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From Category: Annie in the Middle
An Interview with Mina Manchester, Judge of the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest
ANNIE: Hello, and welcome. I'm Annie Mydla, managing editor of Winning Writers, and I'm joined today by Mina Manchester, final judge of our Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. Mina holds an MFA and is a working writer, as well as an editorial assistant at independent publisher Great Place Books. She's currently working on a short story collection as well as her debut novel. Mina, welcome.
MINA: Thank you so much, Annie, for having me. It's a pleasure.
In your eyes as the judge, the head judge of Tom Howard/John H. Reid, what makes a great story or essay?
That's my favorite question, because that's why I sit down at my desk every day: to discover that. A story that resonates with me emotionally is always going to rise to the top, whether I laugh or cry, and I love stories that have a real concise tightness to them—some of the basics, like I can see a beginning, middle, and end.
But I also love stories that are like life—stories that have dimension, conflict, and contrast. A story that just hits the same piano key over and over is not going to be as interesting to a reader as one that has highs and lows. So I think that's really important for people submitting to take into consideration with the work that they're submitting: we are looking for that texture and dimensionality, and that tightness of the overall story. Nothing extraneous. I also love stories where it really feels like the author knows what this story is about, and I'm just ready to go on that journey.
One of the things that I talked about with Lauren in her interview is that, at least for the Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest, it's clear that some of the poets submitting are writing the poems more to process things from their personal lives than with the actual reader in mind, and the reader's experience of the words on the page. Do you find that at all in the Tom Howard/John H. Reid entries?
This is a question that I think is central to being an artist and a creator, and it's something that I've struggled with for many years: are you writing for yourself, or are you writing for an audience? I've toggled back and forth, and I think—here's my real thing, okay?—this is what I've come to after many years: it's both.
As you mature as an artist in your craft, and you learn more, you are able, through muscle memory and your craft abilities, to make the work ready for the reader. So, I personally believe that the work should always be for you.
The best writing advice I ever got was from my first writing teacher, who said, "Write where it's hot." My best work is always something that I'm trying to work out or deal with, or it's really hot, whether I feel good or bad about it. And I think that hotness comes through in the material. And then, I think, it's just a matter of, to what degree are you executing on the craft abilities that make it appealing for your reader?
Are there any patterns that you see appearing in the Tom Howard/John H. Reid entries?
As I've done [judging] for more years, I see that different writers are at different places in their writing journey. There are some commonalities with writers who are more early on in developing their material, where there is sort of a looseness or a bagginess with the story, or the transitions don't really work, or the characters aren't totally, fully fleshed out. Or sometimes the material is a little cliché, or it's not really a hot take.
I really feel empathetic to creators who are working on that, because that's part of the journey. You don't always know when you're writing something that a lot of other people are writing about. A great example was during the pandemic and the lockdown. We just saw tons of stories about that from everybody's different take. And just as someone who's reading literally thousands of those stories, it does get a little repetitive.
So, I just think in terms of advice for submitters: we've seen a lot of different thematic material that does get repetitive. I think one thing Annie and I were talking about earlier is that we've seen a lot of Boomers writing about aging and dying and sick parents. And I expect that we're going to see another wave of that with the Millennials, and even Gen Z, talking about how their familial relations are.
And so that's great, and we love those stories—I think it's just trying to figure out, how is your story in your unique voice? And what makes your set of circumstances really different?
I think the way to do that is to read a lot. Even in my own life—I write about, sometimes, parenting or motherhood, and it feels really hot and fresh to me, because I'm experiencing it. Then I'll read more and I'll be like, "Oh yeah, this is pretty universal." And that's not to say that universal is bad, because honestly, appealing to the universal is the goal. Like, full stop. But how do you do that in a way that's really engaging and interesting? For me, it's through specifics, through details.
I imagine that a lot of writers are also writing about things that they feel in the cultural zeitgeist, for example, identity politics and so-called "political correctness". How do you see those topics as factoring into the Tom Howard/John H. Reid entry pool?
I think it goes to a question of authenticity. For me, I'm Scandinavian-American, I'm a woman, I'm white, I'm cisgender, I'm straight—mostly!—I'm a wife, I'm a mother, a daughter, a friend. And when I'm reading entries, I really try to be aware of [my] possible biases, of blind spots. So anything that touches on those topics, I try (even though it's all read blind, of course) to have an extra degree of scrutiny to counteract familiarity with material or themes.
I try to also be extra gentle with things that might be more outside of my purview, and I work closely with Jendi to get sensitivity readers or educate myself more if it's something that's not as much in my wheelhouse.
I do think it's really important to elevate other voices, like trans voices and LGBTQ voices, people of color, and disability voices. I've dealt with chronic illness in my life and my kids' lives, and trans identity in my family, and so those are just really important, and we don't see enough of those stories.
And then I will also say as a caveat to all of that as an artist. I think that our society is trying to figure out the role that identity plays in everything in our lives, and where should we be sensitive. I think, as an artist, it's important to also just totally disregard it and write what you're going to write, right? Everyone has the right to write anything, and that's the freedom of being an artist. That's also the sacrifice that we take on when we become artists: that people aren't necessarily going to like it.
I think it's really brave, and it's important. So really, don't self-edit yourself. Be brave with what you're going to write and let the chips fall. And of course, another caveat—we don't want to see violence or disturbing material that is difficult for a number of reasons.
Something that I think it's also important to mention as a judge, reading so many of these submissions year after year, is that a lot of it is about the author's worst day, or something really traumatic that happened to them. And that makes sense. That's why we're writing—we're trying to understand human suffering and these experiences. That's just also a lot to absorb as a judge, and I have to protect my mental health.
I'd like to see more stories that are about the happiest day of someone's life, or just about a normal day of someone's life, and have that sort of dimensionality. Bad things happen too, and I'm not saying write light or fluffy material, but I'm just saying, maybe get into it from a different lens that is a bit more like life.
And don't worry—I do have like a lot of strategies to take care of myself so that I don't feel too sad all the time. I take breaks, and I have a lot of support.
I really admire the authenticity of the pieces that you choose as winners and honorable mentions for the contest.
I try to just read for what is the best, without thought of duplicates [entries that take on similar topics in similar ways] or anything like that. Then, when I go back through, sometimes hard decisions at the very end are when two stories of pretty equal merit are sort of on the same topic or theme. That's the heartbreak for me, because I do like to have diversity in theme and subject matter.
I think sometimes that's also sort of necessarily why those pieces are winning, because they do lean into their specific experiences. Like this year, we have a veteran or an active military member, and we have a nurse from the past, someone who is adopted, someone who's working with the Deaf community. I think the more specificity about your particular experiences that are in the story, the better.
There tends to be a focus on unanswerable questions in your picks, I've noticed. For example, from this year, there's this unbridgeable gap in understanding between a veteran, their community, and basically themselves, in [2024's] fiction winner, "Cryptozoology". And then in the essay winner, "Memory in Tibet", there's this unsolvable problem of grueling child labor and what it does to children in these villages versus, community survival. What is it about these unanswerable questions that makes them so attractive in short fiction and short nonfiction?
I love this question. I feel like for me, even the work I gravitated toward as a small child—I think life is pretty unanswerable, and circumstances, and the fates, seem random. I also think human life is very complex, and we have these beautiful big brains, and we're just a mass of contradictions. I love work that captures that messiness and that explores all of it.
The work that I don't [tend to] like is too simplistic, and that doesn't feel realistic to my life experience. I feel like life is really hard for most people, and we're all just trying to do our best. I like to learn from the choices that people make, or how they're trying to be better.
Like, god, I love a character who's flawed and just trying their best, because I feel like that's me! I relate to that. I'm not perfect, I'm so deeply flawed, and am I trying my best every day? Probably not, but I do try, and I really relate to that.
You are also a working author, you make a lot of submissions, and you do a lot of writing. I'm wondering if the judging has influenced your own work, and if your own work has influenced your judging.
Oh yes, definitely, yes. And yes, I love coming back to judge this contest every year. It comes at a certain time for me in the summer, and it really helps me to dig back into it, because it's just always such a good reminder of what stories need to be. All of the good material inspires me.
I want to say, especially for submitters, one thing that really warms my heart is when a piece I've seen has been submitted or even longlisted in the past, and then the author has gone back for the last year and revised it and reworked it, and maybe worked with other editors or writing groups, and workshopped it, and made it better, and then resubmitted it. There's a great example from a piece that did win in the past, a nonfiction piece, "Manny" by Elizabeth Becker. I had seen that piece before, liked it, and longlisted it. Then she went back and worked on it, and it won. To me, that is the work of a writer. This is a long game.
And yeah, it does help me with my own work. I am a judge, but I'm also judged in everything that I submit. So it helps me to see what is good and what doesn't work, and then I take that back to my own work and try to make my own work better. So really, this is a gift to me. I feel very, like—"I'll take it!" Because writing is very lonely and isolating, and when I submit to things with my own work, sometimes months, or even a year, will go by, and I will hear nothing.
I think for me, even hearing a rejection, or just getting a few sentences, a few words, of feedback, whether good or bad, is better than just the deafening silence. Wherever we can help each other as writers to get feedback [is valuable]. Work with friends, or work with other writers on your work. I think it just really helps you move forward and can help deal with that loneliness and isolation and get more eyes on what you're doing.
It's worthy. It's okay to be vulnerable. Do it! Just do it. Just let me encourage you to do it.
Can you talk a little bit about the things that you're working on right now?
Yes, I'm excited! I'm working on a story collection which was my thesis at my MFA program—shout out to Sewanee School of Letters!—and it was a finalist for the Santa Fe Writers Prize this spring. And the judges, bless their hearts, sent me some feedback, and so I'm working on that right now and revising it and submitting it around.
And then I have a novel that I wrote, also at Sewanee, and I've been revising for the last couple of years, so that has been sort of out on submission to a couple of different agents and editors. I'm getting some feedback on that and hoping that someone will want to take it out for me, which would be really exciting.
I graduated with my MFA just thinking, "Oh, I'm ready. I'm going to get a job in publishing, and I'm get my novel out there." And the reality is, years go by. I always need to reset my own perspective with, "This takes a really long time," and slow myself down, and just be like, "The material is going to take the time that it takes."
Now, because I'm so invested, I'm so far down the rabbit hole. I'm like, "Take the time!" Because I want it to be the best it can be. I want the book to be all it can be for readers, and for what I can do. That, to me, is the most exciting challenge right now.
It's worth taking time, because the book will live on. The book is not mortal like we are.
You're an editorial assistant at Great Place Books, the independent publisher and I just wanted to ask you a little bit about that work and any overlap that it may have with being a judge for Tom Howard/John H. Reid.
I'm so glad that you're asking, because this is definitely my soap box I think as an emerging writer—and I feel like all of us at some point spend a lot of time as an emerging writer—I think most of the submitters to this contest are kind of in the trenches with me on this! In the last ten years, we've seen just such a constriction of publishing options for ourselves. We have five publishers, which do have multiple imprints, but it's really hard to get in. And there's also just a proliferation of writers because we had time during the pandemic, we have digital tools, we're able to self-publish. Amazon has changed the landscape.
So what I'm excited by, that I'm seeing now, is the rise of some new indies. And, as a writer who maybe tends toward the more artistic or literary or eccentric, I think it's really important to have more submission opportunities, and I think the indies are leading the way.
Great Place Books is certainly one of them. We're new, we're small, we're scrappy. We take three titles a year, so it's not a volume game for us. One prose book, one book in translation, one book of poetry. Send your stuff! We promise we'll read it. Go to our website. You can submit.
I read submissions there, and then help, once we do have our chosen titles, with some copy editing and getting them out there. And we really support our writers. We want to support you!
As a writer who's trying to publish my own work, I just think indies are doing really great work. I would die to be published by an indie. They give such careful attention, consideration, and thoughtfulness to work, and I think most of us have spent literally almost decades, or more, of our lives on this work, so that's really, really important and necessary and beautiful.
I'm wondering if the evaluation activity differs. Do you have to have slightly different mindsets when you are working at these two different places?
Oh, yes. I love that we're talking about this right now, and all these different platforms and audiences, because it is all different.
For example, just as an individual in my life, I do developmental and copy editing for different writers privately. I work one-on-one with people. Right now, I have a client that's writing a memoir, and I'm helping with developmental edits and trying to get to a first draft. This writer has published before with big presses, and that's just the stage this particular project is at.
With the [Tom Howard/John H. Reid] contest, it is a lot more about what's already on the page, because we don't have the ability or the setup to go back and forth with the author to change anything. When I was a fiction editor at Five South, we did. I could choose pieces, and I could email the author, and famously did with E. P. Tuazon—an amazing Filipino American writer. We made a couple substantial tweaks to his story, and that became the title story of his collection, A Professional Lola, which won the Red Hen AWP Prize two years ago. I feel really proud of that editorial shepherding. I guess in that case, he was very open to it, and I think we both felt together that that story had found its true home, like it was already leaning there, and we just sort of helped guide it.
I think that's one of my editorial signposts or lighthouse, or whatever you want to say, where I really feel like the work is trying to tell you what it wants to be, and you have to be quiet and still, and listen, and try to see what's there, talk with the author, try to figure out where it's going, what it wants to be. Sometimes that process can be difficult, and sometimes it's hampered by where the craft abilities are for that particular artist.
But yeah, with Great Place Books, that's more like the [Tom Howard/John H. Reid] contest in the sense that [the book] has to be totally ready. I feel bad about it, actually. What it means is there's so much good stuff that is so, so close that I have to turn down, and that makes me feel bad, because I know what it's like to be on the other side of the table and have a novel that's getting these close rejections.
We do give feedback if it's a project that's so, so close like that. The co-founders of the press, Alex Higley and Emily Adrien, will give feedback, which is really amazing of them, because they're taking their own time for free to do that, and they're self-funding this whole company, which is incredible. They have a lot of experience in the indie world as well, and teaching, and they're just wonderful souls.
It is hard [for writers], because as a writer, when you submit, people just don't really have the time in the current publishing economy to edit or make changes. You have to really pay for that. So you're spending thousands of dollars to work with people you trust, and who have the tools to help you get what you want, just to get that finished, polished manuscript ready to go.
I get the sense that a lot of writers who are just starting out don't understand how extensive the editing and revision process truly is for a successful piece, and I know that you must see that in the story and essay contest. So I want to ask you as someone who's also an editor and who works with people to develop their writing all the time: do you ever feel conflicted when you see a contestant that has opportunities for improvement? And what is that like emotionally—as a judge, but also as an editor?
Oh yeah, it's just heartbreak all around. Sometimes it's, frustration, too, honestly, because sometimes it's like, "Oh, why did this person submit it? It's too early"!" if it's not formatted correctly, or if they haven't read the guidelines, or listened to [the guidelines]. And honestly, the person that that's hurting the most is the writer and the person who submitted it. If they had taken more time, like we were talking about earlier, it would have gotten there.
But then there's another part of me that's like, "This is just the process!" You've got to start submitting early on, and get used to it, and build up your thick skin, and get better. And it's okay. I think we've all been there, and it's no shame, no big deal.
One thing that really helps me as a submitter is having a pretty good, I guess you would say, "group text" of other writers who support me and who cheerlead for me. I can screenshot my rejections to them, and they're like, "Oh, you'll get it next time!" And I do the same for them. That support is really crucial, because it also helps you learn things. If somebody in my circle gets into Bread Loaf, I'm like, "Send me your app! I want to read it! Like, what did you do?" because I want to learn from that and see what was successful.
And even though my envy rears its ugly head if a friend wins a big prize or contest, or gets a publishing contract—there was a friend from Sewanee for whom I edited the very first draft of her book, and now it's coming out, which is really exciting. I want to see what has been done there, and where the book did get edited, and where it's changed, because that's useful for me to learn as well.
Annie, you were mentioning earlier that through your work, what you're so interested in is the middle: the pieces that aren't super early/just kind of first effort, and they're not on the other end, honorable mentions or finalists, or super polished, or even longlisted, but the stuff that's more in the middle. I would just say for me personally, that was just a really hard decade in my own work! I was workshopping a lot. I would write something that day and email it that day to three people, because that's just a period where you have to make a lot of growth.
I will say this like advice, I guess: Go get an MFA! Go sign up for every workshop or class you can, and just have that accountability, and read a lot in a structured way, where you're workshopping other people's stuff and getting your stuff workshopped. I think that's how you [get out of the phase] of, like, "Here I am sitting at my desk just hitting my head on the wall every day." If you're with other people, you can slingshot into the future.
We all have commitments outside of this work. We have paying jobs, right? We have full-time commitments. We have families. We have stuff we have to do. And so fitting in the creative work outside of that is very difficult. If you have a class or a residency or workshop, that can be a way to prioritize your work.
It's so wonderful that as an editor, a reader, and a writer, you can bring all these experiences to bear as a judge, and to have this really comprehensive, humane approach to judging.
That's what I really like about working with Winning Writers in general. It's a community where we're sort of similar-minded about that, and it is about being gentle. There's a lot of stuff in art that isn't gentle, and so I think I sort of gravitate toward that. I guess it is a personal value, personal philosophy. Why be mean when you can be kind?
I also really like the way that you're talking about different things that authors can do to cope with the pressures of writing in their own daily lives.
Just in case it is difficult for anyone else, I think I'm definitely a poster child for trying to take care of yourself, because it's such a long game. How do you really stay in it for the long game and protect yourself? Because at least for me, it's not something I'm going to do once, or in my twenties, and then abandon.
So now, as a mom, as a parent, as someone who has to pay the mortgage and taxes, I do have to really be careful about how I think about my life, and how I have this practice that's so important to me. How do I fit it in in a way that's meaningful and lasting, and that isn't going to burn me out, and that I can do until I'm hopefully a hundred?
I was just wondering if you have any parting insights for writers who might be in the process of preparing their entries for Tom Howard/John H. Reid right now.
Do your research. Find someone whose work you love, where you think that their work can help your work. Do the work, get the draft, and then have your trusted readers that won't lie to you read it. And depending on what they come back with, you may need to go back to a drawing board again.
Before we go, your publisher, Great Place Books, is open for submissions, right?
We are, we are, yes. Go to greatplacebooks.com. Check out our website. You can submit. I can't promise that we'll take it, since we take very few titles per year, and we're also looking into the future now, but we will definitely read it.
Thank you so much. And the link for Great Place Books is going to be in the video description. Mina, it's been such a pleasure and so enriching to talk to you. I really appreciate the time that you took.
Thank you for having me.
What makes a winning humor poem? An interview with Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest judge Lauren Singer
ANNIE: Hello, and welcome to my blog. Today we have a very special guest, Lauren Singer, the assistant judge of our Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. Lauren is also a judge of our North Street Book Prize and she's a past judge of our Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. She's had work published in many magazines and journals, she's a former Honorable Mention winner of our Wergle Flomp contest in 2011, and her book-length poetry manuscript, Raised Ranch, will be published by Game Over Books in August of 2025. Lauren, thank you so much for being here. Welcome.
LAUREN: Thank you for having me.
First of all, a lot of us are curious about just the experience of being a humor poetry contest judge. I mean, poetry contest is unique enough, but a humor poetry contest? You must see a lot of interesting things.
You know, what makes some something funny has to be about the voice of the writer, because anything can be funny. I mean, you can write about the most serious components of your life and turn them into funny, and I think that the way we do that is by zooming in on the specific and making that relatable.
