What Do Publishers Want?

By Leslie Wells, Patricia Mulcahy, and Judy Sternlight

How do publishers decide what to acquire? With so many books published every year into a crowded marketplace, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this question. But with the help of guest speakers Helene Atwan, Melody Guy, and Anjali Singh, all experienced, savvy publishing professionals, we recently teased out some core principles that apply to a range of acquisitions.

Of course, a book must be excellent to begin with, in order to excite an in-house editor and the whole publishing team. 5E editor Leslie Wells described reading thirty-plus submissions per week when she was at Hyperion, looking for books that were so good, they would keep her up past midnight. “This is what most editors dream about: finding that memoir or novel that is so compelling, you can’t put it down. What we seek is somewhat ineffable; something unique about the writing that makes it stand out. That incomparable essence comes from the author’s experiences and imagination.”

Anjali Singh has been a literary agent for eight years; before that, she was an editor at Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Vintage Books, and Other Press. On the subject of what writers should be aiming for, in order to see their work published, she posed these questions:

“Do you know who you want to be? Are you following writers you admire; writers you would love to have as your peers? Read books you love. Study them and aspire to having your book be on a similarly high level. Be able to say how your book is similar, and yet the ways in which your book is also unique.”

Every publisher starts out by asking, “Does this material have a place in bookstores? If so, do we have a clear idea of how to create a readership for it?”

Helene Atwan, former Director, and current contributing editor of the nonprofit Beacon Press (she also serves on the boards of MIT Press, Johns Hopkins Press, and the Bellevue Literary Review) said that while publishing has changed in recent years, strong writing is still essential, as is the author’s sense of authority, whether in fiction or nonfiction. Readers (and publishers) need to be able to trust that an author will deliver what they’ve promised. The publishing landscape has evolved as our culture has evolved. She defines authority as something connected to experience, education, and roots, and noted the current demand for authentic voices.

Melody Guy, Editorial Director of Hay House, observed that her publisher has a clear vision and mandate with a mind-body focus on wellness, spirituality, growth, and entrepreneurial spirit. In terms of acquisitions, Melody looks for credibility and platform. It’s not enough for a writer to have numerous followers on social media; she cares just as much about their level of engagement with their followers. The content of the proposed book needs to match the interests of the writer’s followers. To keep an eye on current and future trends, Melody follows social media, and notices when certain topics cross her desk in waves, which is a tip-off that a subject is in the zeitgeist.

According to Anjali, before approaching publishing houses, both agents and writers need to establish an identifiable readership for the book. Having a platform is good, but she also considers whether the writer has a true connection to the literary community. Fellow writers and literary organizations can be valuable in providing blurbs and helping to bring attention to a new book.

Anjali explained how comparison titles can help a publisher to envision where on its list a book would belong. She cited Bridgett M. Davis’s The World According to Fannie Davis. Bridgett came up with Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father as a comp, though her memoir about a Detroit childhood with a mother who was a numbers runner was different from a story about growing up with a queer dad. But the structure and approach in both books had something in common: being raised by an unusual parent in an interesting time and place.

Anjali also stressed the need for new perspectives. One of her most successful acquisitions as an editor at Pantheon was the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a young girl’s take on the Iranian Revolution. Anjali believed in the book, but what took it over the top was the publisher’s full support, including the academic marketing department. A publisher’s “buy-in” is crucial to making a book take off. This year is the twentieth anniversary of Persepolis, which has sold three million copies.

Participant and marketing consultant Bridget Marmion added that Persepolis established a new model for memoir in the graphic novel genre. She cited booksellers' success with it in an acquisition meeting where Fun Home by Alison Bechdel was discussed, a title which became another classic in the genre.

In talking about books that exceeded a publisher’s expectations, Helene mentioned White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, which came into Beacon Press without an agent (a rarity: a good-sized publisher that reviews direct submissions). They had modest expectations for this paperback original with an estimated print run of 5,000, but the editor and marketing team worked hard and really sold the book to the Penguin Random House sales team (PRH distributes Beacon). The initial printing jumped to 20,000, and the book went on to sell three million copies. Helene added that success for a book involves timing, culture, and platform. White Fragility stayed on the bestseller list for weeks in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Melody cited Fast Like a Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz as a title with unexpected legs. Hay House initially expected midlist sales, but it took off. Published in December 2022, it benefited from “New Year, New You” marketing attention and strong social media buzz.  

Some writers have studied the marketplace and set out to write “a huge bestseller.” Our 5E colleague Judy Sternlight brought up Caleb Carr, a military historian who surprised his editor Ann Godoff with The Alienist, an excellent historical mystery that did indeed become a big bestseller.  Helene pointed out that it is very hard to strategically “write a bestseller” because so many factors are involved (luck, timing, passion, authenticity).

Participant Michelle Mathai asked whether Substack newsletters are more effective than Instagram, TikTok and other social media in expanding an author’s platform. Helene’s opinion was that Substack takes more effort but can be more effective if a writer is dedicated to it. Some writers thrive on social media with shorter, quicker posts, if they are willing to frequently engage with their followers. She mentioned an example of a poet who had a big following, but not much actual engagement. This echoed a point made earlier by Melody: numbers matter, but real engagement with readers or followers is more important.

A participant asked about self-publishing: Do publishers ever pick up these titles and republish them?

Melody observed that Hay House has taken on some self-published titles, but there are thresholds. If the sales are modest, Hay House probably won’t jump in.  But sales of 15,000 or more might be persuasive, as long as the book and author are a good fit for the publisher’s overall vision. Melody also stressed the difference between printing books and publishing books. The house looks at sales levels and platform; they look at whether the self-published book is backlisting, or only had an initial bump and then went quiet.

5E member Patricia Mulcahy concluded with the observation that author commitment cannot be underestimated. “It is so much work to publish a book: editing, copyediting, proofing, designing a cover, as well as coming up with a sales and marketing strategy. Is the author in it for the long haul? Will he or she write other books? Will they work closely with the publisher?”

