (whose Counting Backwards launches next week), who shares the alternate path she took to publication and securing an agent. It’s one that can significantly reduce your journey time, while still leading you to the same destination (and it also happens to be the answer to one of the questions we get asked most often here at The 💩)!

And don’t forget to check out CeCe’s latest course offering, Starting it Right. The first session is on March 20th, so sign up soon if you don’t want to miss out!

That’s all for now. Time to take a deep breath, dive in, and get ready to have a great writing week! ❤️

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team