I think for me, funny is a humanistic quality, because there's so much darkness in our world, and, laughter being medicine, which I believe is a real thing, we have to find ways to relate to each other. For me, that's making something really absurd, really dark, really grievous. Something that we can laugh at, because it is a connector. It's like connective tissue.
There are obviously some entries, several hundred per year, that really are delightful and that you end up choosing. So which really delight you, and how do you know when you're really delighted by a poem?
It's slice-of-life stuff that really gets me. It's like zooming in on something that is mundane, or that we encounter on an everyday basis, and making it ours. You know, like sharing it in this way that is personal, and ridiculous, and touching. The poems that I find the funniest are also the ones that like, pull on my heartstrings a little bit, and that's sort of like a magic-potion-sort-of equation for me.
Two of my favorites this year were actually about the very specific experience of pulling over to the side of the road having to pee, and being caught in the act of that by someone, in one case I think the police. And then in another, having to do it in front of your family because there's no other option. I think it was from the perspective of someone very like poised and curt. And it's those sorts of things, the things that we encounter on an everyday basis, that all of us can relate to, and most of us don't think to write a poem about. Those are the things that I think really stick out to me.
There are a couple of those this year on the winning entries page, like "I'd Like to Donate It to the Library," about a woman who's just donating a lot of random stuff to the library. I definitely recommend that people read that. There's a poem in the Honorable Mentions called "I'm Living Laughing and Loving."
Oh my god, there was one this year, I think it was about having a really harsh internal critic, and this writer made a reference to the Nicholas Cage remake of Wicker Man, and then just wrote in there somewhere, "Not the bees." And I laughed so hard because it's those little Easter eggs that I love. It's like the poet is saying, "You have to dig deep into the thing that I'm referencing here, and you also have to know that it's funny without me telling you." That's another big trope, that people are constantly submitting poems about why they're funny, and telling us, and trying to convince us that they're funny, when someone else is subtly just speaking to their own life experience, or speaking to something observational.
I also really love observational narrative poems. That always gets me, where we don't have to do any work of being convinced, we're just sharing in an observation with someone, and that's all.
A really good humor poet kind of knows what their audience is going to find funny, and also knows whether the audience has the references or not and is able to just go directly into that super specific territory, just like two friends who are saying this goofy line together that they've been saying for the past twenty years that doesn't make sense to anybody else. It's that sense of intimacy and trust. It's automatic.
Absolutely. I think there is. And that's what I love about poems like that, is that there is an implicit sense of trust that is not there with those other poems that are like, "Hey, I need you to know that what you're about to read is going to be really funny! In fact, this whole poem is about why I am!" Versus this very sort of niche trope that is in the internal fabric of this chaotic world that we're all weaving together.
And one thing I want to say about that specifically is that I'm—as much as we try to not be biased, I'm a person in the world and I have my own biases. I think I was twenty-three when I submitted to Wergle Flomp, and I started judging when I was in my mid-twenties. And the poems that were my favorites back then have certainly changed over the course of a decade. I think I would veer towards poems about online dating, which there's always tons of, or being really broke and not being able to afford your rent, which like, I can still relate to, but it's a little different these days.
And then the ones that I'm relating to more now are [different.] I used to just completely glaze over any "my body is changing because I'm aging" kind of poems. I still don't love those, because there's a lot of, I want to say, like, harshness and ugliness in those poems, but the poems that really embrace aging, embrace, like coming to terms with the seasons of your life, those I tend to love.
One of my favorites this year, I forget what it was called, but it was something similar to that book, A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but it was a mid-to-late-thirties guide to bird watching. It was about this new experience of being in your mid-to-late-thirties and really appreciating birds in a way that you never had before, and you're like, "Ah, like suddenly, I can suddenly hear their call and know who's speaking to me! And I really want a crow to leave me a shiny bauble!" I'm like, I feel that so hard.
It's like those sort of, yeah, those inside jokes that I think I'm going to relate to in a different way a much younger reader is going to relate to, or Jendi might relate to, being a bit older than me. So it's subjective, also, the experience of judging.
Yes, and this is why we have the poetry archives on Winning Writers. Not just the poetry archives, but all the winning entries from all of our past contests are still published and visible on winningwriters.com. And we have bios of the judges, we're very transparent about who the judges are and what they do. Contestants can read all the entries that you guys have selected in the past, but they can also go and read your stuff if they want, to know what you're into, the kind of stuff that really makes you laugh or cry.
I always say this in every interview with everybody, but a message to the potential entrants is, just do your research. [Entering a literary contest doesn't have to be] a shot in the dark. You really have an opportunity to kind of know the judges, and get specific with the judges, and have those inside joke moments, even if you've never met. So think about who you're writing for. And I hope this interview also will help people to just get a better sense of that.
I'm always like, "Butter me up! Appeal to me!" Like send me some X-Files poetry or whatever! If you can find an encounter with everyday life, and make that funny, that's going to strike me every time.
A lot of people who submit poems are probably talking about a lot of the same things. Do you find that to be true?
Yes, yes. The zeitgeist is very much about what's going on in the world, and that thematically enters in every single year. So election cycles tend to give us an overpowering amount of political poems. Covid was a dark landscape of people on all sides of the spectrum, of their thoughts and beliefs about Covid.
It was about Covid, but it was also about people tending to write about the same stuff that we also tend to see everywhere in social media. Like toilet paper, for example, was a huge subject.
Toilet paper, the bodily functions in the lower half of the body.
Well, I mean, we like a good fart, we like diarrhea in Wergle Flomp. We're not against those things, but in the Covid context it got a bit repetitive.
And I tire of the coprophilic poems after a while, where I'm just like, how much more can I read about someone's gastric issues? I lose steam.
Yeah, if there's no original angle, it's a bit difficult. Or with the political stuff, the two candidates that people have been focusing on—the age, the orangeness of one of the candidates, you see that all the time [in the entries].
So I actually included that in my Wergle notes that I wrote this year. I banned any more poems that included "rhymes with orange," and so much of that was in reference to one of these candidates. Also the word "orange" in poems at this point, unless we're talking like, the actual, like peeling of an orange.
To your very good list I would also add social media tropes, just the stuff that's hot on social media, the different hashtags and stuff. That stuff can be current, but if it's too in the public eye, it kind of loses the novelty.
The political horizon is a huge one, like major news events. Oh, and so much AI this year. So much AI, so much ChatGPT came into the poems. I think people write a lot about aging, and marriage, and child-rearing and raising. And thematically I think we get thousands of poems about things people hate about their bodies, things people want to change about their spouses. Those tend to kind of blur together because they're so en masse.
There are a lot of entries about coffee. There are a lot of entries that start out as a love poem, and the person rhapsodizes on a subject, and then at the end it gets revealed that it's coffee, or "my car," or "my dog," or something like that.
At this point I completely just glaze over certain kinds of parodies. There are so many, "It was the night before something," and the same is true for the parodies of Robert Frost, and "with apologies to…" etc., etc. You have to really win me over for me to give that a second glance.
I think a lot of entrants also confuse humor with other good feelings, so there are a lot of poems we get, for example, love poetry, and some of it's ambiguous whether it's a humor poem or not. People are enumerating the things they like about another person and how they make them feel, and it's definitely light-hearted, it's definitely kind and nice and pleasant, but is it humor poetry? What do you think about when you see entries like that?
It's funny, because I think that we get a lot of parodies of that poem "What I'm made of," like the recipe for "what makes me, me," basically, and I never know if those are intentionally supposed to be funny. Sometimes there's a punchline and it's very obvious that they are; other times it's like you said, it's just this sort of description of love and joy, and I want to be like, "That's really great, I love that you love these things. Now tell me how I can relate to that in a way that is going to make me laugh."
In some ways I think people just want to kind of share the abundance of the things that they love, and I think that there is light-heartedness. I never get mad at those poems…but it loses the plot a little bit when there isn't an invitation to poke fun. The ones that work are these really zoomed in niche descriptions of something that you love really deeply that someone else might not.
This is a silly one, but there were like lots of like odes to… what are those robo vacuums called?
Roomba!
Right. Every so often I would encounter one that really made me laugh, because [the robot] was personified by these characteristics that someone might want in a partner or pet. It's this description of something that's like super helpful and everyday basic and still inviting us in, to be like, "Have you ever fallen in love with a vacuum? Even just a little bit?" And it's like, yeah, I have. That's the part where I want to relate to that, and be like, yes, that's awkward.
Like you say, it's all about the context. Maybe a person is describing themselves in this poem like "What am I made of," and maybe to them it's hysterical because it's the opposite of who they actually are, so they're writing it laughing, like, "Haha, you know, this is really ironic" or something. But there's no way for you as a judge to know that, because it's not written down on the page.
So I would add for people, along with "Do the research on the judges" also remember, all they can see of you is the words that you put on the page. So if you're writing a poem about spiritual enlightenment or you're writing a poem just describing something you really like, and you are thinking to yourself, oh this is great, this is so funny, remember: If it depends on context that's still inside your head or heart to be funny, Lauren and Jendi can't see it, and they don't know. So remember to leave that context on the page.
I would say the same is true when you're inciting all of this joy into your poem, the same is also true for like really disturbing commentary. You know, every so often we get a poem that's clearly supposed to be funny, but it's describing like a murder or something really, really gruesome. And there have been some amazing poems about end of life and chronic illness and cancer, and things like that, and that is not what I mean here. I mean very specifically like a violent scenario that is supposed to be hilarious. That's never going to get me. Like, that's never—I'm never going to find that funny. There's just no world in which you describing murdering your ex is going to make me laugh, just across the board.
I was going to bring up that exact topic, because we do get a certain number of poems each year that are violent. Revenge fantasies, abuse fantasies, like doing like any kind of abuse, physical abuse, on other people. You were kind of getting in this direction earlier, when you were talking about the body image poems, because there can be these very ugly things creeping into these poems, like this self-hatred. And desire for revenge—you know, not a desire for revenge as in, "Oh, the person who wants revenge is so ridiculous" kind of idea, it's really this hate-driven desire for revenge that this person wants to enact on the page.
My assistants and I, we go through a lot of these, and we write an email to every single person who submits a humor poem to the contest when we think this is a serious poem and not a humor poem. And you would be shocked at the number of times that we get emails back when we've contacted someone who's written a very, very serious or disturbing poem, and they say, "This is funny! How could you not think this is funny?" and I never know how to take that. How does it make you feel that people across the world are entering a humor poetry contest with some very, very dark and serious stuff?
I'm of two minds about this. My one thought that I used to think was true across the board, was that because we are an international contest and because we are a free contest, that sometimes people just miss the mark and they don't read the instructions, and they're like, "Oh, free contest! It's so rare that we have a free contest! I'm just going to submit." And you know, either "I don't know that this is supposed to be a humor contest," or "I don't care and I'm banking on the fact that this is good and should be shared, and I want to just put it somewhere."
I think that there are certainly hundreds of people who do that, right, they just don't read the instructions. And I also think that there are probably lots and lots of people who know that their poem is going to be read regardless, and just need to share with someone.
Jendi and I have talked about this [and wondered whether there might be a way] to reach out and say, like, "Hey," especially for the ones that were really poignant and good, and say, "There's a reader for this somewhere. It's not this contest, but we want you to keep doing this." There were so many times that I wanted to reach out with support, and be like, "This isn't the place to put this, but there is a place to put this." And also, there are certainly the ones that are super dark and painful, but also have overt humor, and those tend to be some of my favorites.
Yes, It's such a fine line, because it is all about the specificity. And one of the reasons that humans invented humor in the first place, everyone knows, is because we need to escape from these really crazy and dark situations that we find ourselves in our lives. Humor is in reaction to pain and grief and loss and horror. Humor bubbles up in the human spirit. But when only the dark parts of the situation are getting in [to the poem], it's maybe not quite to that point where humor can be found in that situation, in the poem.
You're a poet and a lot of your poetry is also informed by grief and loss and some very, very dark and very, very human things. But whenever I read your poetry, like on your Instagram account, I have noticed that they also have a lot of humor in them. I always find myself with these really complex and rewarding emotions when I read your work, because as a poet you do the leg work to find all these different angles of the situation and bring them together in very specific and immersive language. So how do you do that, and, in your opinion as a poet and a judge, how can sadness and humor coexist in poetry?
It's such a good question, and it's a two-part question, so I'll start with the personal and then I'll relate it to judging in the second half. I feel grateful that as a trauma survivor of a diverse spectrum, I have always had writing as an outlet. There has never been a time in my life that I didn't have a notebook and access to this sort of imagined world that I could just jump right into and make mine. So I feel like that has been such a precious gift and necessity of my life for survival.
And then as I got a little bit older, encountering things like having a chronically sick parent, and then divorce, and a sister who passed away, there was so much meat. And I was like, "I can't keep writing about all of this darkness and not accessing the humor in it."
As a little kid, I realized that if I'm going to be more palatable, I need to be pleasing. And the easiest access to that when you're like a traumatized little kid is to be funny. And so that sort of came naturally. I was like, "If I just talk about how bummed out I am all the time, and how, you know, sad my life is, no one's gonna want to hang out with me." But if I'm like, "You know, hey, I'm really bummed out, and also aren't we all kind of bummed out, and don't we all need to relate to that in some capacity?" That is how I have sort of fused my connection to people, and also how I have become a writer.
I had a mentor in my late teens/early twenties, a sociologist named Philip Mabry, who was one of my professors and my adviser in school. He really kind of recognized that in me, and he introduced me to the comedy of Margaret Cho in my late teens. He said, "This is someone who has learned how to make the abject upright." The really wonderful comedians in our world are the ones who are not necessarily poking fun at everyone else, they're reaching into their own trauma and their own sadness and their own gifts, and then they're just pulling them out, and being like, "Here they are, do you see them? All right, now I want you to laugh at them."
It's inviting, it's like an invitation to be like, "Here is all of the muck and the mess of who I am, and this is why it's okay to laugh at it," as opposed to someone, you know, singling you out and directing all of their anger at you without the invitation, which we all know, you know, is something that can be true.
In my own writing of my recent past, it's a lot of reflections after the loss of my son in 2021. That was such a tremendous loss for me that I was like, "Oh, this is it, this is the end of being funny. There's no more humor left in my world, it's over." And of course, I think anyone would think about that being true for them after they went through something really significant.
But I had this sort of an aha moment one day, I think maybe six months after my loss. I was going to a drive-up, a Taco Bell, and I was ordering like five soft tacos for myself. I realized that like five soft tacos is like too many tacos for one person on a normal basis, and I panicked. This was not a funny moment. I want to just say, this was a sad time where I was like, "I'm just gonna like eat tacos and cry and not think about my life." But in that moment I like, picked up the phone and pretended that I was on the phone with someone that I wasn't. There was no one on the phone. And meanwhile, like, my child just died, I'm newly divorced, all of these things are happening, and I'm just like, "Hi honey, oh yeah, I got—I ordered you your—you want the chicken to go, right? Yeah, okay, I'll see you later."
Then I'm leaving the parking lot and I'm just like, "That's hilarious." That encounter with the deepest darkest well of my grief and the fact that I just pretended to be ordering tacos for a partner that does not exist in this moment because I was too embarrassed to let the person on the other side of the drive-through speaker know that I'm going to go home and binge eat tacos and cry in my beans—I was like, okay, I can write funny poems again, I can infuse those two things. And that became a poem in the upcoming book called "Taco Tuesday."
If I don't find a way to remedy some of those dark edges with some humor then there's like nothing left. So it took some time to be funny again, but I think that there is humor in the darkest, darkest things, and that is survival, I think, for me, and, I think, for a lot of people who write or make art of any kind.
So it sounds like for you there's an intrinsic relationship between sadness and humor. But I also am hearing something that is very important, I think, for a lot of our entrants to know, which is that part when you were talking about from an early age you realized that you had to be palatable. Of course, as a trauma survivor or anybody in any kind of minority or minoritized situation, being palatable can be a very loaded and also traumatized thing, but in the comment that you made I just feel this very poet-esque regard for the reader. And for you even at that young age the reader was already there. You realized it's not just about you and your experiences in your art.
In life we all are living through our experiences and our experience is just for us, more than anybody else. But when you take the step to write poetry or any kind of art and show it to other people, it's always including that other person. When we see a lot of these entries that are about those other positive experiences, like you know, love, or spiritual enlightenment, or seeking, or when we see those really, really serious poems, I get a sense that a lot of these poems are written to help people process their own experiences, but they're not necessarily written with that other person in mind, that other person on the end, whether it be the judge or another intended reader.
Absolutely, and I think there's a difference between your journal and the poem that you want read. My journal is very, very different than the poetry that I share on social media or I try to submit for publication. I think there's a question that you have to ask yourself between, and that's like, "Do I want this to be read or not? Do I want people to share in this experience?" And I think that's where the sort of palatability comes from, because I think even as a little kid I was like, "I want, you know, people at school to like me," right, so like my persona at school is going to be different than the introspective little kid at home who's writing in their diary right trying to be Harriet the Spy.
I don't think that we owe it to anyone to be palatable in our subjective experiences, that is entirely ours. But when we're making art to be shared, I think we have to ask ourselves, like, "How do we want to hit our reader or our observer?" And you know, contextually, that could be in a multitude of ways, and being palatable can mean many different things, but I think in a humor poetry contest it's that fusion of human subjective experience and poignancy with that objective experience of like, "Other people can observe this and relate to it and laugh at it with me."
Again, it's an invitation into this inner world that I want to share with you, not that you're walking in on and I have to explain myself. That doesn't strike chords, generally. That tends to feel like, "Oh, sorry, sorry that I walked in on that," versus "Oh my God, me too! I've also been caught in that place!"
Going back to the theme of your poetry for a second, you're a Wergle veteran, because you had this hilarious poem called "Regarding Eggplant" in 2011. I urge all the viewers to read that poem, and I'm going to link to it in the description of this video so you'll be able to read it. But I also just want to ask, like, as kind of a case study of a successful Wergle Flomp poem: Where did you get your inspiration? What was your process writing that?
Again, it came from a dark place. I had just been broken up with. I was twenty-three when I wrote that poem, so I was really young, and I was also freshly out of a job. There was just so much happening in my life that was very synonymous with being, like, a twenty-three-year-old person in the world and fending for themselves for the first time, really.
That poem didn't just sort of appear out of nowhere, it came from a lot of different things. It came from, you know, going to the grocery store and feeling like, "Okay, well, I'm, you know, I'm single, and I have no job, and I have nothing to do with myself, like, I should treat myself to something really nice," and then like looking at the produce, and like feeling more sad, being like, "I don't know how to cook, I don't know how to, like, I don't know to take care of myself, like, what am I supposed to do here?"
That sort of evolved because a friend came to visit me and he brought me eggplants from his garden, and one of the eggplants had a nose. Like, it had like, you know, the top of the eggplant, which like looked like a little hat, and it had this growth defect which looked like a nose. And I was like, "I'm never gonna to be able to cut this eggplant, I'm never gonna be able to cook it, it's just gonna like, have to rot on my counter, because I like, I've named him, and I love him, and there's no world in which I can imagine, you know burning him alive."
So it evolved from that place, dumped, jobless, eggplant, like being completely out of my mind with what it means to be a grown-up and take care of myself. It's like my coming of age. I think it happened all in that poem.
I just love the story, I love the poem, and I hope that everybody will go read it.
If you read that poem, read the book Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, because that's where I was in my life, and I never knew that book existed until I wrote that poem and people started giving it to me. It was such a perfect compliment.
We have to be wrapping up, but before we do, do you have any advice for the entrants who are now preparing poetry for the contest this year?