As Bridget Marmion noted, "Authors must commit to being a strong partner in their own success."

Book Publicity Demystified

By Jane Rosenman and Judy Sternlight

The work of a writer never stops, even after the manuscript has been sold, revised, and published. Down the road, all writers will face this question: How do you garner the most effective publicity for the book you’ve written?

5E recently hosted an online Office Hours session with legendary literary publicist Kimberly Burns of Broadside PR. Kimberly has worked across the publishing field—running author events at A Clean Well-Lighted Place in San Francisco; serving as an in-house publicist for Alfred A. Knopf, Pantheon Books and Random House; to being part of the team that launched The Penguin Press. After starting her own freelance literary publicity company in 2003, she co-founded Broadside PR in 2015, and now leads media campaigns for publishing houses, literary organizations, and magazines (The New Yorker Festival, Granta, The Moth) as well as promoting individual authors. Salman Rushdie, Angie Kim, Zadie Smith, and Laila Lalami are just a few of the luminaries she has worked with.

Kimberly gave us an honest and entertaining overview of what independent publicists do. She described herself as a guard dog for the writer, and talked about how she augments an author’s in-house publicity team. She noted that in-house publicists are often working on a number of books at the same time, so having a dedicated freelancer can help maximize the possibilities for coverage.

After the session, Marina Budhos, author of YA novels including We Are All We Have (Wendy Lamb Books/Penguin Random House), told us, “There were so many nuggets that were useful, even for seasoned writers: the importance of blurbs, how to talk to one's in-house publicity and marketing team, the importance of creating a media Q&A, and planning a full year in advance.”

Obviously not all the writers at our well-attended session will be hiring additional freelance publicists to work on their books. But writers will find value in the takeaways Kimberly passed along.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

* Develop a short media Q&A. The purpose is to intrigue people (readers/media) to want to know more about your book. In just a few sentences, explain what is most important to you about your work.  What are the questions you want to be asked about it? What are the three most important aspects of your story? If you’re asked, “What inspired you to write this book,” don’t answer with a generalization. Try to be as specific as you can to separate yourself and your book from the rest. Kimberly described getting hooked by an author’s description of how she came to write her novel. The author was captivated by an old photograph of a girl sitting on a brownstone stoop in the 19th century and wanted to know more about who she was. Interviews are edited down by the media, so you want to make sure your essential message remains intact.

* Which writers have inspired you, and which media outlets cover them? What radio shows or podcasts do you listen to? Which critics do you pay attention to, and at which publications? Answering questions like these will help you place yourself on the media map, which will be instructive for your publicist.

* For published writers as well as writers who are not yet under contract, it’s helpful to get your name and writing out there by writing essays, op-eds and reviews that tie into a subject in the news or on a topic you’re passionate about.

* The importance of blurbs/pre-publication quotes. Kimberly said, “People in the industry often say blurbs are not important, but I think they are. When you see which other writers are lending their support for a book, it sends a short-cut message to readers and acts in the same way a comp title does."

* Be what Kimberly calls, “A good literary citizen.” Get to know your local booksellers. Be supportive of other writers and people in the publishing community. Review someone else’s work in which you have no personal investment. Lead with authenticity in your social media, not with the sole purpose of drawing attention to yourself.

* If you want to explore hiring a freelance publicist, one good resource is the annual roundup from Publishing Trends:  https://publishingtrends.com/2023/09/freelance-publicists-contact-sheet-2023/

Fae Myenne Ng, author of the memoir Orphan Bachelors (Grove Press), called the session “a master class” on book publicity. Mamta Chaudhry, author of the novel Haunting Paris (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), agreed, adding, “I wish I had known all this for my last book, but now I’m better prepared for the next one.” Kimberly’s passion for writers and determination to get them traction in a crowded marketplace are a testament to why publicity is the coin of the realm.

The Psychology of Revision

Does the thought of revising your work cause dread in your heart or do you find it energizing? Writers will differ on this, but we can all agree that revision is a crucial part of the writing process. Ideally, each round of editing brings your book to a higher level, making it easier to land an agent and satisfy your editor, your publisher, and your readers. 

In a recent 5E Office Hours session with two excellent novelists, Kerri Maher and Melodie Winawer, we discussed “The Psychology of Revision.”

The Creative Process

Kerri and Melodie both praised Anne Lamott’s description of “the shitty first draft” in Bird by Bird. It’s much easier to shape a story once you’ve got something on the page. “No matter what you add,” said Kerri, “It’s all getting you somewhere.” This is true, even if much of your early work is gradually transformed or removed from the manuscript. 

What do you focus on when you tackle a revision? Melodie described figuring out how to cut what isn’t necessary: turning two characters into one to simplify complex storylines, cutting extraneous scenes or sections that aren't essential to the narrative. She also talked about tapping into the minds of her characters using a form of imaginative empathy she likened to Method Acting. One editor advised her to make sure that each scene served more than one purpose, moving the plot forward while creating stronger connections among elements of the story, and deepening the characters.

Kerri finds it comforting to keep a file of all the material she’s removed from her novel. It’s there if she needs to restore anything. Some writers repurpose extraneous scenes, historical research, or memorable characters by adapting them for future stories, essays, or poems.

What do you do if you’re feeling stuck? Alice LaPlante’s The Making of a Story has a chapter on revision that’s packed with exercises to jump start your process. “Sometimes you have to take a break, even a month away,” says Kerri. You’ll come back with a fresh perspective.

Melodie was inspirational when she described the revision process, telling the group that she did some of her best work while sitting in a New York City subway car during her long commute. Sometimes she got so “in the zone” that she forgot to get off at the right stop. For Kerri, the key is not to feel beholden to writing every day, but rather to establish a steady work schedule.