I think that there is something to be said about appealing to the zeitgeist and what's going on in the world. We all experience the objectivity of being a person in the world that's consumed by social media and things being pummeled at us from all angles, and so many of the poems that we get are about that. But they're not about the version of us in those moments. There are a lot of generalizations. If you just take that one step further and write about how that impacted you, or how something in your life changed, I think there's a lot of richness.
Just as an example, algorithms. A lot of people wrote very generally about algorithms, and it inspired me, reading all of these poems, to write about algorithms, but the very specific things that the internet was trying to appeal to me. So I got tons of advertisements for Bog Witch t-shirts and like, a bog witch, being like, this like lowly spinster in her garden making potions. And I'm just like, "Oh the internet knows my name!" I got all of these Fleetwood Mac advertisements. Clearly, the internet thinks that I am a spinster witch alone in my house. Like, it's not wrong, right?
I didn't see a lot of those deeply personalized poems about, like, "What like is the internet advertising to you personally," as opposed to, "I'm so tired of going online and all the algorithms." We all go through that, so what is it about your life that resonates with that experience? And why are you frustrated? Because if you go one step deeper into that swamp, we're all gonna laugh at it with you. Take one step further into the muck of your own life and find something that resonates, that is very specific to you, but something that all of us can relate to. And that is true of formal poetry, of rhyming poetry, of limericks, you know, like, we get them all, and there's room for all of it.
Viewers take note: Take one step further into the muck of your life! Well, thank you so much, Lauren. It's been an absolute pleasure to be talking with you. I'm so happy that we have all these amazing concrete pieces of advice from the reader who really, really matters—that is, the judge of the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest.
Thank you so much for having me! It's a pleasure to see you and to talk to our Werglers, because we don't get an opportunity to do that enough.
Book Covers, Marketing, and Authenticity: An Interview with Laura Duffy of Laura Duffy Design
A handsome book cover that's right for your genre can increase sales by a factor of two or more. But does working with a professional have to feel like a trust fall? Designer Laura Duffy doesn't think so.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
This year, Laura Duffy Design is providing free benefits to all entrants and winners of the North Street Book Prize. All entrants receive a detailed PDF about book cover design, and winners receive customized book design and marketing services.
Laura Duffy here joins Winning Writers managing editor Annie Mydla to talk about helping indie authors get the most out of her services, from the cover to essential marketing elements like metadata, Amazon keywords, and copy.
Watch the entire interview with Laura or read this lightly edited transcript.
Key moments (links lead to the YouTube video):
0:55 Why do authors settle for a subpar cover?
2:34 Why working with a professional can feel like a trust fall
3:54 Why self-publishing is even more crucial in today's world. "That's what I want to be part of."
5:33 "This cover is gonna be strong, because this is a badass book": Honoring authors' authenticity
6:21 Book cover design is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal
8:05 "We're all creatives, just in different lanes": Designers and authors working together
9:16 Why improving a book cover improves sales
10:03 Why a good cover increases marketing opportunities, like merchandise
10:30 How Laura raises sales with SEO, Amazon keywords, and more
11:43 Expressing our truth vs selling books? It's a balance
13:23 Laura's free customized services for North Street Book Prize winners
14:33 How merchandise increases authors' exposure
15:38 Considering a cover now? This message is for you
Introduction
ANNIE MYDLA: Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in. I'm Annie Mydla, managing editor of Winning Writers. Joining me today is Laura Duffy, former art director for Simon & Schuster and Random House, now independent book cover creator and North Street Book Prize co-sponsor. Laura, thank you so much for being our co-sponsor, and thank you for talking with me about all the ways that book cover design can be important for a book's success.
LAURA DUFFY: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
Before we begin, I'd just like to point out to everybody that Laura Duffy Design is providing a free detailed PDF guide about the book cover design process to all North Street entrants in 2025. She's also providing free merchandising and book cover design services for winners, as well as some other things which we'll talk about in a little bit. So let's just dive into the interview.
0:55 Why do authors settle for a subpar cover?
We receive many books in the North Street Book Prize each year. Now, of course, we don't judge a book solely by its cover, but it does make an impact on the book's competitiveness with other submissions. Why do you think authors settle? What are some of the mental stumbling blocks that keep authors from striving for better covers?
Perhaps it's just that they don't know how to find a designer, or they don't know they need a designer. Perhaps they've designed their own cover, and they don't want to be told that it's not good enough.
But I think that they also need to be shown. They have their ideas. And I say, "Yeah, I'm going to do your idea. But then I'm going to show you my idea, because that's what you're hiring me for." And then they have that, "Ohhh, okay, I get it," whether it's a really impactful design, or it's the details on the back, or on the spine, or in the interior. It becomes this, like, "Okay."
And perhaps it's budget, finances, and stuff like that. In that case, they could maybe try to learn from other designs, or designers, or what they see. But I think that, like any other trade or business when somebody's been doing it for a long time, you want to really rely on their expertise. Especially with a book cover. You know, it's interesting, because it's artistic, it's art, it's creativity, and we've got artists here, but it's also a business thing, a marketing tool. There's a lot of technical things going on. You have to find the right combination.
2:34 Why working with a professional can feel like a trust fall
Sometimes I get the impression while working with people who are self-publishing, they have to do so much of it by themselves. When they meet a professional, especially a relatively affordable professional like yourself who does such a good job and has so much background and experience, it can almost feel like doing a trust fall. It's the first time that they've been able to put their work in the hands of another person. And they don't really know how it's going to come out. They've had experiences that burned them in the past, maybe.
Well, that's a good point, too. I do get a lot of clients who've come to me after working with an agency. I don't want to badmouth anybody, but there are lots of places out there that, for instance, don't read the book, don't really want it. They just want to produce a cover. And that's not how I work. I don't know how I'd get my ideas if I didn't read as much as I could of an author's work. So yeah, it's all about trust.
I know that you probably don't feel comfortable saying this about yourself, but it's not just your expertise and your experience and your skill. It's also that you're a very warm and lovely person. So I think if somebody needs to learn to trust, you're probably a good place to go.
I know what you mean, because there are a lot of companies that are very slick. You don't know who's behind it. Is this one person? Is this a team? Is this a group? And I'm one person, although I'm branching out, and I've got people who are helping me out. But people are reacting to my site because it looks like I'm a human being.
Because this is such an incredibly personal thing that these people are doing. Maybe they're sharing in a memoir some of their most personal details. For them, it's a huge thing, finally publishing this book. It's just really intimidating in a lot of ways. And I think what I'm realizing is that they appreciate my patience.
3:54 Why self-publishing is even more crucial in today's world. "That's what I want to be part of."
And I feel personally, with the way the world is, especially in the United States, I'm starting to really appreciate the role I'm playing, the role we're playing, in helping people get their stories out. Because I know that there's a lot of fear everywhere. So that leads to even more gatekeepers, more people saying, "I don't want to publish this book. We're not talking about this anymore." But you can do it. Yes, you can talk about it. And how incredibly important that is. I'm working on several books right now that I know are topics that are just really, it's really important for people to get their voices out.
People have been telling them all their lives, you can't do this, you can't do that. And now it seems like society is telling people more and more, you can't do this, you can't do that.
I feel like people are being a lot more authentic, whether it's because we came through a pandemic…People are looking for places to rest, be creative, or have support. You know, we've just got so much coming at us.
5:33 "This cover is gonna be strong, because this is a badass book": Honoring authors' authenticity
And I mean, I think that's the positive thing about nowadays: that people are talking about things. We're seeing the underbelly of a lot of things, but those things were always there. They were just hidden. You know, the Me Too movement and all these things. And now it's like, "Okay, I can talk about my family trauma," that before was—you just didn't bring it up.
And so that's another thing. I'm like, "This cover is going to be strong, because this is a badass book." And that's what I want to be part of.
6:21 Book cover design is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal
This is just another reason why you as a book cover designer are, in my opinion, preferable to organizations that are bigger, slicker. Because the bigger the company is, the more standardized things have to be. Somebody who's got so many clients, they don't really necessarily have the time or the emotional bandwidth to engage with people on that level.
There are so many different kinds of self-published authors. They have different needs, different comfort levels, different expectations. It's not a one-size-fits all situation.
How do you think we can get authors to appreciate the value of a good cover and evaluate their cover designs more critically?
I think that, again, it's that seeing is believing. I think that once you show them what can be done, and how others react to their books—you know, once they put it out there on social media and there's oohing and aahing—yeah, you know. That's the fun part.
I think that's also a step towards, "Oh, this is going to be a good experience." I think that fear, that terror of, "Oh my goodness, I'm putting my baby out into the world for the first time," and then it's like, "Oh, no, this is a party." Everybody's chiming in. I think that's when they realize, if they're working with somebody like me, or another professional with a lot of experience, "Okay, we're running with the big guys now. We can hang with the big guys and gals." And it feels good.
8:05 "We're all creatives, just in different lanes": Designers and authors working together
Book covers are one of the most accessible parts of books. People look at that image, and they just get an immediate sense of something about your book, something about you.
Everybody now is exposed to design. Good design, bad design. More and more people, I would say, maybe think they can be designers, and they can be. There are tools, and they might find out that they're very good. It's worth educating yourself and looking around.
But you do want to do something that's really good, whether you're doing it yourself—there are people, there are authors, who've done good stuff, and they've used Canva. It's pretty impressive. They've taught themselves InDesign. And I like that too. I love seeing people expand and discover things about themselves.
Maybe they try it and they find an amazing talent. But do they have the time? Do they have the bandwidth? Do they have the resources? I could make a book cover, but would it have all those really subtle little touches that subconsciously communicate to viewers of that cover, "This is the real thing"?
I think that another thing is, that what an author is doing is very creative, and what I'm doing is very creative. Yeah, we're all working with creatives, but in different ways and different lanes.
9:16 Why improving a book cover improves sales
Can you tell us a little bit about how improving a book cover can improve sales?
Well, that's a good question, because I think that there's a lot that goes into improving sales. The book cover, of course, is important. When you're writing a book, and you're considering the cover, you're stepping into the world of marketing. It's just like any other aspect of the world. If you're looking for a job, and you want to stand out, how do you present yourself? Regardless of how you get to a book, what's going to make you stop, pause, and look at that book and pick it up? On some level, if a book cover is doing its job, especially with a lot of competition, a well-put-together cover represents and indicates a well-written book.
10:03 Why a good cover increases marketing opportunities like merchandise
How can a good cover contribute to marketing opportunities like selling book merch or building an author's web presence?
I think that people like to see good-looking things, right? What's really fun is when you start integrating other elements from the cover onto the website or onto the bookmarks, and it kind of pulls it out—you know, it's all of a piece. And I think people really appreciate that.
10:30 How Laura raises sales with SEO, Amazon keywords, and more
I have a very entrepreneurial mindset, and I love thinking about how to grow a business, how to market. I get very excited about that. And I try to convey that to authors. "Okay, we're going to do this, let's do this." Like, "Who's your target market? Who's your audience?"
What should be done early on is, keep your audience in mind. You know, SEO, search engine optimization, these keywords that help the cream rise to the top are important. The algorithms. It's the game we're playing. And so even early on, making sure that you're using words, whether it's in your book description, whether it's on the back of your book, or that's even in your book, or anywhere, that you're using words that will attract your audience. You know, "You're not using your title enough," or "Let's get these words into the subtitle," or "Let's get these words into a blurb." We've got to do it. We've got to do it if you want to really stand out.
I think that is a little bit of something, like, you know, that's hard for authors to adjust to. That's where I come in, like, "Okay, no, we're going to do this. You just relax. You wrote your book."
11:43 Expressing our truth vs selling books? It's a balance
We're getting into some core human issues here, with this balance of, "We want to be ourselves. We want to express ourselves. But we also want to get these certain benefits from what we're producing." Sometimes I wonder whether this is one of the things that makes self-publishing difficult for people. This conflict, this tension, between expressing yourself, and getting what you want from other people in terms of their response, in terms of their money, their time, their attention.
It's awesome that you can help them with the covers, which is, in most cases, how people really meet the book, but also that you can work on these behind-the-scenes elements that have to do with marketing on Amazon, keywords, and all the things that we don't really think about.
When I have the discussions, whether I'm giving them my initial pitch or it's during the process, there's a lot more going on than just the talk about the design of the cover. Over and over again, I'm encouraging authors to get out there. I feel that feeling of, "I want everybody to be successful and confident." I think there's a lot of people starting out. I mean, 99% of the authors that I work with are newbies. And "I've never done this before, I don't know what…" "Okay, yeah, you're not alone." I hope that that comforts them, that they don't feel like they're the only author in the world that's starting out and never done this before. I feel like it's a cool place to be, the indie publishing world. It's really neat.
13:23 Laura's free customized services for North Street Book Prize winners
You're a North Street co-sponsor. You're actually working with last year's North Street Book Prize winners at this moment. Can you tell us a little bit about how it's going, the kind of things that you're working on together?
So I've been working with a lot of the first prize winners, right? And I've done work with Angelino Donnachaidh. He wrote Tamiu: A Cat's Tale. And when I spoke to him, you know, he didn't really know what he wanted, how he wanted to utilize my services. He just wanted it to sell more. So what I offered to do was work on his metadata, work on his copy: for his cover, on Amazon, and keywords. So that was an interesting project, and I'm interested in seeing how that does because that's what I've been doing for a lot of my clients nowadays.
And then for Stephen Pollock, I did a bookmark for [his poetry collection, Exits]. And that might also lead to a postcard. And then Bryan Wiggins, who I said, "I think your cover [for The Corpse Bloom] looks great," but he wanted to make some changes to the layout and add all of these wonderful awards he's gotten. So I'm doing that.
14:33 How merchandise increases authors' exposure
Actually, can you tell me some of the other kinds of merch that you provide? Because I'm not sure I know.
So, the bookmarks and the postcards. I've been asked to do tote bags, and t-shirts, and any kind of swag, toys, business cards that are just specifically for the author. More and more people are asking for those stand-up banners that they'll have at a reading, and they retract. I've got a picture of one woman on my website standing next to one, and it's got her cover on it, and it's got the quotes.
You know, a lot of media sheets. I try to encourage people. I say, "If you feel like you're going to go out in the world, and you're going to be hitting people up for podcasts and this and that, you want to put together a media sheet, or a white sheet." People call them all different things. But they don't know that that exists, so I show them examples.
Whatever anybody wants their book cover or anything on, I'll do it. It's just a matter of designing it. There are lots of printers, so it doesn't really cost that much money. And it’s fun.
15:38 Considering a cover now? This message is for you
I was wondering if you have any advice for authors who might be considering the cover for an upcoming book.
I would say, yeah, just write your book and let me read it. I think that if you're working with somebody who's going to read the book, which apparently I feel like I'm one of the few people that do, then you don't have to really do much regarding the cover. When I look through a story, a novel or something, I'm looking for maybe a specific moment. Some kind of tableau, something that might lend itself to color. But yeah, just focus on writing that great book. Hire that developmental editor and let them take their time doing it.
Sometimes I think that books, or the part of books that authors produce, is like the raw material. Like they are creating a raw diamond, or a lump of raw gold, or something like that. Alchemists are real if you're a self-published author. You do produce the gold. You do produce the diamonds. But then, you're the alchemist. You're not a blacksmith. You're not, like, a goldsmith, or a diamond cutter. There are other people who do that stuff to turn it from that really valuable, rare raw material to the finished product.
Let the creative people that you've hired do their job. Because they're coming at it from many different vantage points. I've rarely been able to say to an author, "You're just too close to this" and "Just back off." But, you know, sometimes, yeah, I'll be able to say that, and they'll get it, and they'll be like, "Okay, yeah, I'll talk to you when you're done. You just do your thing." And I'm like, "Yeah, I love you."
Laura Duffy, thank you so much for sharing your book cover and marketing insights with us today. And thank you so much for providing these excellent benefits for North Street Book Prize entrance and winners.
Well, it is my pleasure. I love working with you and this has been a really great experience. I hope that people find these helpful.
Classism in Literature
Managing Editor Annie Mydla consults North Street Book Prize judge Ellen LaFleche on classist tropes we commonly see in contest entries, why they're harmful, and what to do about it.
Interested in social justice in writing? See also the previous post on Exploitation Versus Representation.
When it comes to troubled representation in literature, classism is a top offender—and can be among the hardest to self-edit for. Class-discriminatory ideas are entrenched in our society and in our writing. Consider the following real-life examples from entries we've received:
The introduction of a book written during the COVID-19 pandemic takes for granted that "we were all stuck at home", disregarding the experience of millions of lower-income people with front-line jobs who didn't have the luxury of working remotely.
A book about a modern-day, early-career college professor depicts him owning a home outright and having the income and job security to take a lengthy trip around the world without a second thought, counter to the precariousness of academic work today.
The speaker of a poetry collection is a wealthy, middle-class man who quits his prestigious job to live in a mountain hut. The poems depict the speaker's decision as morally superior, but do not mention or explore the class dimension: the speaker is able to do this thanks to his wealth.
In all three cases, the problem lay not with the story or characters themselves, but with the unspoken assumptions about class that collapsed our sense of the book's authority. Each of these books would have been significantly stronger had class been brought into the open as an underlying condition, and its implications explored wherever they touched the plot and themes.
North Street Book Prize judge Ellen LaFleche has long been outspoken against classism in her book evaluations. In preparation for this blog post, I asked for her thoughts. Here are some of the classist assumptions Ellen has noticed most frequently in North Street entries, together with her commentary.
A low-income character can't bootstrap their way out of poverty, and the narrative shows that it's because they're too "stupid" or "lazy"
"It's really important to talk about/ask about an aspect of classism that is rarely acknowledged: the myth that someone is a failure or lazy or stupid if they can't bootstrap their way out of the working class. No matter how hard people try to bootstrap, the country still needs people to work at numerous low-paying jobs: short-order cooks, farmers, housecleaners, meatpackers, school bus drivers, etc. Meatpackers were among the hardest hit early in the COVID epidemic, but I haven't seen analysis of this very important story that includes a discussion of classism."
Education is depicted as an automatic solution for a character's poverty
"It's assumed that education is crucial to bootstrapping, but working-class people face huge obstacles with fewer educational resources. As a personal example, I worked full time while going to high school. Literally full time. 40+ hours per week. I had little time to study or do homework. I was always exhausted at school. I got home around 10:30 every night, and had to decide whether to sleep, do homework, or take a shower to wash off the restaurant smells that permeated my hair. I got by on 'coffee and anxiety'. The anxiety persists to this day and has led to serious health problems.
"The elite colleges are priced out of range for the working class. Predatory student loans have held back Gen X and Millennials, even those from middle-class backgrounds. Many Millennials have been priced out of owning a house, yet they get lambasted for buying a Starbucks coffee. And while Biden has been working to relieve these predatory loans, his efforts have been met with huge amounts of anger and controversy.
"Add in racism, sexism, ageism, and so on. All of which make bootstrapping that much harder."
Class mobility is as possible now as it was in mid-1900s America
"It's getting progressively harder to bootstrap in America. Think soaring rents, single parents working two jobs, and so on. The richer neighborhoods/states often have better schools, better health care, better nutrition, etc. Not to mention: access to generational wealth through inheritance. For many poor people, the death of a parent means spending money (cremation services, etc.) rather than inheriting it."