Feedback

As literary professionals, the 5E editors relish the chance to serve as “ideal readers” when a manuscript is ready for a serious review. But there are additional ways to analyze how far you’ve come. 

Joining a writers’ group and trading feedback can be valuable. And so is finding a couple of well read “beta readers” whose judgement you value. You can also take classes with skilled writing teachers. You may hear conflicting feedback from fellow writers, agents or editors. What’s a writer to do? The key is to listen and, as Kerri suggested, “go with your gut.” After all, it’s your book. 

When you’re confident you’ve taken your story as far as you can, it’s time to test the waters. Go ahead and hire a professional editor or query a few agents or publishers and see if you can get some professional feedback. Don’t be discouraged if you get constructive criticism. It’s actually a gift, helping you to strengthen your work before it’s published. Most writers revise their books numerous times until agents, editors, and publishers are convinced that the book is fully baked.

Recommended books that cover or touch on revision:

• Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody (especially the opening section)

• Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yeats Martin

•  The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante (CH 13)

• Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato

•  20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias

• The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner

Five Takeaways from 5E’s Office Hours Session on Small Press Publishing

With editors Leslie Wells and Patricia Mulcahy, and writers Dawn Raffel, Gwen Florio, and Diane Bergner.

1: Small Presses are not on the sidelines of the book business. As books like Braiding Sweetgrass from Milkweed in Minnesota sit atop bestseller lists, and Seven Stories and Transit Books publish Nobel winners, small presses are increasingly seen as viable alternatives to the corporately owned Big Five.

2: Small Presses, many of which are based across the country, enable authors to get out their books, even if they don’t have an agent or contacts in New York City. They democratize the publishing process. Said Juliana Roth, an Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction re: the 5E Office Hours session:

“I learned so much about the power writers have to get their own books out in the world, and I was inspired to hear of all the avenues to do so.”

Hybrid publishers such as She Writes Press are also an option, for those who have the funds to invest. Many small presses pay royalties only—no advances. 

3: Authors today have to do a great deal of their own marketing and publicity or hire a professional in these fields, no matter where they are published. Some books that are not high-profile at Big Five houses get little attention. Small presses that market well to niche audiences can often sell effectively, but the author will probably still need to be proactive on social media and elsewhere. Dawn Raffel described the experience of her volume of short stories, which was published by a Big Five literary house, being passed over by a major review medium because they didn’t want to devote the whole issue to books from that particular publisher, and she was competing against big-name authors from her own house; instead they wanted to showcase at least one from a small press.

Gwen Florio said, “The relationships I’ve developed over the years with booksellers and librarians are an unexpected benefit of having to do my own publicity. Not only do they stock my books, but often they contact me for readings and events when a new book comes out. Equally important, what began as business relationships have turned into lasting friendships.”  

4: Given the hundreds of small presses now in operation, it is essential to do solid research before deciding which one might be right for your work. Dawn Raffel described going to a small press fair to make connections. She also ordered some twenty small press books to evaluate before finding a publisher for her latest, Boundless as the Sky. Author Diane Bergner was similarly pleased with Meridien Editions, which is based in Westport, CT. For those who are not represented by an agent, Gwen Florio emphasized the need to have a lawyer review any contract with a small press.

5: There is no single publishing solution that works for everyone. The better financed big houses with strong sales forces are powerful merchandizing machines, but may not be best for more niche or literary material in particular. Many fiction writers, memoirists, and essayists—whose work attracts major awards when published by a small press—might continue with that press, or opt to go with more money and clout from one of the Big Five. Success stories abound. 

University presses also publish some excellent fiction, notably the University of Nebraska, Northwestern University, and West Virginia University Press, whose collection of short stories The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw received the PEN/Faulkner Award, and garnered the author a major new deal with a larger publisher.  

Additional resources:

https://blog.reedsy.com/independent-publishers

https://www.pw.org/small_presses

Diane Bergner mentioned an informative article on hybrid publishers by Barbara Linn Probst, from Jane Friedman’s blog:

https://janefriedman.com/everything-youve-always-wanted-to-know-hybrid-publishing/

Announcing Fall 2023 Office Hours with 5E

Fall is finally here, and we’re happy to announce a couple of exciting new entries in our Office Hours series featuring some excellent guest authors to enlarge the conversation.  

On Wednesday, 10/18/2023 at 11:00 a.m., Leslie Wells and Patricia Mulcahy will be joined by Dawn Raffel, Gwen Florio, and Diane Bergner to talk about Small Press Publishing. Are small presses a solid option these days as the Big Five publishers continue to consolidate? Do they pay? And what about reviews? Sign up for what should be a very timely and informative session. 

Jane Rosenman and Judy Sternlight will address The Psychology of Revision on Wednesday 11/15 at 11:00 a.m. This is an issue of perennial concern: When do you stop tinkering? How do you best incorporate thoughtful feedback on your work? Authors Melodie Winawer and Kerri Maher will share their tips and insight into the often-fraught process.

Click HERE  to sign up for these FREE one-hour sessions. Spread the word and Zoom along with us and our featured guests!

Many thanks, 5E  

Growing Your Readership, Part Two: How to Get Your Work Out

Growing Your Readership: How to Get Your Work Out

Patricia Mulcahy and Judy Sternlight

In a recent Office Hours session (5E hosts free monthly sessions on Zoom) we revisited ways for writers to gain exposure by publishing stories, essays, or opinion pieces online or in print. Publishing short pieces is a great way to establish a base of loyal readers, to experiment with new styles and subjects, and to get feedback on your work as it develops in tone, voice, and narrative reach.  

Given the plethora of outlets for short pieces—both fiction and nonfiction—it requires dedicated research to find editors who will respond with real enthusiasm to your submission. In our recent OH session, we brought up the fact that many of today’s best-read and respected magazines, like Granta, Ploughshares, and The Paris Review, are run by millennial staffers, many of whom are drawn to voices from “underserved communities,” however you define them. So where do you fit in?