The protagonist encounters characters low-income characters and considers that their class status is their fault
"Working-class people suffer from the myth that the oppression they face is their own darn fault. I've been thinking about how my late husband worked most of his 40-year career as a gerontologist. Ageism is everywhere, and it's ferocious, but nobody ever walked up to an old person and blamed them for being 78. Who can help when they were born? Yet, working-class people are blamed and shamed: they didn't try hard enough, they weren't smart enough, they took drugs, etc.
"This blame is so deeply entrenched in all of us that it's often hard to see classism in a book even if I'm looking for it. One trope that is obvious is portraying working-class people with no teeth, living in trailer parks, and drinking beer on the stoop."
As Ellen's comments show, it can be hard to identify classism in books due to its cultural prevalence. But the benefits of resisting these tropes are significant. Authority, narrative depth, and relatability all blossom when stereotypes are challenged. So what can we do to identify and resist classism in our own work?
1. Keep an eye out for classism in other authors' work. Ellen shares her experience with J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: "I was eager to read the book because of its focus on Appalachian poverty. I bought a copy at a secondhand bookstore. After reading about 50 pages, I had a strong urge to toss it in a dumpster. All the classist tropes are there. I was astonished but not surprised when he became the Republican nominee for Vice President. If you want to brush up on your skills at spotting classism in a book, Hillbilly Elegy is the perfect 'textbook' to do so. Hint: look for generational poverty being blamed on laziness and drug addiction—as if wealthy people are never lazy or high on drugs!"
2. Become familiar with the tropes. Tvtropes.com has extensive indexes of tropes relating to poverty, wealth, occupations, and class relations. Googling "class tropes" leads to many hits, too. You might be surprised how fun it can be to learn about tropes. Since I learned about tvtropes.com, "trope-scrolling" has become one of my top sources of edutainment.
3. For fantasy and sci-fi writers: Double-check your worldbuilding. Imaginary realms can sometimes be an outlet for classist assumptions that would be more easily identifiable in realistic settings. This article from Mythcreants has useful examples from popular entertainment: Five Signs Your Story Is Classist.
4. Ask how your character would feel if they read your work. If part of your plot or character depiction focuses on class or income, imagine yourself in their shoes. What assumptions did the text make? What could it be saying instead?
5. For older authors: Investigate your own assumptions about what life is like in the year of your story, especially if it's set in the present day. Some older authors grew up in environments that were more economically stable and might not have fully taken on board how times have changed (this turned out to be the case in the example about the college professor, above). If you're an older author writing about the world of the 2020s, it might be a good idea to do some research to find out whether the economic conditions you're giving your characters are realistic.
6. Look for intersections with other forms of literary exploitation. Classism often goes hand-in-hand with racism, sexism, ableism, and body-shaming. Examples from past contest entries include mocking working-class women for wearing cheap clothing and bold cosmetics; or depicting a character eating fast food as shorthand for being unrefined and uneducated.
If you find an exploitative trope, sniff around and you might find classism lurking close by.
Exploitation Versus Representation
Exploitative content can even creep into the work of progressive writers. Here's a primer on how to identify potential exploitation in your writing and what to do about it.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
Trigger warning: Racism, sexism, ableism, stereotypes, suicide, abuse
When we think of book critiques, we often think about narrative features like structure, character, plot, and theme. But as a contest judge and critique writer, I am also concerned with identifying exploitative depictions of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
"Exploitation" can sound like a scary, moralistic word. It can spark arguments about who is "allowed" to imagine their way into characters different from themselves. In the Winning Writers North Street Book Prize, we're looking at how these depictions function within the story itself. And as a developmental critiquer, I also consider how exploitative scenarios might appear to agents, publishers, and a book's intended audience.
Exploitation means that a character from a marginalized group is given a narrative function that does not benefit people from that group, but instead benefits members of a more privileged group.
A quarter of the manuscripts I receive from authors—yes, even progressive authors—contain exploitative premises and themes. Such manuscripts are significantly weaker in three areas:
Ethical—The manuscript is reinforcing assumptions that have no basis in reality and harm the kinds of people it is claiming to represent.
Literary—The vitality and immersivity of the work is harmed through the use of tired tropes and dated concepts. The true potential of the work is missed.
Commercial—Agents and publishers are looking for work that engages with the world we live in today. The use of stereotypes makes a book feel inherently dated, less relevant, and alienating to readers of modern commercial fiction.
Some examples from past manuscripts include:
Native American culture being used as a backdrop for a white character to find themselves or have an adventure.
Man Friday English being used to show that a character is speaking English as a foreign language without any consideration for the realities of the cultural and linguistic conditions.
A character's disability being used primarily to create humor, pity, or disgust in the reader rather than functioning in a deeper role touching characterization, plot, or theme.
Who are these exploitative authors?
Exploitation in one in four manuscripts sounds like a lot. Who are the authors using these exploitative elements?
Believe it or not, nearly all of the authors whose work includes this kind of issue self-identify as progressive. Occasionally, the author I'm working with has included an exploitative element in their work with a genuinely exploitative goal, but it's extremely rare. Only twice in the nearly 400 manuscripts I've evaluated did that turn out to be the case. The other examples were all by authors who were already progressive.
So how can this happen? How do sincerely progressive writers end up including exploitative material in their writing?
Representation, then and now
We live in a time when ideas have been able to change very quickly due to increased connectivity. One of the better ways in which society is changing is that marginalized voices have more reach. Thankfully, it's more possible than ever before to find, and to produce, "own voices" narratives that describe marginalized lives from the inside.
As a result, the way publishing sees "representation" has also changed for the better within the past 10-20 years. "Inclusion" is no longer a sufficient condition to be considered "representation". When marginalized characters appear in a story, other important questions are being asked by agents, publishers, and readers:
- Who benefits from the way this character or situation is being portrayed?
- What is the real structural function of this character or situation?
- Does the portrayal of this character or situation have deeper connections to underlying themes or world-building elements? If not, why is it there?
If the answers to these questions show that the marginalized character is there only to benefit those who are already privileged, it might be time to reexamine whether the characterization is exploitative.
Examples of exploitative content from real-life manuscripts
Below are 16 examples of exploitative scenarios I've encountered in books and manuscripts. Again—in nearly every case, the author didn't realize that they were using a trope, or that the trope was exploitative.
A marginalized character is placed in the narrative only to help the more privileged character realize their goal.
An older black woman who is a nurse is only seen in the story when she is providing folksy wisdom and encouragement to a younger, white nurse. The older nurse has no problems or needs of her own.
A white boy and girl find a magical Native American arrowhead, and its powers bring a feeling of mystery, seriousness, and significance to their romance arc. There are no living Native American characters or discussion of why Native Americans no longer live on that land.
A wealthy white woman travels to a Pacific island where she sleeps with a native of the island. His "primitive" wisdom and love give her a new perspective on life and she goes home again renewed and empowered. The Black male character has no interiority and the book provides no context about the power dynamics in the relationship.
A female supporting character is included in the story exclusively to help the male protagonist become the man he was meant to be. The female character is physically beautiful and has no interiority or life of her own. She may be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
A stereotype is used as shorthand in the book without any deeper relation to the content or structure.
The villains in the book are portrayed with Cold-War-era Slavic stereotypes, not because it has anything to do with the universe or plot (it's a fantasy novel), but because it's the book's shorthand for greed, criminality, and brutality.
A character is depicted as fat, not because it has any bearing on the way they experience the world of the story or on the story's themes, but as shorthand for greed, corruption, slovenliness, or bossiness.
An Algerian character speaks with Man Friday English, not because that's a realistic depiction of an Algerian speaking English as a Foreign Language, but because it's the book's shorthand for "foreigner".
A character has schizophrenia, not because schizophrenia relates to the deeper themes of the book, but because the character's function in the book is to be "weird", "funny", "unpredictable", or "mentally sick".
A non-Western setting is used as shorthand for "exotic", "inspiring", or "dangerous" and includes no other context to provide depth.
A memoir about Saigon in the 1980s portrays Vietnam as the "Wild East"—a lawless and wild place where the white main character can truly find himself. No context is given about the colonialism or other conditions that led to the Saigon that existed at the time of the story.
A white middle-class character is shown as wanting to go to Benin because it is dangerous and he wants to test himself. (But an internet search by the critiquer reveals that the crime statistics in Benin are similar to Ontario, Canada.)
The suffering of a disadvantaged or marginalized group is used for the sake of entertainment (also known as trauma porn).
The abuse and subsequent suicide attempt of a teenage girl is described in great physical detail, despite the book being mostly about the main character, a teenage boy. No interiority or POV writing is provided for the teenage girl character.
A book opens with the slaughter of a tribe of indigenous people. No member of the tribe is a character beyond that first scene. The structural function is to grab the attention of the middle-class, white American readership and to give the white main characters an inciting incident.
A gay man is tortured and killed, and these passages go into detail about the violence and suffering. The context within the book reinforces the idea that gay people are outsiders and that their lot is tragic whether they are killed or not. There is no further discussion of gayness and no other gay characters.
A female character is raped, not because rape is related to the story's essential themes, but to create a sense of peril and titillation.
The antagonist in a book is depicted as having become a crazed villain due to past trauma. The presentation implies that their extreme reaction to trauma was the result of not having enough fortitude (moral, psychological) to stand up to it.
Trauma being used as a device in "origin stories" for villains and heroes.
The protagonist in a book is depicted as having undergone trauma, but completely bounced back from it (e.g., a female hero is raped but has no PTSD). The presentation implies that their resiliance is due to higher-than-normal fortitude (moral, psychological) to bounce back.
In both the villain and the hero examples, the real experience of traumatized peoples is distorted. Trauma often leaves lasting effects with no relation whatsoever to the sufferer's "fortitude", and without turning those who undergo trauma into either heroes or villains.
What should I do if my book contains exploitation without me meaning it to?
If you're reading this with a sinking feeling that your manuscript might include exploitative elements, take heart. There's plenty of time to reconsider, rework, and move on from exploitative narrative strategies. Following the ideas below will make your work more marketable and give the stories you tell new depth.
Try to find another angle.
I remember reading a well-written manuscript about a transwoman transitioning not only into a woman but into a vampire at the same time. It seemed like a good idea in itself, but unfortunately, the execution of the story at that time tended to equate transness with monstrousness (disgust, horror, ugliness), which wasn't the intention of the author.
My critique outlined the dynamic and suggested different ways to come at the scenario. For example, what if the plot focused on comparing and contrasting the two transition processes, with a more sympathetic interiority for the main character? That way, people in that marginalized group (transwomen) might benefit by increased discussion about, and artistic expression of, the nature of trans experience.
Reconsider if you need to be writing about that particular subject or character.
I once worked with a white poet who had included a Magical POC stereotype in one of his poems. I asked him what the structural and thematic function was, and after consideration, he found that there was no constructive function. He ended up removing the character and diving more deeply into the themes that really were at the heart of his poem.
Reconsider your premise.
Rarely, I'll come across a draft where the exploitation is woven into the very premise. One manuscript I read was about a young white Canadian man who on a whim decided to travel to Benin to find a Black man whose name he had discovered by accident. The goal of the young Canadian was to test himself on this "dangerous" journey, a "hunt" for the Beninese character.
My critique pointed out the power imbalance of a white, relatively wealthy Canadian man seeking out and potentially disrupting the life of a stranger halfway across the planet, and how strange and uncomfortable the situation might feel from the Beninese character's point of view. The author's use of the word "hunt" also seemed threatening, especially in the white-Black context given the histories of colonialism and slavery. The author had not considered these factors and decided to drastically revise their premise.
Do your research.
I've found that in many cases where exploitative characterizations are being used, it's because the author relied on their existing memories of older books, films, and social contexts as their main source of information. If you suspect your book may be venturing into the exploitative, the best course of action might be to do some research into the characters and subjects you are writing about in order to bring more realism into the depiction.
As Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter pointed out to me recently, "Writers do research on all kinds of things. Cars, the moon, animals, philosophies, anything. Why not research the people you're writing about?"
Get a sensitivity read.
Generally, if you are going to include minority characters whose identities are not the same as yours, it's a good idea to hire one or more sensitivity readers who share those identities with the characters. Firefly Creative Writing, Writing Diversely, and the Editors of Color database are excellent places to find sensitivity readers of diverse genders, ethnicities, disabilities, and cultural, class, and religious backgrounds.
Address your own privilege.
I often mention the word "privilege" to authors and it occasionally raises hackles. But when a writer gets real about the role of privilege in their writing process and how they handle their content, their work tends to become more timely, realistic, relatable, and immersive: all qualities that are highly attractive to agents and readers alike.
Below are some articles about privilege and writing. Some of them discuss the idea of privilege as an "invisible knapsack" that contains tools that help us complete what we'd think of as very basic tasks during the day. The less privilege a person has, the fewer tools they have, until these "basic" tasks (for example, interacting with the electric company, shopping for groceries) become much more difficult or simply not possible.
Negotiating Social Privilege as a Writer
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Equity360: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity—What's in Your Knapsack?
Become familiar with dead horse tropes and avoid them in the future.
One of the best ways to avoid exploitative and plumb-tired-out tropes is to learn what they are. TVTropes.org is a fantastic directory for tropes in all genres of art, not just television. Wikipedia is also a good place to find information about tropes.
Some of the tropes I encounter in manuscripts most often are:
Disability tropes
Mental Handicap, Moral Deficiency
Tragically Disabled or Magically Disabled
Hollywood Autism
Obsessively Organized and Neat Freak (OCD stereotypes)
Funny SchizophreniaBlack/POC tropes
Black Dude Dies First
Magical Black Person
"Mammy" Figure
Closer to EarthIndigenous tropes
The Noble Savage
The Nubile Savage and The Chief's Daughter
"Good" Indigenous vs. "Bad" Indigenous
Man Friday English and Tonto TalkMore racial tropes
Acceptable Ethnic Targets
Tokenism
Africa Is a Country
Dirty Communists (evil Slavs)
Husky Russkie (Slavic thugs)
The Evil Brit
Magical Romani
Inscrutable OrientalWhite savior tropes
Mighty Whitey
Raised by NativesSexuality and gender tropes
Bury Your Gays
Trans Tribulations
Dead Lesbian SyndromeTropes about women
Defiled Forever
Disposable Woman
Not Like the Other Girls
"She Just Needs to Smile!"
My Girl is Not a Slut
Makeup is Evil
Manic Pixie Dream GirlTropes about men
Writing as a process of breaking down barriers
The activity of writing is defined by constant exploration and breaking through personal barriers—especially emotional barriers. One could argue that a writer is a person who provides value to readers by doing grueling emotional, psychological, and intellectual legwork.
This process can be terribly uncomfortable for the writer. But the more processing the writer can do, and the more they can work through that discomfort, the better the writing will be—and the more the readers will keep coming back.
Facing up to assumptions, stereotypes, and exploitative scenarios in writing is an essential part of that fundamental process of exploration and breaking through barriers. Any writer who ignores that part of composition is avoiding an opportunity for significant growth in their craft.
Meanwhile, the authors who do address problematic assumptions through their writing stand out head and shoulders above their competition in the eyes of agents, publishers, contest judges, and readers.
As a critiquer, contest judge, reader, and human being, I stand up and cheer for all writers who pledge themselves to breaking down barriers like those described in this post.
Explore Your Premise
Want to impress agents, publishers, and contest judges? Explore your premise—and only your premise.
Fiction, memoir, poetry, children's books, middle grade, art books, graphic novels…almost any book will fail when it wanders away from its premise. Why does it happen so often? And what are signs to look out for?
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
I see thousands of books and manuscripts a year, and about 85% of them have the same problem:
They include too much stuff.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen a strong premise get lost under an avalanche of subplots, characters, genre identities, themes, settings, time periods, and background.
An eleventh-century Viking princess is taken back to the early Roman Empire. Wow, I've never heard of a time-travel story where someone from the past goes even further into the past! Genius!
…but the rising action has so many subplots that the main plot is buried. The deeper interest of the premise is never explored, and the climax has to do with a different character.
A witch who is also a lawyer must choose between her friends and a dashing new love interest. I love contemporary romance/magic crossovers! I can't wait to read this book!
…but soon after the inciting incident, the book becomes about an ancient artifact that leads the lawyer and her friends to uncover secrets that could turn deadly. Dang, I guess that's cool, too, but I was really looking forward to the first story?
Agents, publishers, and contest judges know this pain so well. It's what I think of when authors tell me how competitive the market is, when I've just read their manuscript, and it left its premise behind. If an author can choose a good premise and write a book only about that, they will sail past 85% of the competition.
But it can be incredibly hard for emerging authors to stick to their premise.
I have two theories about why. Maybe authors have so many ideas that when they finally start writing, it all pours out together. Once it's on the page it's too hard—whether emotionally or craft-wise—to discern what belongs to the premise, and what doesn't.
Or maybe authors can't trust that one premise is enough. For a book to be unique, memorable, valuable, it must include as wide a variety of things as possible. That's the way to hold interest…right?
These explanations are understandable. The first is a result of passion, intellect, and imagination that have yet to be guided by experience. The second arises from a desire to stand out, leading authors to prioritize the perceived value of "originality" over the quality that agents, publishers, and contest judges are actually looking for: immersivity.
Regardless of the cause, I really want more of these amazing premises to be explored rather than abandoned. So I'm here to outline the most common sources of distraction in each of our eight North Street Book Prize categories.
Does your book have "too much" of any of the following…to the point where it's no longer supporting the book's exploration of the premise? If so, prune back and let your premise take its rightful place.
Genre Fiction
Too many subplots. These side narratives seem to exist for their own sake rather than supporting the main plot. This can make the rising action feel episodic, lacking the rising tension that leads to a climax.
Too many characters. Every event that happens in the book comes with one or two new characters that the reader must remember. Alternatively, secondary characters' storylines grow to where they're competing with, rather than supporting, the main characters' arcs.
Too many genres. Either there are so many genre identities that it's impossible for the reader to form expectations, or the genre identities are not mixed well enough to be immersive, so the reader feels like they must keep switching gears.
Too much worldbuilding. The worldbuilding expands to where it's clearly being valued for its own sake. The rising action gets bogged down in details. Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter adds, "Too many kinds of magic or futuristic tech in genre fiction starts to feel like the world has too few constraints for meaningful suspense."
Too much background on character or plot. The classic, "but in order to tell you that, I first have to tell you this." In many cases, readers can appreciate the plot or character perfectly well without the extra information, and it only slows things down. Background should be given in cases where it provides essential support to the main plot or character arc.
Too many books in one. The author tries to fit two or three complete narrative arcs in the book, but really, they should each have their own book. This is often the consequence of any of the above conditions. It can also be a pacing issue when the exposition, rising action, or falling action are stretched past their usefulness.
Mainstream/Literary Fiction
In addition to the issues discussed above, authors of Mainstream/Literary Fiction should watch out for:
Too many points of view. The narrative shifts character perspective so many times that it's unclear whose motivations are driving the story, or how all of these characters relate back to the main plotline.
Too many styles. The narration switches literary styles without a clear reason why.
Too much of the first-person narrator. Whether they are chatty, abrasive, or simply observant, they keep telling us things that don't end up building up the main plot or themes. Too much philosophizing/editorializing. This can be related to "too much of the first-person narrator" but also occurs in the third person. The narration is "talking" about so many things that don't end up connecting back to the main plot, themes, or character development.
Collection is too long. The book includes too many short stories (or essays, or poems…) A collection might also feel too long, even if it's not, when pieces are included that don't contribute to the collection's sense of unity.
Middle Grade Fiction
The top issue specific to this genre is:
Too many adults. The main and secondary characters should nearly all be aged 8-12, the group it's marketed to. Giving adults, or even older teens, too much page-time can contribute to a sense of shifting diction, genre, and target audience.