Where are your people, as it were? It’s critical to read and subscribe to publications that speak to you both as a reader and a writer. Which magazines or sites showcase an editorial vision that may align with yours? Can you envision your story, essay, or op-ed on the site or in the magazine?

Just as you would research an agent’s client list and submission requirements before submitting a query, you should look into how a magazine or website operates, and the type of writing they seem to encourage and appreciate.

In our recent OH session, poet/novelist/nonfiction writer Diane Mehta talked about working for years to craft certain poems and essays and placing them with the right publication at the right time, taking the time to deeply research publications that felt like a good match and establishing relationships with editors whose sensibilities she admires.

Is all this effort worth it? Editors in 5E who built their reputations at major publishing houses have admitted that when pitching possible acquisitions, listing a writer’s credit in The Hudson Review, for instance, was not going to compel our colleagues in the sales department to jump up and down. Still, read on!  

Reason #1 to publish in literary journals: As articulated by Ruth Mukwana, a UN aid worker and fiction writer, publishing an occasional short piece while your main focus is on a longer work can give a writer a terrific emotional boost: “There’s real joy when you see your work out there.” Is there any better reason?

Reason #2: Some agents do look at literary publications in search of talented writers who don't yet have representation. Speaking of agents…

Reason #3: Multiple publishing credits boost your chances when you query agents and editors. It shows that you're serious about your writing, and that other editors have already embraced your work.

Reason #4: You can showcase short excerpts from longer works-in-progress to increase exposure and give yourself a boost. You might even make some money. Fiction writer Zeeva Bukai talked about her success in extracting short excerpts from longer novels-in-progress and shaping them into self-contained short fiction. She sets aside a modest sum, maybe $200, annually to dedicate to entering writing competitions, and consistently has several pieces out on submission while also developing longer works. Zeeva has found good leads in The Masters Review and Erika Dreifus's newsletter.

Marcia Butler, author of two novels and a memoir, pointed out that the gems you remove from your memoir or novel (killing your darlings) can prove useful when you're publishing short pieces around the time that your book comes out. It’s all about showcasing your material at just the right time for maximum exposure.

Let’s get back to that research. The recent shutdown of the respected online magazine Catapult drew attention to the fact that some literary publications are subject to the whims of well-off sponsors. It may be best to focus on those with a longtime, established base, many affiliated with university writing programs: The Sewanee Review from The University of the South; Ploughshares from Emerson College in Boston; The Missouri Review from The University of Missouri at Columbia, MO; The Antioch Review from Antioch College in Ohio, to name just a handful. Be sure to observe the stated requirements for submission: word count/length, timeframe, and format. The platform Submittable is frequently used.

There are myriad ways to narrow down your options; logging onto literary Twitter is one. Despite the controversies afflicting the platform since Elon Musk’s acquisition, many writers, publications, literary agents, and publishers still post. And some publications, especially those that operate online only, like The Rumpus, put their submission deadlines up on Twitter threads. Writers on Twitter will pose questions such as: “What are your favorite places to submit?” The flood of responses can tell you a great deal.

Another tried and true method is to peruse not just the winning entries in Best American Essays, but also the long list of sources for “notable” pieces listed in the back of the volume. In the 2021 edition, “winning” essays came from publications ranging from Harper’s Magazine, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, and The Threepenny Review, to Salmagundi (from Skidmore College), The Virginia Quarterly Review and The Point, started by grad students at the University of Chicago.

The “notable” sources were equally far-ranging, from Ecotone to the Nashville-based Turnip Truck(s) to The Margins (for Asian-American writing) to The Iowa Review, High Desert Journal, and The Dead Mule School, a twenty-six-year-old publication from North Carolina that requires a “statement of Southern legitimacy.” Even the titles will give you an idea whether or not to give their submissions process a try. All have their own requirements, editorial perspectives, and designated submissions seasons.  

It’s also noteworthy that the prestigious Whiting Foundation just gave out a series of prizes to literary magazines like Latin American Literature Today, The Bellevue Literary Review, which started with an emphasis on medical themes, Kweli, a relatively new forum for writers of color, as well as One Story, which sends one short story a month to subscribers in the mail, to be opened “like a letter from a friend.”

There have been some cutbacks in the world of literary magazines, including The Believer, whose demise was much lamented by writer Leslie Jamison, who had her first piece published there. But there’s been a big increase in online outlets, many with targeted markets (African Americans, Asian Americans, mothers, people with disabilities), which has also increased what you might call the echo effect. Memoir Monday, a weekly newsletter and reading series now hosted by Narratively, and supported by Granta, Tim House, Catapult, Narratively, and Guernica, selects entries from across the web, not just the host publications. Recent installments have picked up pieces from sources like Oldster, The LA Review of Books, and a Brooklyn-based site called Pigeon Pages (“We are proud of the eggs we nest.”)

A piece in any of the above, or elsewhere for that matter, might be “echoed” in the newsletter and help expand your base of readers.

One participant in an earlier Zoom session recommended a $5/month subscription to Duotrope, a database of publishing resources with extensive listings of magazines, agents, and publishers large and small. The service also offers to keep a running list of all of your submissions. Many publications operate on a shoestring with small staffs and can take months to respond. So, lots of writers submit simultaneously if allowed. It’s useful to have a current list of the status of your efforts.

Poets and Writers (https://www.pw.org) is an excellent source of information not only on literary publications, but also writing programs, contests, residencies, and literary agents.

Growing a readership requires persistence, patience, some old-fashioned literary sleuthing, and most importantly, a belief that your work does deserve readers. Having a thick skin is absolutely crucial. Publishing your short pieces can take as much time as writing and crafting the work; but in today’s outpouring of words, opinions, and perspectives, you have to relish the challenge.