Creative Nonfiction & Memoir
Too many subplots, too many characters, too many genres, too much background on character or plot, too long—see Genre Fiction above.
Too much of the first-person narrator, too much philosophizing, collection too long—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Scope too wide. The time period and range of ideas exceed what is needed to explore the premise. For example, a doctor writes a memoir of their years working in Intensive Care, but the narrative starts with an account of their grandparents' lives, how their parents met, and what their childhood, teenage, and young adult years were like. This can happen when an author loses sight of the differences between memoir and autobiography.
Poetry
Collection too long—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Poems are mismatched. The topics, tones, imagery, and word choice of the poems vary too much to give the collection a sense of unity or forward movement. For example, we see many "Collected Works of…" books in the North Street Book Prize that bring together a large body of poems with various subjects. It's harder for such catch-all collections to feel immersive or establish a sense of authority.
Children's Picture Book
The top issue specific to this genre is:
Too many incidents. A well-written picture book will typically explore only one kind of episode at a time. Think of the Clifford series—in one book, it will be Halloween, in another, the first day of school, in another, Clifford's first trip to the dentist.
Many unsuccessful contest entries are multi-episode—"Clifford" experiences Halloween, the first day of school, and his first trip to the dentist all in one book. As Jendi points out, "a picture book is too short for exposition or transitions" of the kind that would be needed for such major plot shifts, making everything feel squished together.
Graphic Novel & Memoir
Too many subplots, too many characters, too many genres—see Genre Fiction above.
Too much of the first-person narrator, too much philosophizing/editorializing—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Scope too wide—see Creative Nonfiction & Memoir above.
Art Book
Collection too long—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Presentation too chaotic. Some art books include a lot of images with, as Jendi describes, "no logic to the order in which they're presented," making them feel "random and overstuffed." More editing is needed to let the core concepts show.
Too many styles. I've seen art books in the contest that put together 4-10 different styles of visual expression. Sometimes these submitters are young artists who are still exploring where they might want to go in the future and include everything good that they've done regardless of continuity. But an art book is not the same as a portfolio. I want to be immersed in the potentialities of just one of those styles.
What to do next?
Book creators work so hard. I understand the reluctance to cut back. Responses I've heard include, "I need to express these things," "that aspect means a lot to me," "these ideas are important," "beta readers like that part," "but that character is so good," "I've been working on this for such a long time"—all relatable reactions.
But, if a book is destined to be anything other than a tool for personal processing or personal expression, exploration of the premise must take priority. Not everything can, or should, be expressed in a single volume. There's a reason authors write more than one book. But don't "kill your darlings." Re-home your darlings.
Did a secondary character you love take over your rising action? Maybe they need their own book. Working on a memoir about your early thirties, but can't stop writing about your teens? Excerpt that part. With a few alterations it will make a fine essay. Have a picture book that's three books in one? That's a series. Poetry collection of 200 poems? More like two poetry collections of 50-70 poems each, minus the ones that didn't match. Those can become the seeds of their own collections.
Trust me—your premise is good. Follow it through from exposition, to inciting incident, to rising action, to climax, to falling action, to resolution. The competition is tough, but you'll advance to the top of the heap—and be respected and remembered by the agents, publishers, and contest judges evaluating your book.
Finding the best awards for your book: An interview with Book Award Pro founder Hannah Jacobson
"No matter how you decide to publish your book, there are accolades for you"—and Book Award Pro will help you find them.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
This year, Book Award Pro is giving three free months of their unique accolades-finding services to all entrants and winners of the North Street Book Prize.
Book Award Pro founder and CEO Hannah Jacobson joins Winning Writers managing editor Annie Mydla to discuss:
- Why book awards are within your reach as an author
- How Book Award Pro finds the best awards for your book from over 11,000 submission opportunities
- How book awards connect your book to new audiences
- How Book Award Pro's in-house-designed AI protects author privacy and intellectual property
- What is included in the 3 free months of Essentials- and Pro-tier services that North Street entrants and winners will receive
Watch the entire interview with Hannah Jacobson or read this lightly edited transcript.
ANNIE: Hello, welcome, thank you for tuning in. I'm Annie Mydla of Winning Writers, and this is my blog. I'm joined today by Hannah Jacobson. She's the founder of our North Street Book Prize co-sponsor, Book Award Pro, a service that connects authors to curated submission opportunities for their books. But how does that connection happen? What is Book Award Pro's evaluation process for the books for the submission opportunities, and why is it helpful for authors to have this narrowed-down, personalized list of places to send their books? Hannah, thank you so much for being with me here today.
HANNAH: Hi, Annie. Thank you so much for inviting me here. And, you know, thank you for the opportunity to be a co-sponsor of the North Street Book Prize. We're really proud to be a co-sponsor.
So first, let's just let people know a little bit about what we're talking about. What is Book Award Pro and how does it help authors?
Validation and credibility are so important in your author career. Validation is just the knowledge that your writing is really resonating with your readers. And credibility is building trust with those readers. And quite frankly, in the book world, there's not a better way to do that than through book awards. Book awards give you a way to build that validation, to build that credibility. And Book Award Pro is a technology platform to help you actually pursue those awards, pursue those accolades, and know what's actually out there for your book.
Yeah, it can be really hard for people to know what the opportunities even are.
And you know, historically in the book world, there hasn't been a lot of great information on when to get awards, how to get awards, what does that look like? And as an author, you're really busy. You're a business owner. There's a lot of things to keep track of. So knowing that there's a service like Book Award Pro that can just handle that for you, that's kind of where we come into the book world.
We always believe in transparency, so directly on our website, we always include our plans, our pricing information about our services. You can go directly to BookAwardPro.com, you can just give us a few details about your book and that helps our system understand, what is your book about? So from there, you choose the best plan for your book from among our three plans, and if you would like to do your own entries or if you would like to have our team perform professional entries for you. Our system gets straight to work on your very first award matches. In fact, our authors have told us that they get their first award matches in moments.
You mentioned these three different plans. Are those different from the kind of pricing levels or subscription levels on the website?
No, those are exactly, those are our subscription levels on the website. We always believe too, again, from the very beginning of Book Award Pro that we wanted to offer a variety of pricing, a variety of plans to suit not only your needs but also your budget as an author. So you can essentially use our services to find what accolades are out there for your book, and then you can decide if you would like us to actually submit those opportunities for you or if you would like to do it yourself.
Can people only submit one book at a time, or can they submit multiple books?
Authors add multiple books all the time. And something we've come to find is that many authors actually not only write and publish a single book, maybe you publish a series, maybe you have multiple series, maybe you have just multiple standalone books. But our services work for every single book, no matter whether it's fiction, nonfiction, part of a series. You can absolutely use our services to find accolades for all of your books.
Do you mind if I ask how many contests roughly or how many, sorry, submission opportunities roughly there are in the Book Award Pro database?
Book Award Pro is really proud to operate the world's largest database of legitimate awards and reviews. And at this time, that's more than 11,000 accolades and counting, every single day.
Oh my gosh, I didn't even know that. That's a lot more than I thought you had. That's amazing.
I love to hear that from you as well because I know you're very well-informed in the awards world. And there are thousands and thousands of awards out there and it can be really frustrating for authors to figure out what's the best fit for my book, what's even out there for my book? And there are so many different data points to consider. We're really proud to really simplify that and make that easy for authors to find, make it accessible.
Do you accept every book that people send to you, or are there some kind of requirements?
Yeah, I love this question, actually. So Book Award Pro, we firmly believe that we're not a gatekeeper. Our purpose, our goal is to show you what opportunities exist for your book. So no matter whether you're unpublished, maybe you haven't published your book yet. If you're independent, if you're self-published, hybrid-published, even traditionally published, we work with authors, thousands of authors every year all around the world. And I can tell you that no matter how you decide to publish, there are accolades for you.
That's awesome. And you know, I can actually imagine a developmental function for Book Award Pro, because a lot of people who are creating manuscripts would really benefit from knowing, where am I trying to send this after it's finished? So if they can get an idea of the kinds of contests that would be available to them given the document that they currently have, it could actually help their editing process and kind of help to work towards something that's more focused, and also more geared towards specific opportunities.
You're really digging into the important questions here because there's so much to consider as an author. We actually do have lots of authors who sign up with us prior to publication. As long as you have a book and it's kind of ready to go, it's ready to present to these readers. Readers are award judges. So a lot of authors find validation in their first kind of, you know, those are those last steps of producing their manuscript, maybe even finding a publisher and even becoming an award-winning author prior to publication. We have authors who work with us all the time who do that.
Wow. So you're talking about these readers. How does Book Award Pro gauge whether a contest is right for a book? Who's making that decision? What do they kind of think about? What factors do they think about when they're looking at a book?
We actually collect more than 70 unique data points on these awards and reviews. And I tell you that because it's really important to understand. We understand exactly what an award is wanting on a very nuanced level. We heavily research all of these awards and ensure that our database matches your book to the perfect awards, to the right ones for your book. And that is taking into account millions of data points. That's even more than a human being can manage. But our goal is to find kind of the perfectly nuanced award, the award that will bring the most value to your book.
You mentioned these 70 data points. Can you just talk a little bit about them and maybe mention what a few of them are?
Absolutely. Thank you for that clarifying question because there's a lot I'm thinking of: word count, page count, your copyright date, which may be very different from your publication date. How are you published? Are you an independent author? Are you hybrid-published, independent, traditional? Are you unpublished? There are even details such as, how are awards treating authors? First and foremost, are they upholding their promises? Are they delivering value to winners? And like the North Street Book Prize, are they delivering value to entrants as well? Are they doing their best to do well, do right by authors?
So we have all these different kinds of unique data points, not only to find a great fit for your book. Does the copyright date fit? Does the word count fit? But also, does this award hold high value for this book? And then those awards are the ones that are more highly esteemed in our system that do really well for authors. Those will always kind of float to the top and you will see more matches, more submissions to those awards.
You know, those are really great angles to look at, just all of the little nitty-gritty details about the publication, copyright, page number, these things that authors may not actually be thinking about because they're so concerned with what's in the book. But, you know, I'd like to ask you a question and I know this is kind of a delicate topic in the book world right now. Are you guys using machine learning to like kind of look at the PDFs, or are they people, or…?
I love your questions. I'm the founder of Book Award Pro and I got this started. But I have a team of people, software developers and a systems architect, who design our technology to be useful for authors. There are all kinds of different AI, I've come to learn. We create our technology to best serve authors. So all we use our technology for is to understand what your book is about. Our AI is kind of handcrafted at Book Award Pro and we never share those details externally. That's only used for the benefit of providing your service.
That's great to know. That's really valuable. So there's no chance that like Google could end up with your data or Open AI, or it's just all in-house and it just stays there.
That's exactly right. And I think it's really important, like I said, I don't think that I understood a few years ago that there are different kinds of AI. It is important that your information is kept private and purely for the use of providing your service. So that's why we also give authors the option. It's really easiest for them if they upload a PDF book file because it's kept only within Book Award Pro. We don't provide that to any external sources. But for authors who are really, really sensitive about that, you can still use our services. There are still ways to give us information and tell us about your book that wouldn't inhibit your services.
Oh, yeah. So authors don't actually have to send the full text. They can answer these key questions and get all the benefits anyway. That is really good to know.
That's exactly right. The only time that we require a PDF copy of the book is when we're actually submitting it, you know, like digitally submitting it to the North Street Book Prize, to all their awards that are asking for a PDF book copy. But again, that is only ever shared with the awarding entity and never externally, never for the use of other technologies. It's only used to provide your service at Book Award Pro.
It's really great that Book Award Pro thinks so much about people's intellectual property as well as their privacy.
Absolutely. And in fact, one of our key technology executives is actually formerly in information security. So a lot of our background is really strict on privacy, security, keeping things very, very safe. Your book file we only ever share to an award that you have explicitly asked us to submit to. So everything is really kept under lock and key to really protect your information, protect your privacy, protect your book.
That's fascinating. Wow, you know what? Sorry, now I'm talking to you, I'm just like thinking about a lot of stuff. Before I met you, I was just like, oh, yeah, Book Award Pro, they just match up contests, but like…
Thank you for kind of the off-the-cuff conversation. This whole kind of process, there's a lot that goes into it. Book Award Pro, I started by myself in 2019. I actually launched my own services to submit authors to award services. Even at that time, wow, even at that time, Annie, I didn't even do awards submissions yet. I had done them previously with my book publishing background, but my goal was to find awards for authors. So I would maybe serve up to five authors at a time. My authors were really happy and they started telling their friends about my services, and their friends would tell their friends, and quite honestly my journey in awards has really grown, as well.
The technology is changing so fast, but also like, when you scaled up from just you, you just had to evolve so much. Like, can you just tell me a little bit about that process?
So a long time ago, I actually got my start in the book publishing world, working in a university press. And one of my jobs was to find awards for our books. As time passed, and even after I had finished that job, I always wondered what awards are out there for other authors. What awards exist? How can more authors use something like that, have that kind of tool in their toolkit? Because something I've learned is that authors don't know. They don't know, number one, that awards are something to pursue. It sounds like something that's just kind of bestowed upon you, but it's actually a process you have to pursue. In a lot of cases, it's very time-sensitive. There's a lot of information rolled into that. So I happen to really be passionate about awards and kind of finding that connection for authors.
So in 2019, I launched my own services to help match your book to accolades. And over time, that really kind of blew up in how fast that it grew. And at that time I chose to bring on my technology co-founder who has that background in information security. And he actually helped me scale this to actually serve more authors at a time. So instead of only being able to take on five, we could serve more authors, find more accolades for more authors around the world. And that kind of transparency, that kind of research and information has been a backbone of our growing company. That's kind of a long answer, but yeah, we really believe in bringing that information, that power to authors. It shouldn't be so shrouded in mystery.
I think people really don't realize either how many very specific and particular contests there are. I mean, in North Street, we accept a lot of different kinds of material, but some contests are just looking for a very specific subgenre.
There's a book award specifically for books about chess. There are also awards that feature either a feline main character or a canine main character, which I happen to love. And something important about those very specific awards is that they highlight almost this certain part of your book or a certain theme, if you will. And that really helps authors kind of find a new way to market their books, a new way to share it with their readers, a new way to connect with those readers.
In that case, it's not just about kind of getting a stamp on the front of your book saying this book won an award. These contests also have their own constituents, shall we say, readers who just love to read that kind of material. So when you win that kind of award and you get your information on their website, it must open up a whole new readership for this book.
That's exactly right, Annie. And now that we're kind of, we're really, really deep into this, but those are some of the details that we also collect in our system. So we know this award has a really great romance book audience. It's really, you know, maybe they're open to other genres, but they're really looking for romance. Romance books have the, they're held in the highest regard among these readers. That's not something that you can immediately know just from casually browsing a website or just trying to figure out what's out there. But we do a lot of research to understand that nuance and help really connect books with readers. We really, really believe that.
Can you tell me a little bit about the research process? How do you find new contests, for example?
We've got a lot of different sources and different ways that we kind of keep tabs on the awards industry. Once you have a database, it goes stale very quickly. So you have to constantly monitor what that looks like. It's a tremendous ongoing process. So we have a team, we're constantly monitoring awards. Are they continuing to uphold their promises? Are they still, you know, have they fallen off the face of the earth, they're not operating anymore, or are they still continuing to do a really good job for authors? So we don't have a single way that we, you know, like a single way that we research an award or find a new award. We just have so many touchpoints and have such a pulse on awards that we have this information coming in all the time. We're always doing that research and always maintaining it. It's especially kind of technology back-end things.
Wow, that is so fascinating. I freaking love it. And I really love the idea that by using technology, especially technology that keeps things so private for the authors, it's just able to expand the amount of authors that are served, the amount of opportunities that are there for them, and also it's able to allow you guys to maintain the quality of your database by checking up on these contests and accolades opportunities again and again and again. So, I mean, I think this sounds like a really good use of the current technologies, maybe a force for good instead of the evil AI scenario, like apocalyptic stuff.
Our core, our number one value at Book Award Pro is to do great for authors. And we literally build that into our software. We build it into just everything that we do. And I truly believe, especially, you know, and you and I have talked very candidly that I didn't start with any kind of technology background, it was me doing things very manually. Understanding that technology can be used for good, it's the people behind it, it's the heart behind it.
You know, I often reflect on kind of the earlier days of self-publishing. Like in the 90s and the early 2000s. And there were some very predatory services back then—no transparency, hid their fees, told authors that they were a traditional publishing house when actually the authors had to pay for everything out of their own pocket. And I think at least a lot of people who are in the Winning Writers world, I think they're actually traumatized by these times and now they've got this mindset that if they're in a transaction with anybody except like traditional publisher, capital T, capital P, that somebody must be out to get them. Somebody must be out to scam them. But you and I know just how many people are there across the world who just want to help authors, pay authors, honor authors, help authors find readers, and also are subjected to monitoring activity like Book Award Pro performs for their own database.
It's important to understand, where is this award coming from? You know, just because you charge an entry fee, that doesn't mean anything necessarily good or bad. It means that you have a business to run. It's a legitimate business. That money goes to run that. But you do get a good sense, especially just keeping a pulse on awards, who has the author's best interest in mind? What's actually a legitimate opportunity? And there are higher-value opportunities, like Winning Writers. All of your programs really go to serve authors. There are other awards that don't do as much for winners, for entrants. They just don't have as much kind of firepower, if you will. But it doesn't make them less legitimate. And so we always kind of try to put the power in our authors' hands to choose, you know, there are so many other thousands of accolades out there. If you don't like a certain one, move on from it. There are so many other opportunities to pursue. You should never feel locked in.
I think when people started to really explore non-traditional forms of publishing, this industry didn't exist. There wasn't a service like Book Award Pro. And people were really looking for their own ways to get their writing out there rather than just depending on the old traditional methods.
You know, it makes me think like in our history, in our, you know, in the human history, progression of history, whatever, like it's really a time, maybe because of the internet that people are really learning how to be themselves. And not having to, in order to get along in life, feel like they have company, feel like they're not like an outcast. They don't have to conform to the local standards anymore. We can find people who are like us as we already. So I really see Book Award Pro as kind of just extending that really important kind of social progress that we have just to the book world, where people don't have to have these super boxed-in like traditional products. They can really produce the book that they want and be connected with the people who are already looking for that book as it is today.
You know, with self-publishing, it puts the power in your hands. For better and for worse, that means you're managing your own business as an author, but it also means that you get to publish exactly the way you want to. You get to choose your book cover design. You get to choose your story. You can choose what awards, what reviews you want to submit to. But with that does come a lot of, with freedom comes great responsibility, something like that.
With great freedom comes great admin! I don't know if the listeners or the viewers know this, but in the past couple of years, Book Award Pro has been very generously supplying our winners with three months of Essentials-level service. But this year, actually, every entrant will be receiving three free months of the Book Award Pro Essentials-level service. So what does that actually include for them?
So our Essentials plan, our authors tell us that it saves them hours of research in trying to figure out exactly what awards are out there for your book. Our service will actually work for you and you can think of it as almost a personal awards researcher. So you actually have access to our research directly within your dashboard and you'll get ongoing award matches specific to your book. So when you see an award match in your account, you can trust that this is a good fit for my book. It's already been completely researched for you.