Your Manuscript is Ready—Now What?

A few years back, my colleague Jane Rosenman and I both taught a course at the 92nd St. Y called, “You’ve Finished Your Novel—Now What?” 

Now what, indeed? In late May 2021, Jane and I reprised our former course material for the first session of the new 5E offering, Office Hours, where a rotating set of 5E editors will offer free insights into issues not only on how to proceed once you have finished your work, but also topics like narrative cohesion and character development. Both the craft of writing and the business of publishing are on the agenda. 

For our 5/21/21 take on what to do when you have completed your manuscript, Jane and I began with the question: Is your work really in top form? Has it been critiqued by fellow members of a writing group, or a teacher or indie editor or coach? Enthusiasm from family members or significant others is not usually the best guide, since they are presumably disposed to support you and are not reading with an eye towards the marketplace. 

When you are confident your material is honed and ready, it’s time to search for an agent. In the years since we offered our course, a great deal has changed in the publishing industry; yet the basic fact that none of the major houses officially accept un-agented material remains intact—pretty much. If a writer seeks a publisher from one of the Big Five – soon to be Four, perhaps—he or she needs representation from a literary agent who provides both contractual support and editorial advice (many agents used to be editors). 

But there are cracks in the foundation, seemingly instigated by an industry-wide effort to open access to writers in communities with few ties to the so-called “cultural gatekeepers” or affiliated events: literary conferences, MFA programs, prestigious residencies, internships at literary journals or publishing houses. 

For example, writer and critic Roxanne Gay’s new imprint at Grove Press is taking unsolicited submissions, as is Yahdon Israel, a Senior Editor at Simon and Schuster who encouraged writers of color in particular to try him directly, in a disarming Instagram post. And in a recent Discuss Q and A forum on Publisher’s Marketplace, Flatiron Editor in Chief Megan Lynch offered that her house is reconsidering its stance, encouraged by young staffers. Staffing issues are key: how many new sets of eyes does a publisher need to handle such submissions? Will these attempts to be more accessible run into practical roadblocks? It will be interesting to watch it play out. 

Whether you are approaching an editor or an agent, ask yourself: How will your material stand out? Who is your potential reader? Are your queries and opening pages noteworthy and truly engrossing? 

Most writers still want, and need, an agent. Doing your research is key; you need a representative who “gets” your work. There’s the old shoe leather method, perusing the acknowledgements section of published books to see which agent is given props; but an even better option might be the search engine on Publisher’s Marketplace (www.publishersmarketplace.com) that gives you access to recent deals in the genre you’re working in. The site offers many levels of engagement, including a one-time fee of $10. A monthlong subscription might be more practical. 

Once you have identified agents who might be on your literary wavelength, go onto the agency website to take a close look at submission requirements. In a large agency, each individual agent may have slightly different preferences. Nothing shows a lack of preparation more than say, sending a query about a sci fi novel to an agent who has no interest in the genre. In your initial query, you may also want to link your material to that of the agent’s other clients if there is a legitimate overlap in subject matter or approach.  

Because agents spend so much time negotiating contracts, pitching new projects to editors, and advising current clients, reading time is often relegated to nights and weekends. Response times can be frustratingly long. Most professionals do not read beyond the first fifty pages of a novel, for example, to see if it is worth their time and effort to read on. Patience and persistence are your watchwords. 

Even with the best preparation, you may encounter roadblocks. The Catch-22 is that you need an agent well-known enough to have clout when repping your project, but not one who is so busy that he or she doesn’t need, or want, new clients. This is why writers’ conferences can be valuable: agents speaking there are presumably seeking new voices. 

Veteran agents Gail Hochman and Vicky Bijur recently answered all manner of questions about their profession on two Publisher’s Marketplace Discuss forums. They are well worth a look, as is the magazine Poets and Writers, which often features informative interviews with agents and editors. Addressing each agent with specific references to their agency and client list shows that you have done your homework and are serious about your search. You are, in a word, committed. 

It helps to show other evidence of that commitment: Have you published pieces or stories in well-regarded online or physical literary magazines? Are you willing to draw on professional contacts? To solicit endorsements from specialists in your field, if relevant? To attend Zoom forums and book club discussions in order to drum up interest in your project? What it all adds up to is an acknowledgment that you know this is a business, and that you are willing to partner with the agent and then the publisher to help develop a readership. 

In looking into which presses do indeed take unsolicited material, I saw entries like this one on the website for Graywolf, one of the Minnesota-based nonprofits, along with Milkweed and Coffee House, that have been so successful recently: “Our editors are looking for high quality literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that combine a distinct voice with a distinct vision. Our editors seek out and solicit promising work from authors that they encounter in the pages of magazines, at writing conferences, and in other venues.” Graywolf also has a nonfiction prize that helped jumpstart the careers of a writer like Leslie Jamison (The Empathy Exams). 

Coffee House takes un-agented work, too, but only at designated reading periods. It’s a good idea to follow all of these publishers, as well as online publications such as The Millions, The Rumpus, Catapult, and others who post on Twitter and Instagram when they are seeking new submissions. Stay informed about developments in the world of books.  

Though small presses offer only modest advances, they have clout with key reviewers and booksellers. And with their smaller lists, they can support their projects in a way big publishers may not, given the larger publishers’ need to answer to corporate owners. That said, they are also very selective in what they take on, given the limited size of their lists. 

None of this is easy: It’s about getting out there and working up the nerve to share your vision with a wider reading public. Book festivals and fairs are also great places to look around and see which publishers might be a good match. Quality presses like Verso, Melville House, and Soft Skull Press have a particular viewpoint and ideology that may line up with yours—or not. Befriend the staff at your local indie bookstore, so that by the time your book comes out, you are “one of the family,” ready for your launch party or signing session. 

For our Office Hours session, Jane and I did not have time to address self-publishing or the rise of “hybrid” operations that require author expenditures upfront but are selective, such as She Writes Press. For a more detailed look at these, we recommend the website of Jane Friedman, a well-informed industry observer: www.janefriedman.com. 

And keep an eye on our Facebook page and other posts on the 5E site, where we try and address the many questions that arise as we work with our clients. We'll be back with Office Hours in September. Look for an announcement on our Facebook page and elsewhere.

Have a great summer!

The Bad, the Good, and the Eternally Relevant

In many years in the book business, I’ve heard it all: so-called “literary” fiction can’t make money. Novels are dead, killed off by high-quality streaming and cable. Independent bookstores will never survive Amazon’s dominance.

Oh, and remember the e-book “revolution?” It came—and then it went.

Yes, we work in a notoriously low-margin, fear-filled business; but negative thinking, in a pandemic or not, can create a self-reinforcing sinkhole. And sometimes so-called common wisdom is just plain wrong.

I pondered all of this after a recent lunch with one of my first bosses in publishing, Kathryn Court, who just retired after over forty years at Penguin, where she greatly boosted the marketplace visibility of the little orange bird, and did it in style, with a keen sense of packaging and a firm commitment to quality writing.

Given her innate British reserve and an aversion to self-promotion, she may not have achieved the same “profile” as more flamboyant leaders in the book trade; but she published a slew of good writers over the years, notably Nobel Laureate JM Coetzee, and more recently in 2019, Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers, an epic of the AIDs epidemic, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. And she steered Penguin with invention and agility through changing corporate ownership.

I began as Kathryn’s assistant, answering the phone and performing what were in truth secretarial duties. At the time, Penguin U.S. simply imported titles from England; editorial meetings consisted of tallying orders from all over the globe so our British cohorts could achieve feasible print runs. Slowly but surely, first under Richard Seaver and then Kathryn, Penguin began to publish original material as well as reprint American hardcover titles, especially after the company merged with the Viking Press.

In eight years working with Kathryn, I learned all I needed to know about the book business. First, it is a business, albeit with tight margins: ignore that at your peril, namely any chance to move up and earn a slightly better salary. But second, it also a calling: no one is in the book trade primarily for the money. Because books and reading are what you love, you power through the difficulties and the challenges—which are many.

Once I’d learned the ropes, my first editorial assignment at Penguin was to “Americanize” the measurements in a British cookbook in comic book form called Suzy Cookstrip. I was, and am, a lousy cook; but I pitched in eagerly, hoping to move eventually to fiction, my true literary love.

For decades, paperback publishing on both sides of the pond had been dominated by
the mass market, the same market that inspired Sir Allen Lane to inaugurate the
line of low-cost classics still so important to the worldwide Penguin imprint. Often
adopted for school use, the classics were, and still are, the backbone of the
imprint’s income.

I used to tell friends and family members that James Joyce and John Steinbeck
were paying the light bills. Third lesson: quality books stay in print, and
help subsidize the “front list,” new titles that rarely make money upfront—if
at all. Our young Penguin staff under Kathryn’s direction was eager to update Sir Allen’s
original vision by introducing excellent new writers in handsome trade paperback volumes, at price points accessible to those who couldn’t afford hardcovers.

At the time, trade paperbacks were positioned in the marketplace halfway between hardcovers and “airport books,” genre reads for the most part. The vast majority of trade paperback titles were backlist staples in nonfiction and self-help.

Publishing original fiction in this format, with its larger trim, better quality-paper, and a higher price point was a gamble. Trade paper originals never get reviewed, said the publicity and marketing staff. And they’re hard to sell because they’re more expensive and can’t be pulped, like mass market books.

We took the gamble. Kathryn’s inaugural selection for our new fiction series was a
slim novel by an unknown South African academic named J.M. Coetzee, set in a frontier outpost of an unnamed empire, narrated by an imperial magistrate fearful of the encroaching enemy—also unnamed. It was bleak, fable-like in its lack of specificity—and utterly compelling.

Now considered a classic, Waiting for the Barbarians was reviewed on the front page of the Washington Post’s book review section, much to the surprise of some of our Viking colleagues who’d wondered about the editorial chops of “the paperback people.” 

The Post also gave the front page to a later book in the series, The Broom of the System, by a twenty-four-year old, highly inventive new talent named David Foster Wallace, sponsored by our colleague Gerry Howard.

A few years back, I saw a new edition of Broom at a book festival, with the title and the author’s name spelled out in tattoo-like flourishes. The imprint had a new hipper look, and an obvious appeal to younger readers who hadn’t necessarily been raised on Penguin Classics in school. 

Though most of the titles I sponsored in our fiction series were reprints like Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone, Ray by Barry Hannah, and The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor, I’d learned enough about the paperback fiction market by then to move on to a new position editing a competitive series at Random House’s Vintage.

Now after over four decades at Penguin, Kathryn had decided to move on, too. Few publishing executives dedicate that many years to one company. For a catch-up lunch, she offered to come to my neighborhood in Queens: “It’s time to broaden my horizons,” she joked.

After a delicious Indian meal at a local restaurant, we repaired to my apartment, where I found myself reporting on life as an indie editor for the past couple of decades—as if demonstrating to my former mentor that I was still honoring what I’d learned at Penguin about a lasting commitment to quality, as well as ways to innovate in the book trade. . 

But I was really struck, I told her, by the numbers I’ve seen for even popular and prize-winning fiction in the past few years. How could the business keep going, especially with demanding corporate owners?

“Well,” she pointed out, “it’s never been easy to sell books. But with the data now available to the sales and marketing people, you can actually sell a lot more of a certain kind of book.”

It was typical Kathryn: practical in acknowledging the difficulties of the business yet injecting an optimistic note. As the conversation veered off in more personal directions about post-retirement life, I didn’t press her for more specifics. 