So that's amazing. You know, we usually get between 1,900 and 2,000 entrants in the North Street Book Prize, and every single one of those entrants is going to be able to have that level of research in over 11,000 other contest opportunities. It's amazing that we can offer that. Like, thank you so much for being a co-sponsor. It's awesome.
Oh, we, I mean, we really love being a North Street co-sponsor. We've enjoyed meeting all kinds of different writers from all around the world. And I can say that no matter how you decide to publish your book, what it's about, what your word count is, your page count, Book Award Pro will go to serve your book. So plug in and get those three free months when you enter the North Street Book Prize.
So the entrants are getting the Essentials tier. The winners this year are getting the Pro tier, three months free of the Pro tier. So what are the differences between the Essentials and the Pro tiers?
Our Pro plan takes things to the next level and our authors have told us that the Pro plan is the way they find the very best awards for their book. So in addition to actually seeing those ongoing matches, those ongoing awards for your book, you'll know exactly which one you should submit to for its high value. You'll also get access to special awards and you'll actually be able to see awards that are for book cover design, illustration, even best editing. There are all kinds of different accolades out there that can celebrate other aspects of your book.
And you'll also get access to editorial reviews. If you're wondering how to maybe increase distribution, get some extra marketing for your book. These awards and reviews connect you to different readers, to different audiences, to different ways that you can market your book. And we even have, separate from that on the Pro plan, you unlock the story marketing feature, which is a really easy way to share your award progress, your review progress with your readers, with your social media followers, your email newsletter. There are all kinds of different ways to use the news that you were doing as an author pursuing these accolades, a way to share that with your readers to entice them and keep them interested in your work.
Thank you so much for all you've told us about Book Award Pro today. And I'm wondering if you have any words of advice for viewers who might be preparing their books for a submission opportunity right now.
First and foremost, feedback that we have seen award judges provide directly to authors is to make sure that you have professional-quality editing for your book. Most of the time you may have a really great story and it's a polished professional book, but without editing, that's a really key way to make your book feel really professional, really polished. But I would also say, just remember that there are thousands of awards out there. You should never feel pressured to pursue a single one. Really focus your time, your effort, your resources, your money on the best fit for your book. And if for any reason you don't really like a particular award, pass on it. There's always a new opportunity around the corner. And just really give your book the chance to shine, to be recognized, and to be awarded for its beauty.
Thank you so much. Beautiful words. Well, we need to be wrapping up right now, but Hannah Jacobson, it's been a pleasure to speak with you about Book Award Pro. I'm so glad that our North Street entrants. not just our winners, but every entrant, is going to be getting the benefit of three months of this amazing service. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Annie, and to everyone watching, thank you so much for tuning in. We would love to be a part of your award-winning journey.
Disclosure: This interview includes affiliate links to Book Award Pro, where Winning Writers receives modest compensation if you purchase from them.
Fixing the One-Dimensional Protagonist
Is your main character too bland? 10 mental traps authors fall into, and exercises to help get back out.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
In November, I'm deep into writing feedback for North Street Book Prize entrants. Among other things, this means meeting a lot of empty-feeling main characters over and over again. Here are a few of the usual suspects:
A tough, masculine man who's smarter than most. He's always fair to others, even though he's the victim of a lot of unfairness.
A smart, sexy woman who's not like the other girls.
A down-to-earth, sweet, misunderstood woman who has often come out the worse in love. Her innocence is what makes her attractive to the male romantic lead.
An intelligent, somewhat jaded man who has little patience for normals, but passionate excitement for his chosen field. He has all the time in the world for special individuals who recognize the specialness of his field (and him).
A plucky boy or girl who's wise beyond their years—far wiser than all the other children and adults around them.
A man, woman, boy, or girl drawn straight from the mid-1900s world of Leave It to Beaver.
A fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction hero or heroine whose main character trait is speaking and thinking with slightly more elevated diction than regular people, and never using contractions.
While each of these types can be the basis for a strong main character, so many of the books we get in North Street stop there, at the "basis" part. They don't define the character past the fundamental traits of the type. Often, the characters are static—they tend to weather the events of the book rather than grow because of them.
It's all but impossible for a book to recover from a bland protagonist. No matter how strong the other narrative elements are, an empty main character will leech a book of all immersivity.
As tempting as it might be to blame dull main characters on bad writing skills or lack of imagination and leave it at that, I've found there are a number of preventable mental traps authors fall into that can lead to blandness. Do any of these ten examples apply to you?
1. The author is overfocused on the plot or other aspects of the storytelling
Early-career authors have a special challenge in that they're learning to juggle a range of storytelling techniques for the first time. They may tend to focus either on what's easiest for them or what stresses them out most. Either way, the overfocus on just one or two elements can lead to an imbalance in the book as a whole. Character development is one aspect that tends to get neglected.
For many authors, the point of focus is plotting. The author is concerned about telling the story in a way that makes sense and is so glad when they do, that they move on to querying or self-publishing without firming up the other storytelling elements. Other dominant priorities can include:
Communicating the moral, religious, philosophical, social ideas at the heart of the manuscript
Conveying feelings about what is happening in the book
Making the worldbuilding unique
Working out a personal conflict or trauma
If you find you've been doing this, no worries. There's still time to beef up your characterizations! Read on for more exercises that could help.
Exercise 1: Make an outline of your main character's development from beginning to end. How are they changing at each major plot point? What are they learning? What are they hating about themselves? Liking about themselves? What do they want?
Exercise 2: Get concrete. Make a list of the character's attributes, then a list of physical items that signify those attributes. Throughout your narrative, show the items to the reader at key times to demonstrate static attributes, growth, or both.
Example: A character is always late to things. A friend gives them a watch to help them be on time. Later, the watch gets destroyed or lost, but the character no longer needs it/immediately gets another one/gets a new one but isn't as successful at following it/mourns the old one for years and can't bring themselves to get another, no matter how many times they're late. How the character responds is a concrete demonstration of their character.
2. The main character is an extension of the author's own voice
In this scenario, the author identifies with the character so closely that it's like the character is an extension of the author themselves. The character's ideas, actions, and speech don't differ from the book's tone, collapsing the difference between the character's attitudes and the book's attitudes. At that point, there's a risk the character will blend in with the rest of the book instead of becoming alive to the reader.
Exercise: Give your character more independence. What do they want to keep secret from you? Where would they much rather diverge from the narrative path you've set out for them? Where don't they agree with your personal beliefs? With the message the book is trying to get across? How might all of these things influence their behavior, speech, and thought over the course of the book?
3. Successful mimicry feels like success, not practice
For many early authors, a key criteria for success is writing a manuscript that feels like "a real book". This can lead to reproducing patterns that they've seen before in plotting, prose style, and characterization. Not a bad thing! In fact, mimicking others' styles is one of the best ways to develop as writers. But in some cases, an author who achieves replication and stays there might end up with a bland main character who really does feel like "just a copy".
Exercise: Give your character a spikier profile, including, but not limited to:
More specific limitations, abilities, likes, and dislikes
Inner contradictions
Irrational and potentially ugly or unlikeable sides to their personality
Different levels of ability in one kind of task versus another
A more distinct and individualistic pattern of growth from the beginning of the narrative to the end
4. "This type of character couldn't be any other way"
Authors can sometimes get trapped in assumptions about age, gender, class, race, and more that keep them from making characters dynamic. For example, Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter observes that an author who wants to write a strong male protagonist might fail to imagine that he could have complex relationships that change him. The women in his life end up being objects to protect, rather than participants in the hero's journey.
On the flip side might be a female character who's universally loving and fair to everyone and doesn't have any moral blind spots or prejudices. Adherence to these stereotypes about gender could lead to overlooking the kinds of unexpected inner contradictions, weaknesses, and strengths that real people have, leading to flat characters.
The 2023 North Street First Prize winner in Literary Fiction, Lucy May Lennox, chose a privileged man near the top of his society as her main character in Flowers by Night. Tomonosuke is a samurai in 1825 Japan who enjoys a range of social, personal, and sexual freedoms due to his status. But rather than keep Tomonosuke static in this role, Lennox leads him on a journey that culminates in his rejection of the class assumptions he was born into.
Exercise: Journal on the factors in your character's inner life that are keeping them from living up to their potential regarding some kind of value (i.e., humility, integrity, or something else). What assumptions would they have to shed in order to embody those values more fully? What path will lead them to rethink those beliefs?
5. A stand-out character feels like a marketing risk
Commercial aspirations can make authors cautious about every aspect of their writing, including main characters. What if they go too far? What if, instead of relatable-unique, they cross over into just-plain-weird-or-unlikeable-unique? But overcaution isn't necessarily wise.
Jendi comments that sometimes, "[authors] are expecting all readers to crave an idealized protagonist as a kind of wish-fulfillment, pretending they are living the life of a super strong cop or overpoweringly sexy woman. But that's kind of dull for a more sophisticated reader, and it often reinforces stereotypical social roles."
So how to strike a balance? When considering your main character's level of distinctiveness, it might be helpful to reflect on your goals for the book. If you're aiming to self-publish, playing it safe with the character might be okay. But if you're hoping to get the attention of agents, editors, publishers, or contest judges, it could be important to remember that a literary professional is often a different kind of reader. We've seen many books in your genre, and many protagonists like your protagonist—and we want something new! Pushing out of your comfort zone might reward you here.
Exercise: Journal on whether you're planning to issue your book to the public directly or trying to attract the attention of a professional in the industry. If the second option is true, write down at least 10 unique things that professional might be wanting to see in a protagonist but likely don't see enough of. It might be helpful to reflect on the values of contemporary society and the audience you're ultimately trying to reach through that professional. How can you adapt those values to your character in a stand-out way?
6. The character is vivid in the author's mind, but the portrayal hasn't made it onto the page
You just know your character so well—and it feels like everyone else does, too. But some traits or growth points can fail to make it onto the page due to an author's blind spots. This is something all authors do at some point, and it's a main reason beta readers and editors exist.
Exercise: Ask your beta readers to describe the character's core traits and arc of development back to you. Don't prompt them towards any one response. Are you surprised by anything they say? When they've finished, ask them if anything about the character made them reflect on an aspect of their own inner contradictions, and if so, what.
If the answer to either of these questions is no, or you are surprised by any of the answers, you may still have more work to do in putting the fullness of the character down on paper.
7. Change feels bad
In real life, the goal for most of us is often simply to get through challenges without changing. When something bad happens, we just want things to go back to normal! In most books, though, maintaining a character's initial status from cover to cover takes away from narrative tension. The challenges of the plot are simply a storm for the character to weather, and a happy ending is one in which the character hasn't changed. Desirable for real life? Certainly. But in a novel, it can make everything feel slack.
In the 2022 North Street First Prize Literary Fiction winner, the heroine of Wendy Sibbison's Helen in Trouble is a privileged, white sixteen-year-old from an Episcopalian family in the DC suburbs in 1963. When her first relationship leads to an accidental pregnancy, her decision to get an abortion—a plot device that could have been used to symbolize the desire to "get back to normal"—instead launches a sequence of new experiences that change her assumptions on race, class, and her relationship with her own mother.
Exercise: Make an outline of your current plot points. Then "show" it to your character as they exist in your exposition, before the inciting incident. Ask them: if you were faced with this sequence of events, how would you want to grow during the course of it? How would you not want to grow? Who would you want to be on the other side? Who would you not want to be? What would you be willing to sacrifice to become that? What wouldn't you give up at any price?
Then in your next draft, make the narrative do something different to the character than what they told you, and have them react to their arc from the perspectives of the wants and fears they described to you.
8. Sequels are planned, and the author doesn't want to box themselves in
Authors can fall into the trap of thinking that their protagonist needs to stay exactly the same throughout a series. After all, that's what happens in sitcoms, isn't it? Any changes a character might have undergone during the show are cancelled out at the end so we can start fresh next time. But in the best book series, characters do grow and change. Even in genre fiction.
Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne crime series is a good example. In every book, Thorne, a moody Detective Inspector in modern London, learns a little bit more about relationships and grows as a person. Then his new knowledge is challenged in the next book, making him learn and grow even more. This makes Thorne dynamic, and meanwhile, there's still continuity in the series because of Thorne's core traits, the focus on London, and Billingham's other plot, theme, and aesthetic decisions.
One straightforward argument for character growth in every book of a series is that readers first come in contact with the series just through a single book. It's best to make every book as attention-getting as possible, and that means having the main character change by the end. Readers might turn away from the series if the protagonist doesn't pop. That goes double for agents, editors, publishers, and contest judges, who have likely seen many characters similar to yours.
Exercise: Consider your main character. List ten things that would be good for them to know or be able to do, but would be exceptionally hard for them to learn. These things could be information, viewpoints, behavioral styles, beliefs or something else.
When you have your list, compare it to the most important themes of your planned series. Are there any intersections between the hard lessons and your books' themes? Would it be possible to implement incremental growth for your character over the course of the series, in the areas where the intersections occur?
9. This is not the right character for the plot
Sometimes, the author has not asked themselves whether the character they've chosen will create opportunities for exploring the plot from a unique angle. Likewise, maybe they haven't considered whether the premise and plot they've chosen will allow them to explore the main character to their full potential. In this situation, the mismatch between the protagonist and other elements of the story mean that neither can be shown off to their best advantage.
For example, in detective novels, it's important that the detective be given a crime that only they can solve. Sherlock Holmes's power is logical reasoning based on minute pieces of evidence, and Arthur Conan Doyle only gave him crimes that could be solved with that ability. Miss Marple's talent is using social gossip to solve crimes, and Agatha Christie made sure to give her crimes that could be solved through conversations with other characters that felt social, but had an undercurrent only Marple could appreciate.
Imagine if Sherlock Holmes had been given a crime that depended on social nuance, the way Marple's do! That crime might never have been solved, and meanwhile, we wouldn't get to see Holmes's amazing powers of fact-based reasoning in action. He'd appear dull and flat, and the plot would be boring, too.
Exercise: Think about the features of your main character's premise and plot in comparision to their personality, goals, and past. Is this really the challenge that will get the most out of them? And are they the right character to show off the plot and premise to their full advantage? If not, reworking might be needed for one or both sides.
10. Readers/beta readers already like the character, so no changes needed?
"I've shown my book to readers/beta readers already, and they like the character. Why should I go further?"
This is a response I sometimes get from critique clients when I've questioned the dimensionality of their main character. My reply is usually that if they are seeking to self-publish without the intent to enter book contests, their approach is fine as-is. On the other hand, authors looking to get the attention of agents, editors, publishers, or contest judges might want to remember that literary professionals have read hundreds, if not thousands, of books in that genre. We've already met characters similar to, or the same, as yours, and we're keen to meet someone new.
For example, we received dozens of pandemic novels in the 2022 North Street Book Prize. Most of them were eliminated in the first round because we were tired of reading the same plot points, themes, and characters. But First Prize in Genre Fiction went to Robert Chazz Chute's Endemic that year—a pandemic novel! Why? Because his main character was someone we'd never seen in that kind of situation before: a queer, neurodivergent book editor whose reactions throughout her plot arc were complex and unexpected. That made the whole story pop.
Exercise: Pretend you are a contest judge who's read hundreds of books in your genre, with plot points, settings, themes, and characters exactly like yours. What changes could you make to the main character to make all these elements feel fresh, new, and relevant to today's readers?
Industry Interview: Talking Book Structure with Jendi Reiter, Editor of Winning Writers and Author of Origin Story
In this industry interview, I discuss book structure with Jendi Reiter, editor of Winning Writers, North Street Book Prize judge, and author of Origin Story, a literary novel about a gay man who recovers his traumatic memories by writing a superhero comic book in the 1990s.
I ask Jendi, what makes good book structure? What kinds of book structure do they typically notice in the North Street Book Prize, both effective and not-so-effective? How can self-publishers improve their book covers? How has Jendi's book structure been influenced by their North Street reading, and what words of advice do they have for North Street entrants?
Watch the entire interview on YouTube for all of Jendi's insights. Some highlights include:
Jendi on common difficulties with memoir structure (2:30):
It seems like we get a lot of memoirs that just go straight chronologically. You know, this is my childhood, this is my adulthood. And it takes a lot to make that retain interest… What I really like in a memoir, if it is going to be more straightforward/chronological, is to have a shorter span of time. You might start with a dramatic incident and then lead up to how you got there. Like, "I was at my father's funeral, and I did not expect him to die at forty-two. And I look back at what led to that". Then you go back. So you know what the payoff is going to be and why we are investing in this person's life story.
On poetry collection structure (4:48):
I feel like people don't structure their collections, and they should. I often get a batch of poems from someone, and maybe they're all good, but does one lead to the other? Poetry, I think, has to either have a narrative arc or a thematic weaving of two, or three, four, or five, themes and image sets that you're going to start with and develop. Like a fugue, like a motif that is being developed and recurring, intertwining with other, with other motifs. And to me, that's a collection that's really been thought through.
On art book structure (6:03):
With art books, there can be so many repetitive images, or images that don't seem to be presented in any particular order, and they might be really good images, but it becomes boring to read a whole book of it, where you don't really feel like it's building to anything. There has to be a sense that this is developed, it isn't just a collection.
On children's picture book structure (8:12):
With a picture book, sometimes people just try to put too many twists into a 32-page book, you know, or they make it much longer than a 32-page book, which for a picture book is, you know, a risky choice. So, you know, focus on one issue, one problem that's age appropriate, and then have the narrative resolve that problem.
On fostering a sense of unity in a book's structure (11:33):
[While writing, I've sometimes wondered], does this all make sense? Like, does this all belong in the same book, just because it belongs in my head? I think after a while, with a lot of practice, one can really lean into one's particular grab bag of weirdnesses and realize that you're the unifying factor. And if you're obsessed with certain things, somehow there's something they have in common, but you still have to find a way to sell that to the reader. And a lot of that has to do with just not lingering too long on things that don't serve the main reveal of the plot.
On using multiple genres to portray trauma recovery in Origin Story (26:37):
Trauma recovery is a lifelong process, and it's one that takes different forms the further you go along, but at different levels, hopefully higher levels, the more you go into that basement, and, you know, either slay the monster, or at least get rid of the monster, or make peace with the monster… Writing this book, and writing Peter's comic book scripts, where this character of the Poison Cure is either killing or curing people through his sexual contact, Peter's expressing the contamination that one feels as a sexual abuse survivor without knowing why. So his metaphors are telling him the truth before he knows the truth literally, and writing those scenes was so cool, to write a comic book script. I'm now working on a fantasy novel, which is very hard, and I learned a lot from trying out different genres within Origin Story.
On book cover design (34:24):
When I look at the book entries, often a couple of mistakes that people make with cover design is the cover doesn't fit the mood of the book, the cover is hard to read. I've seen books that had no title or author name anywhere on the book. Don't do that!
Contemporary book covers, unless they're biographies or history books, rarely have actual photos on them anymore. If you're using a stock photo on a book cover, it looks self-published in a way that isn't really to your advantage. A nice matte book cover with a good illustration will usually do you better for a literary book… Some of the memoirs have nice photo covers, but they have a kind of a sepia tone, or they've been manipulated in some way, where they look a little bit more soft focus, or they're inset with some other design elements… Readability is another issue. You want your design elements not to clash with your text elements. Both of those should be easy to read.
(For more insights about book cover design, see my conversation with our North Street co-sponsor and book design expert, Laura Duffy.)