I recalled her comment when I opened the New York Times this week. “An Ever-Expanding Understanding of the Canon” detailed robust sales for recent reissues of overlooked books, some by formerly marginalized writers. And I remembered the way Kathryn spoke with respect and admiration for Elda Rotor, the current Penguin Classics editor frequently cited in the Times piece.   

Elda Rotor is trying to expand what’s considered a classic, incorporating horror, science fiction, and fantasy, as well as unearthing overlooked works by Asian-American, Caribbean, and African writers. The little orange bird now adorns new series like Penguin Vitae, which just reissued a new edition of the feminist classic The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

William Maxwell, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, edited one of Rotor’s
reissued classics, Claude McKay’s Romance in Marseille. He observes: “Canons don’t come down from God. They’re shaped by sociology.”

And the way publishers expand the meaning of the canon—the way they present books to readers in general—requires not only ever more innovation, and but also open-mindedness to what constitutes a meaningful reading experience.

As layoffs hit the publishing industry in the midst of the pandemic, the doom and gloom that has always assailed the book trade is dialed up exponentially by panic about a recession already well underway. Many independent bookstores that just gained their footing as real community cultural centers, have been forced to shut their doors.

But just as writers will find ways to lead us through this downturn, and help shape the new world we’ll face after it abates, some and perhaps many indies will make it through the current collapse relying on a loyal customer base and a deeper and wider investment in online selling. The new platform www.bookshop.org linking readers with local independent stores, was established just a few weeks before the pandemic hit—just in time to extend a lifeline.

Will virtual author events and online discussion groups and other of-the-moment innovations remain an ongoing feature of bookselling? No one knows; but being nimble and proactive is the only way to respond to difficult circumstances. The head of Barnes and Noble just announced that the company will use this retail “respite” to upgrade the stores physically—long overdue.

Both book publishing and selling have always posed challenges: those who meet them
in the current chaos will reap rewards in the future.  

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The Thrill of the New

There is nothing as beguiling as the discovery of a new voice on the page: it has the sparkle of new friendship, or even romance. Here is a story you didn’t know you needed to read, one that makes your world suddenly larger, your perspective a little sharper. In a word, you are smitten. 

How do you put a price tag on the Thrill of the New?   

The executive had flown in from California. We sat in the spanking new lower Fifth Avenue offices of the new publishing operation.   

Given the parent company’s core businesses in theme parks and entertainment, I wasn’t sure this new operation would be a natural home for books I’d want to acquire. The book business works on margins media companies usually can’t stomach. But I was fascinated by the idea of helping to start a new enterprise—a unique opportunity.

The visiting executive’s open-collared look did nothing to belie his just-business tone: “Why should we publish first novels?” he asked me across the well-appointed room. “Don’t most of them lose money?” he went on, undeterred by my initial silence.

I was taken aback, because the recently appointed publisher had recruited me with real conviction. I was then a senior editor elsewhere, where I’d brought in work by prize-winning crime writer James Lee Burke, and a first novel by a young L.A.-based police reporter named Michael Connelly.  

Now someone above my potential new boss on the corporate food chain sounded skeptical of my possible role in the new company. Still, with no hesitation, I replied: “If I can’t find new writers, I wouldn’t be interested in working here. Publishing first novels is akin to supporting a new filmmaker in film and television. You establish a talent bank on which to draw in future.”

Bone by Chinese American writer Fae Myenne Ng was as one of the first deposits in my talent bank after I got the job. First published in 1993, it is still in print, and widely adopted in university courses in Asian American and American immigrant literature. Other new writers followed, some more successful than others. But even after I moved on from the company and eventually left corporate publishing, I never lost my interest in first fiction, even if the bulk of my resume as a freelance editor and “book doctor” has been in memoir and autobiography.

As part of my role as a “mentor” to emerging writers at the Center for Fiction, relocated to Brooklyn, I read new work and then meet with the novelist to go over possible changes. Akin to teaching creative writing, it gives me a chance to encounter new voices, to discuss characterization, narrative flow, and plot lines—to keep my skillset sharp, and continually evolving.

Last year, two novels I worked on for the Center were very well-received: American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson, a literary thriller about a young African American operative who goes to Burkina Faso on a contract from the CIA; and The Affair of the Falcons, by Melissa Rivero, whose undocumented Peruvian protagonist’s struggle to keep her head above water in New York City puts her in increasingly precarious positions. The Washington Post called it, “A beautiful, serious, and life-affirming book.”

Both came out from major publishers, and Wilkinson’s was lauded this way by NPR: “Like the best of John LeCarre, it’s extremely hard to put down.” It also wound up on Barack Obama’s summer reading list.

The thrill of the new, indeed.

This summer, a novel by a new client of mixed Jamaican/Iranian ancestry was pre-empted by yet another major publisher. I can hardly wait to see how this blazingly original workplace satire set in the tech industry makes its way in the marketplace.

When I was a publisher, I defined a healthy list of projects as one that included overtly commercial books to help pay the light bills, and always, a first novel or two that represented a risk. I maintain the same general criteria as a freelancer.

Without risk, there is no reward, in life or in the literary world.

I remember this each time I pass a booth at Book Expo invariably dominated by another new title by that onetime first novelist, Michael Connelly.

I am always greeted with great warmth.  

Building Characters is a Piece of (Layer) Cake

In my work as an independent book editor, I help writers to make their characters live and breathe on the page. 

What’s the secret? Layering.

Have you ever tried the Chilean dessert called torta de mil hojas, also known as Thousand Layer Cake? It’s scrumptious. This is not a cake you whip up quickly; it takes preparation, and if you do it right, you’ll send your dinner guests into a state of nirvana. Assembling many layers of thin pastry is a requirement, but the specific fillings are up to the pastry chef. Sometimes, when I’m helping writers to deepen their characters, I think about this cake. 