On the importance of sensitivity readers (48:32):
In the literary world, there's a lot of over-sensitivity and weird, kind of ideological policing and asking for proofs of identity, which I think can be really unhelpful, but I think sensitivity reads as a practice are great. And if you want to call it something else, because sensitivity sounds like a weird word to you, that's fine, but just consider it research… If you were going to write an action movie, you'd research guns and airplanes and history and whatever it is. If you're going to write a medical thriller, you talk to a doctor about whether this is a plausible treatment for this illness, and are these the right symptoms. So if you're going to write about a certain culture or demographic, don't take it personally, as though you have to get permission from a group to write about a certain kind of character. Just think of it as, you want your book to be realistic and believable.
And a message of appreciation for North Street writers and poets (50:09):
Thank you for engaging with Winning Writers. We're really proud of you for having written a book, finished a book, designed a book, published a book, and had the guts to send it in to us! If we don't like it, somebody will. Just love yourself and write your books.
Learn more about our North Street Book Prize here: winningwriters.com/north
People, resources, and North Street winners mentioned in the video:
Ellen LaFleche, co-judge of the North Street Book Prize
Tracy Koretsky, poet and literary critiquer
Denne Michele Norris, writer and editor of Electric Lit
Critique Corner poetry critiques from Jendi Reiter and Tracy Koretsky
The Editors of Color Diversity Databases, for sensitivity reads, developmental editing, and more
Two Natures by Jendi Reiter
An Incomplete List of My Wishes by Jendi Reiter
Her Widow by Joan Alden
The Art of Symeon Shimin by Tonia Shimin
My Pants by Nicole Kohr
The Cricket Cries, the Year Changes by Cynthia Harris-Allen
Waking the Bones by Elizabeth Kirschner
Endemic by Robert Chazz Chute
Industry Interview: Talking Book Cover Design with Laura Duffy of Laura Duffy Design
In this industry interview, I speak with book cover designer, former Random House art director, and North Street Book Prize co-sponsor Laura Duffy about designing covers for indie authors. What can authors expect when working with a book cover designer for the first time? What is some important vocab for indie authors to know when working with their designer? And how can authors navigate the expectations during the design process?
Watch the entire interview for Laura's full insights. Some highlights include:
Laura Duffy on helping the author transition into the self-publishing industry (1:36):
Most of the people who come to me have never published before. So I give them kind of a heads up; okay, so you're going to focus on the cover, and then down the line we're going to be publishing it. So there's the back, and the flaps, and making all these decisions about trim, and formats, and stuff like that… if an author can start thinking about doing those things early on, it's best.
People come away appreciating that I've given them kind of a bird's eye view of what to expect. It's not just focusing on the cover, it's focusing on as much of the publishing process as I can tell them… I've been working with Indie authors for a few years now, and I was starting to hear the needs, the questions, all of the pain points, and I thought, you know what, I'm just going to do a deep dive into this world and really offer what I've learned along the way. And now that's what I do.
On working with an author's existing knowledge of design (6:59):
When we're first talking about the cover, I don't expect the author to really know exactly what they want, and that's where I come in—you know, reading the book and coming up with my own ideas, and then having a conversation… Either I've nailed it the first time and you're happy, which, you know, which does happen, or then we start to say, "Okay is it too dark? Is it the colors? Is it, you know..." then that's where the education starts to take place.
On prioritizing marketing needs as a cover designer (7:43):
I'm not just doing a cover to make somebody happy, I'm putting a cover together that's going to sell, that's going to attract readers. That's the goal.
Is Your First-Person Narrator Hurting Your Story?
Is your first-person narrator hurting your story? Ten traps to watch out for, and resources that can help.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
The author wants the reader to feel close to the story, characters, and narrative voice. They believe that first-person narration will make readers experience the story as they do. Why not? The reader will "see" and "feel" everything in the same order, and in the same detail, as the author does in their head. This approach may seem common-sensical, but reader experience doesn't exactly work that way.
Recreating the environment we see and feel in our heads through a first-person narrator rarely achieves the author's intent. It's not artful enough. Good fiction is successful not because it draws from the "common sense" we know from everyday life, but because its author has become an expert at creating an artificially immersive experience for the reader. That takes a whole different set of rules and tools.
From this point of view, first-person narration is like the "hard mode" of fiction writing due to the temptation of using "common sense". It can lead writers to collapse tension, reduce reader investment, and diminish the authority of the storytelling. Read on to ensure your first-person narrator isn't falling into these ten traps.
The narrator is a glove puppet for the plot
An author has come up with an amazing plot, and they want it to stand out. They leave their first-person narrator undefined, or vaguely defined, to allow the maximum number of readers to project themselves into the narrative.
It might feel logical to help one narrative element stand out by toning down another, but watch out. A disembodied "I" immerses readers less than a narrator who feels specific and concrete. That's because a book feels most like "a real book" when all of the ingredients are used in the right balance: Plot, character, setting, theme, mood, tone, atmosphere, motif, and more. Dial any of these down too much, and readers instinctively lose investment.
For more information on what makes a strong first-person narrator, check out these articles from Now Novel and Writing Mastery. The exercises on my blog post about one-dimensional protagonists might also help.
The narrator is all interiority and no material context
You're reading a book with a first-person narrator. After five pages, you realize you still don't know the setting, the time period, the genre, who the narrator is, who the other characters are, what their relationship is, or what kind of plot you can look forward to. The narrative is so far inside the first-person narrator's head that there's little concrete information for the reader to hold on to.
Winning Writers editor and North Street Book Prize judge Jendi Reiter describes the problem this way: "[Some] authors start too soon within the subjective experience, and don't bother with the setting or the material details of who this person is."
While it might seem like good sense to create a feeling of mystery by withholding information from the reader, it can backfire, especially when writing in first person. Readers need a certain amount of information to feel interested. The time for perspective shifts, plot twists, and withholding information is in the rising action, when the reader has already become oriented in the narrative.
Exercise: Read these articles from Writers Helping Readers, Georgina Green, and Reedsy, then look at your exposition. Does it contain answers to the following questions: What, when, where, why, who, how? Is your exposition setting up reader expectations for later? If not, how can your exposition be changed to fulfill those functions while staying immersive?
The narrator is an excuse to "tell" and not "show"
"Writers are at their best not when they tell people what to think, but when they provide a context within which others can think." (from How to Know a Person, by David Brooks)
Writing in first person is like the hard mode of "showing, not telling" due to the dominance of the character's point of view. Yes, it is the privilege of the first-person perspective that more telling feels okay compared to third person, but sometimes authors can take it too far. With unlimited access to the character's thoughts, authors are sometimes tempted to really make sure readers understand what's going on.
This can lead to a flattening of the narrative through redundancy or just plain over-simplicity. Here's an example: ("telling" parts in bold):
I sat miserably in my chair, biting my fingernails. I felt so upset. Rachel had tripped me on my way into the classroom that morning, and her friends had laughed. They were bullying me. I raised my hand in order to get the teacher's attention. The teacher noticed, but didn't call on me. She was ignoring me!
Here, the bolded sentences prioritize plain information over providing an immersive experience. They unnecessarily repeat what the un-bolded sentences have already demonstrated. The paragraph gets stronger when the "telling" language is removed:
I sat miserably in my chair, biting my fingernails. Rachel had tripped me on my way into the classroom that morning, and her friends had laughed. I raised my hand. The teacher noticed, but didn't call on me.
If you'd like to learn more about showing and telling in the first person, these articles from The Habit and Inkthinker can provide some good context.
The narrator is overly observant
Have you ever met someone who had to comment on everything they saw? While this can make a person fun to talk to in real life, it can also make it hard to have a straightforward conversation. And when it's a first-person narrator who's over-commenting, the excess detail can obscure the main plotline.
I mainly find the overly observant narrator in novels with worldbuilding: sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction. The author wants to make sure the reader is "seeing" every interesting aspect of the built world. When those details aren't supporting the plot, though, it can lag the pace and make the reader feel less invested.
Exercise: Read this novel excerpt from Roz Morris, then do a line edit for excess detail. For everything the narrator "sees", ask: Does this support the main plot or themes? Does it foreshadow? Is essential characterization provided by the way the narrator thinks about it? Is it contributing to atmosphere or tone? Does it feature in the story later? If the answer is no, that detail might be better left out, or replaced with one that supports other elements in the story.
The narrator is static
Even when the first-person narrator has an interesting character profile, the narrative will likely feel flattened if there's no character growth. "But my book is plot-driven, not character-driven," some authors respond. Fair enough. But even plot-driven novels have character growth—especially high-interiority books, like those with first-person narrators.
The difference between plot-driven and character-driven books comes down to emphasis. In a character-driven book, each plot point supports the character's inner journey of change. In a plot-driven book, the main character still grows, but each stage of character growth supports the forward movement of the plot. Both types of books have plot development and character development—they just perform different functions.
Exercise: Read this article about balancing plot and character development by Jami Gold, then journal on your first-person narrator's growth arc. What about your narrator is different in the falling action than it was in the exposition? When the climax happens, what change in the narrator is it catalyzing? What in the rising action is foreshadowing this change? How is the change reflected in the narrator's attitudes, speech, and behavior toward other characters?
The narrator sounds too old or too young
It's important to get the "age" of a first-person voice right, or risk losing believability. Jendi observes that we often receive books with young narrators whose "observations, references, or syntax sound too adult," as well as teen or new adult narrators who sound "developmentally younger (simplistic reactions, no awareness of issues outside their immediate personal life, immature dependence on peers' opinions)." Narrators with the wrong-aged voice can jolt a reader out of the story.
Fortunately, there are resources to help authors achieve a believable voice for their character's age: here's Writers and Artists on writing like a child, DIY MFA on middle-grade narrators, and Sophia Whittemore on first-person teenagers. Lit Hub has a thought-provoking article on how fiction treats the elderly, and this forum discussion on writing older characters is full of good insights.
If your first-person narrator is a different age from you—or even if they're the same age—it might be worthwhile to spend a week or two developing their voice to make it sound realistic to readers. Harking back to the "glove-puppet narrator", above, it's not safe to assume that the common-sense knowledge about age you have from real life will translate into a realistic voice on the page.
The narrator's views become the book's views
One of the most distressing experiences for me as a contest judge and book critiquer is when a first-person narrator has prejudiced views, and it's impossible to figure out if it's just that character who is flawed, or if the book/author endorses those views. Nine times out of ten, this problem arises from a problem of tone: the distance between the narratorial voice and the authorial voice has collapsed.
Jendi describes the problem this way: "The first-person narrator has prejudices or uses problematic language, and because we're limited to their point of view, it is not clear whether the book endorses those attitudes. Too many authors think that a first-person character voice automatically creates critical distance, but no. The story still has to show some pushback, either from other characters, from the point-of-view character changing, or from the facts around them."
The authors I talk to about this rarely intended to have the entire book come across as prejudiced. But while they as authors knew how they stood on the issues, those perspectives never made it to the page.
How can an author create space for contrasting and contextualizing information in a first-person story? There are multiple ways. Making choices in the wider narrative that disprove the narrator's opinions can help, as Mythcreants points out. This article from Gotham Writers shows how to incorporate other characters' thoughts into first-person narration. Electric Lit demonstrates how making a narrator obviously unreliable can challenge their prejudices, and also gives good examples of when it didn't work so well.
If your book takes on prejudices, it might be worthwhile to reconsider whether first-person narration is the best choice for what you want to communicate. Researching the basic functions of first-, second-, and third-person and experimenting with alternate POVs in your manuscript could boost your book's credibility and effectiveness in the long run. Jericho Writers and The Novelry both have straightforward and comprehensive overviews of the POVs and where they work best.
The narrator takes over the book
The author has a character in mind and wants the reader to experience that person the same way they do. They choose a first-person narrator to make the reader really close to that character. Anything else that happens in the book—plot, other characters, setting, theme—comes a distant second to the narrator, their thoughts, and their reactions to things.
The takeover narrator often appears when the first-person figure is a proxy for the author. I see it often in memoirs and fictionalized memoirs, and also in genre fiction, literary fiction, and poetry. My interest plummets if I notice that the first-person narrator has taken over. To me, it's a sign that the author is writing the book as a personal processing tool rather than as an immersive experience for readers.
The first-person narrator who takes over also often has other problems, like being too self-congratulatory, too often correct, remaining static, and solving every problem too quickly. Believability suffers in these cases. Most good fiction leaves room for ambivalence—contrasting emotions and attitudes that exist at the same moment. Too much certainty, success, and correctness in the narrator can lead readers to suspect that parts of the narrative are being left out, parts that would have shown its events (and the narrator's part in them) in a fuller light.
If your project is in first person and you haven't yet considered whether the narrative voice is balanced with the plot, it could be a good idea to look into it. Ideas on how can be found in these articles from ThoughtCo (the section entitled "The Demands of the First-Person Singular") and Alyssa Matesic (item #3, "Alienating Readers").
Reading up on how first person is used in memoirs can help, with many of the same insights applying to fiction. Brooke Warner's article on self-referentiality and Jane Friedman's observations on POV in memoir are great resources.
The narrator's first-person combines with present tense to flatten the narrative
An author wants readers to feel the immediacy of a character's experience, so they couple the use of first-person narration with the present tense (example: "I walk to campus with Julie. We're talking about John when I see him crossing over the green towards us.") Again, though, this common-sensical approach can backfire if used without careful consideration.
Jendi describes the problem: "In general, I read too many books nowadays with first-person, present-tense narration (traditionally published, as well as in the North Street competition). The present tense deprives the POV character of the temporal complexity that a novel, as opposed to a movie, can provide—the ability to look backward, forward, introspect, and go beyond blow-by-blow external action."
If you find your first-person present narrative feels flat, it might be time to think about moving to past tense and/or third-person to open up the range of literary tools at your disposal. The articles mentioned above by Jericho Writers and The Novelry could be helpful for analyzing POV choices, and Writer's Digest has an excellent write-up about choosing tense and POV together.
The narrator starts too many sentences with "I"
The last trap first-person narration can lay is stylistic: it tempts authors to start sentences with "I". It's not a sin to start sentences with "I", but it can be a flow-killer beyond a certain point. Take, for example, this paragraph:
I sat upright in bed. Where was that noise coming from? I fumbled to turn on the light, and at the same time I used my feet to search the floor for slippers. I could hear a scratching under the floorboards. I almost didn't get out of bed, I was so scared.
When there's this much repetition in sentence structure, the writing can look inorganic on the page and cause the reader to lose immersivity. Rewriting to remove the majority of "I"s helps pacing and focus:
I sat upright in bed. Where was that noise coming from? My fingers fumbled for the light switch while my feet searched the floor for my slippers. That scratching—it couldn't be from under the floorboards? My feet shrank back up to the mattress.
Having to leave the "I"s behind didn't just reduce repetition, it gave me the opportunity to introduce new literary devices that added interest: personification ("my fingers fumbled", "my feet searched", "my feet shrank") and free internal discourse ("That scratching—it couldn't be from under the floorboards?")
Line editing for "I" sentences is usually a good idea when writing in first-person. These articles from Writing Classes, Louise Harnby, and Liminal Pages discuss the problem and suggest different sentence openers.
Choosing the right point of view for your narrative, be it first-, second-, or third-person, is only one part of what makes writing a novel different from everyday communication. A great novelist can tap a wide range of literary skills. For a detailed description of the key differences between writing "a real book" and simply "telling a story", see this article from The Editor's Blog. Or, for a more personal analysis of your work-in-progress (novel or memoir), submit it to our Critique Service.
Older Writers and Finding Success
What to say when older writers ask me, "Am I wasting my time?"
—Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
Despair is a common theme in many writers’ lives, but that despair is usually linked to fears of growing older and losing one’s mojo, or losing the interest of agents and publishers, or the ability to generate a living from writing.
- Writing Into Your Seventies and Beyond, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett for Gotham Writers
Earlier in the year, I completed a critique for a well-written memoir by a writer in his mid-sixties. After reading my comments, which were largely positive, the author wrote back that the critique was too generous. He told me that I had failed to answer his only question: "Am I wasting my time?"
While this is a question that nearly all writers face, it can carry a special urgency for writers over retirement age. There's often a sense that time might be running out for the hit, the blockbuster, the artistic and social triumph that will justify years of hard experience. There's a lot riding on the manuscript. It can mean more than just itself.
Maybe that's why some of the most dissatisfied critique feedback I've gotten has been from older writers who seem disappointed that I didn't tell them to put down the pen. Is it their fate to slog on alone, racking up pages that no one will read? Maybe a scathing critique would provide some kind of release.
Doling out scathing critiques is not the role of a developmental critiquer, though. My job is to read a manuscript and tell the author the strengths and growth points. Often, this includes expressing genuine admiration for what the writer has accomplished.
When a positive critique receives the follow-up question, "Am I wasting my time?" my response is most often, "Of course not!" But I have the uncomfortable awareness that to the author asking the question, my response might be inadequate.
"Am I wasting my time?" I wonder if there are other questions hidden underneath it: "Does anyone care about my writing?" "Will I find commercial success?" "Does anyone care about me?" "Am I worthwhile?" "Do my thoughts matter?" "Am I creative, or just a fake?" "Have I accomplished anything in life?"
If I read your manuscript and thought it was good, then my critique will make that clear. And yet—something about these situations makes me feel like to the writer, I'm a surrogate for the wider world. It's as though my affirmation as a single reader and critiquer can't replace what the writer feels like they need, but can't get, from the reading public.
I think a lot about the experience of the older writers among us. And, fortunately, other people do, too. I recently had the pleasure of reading an article by Denise Beck-Clark, The Elderly Unsuccessful Creative: On My Deathbed, I Will Still Want to Write. In the article, Beck-Clark writes,
Ultimately, there's the question, "Have I lived a meaningful life?" Or, given all the time I spent writing, not to mention learning, thinking, and talking about writing—identifying as a writer—has it all been one big, sad waste of time and effort?
For me, the pain of this question is its underlying contradiction of the personal versus the interpersonal. On one hand, it's a question that virtually every writer will ask. On the other, it's a question that virtually no one else can answer. I would venture to say that no mere reader, critiquer, agent, publisher, or horde of fans would be able to respond to any writer's satisfaction. Some of the most successful writers have also been the most unhappy. The problem of self-worth, self-expression, and public recognition remains incredibly thorny.
But that's no reason for a writer to give up—let alone ask someone else to tell them to give up.
Finding Success Outside the Manuscript
One thing I have noticed as a critiquer is that many older authors who ask, "Am I wasting my time?" do so in the context of their first or second manuscript. At that stage of the career, a manuscript can feel monumental, a milestone, a monolith. So much has gone into creating it—a lifetime of emotional processing, for starters. Traditional publishing might seem like the only way to do this monolith justice.
Moreover, the writer may have been told their entire life, "You know, you could write a book!" Completing the manuscript and getting it traditionally published could seem like the fulfillment of a social vote of confidence. If the writer doesn't get the book traditionally published, it might feel like failing the people who believed in them.
In the context of modern publishing, though, this "all or nothing" attitude might be putting more pressure on the older writer to succeed with the book manuscript, and nothing but the book manuscript. That's a tough bind to be in. Selling an agent or publisher on an entire manuscript is inherently difficult, because it's such a big investment for everyone involved.
Meanwhile, there are so many smaller, less-investment-heavy, and just-as-professional publishing opportunities besides full-length book publication. If you are an older writer looking for ways to get your work in front of readers, take a look at the four methods below.
1. Try flash nonfiction
Have you been wrestling with a book-length memoir manuscript? Chances are, your document contains an abundance of passages that could stand alone as flash nonfiction (creative nonfiction, memoir, fictionalized memoir). These very short stand-alone pieces range from 100-1,000 words. With just a few strokes of a mouse, you could paste likely-looking passages into a new document, tie off the beginnings and endings, and send them to journals.
It might be worthwhile doing some research on flash nonfiction to get a feel for the genre. The publishing cycle is more rapid than with full-length books, so there are more opportunities, and feedback typically comes more quickly. Some places to start with your research might be:
Writers on the Move: What is Flash Memoir?
Writing Women's Lives Academy: The Benefits of Writing Flash Memoir
If you read about flash memoir and like what you learn, you might want to experiment with submitting excerpts from your existing work to flash nonfiction journals such as the ones listed on these sites:
Erika Dreyfus: Where to Publish Flash Nonfiction & Micro-Essays
Submittable Discover: Flash Nonfiction Markets
Writer's Digest: 5 Flash Fiction and Nonfiction Markets
Brevity: Flash Creative Nonfiction Markets (link opens a PDF)
Flash memoir thrives on momentary impressions without larger context, so it's likely that little, if any, additional editing would be needed before submitting each excerpt to a journal. I'd encourage you to send each of the excerpts you select to at least ten journals and see what happens. You might get a better result than you expect.
2. Seek out publications that are looking for older writers
"Writers 40+" is a thriving market all its own, with many publishers and a solid reader base to keep it lively. Agents, publishers, and journals are actively looking for writers in middle age and beyond.
Opportunities for all genders:
Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magaine
The Speculative Literature Foundation's Older Writers Grant
Lambda Literary's J. Michael Samuel Prize for Emerging Writers Over 50
McKitterick Prize: For a first novel by an author over 40
The Next Chapter Award for emerging writers over 40
Opportunities for women:
Shirley Holden Helberg Grants for Mature Women
Hosking Houses Trust writers' residencies
Two Sylvias Press Wilder Series Poetry Book Prize for women over 50
3. Make writing social
Face-to-face interactions allow writers to cut through the abstractions of "finding their audience" and witness their work's impact directly on readers and listeners.
Joining a writers' group or class locally or online is a great way to get work in front of others. Older writers are welcome to participate in groups for writers of all ages. This article from Artful Editor has great ideas on making writing social: How to Connect with Other Writers.
There are also groups specifically for older writers to meet and enjoy each others' company and experience. Both local, in-person groups like SWit'CH, and online venues, like the Senior Planet Writers' Studio, are great ways to connect one-on-one about writing.
Going to author talks and readings, open mics, book clubs, and writers' conferences can also be a great way to meet and network with other writers.
If you're looking for ways to get involved with other writers face-to-face, it might be a good idea to get into the habit of checking local listings on a regular basis. Lists of upcoming writing gatherings and workshops (both for all-ages and for older writers specifically) are often available at libraries, community and senior centers, and meetup.com.
4. Get involved with anti-ageist activism in the arts
When I asked our head editor, Jendi Reiter, what they thought about the topic of older writers and success, they immediately wrote back:
My first thought is that you should check out the Twitter account @noentry_arts which highlights unnecessary age restrictions in literary and arts applications. They've been successful at pressuring some sponsors to be more inclusive of older writers, amplifying opportunities for older writers, and spreading the word about articles and opinion pieces touching issues of ageism in writing and the arts.
It can be wonderfully heartening to see how we can fight back against artificial limitations against older writers. Getting involved with anti-ageist activism can be an affirming way to assert one's own right to creativity, as well as to meet and support fellow creatives. Read @noentry_arts's posts here: https://twitter.com/noentry_arts
Have any thoughts on finding, or not finding, success and satisfaction as an older writer? Write to Annie at annie@winningwriters.com to share your thoughts.
The Autism Parent Memoir I’d Love to Read
Are you writing a memoir about raising a child with autism? Consider autistic readers' perspectives to avoid stereotypes. Be curious about other ways of processing information, and strengthen your literary craft with introspection about how your own mind works.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
Note: In this article, I mention things that "autistic people do" and experience. This can only ever be a figure of speech, because autistic people are so different from each other. As the saying goes, "If you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person."
As an early-round judge in the North Street Book Prize, I see several parent memoirs (or APMs) per year by non-autistic parents raising an autistic child or children, often with common comorbidities like learning disabilities. My autistic profile outwardly differs from the children these memoirs tend to be about—I'm hyperverbal and lack a learning disability. But we share a lot of underlying difficulties in common:
Sensory processing issues
Interoception, receiving and interpreting physical cues from inside the body. The problem can be receiving too much or too little. I receive too much.
Proprioception, the sense of where the body is in space. I receive too much information.
Difficulty interpreting and acting on social cues in real time
A bottom-up processing style
Intense interests in some areas and none at all in many common ones
Monotropism, the tendency to deeply engage with only one thing at a time, leading to challenges with switching tasks and tasks with multiple steps.
Holotropism, having "wide open sensory gates". Body, mind, surroundings, and other people seem more like one thing than separate things.
I tend to identify with these kids a lot.
For this reason, I read autism stories very, very carefully. I'm looking for The One. The APM that inspires me and makes me happy. And you know what? I've been looking for a while.
Maybe if I write a blog post about it, my dream APM will come to me. So here's a list of the top 7 things I'd like to see in an Autism Parent Memoir.
1. The memoirist knows what they don't know
A big dream of mine is to read an APM where the non-autistic narrator fully recognizes they have no idea what it's like to be autistic. Such an APM could start with a look at the double empathy problem and how it works in the life of a non-autistic parent of an autistic child.
Often, autistic people are described as "not having empathy". But the double empathy problem posits that while autistic people do not always automatically understand where non-autistic people are coming from, the problem is just as great with the non-autistic in not automatically understanding where we are coming from.
Here's a practical demonstration of how the double empathy problem can come into play in an APM. I encountered a memoir in which a mom was frustrated that her child "continued to test his boundaries" by going on "unsanctioned explorations" into other rooms, the yard, or any other place his parents didn't wish him to be at the moment. The parents were continually creating barriers with furniture, brooms, and other household objects, which the child would dismantle before leaving the room. This happened frequently despite all the times the parents explained the rules and punished him for breaking them.
To the narrator, the child was obviously "testing his boundaries". There were no other interpretations offered. But the phrase "testing boundaries" shows assumptions. It implies that a) the child is intentionally breaking the boundaries the parent has set up and b) the child knows he is disobeying the parents.
But is "intentional disobedience" the only interpretation? I don't think so. An autistic reader could think of a number of autism-related motivations for the child's behavior. He might be...
Seeking to escape overstimulation in the household or environment
Seeking solitude (often comfortable for autistic people, to varying degrees depending on the person)
Honoring internal demand avoidance. This is different from disobedience because it is not based on the child's desire to thwart the parent's authority. Demand avoidance is an internal need that occurs with no regard to the nature of the demand itself or who/what is making it.
Another possibility is what I think of as "circuit joy". Some autistic children and adults take pleasure in loops and circuits. Given the fact that the parents keep creating barriers out of household items, the child's behavior could be interpreted as showing evidence of pursuing a complete circuit. The parents create a puzzle with their interesting barrier, the child solves the puzzle, and then the parents have their familiar reaction (in this case yelling, scolding, begging, punishing). For an autistic child enjoying the circuit, the reaction of the parents is part of the reward of completion, even when the parents think that their reaction ought to be interpreted by the child as a deterrent.
Am I insisting that any of these motivations were the actual cause of the child's behavior in that memoir? No. And am I saying that as an autistic person, I would know the child better than his parents do? Again, no. But the fact is that there are many motivations which to an autistic person may be very pressing and/or rewarding, but of which a non-autistic parent might be unaware. It would be wonderful to read an APM that resists projecting assumptions on autistic children's behavior in situations where there are other possibilities.
2. The memoirist relates their understanding of their child's inner experience to their own lives
Something I have never seen in an APM, but would seriously love to, is a plotline in which the parent strives to relate to the child on their own terms. Eventually, the parent becomes able to see their own self-identified non-autistic lives through autistic lenses. This happens quite a bit in real life, sometimes to the point where a parent seeks autism screening for themselves. But I've yet to encounter it in an APM.
In that ideal memoir, we might see the parent asking themselves questions like:
My autistic child has sensory needs. But what are my sensory needs as an adult, self-identified non-autistic person? How do light, sound, movement, texture, temperature, and more impact my mood? My ability to focus, switch tasks, complete steps?
Answering questions like this, the parent may realize that they can't stand the breeze generated by their ceiling fan, they dislike working in their office while the neighbor is mowing the lawn, or they become unduly irritated when other drivers leave their high beams on at night. I could imagine an APM in which the parent avoids these sources of aggravation or changes their reaction to them, in the meantime learning how to help their autistic child to avoid their own sensory stressors. It also becomes easier for the parent to write their memoir due to the lack of sensory irritation—and to weave tension and relief through their narrative by using sensory triggers in some scenes.
How are my interoception and proprioception? How do they impact my experience of the world and of myself? Are they making my experience different from other people's, or different than what I'd have liked?
Perhaps the narrator thinks back to gym class in middle school and how they were embarrassed by never being able to catch the ball, or how they still sometimes put both feet into one pant leg even when they are paying attention (proprioceptive issues). Or if they get sick, they can't tell right away, so they always end up leaving work in the middle of the day rather than staying home to begin with (an interoceptive issue). These realizations help them empathize with some of the things their own child has trouble with and also leads them to forgive themselves for their "non-optimal" behavior. The end-of-day headache they've been attributing to working too much on their memoir, they now realize, is actually due to hunger. Their hypo-ability in that interoceptive arena makes them forget to eat. They start using a snack timer while writing and end the day in a much better mood.
What is my level of verbal processing and production on any given day? When I am tired, stressed, or overwhelmed, versus when I am relaxed?
I picture an arc in which the parent often yells at their children in the mornings before school. However, due to learning more about autism, they realize that their own verbal processing needs extra time to "wake up" in the morning. The parent then realizes that they were becoming upset by the noise and demand to respond in the morning—and that starting to yell at everyone was making it worse. Steps could be taken to make the morning routine calmer and quieter for everyone's benefit—especially the autistic child, who also needs a verbal warmup time each day. Later, the parent found that the quiet time in the morning made it easier to transition into whatever they were doing next, like doing their job or working on their memoir.
Do I have a bottom-up processing style, where I see details first and then the big picture, or a top-down processing style, where I see the big picture first and then zoom in on details?
Maybe the parent has always had clashes with their parents, teachers, co-workers, and bosses due to asking too many "nit-picky" questions. The parent learns that they have a bottom-up processing style thanks to researching their child's autism and is more aware of why they need so much information before starting a project. They become more strategic in how they ask questions and also use a broader range of resources to get the answers they need. This experience helps them to replace irritation at their child's probing questions with a sense of the child's desire to please them by really getting things right. The parent also identifies that their detail-loving disposition has been slowing down their memoir-writing process, though it has been a significant strength in writing immersive scenes.
What is my executive functioning like day to day? Do I ever have trouble making or keeping plans, focusing on a single task, or completing tasks? Do I procrastinate (either naturally or to avoid coming up against other executive functioning problems)?
A parent who has always deplored their own inability to concentrate learns about monotropism, and through that, polytropism—the need for a wider variety of topics and tasks in order to maintain their mood and productivity. The parent can then forgive themselves and focus on arranging their lifestyle to fit their needs. It also strengthens a sense of solidarity with their child. They both struggle with executive functioning—just from different ends. And now the parent can reconsider whether they really need to be so down on themselves for having a stop-and-start pattern in writing their memoir.
Do I ever experience black-and-white thinking, difficulties putting information and priorities into a hierarchy, or demand avoidance?
Autism parents often have to deal with stigma and ignorance in other people's reactions to autism. The parent in question has had some negative interactions with fellow parents, leading them to reject the social scene in their neighborhood. But now the parent has learned about black-and-white thinking—the knee-jerk reaction that something is all one way or all another. That leads them to reflect that the neighborhood parents have had a range of reactions, not all of them bad. The parent is now more equipped to interact with the neighbors on a case-by-case basis and be more aware of black-and-white thinking traps in the future, including with their own child and in the process of writing their memoir.
Is changing plans uncomfortable for me? Do I need a certain amount of time to process plan changes? Is my experience different depending on whether it is me changing the plan, or I am subjected to someone else's change of plan?
Let's say the author's family moved to a new house six months ago. The parent hasn't worked on the memoir a single time since, even though everything has been unpacked for at least three months. In the past the parent would have scolded themselves for being lazy. But learning more about the child's autism has given them the awareness that their own brains can take time and bandwidth to process change. A month or so later, they've processed the change and are working on their memoir again.
The questions above, and many others related to autism, affect every human to various degrees. But for autistic people, they and others define our lives, shape our experiences, and inform our priorities, personalities and actions. I'd love to read an APM that has the protagonist transforming their own vision of how their brain works based on what they learn about autistic people's inner experiences.
3. The narrator takes responsibility for the situations they put their child into and what happens next
Memoirs need empathy for their subjects. They need to show curiosity. A memoir is not just a record—it is an exploration. The memoirist takes responsibility for their own point of view and questions it, looking at it from a variety of angles. If the parent-memoirist isn't doing that, then the APM is not a memoir. It is an exercise in venting, self-justification, and editorializing. And no memoir is going to win the North Street Book Prize like that, autism or no autism!
The APMs we receive could do more to zero in on that explorative element, deeply reflecting on what happened and the author's part in it.
For example, I read an APM once in which the parent takes their child to the zoo. Soon, the child begins to chew on their fingers and refuses to budge from the middle of a crowded walkway. The parent tries to get them to stop chewing on their fingers and move along. The child is unwilling and starts to cry. The parent insists, lowers the child's hand away from their mouth, and tries to gently lead them off the path. The child breaks down. People stare and the parent feels judged. The narrator's conclusion to the episode expressed that: My child is such a riddle. Autism makes them act erratically. Fortunately, I'm a patient and caring person.
They may well be a patient and caring person in general. But that doesn't change the fact that they've brought their child to a loud, bright, movement-filled place without any form of protection (ear protection, sunglasses). The environment may be new for the child, which is another hardship for those of us with difficulties with change and hyperawareness of spatiality. These factors inevitably lead to the agony of overwhelm, which we observe in how the child reacts.
I see scenes like this in APMs all the time and always have trouble accepting how the narrator makes the child responsible for what happened, rather than rethinking their own actions: bringing the child to an overwhelming spot without giving them sensory protection or other accommodations. The child has been set up not just for failure, but for physical and mental pain and humiliation. Ultimately, such episodes are stories of a power struggle between the parent and the child, in which the child always loses.
It would be wonderful to see an APM from a parent who was fully aware of these dynamics and took personal responsibility for the situations they put their child into, and what happened next—treating the memoir as an opportunity to investigate rather than simply to vent or editorialize.
4. The memoirist acknowledges the parent-child power imbalance and is careful not to abuse it in their book
Speaking of power dynamics, I would treasure the chance to read an APM in which the memoirist shows awareness of the power imbalance in the parent-child relationship—especially while writing the memoir. As described above, the parent has power over the child's physical experiences. But the parent also has control as a writer, deciding:
How to describe the child inside and out ("Good"? "Bad"? "Sick"? "Inspiring"?)
How to characterize autism (A "battle"? A "superpower"? A lifelong neurobiological condition?)
How to interpret the situations in the book ("My child behaved badly at the zoo" versus "I put my child in a challenging situation, and it was too much")
I'd be so glad to read an APM that examines the author-to-subject power imbalance alongside that of the parent and child.
5. The memoirist demonstrates awareness that actual autistic people might read their book
APMs are often a way for the memoirist to vent and connect with other autism parents. That's wonderful—parents of autistic children need and deserve validation and solidarity.
On the other hand, writing exclusively for other non-autistic parents of autistic children can lead memoirists to write as though no autistic person will ever read their book. As a result of this, the content and language can become exploitative and dehumanizing without the non-autistic writer even realizing what's going on. Autistic readers, though, will pick up on these things immediately.
When I say "exploitative," I mean material that puts the child's most vulnerable moments in the world for all to see. Some exploitative scenes I've read in APMs include depicting the child:
Having a meltdown in a public place
Opening their own diaper and throwing feces around the living room
Fighting (verbally or physically) with teachers, doctors, or other authority figures
Wetting the bed longer into their childhood than their peers
Banging their head on a table or wall
Non-autistic autism parents may relate to these scenes, but is it worth it? The child's privacy has been violated, and any autistic reader who comes across the book will be horrified. Does any child deserve to have these private moments of vulnerability, fear, pain, and overstimulation exposed on Amazon? And what does it say about the parent's feelings about their own child that they would allow that to happen? In contrast, I'd like to read an APM that honor the child's privacy and dignity and shows the parent's solidarity with the child.
APMs that don't anticipate autistic readers can also be prone to using dehumanizing language. For example, I read a book this year where the memoirist called her son a "monster child" and compared him to "the worst situations in life." I respect the author's personal experience of raising their child. Maybe to her, it really did seem like he was a monster. But to go from that internal experience, to publishing a book that characterizes an autistic child as a monster and of autism as a monster inside, is troubling. I could tell that the book was not meant for autistic eyes.
I read too many APMs that characterize autism as something other than a neurobiological condition—for example, "monster". Other phrases put a supernatural spin on autism, calling it a "superpower" or a "curse". A classic is when autism parents are called "warriors" who "fight to rescue" the child (autism is not a war or a case of kidnapping!)
The internal experience of autism is more complex than "fighting" or being a "superhero". Nothing about autism is all one way or all the other, and every autistic person has different struggles and strengths in different parts of life. That's why, when I see this kind of language in a memoir, it's a red flag. I'd love to see an APM that dissects these terms and how they're normally used in memoirs. Meanwhile, there are good resources out there for researching how to use more supportive and understanding language that won't shut out autistic readers:
https://www.amaze.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Talking-about-autism-a-media-resource.pdf
https://www.autism.org.uk/contact-us/media-enquiries/how-to-talk-and-write-about-autism
Any APMs that care to critique, satirize, or subvert these labels are so much more than welcome in my life and on my bookshelf!
6. The book calls out ignorance, unfairness, and bigotry in individuals and society
I haven't given up on APMs. In fact, I've seen some good stuff. One of my favorite things to find in an APM is when the author pushes back against all the ways autistic people are misunderstood, belittled, and othered. For example, I've seen memoirs where:
The parent stands up to a therapist who kept referring to autistic children as burdens.
The narrator, a special education teacher of autistic children, corrects a child's homeroom teacher whose beliefs about autism are outdated and prejudiced.
The father of an autistic child confronts a GP who won't let his child wear light-protective headwear in the examination room.
When these episodes happen in APMs, I want to stand up and cheer. They make me feel that the parent might be on my side if I was in such a situation. Which leads me to...
7. The memoir shows solidarity with autistic people
As I look back at this long list, what it really amounts to is a desire for autism parent memoirs to show solidarity with autistic people. It would be wonderful to see narratives by parents who are going the extra mile to be not only autism parents, but autism allies.
And by autism allies, I don't just mean wearing blue on Autism Awareness Day, or having a puzzle piece pin on your hat. I mean letting autistic ways of life start to inform your way of life. Don't take it for granted that it's your right to lead, explain, define. Go our way for a while, and let it change you—and what you write in your memoir.
One personal anecdote before I close. I have a severe light sensitivity and often have to wear sunglasses inside. I'll never forget the joy I felt when, during a Zoom consultation on a crime novel, the critique client put their own sunglasses on in solidarity. I asked him, what inspired you to do that?
Turns out he was an autism parent.