I also recall an exhibit I saw at the American Museum of Natural History called, “Our Senses: An Immersive Experience.” An exploration of how our minds work, it explained that we have inner senses (physical sensations like hunger and thirst, body temperature, high energy or fatigue) as well as outer senses like taste, touch, hearing, sight and smell, connecting us to our surroundings. Our brains combine our inner and outer senses to help us survive in the world. 

Imagine applying this depth of awareness to the characters in your story. They might be engaged in a simple activity, like cleaning out the attic. But while they do this simple task, they’re also experiencing a variety of sensations and desires. Ideally, they also have an important objective, or series of intentions, driving the plot forward. 

The mystery novels by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) feature a private investigator who lost part of his leg in a wartime explosion in Afghanistan. Cormorant Strike has plenty of layers—strength and gruff kindness, a fondness for beer, an estranged rock-star father, an empty bank account—but his physical condition is always present, a challenging and sometimes painful circumstance that influences how he navigates through London, and how others see him. It’s a valuable layer that helps readers to forge an intimate connection to him.

Try this exercise with your story-in-progress:

Go through your story, scene by scene, and see if you can answer these questions: 

• How do your characters feel in the environment you’ve established—and can you heighten it? Is the space familiar or surprising? Is the air too hot or cold? What does it smell like? The faun in Narnia is accustomed to his wintery home but for Lucy, who arrives there through a supernatural wardrobe, it’s marvelously strange and freezing cold. 

• Do your characters have a specific physical condition, a habit or emotional vulnerability, or a haunting memory that will draw readers in?

• Can you add a sense of subtext, something bubbling under the surface that informs the scene but is not overtly discussed? In other words, what are your characters hiding from each other?

• What do they observe about each other—and how will they take advantage of this knowledge?

• What’s their primary objective as they move through the story—what are they fighting for?

Answering questions like these will allow you to add layers to your story, giving your characters a richness that will stick in the minds of your readers, long after they’ve finished your book.

NYC writers can join Judy at the Center for Fiction this fall for her workshop in Active Storytelling. Participants will build emotionally grounded characters, clear points-of-view, dynamic relationships, and vivid descriptions of places, objects, and more. You can register online here.

The Beating Heart of the Story

I have a lovely story to tell as a way of ushering in for us all a creative and productive new year. In early 2017 I worked with a writer living in Portland, Oregon named Gigi Rosenberg whose 50,000 word memoir, THE INHERITANCE,  had received what she called “glowing rejections” from literary agents. It was the story of what happened six weeks after Gigi’s mother’s death; Gigi received a letter from her parents’ executor informing Gigi that her mother had disinherited her. Understandably shocked and devastated, Gigi decided to write a memoir that would seek to understand the legacy of family secrets and banishments.

We worked together—using all the tools  of successful memoir writing—to craft a story that would feel fully sustained and worthy of a book-length narrative. We talked honestly about the challenges of Gigi not sounding overly bitter towards her mother (with whom she had had a strong relationship). I realized Gigi has a marvelous sense of humor, an ability to see the bright side that was not always clear on the page. I knew Gigi had done a lot of performing and had a busy career as a public speaking coach, and I wondered if her thespian skills could bring this interesting family material to life in a different form. But Gigi had worked long and hard on THE INHERITANCE and her focus didn’t waver from the written form.

Flash forward to the spring of 2018. I received an excited postcard from Gigi informing me that her one woman show, based on the memoir, was going to be performed at the Fertile Ground Festival of New Work in Portland.  In short order, I received another postcard. The show, now called, Firstborn, had been accepted into the off-Broadway United Solo Theater Festival. In October of this past year, almost two years after working with Gigi, I found myself on West 42nd Street watching a fantastic one-hour, one-woman show. With props and photos, Gigi brought her 1960’s and 70’s  NYC childhood in an artsy, bohemian family to life. Gone was the bitterness we’d struggled with. What had made the memoir compelling—a charismatic mother, an interesting milieu, the bittersweet nature of familial relationships—had been drilled down into a play that was delightful, rueful in good ways, and most of all, funny.

I met Gigi for breakfast a few days later and I marveled at the metamorphosis from memoir to play. She explained that shortly after we had worked together, she had performed a few more stories from the material. She was surprised to discover that there was far more humor in the thespian version than she previously understood. She took a class via Skype with a well-known dramaturg in New York named Seth Barrish. As Gigi talked, I asked her if I could interview her directly on the process that took her from a deeply discouraged writer of memoir to a playwright whose work has been performed off-Broadway.

Q&A

Jane Rosenman: Did you gauge audience reaction that helped you see the humor in the readings you did?

Gigi Rosenberg: The audience reaction was easy to gauge: it was the laughter I heard in rehearsals from my director, Lauren Bloom Hanover, and during performances from the audience.

But before I even knew I was going to turn the memoir into a solo show, I was invited to tell a story with Portland Story Theater in Oregon, where I live. That invitation came at a time when I was struggling with the memoir, still determined that this story would be a book. I took a break from the manuscript and started performing the stories aloud from memory.

Suddenly, the stories felt more alive. I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh so having an audience helped me find the humor. Also, live storytelling became its own editing process: you discover ways to condense, you remember details and forge transitions. With each telling, something new and often better emerged. As an extrovert, I also thrived within the collaborative process of creating live theater and having both a dramaturg and a director to experiment with.

Jane Rosenman: What did you learn from the dramaturg that would be helpful for a reader of this blog post?

Gigi Rosenberg: Seth Barrish, the dramaturg, encouraged me to focus on action and how one action leads to the next action so that I found the causal links between events. For example, I might ask myself: what was the last straw for this character that caused them to act in this way which set off this chain of events?

I have a tendency to explain more to the audience than is necessary.  Any mention of feelings or commentary or ruminating, which I love to do, was cut. Because it’s not dramatic.

We were ruthless about making sure every word in the script was there for a reason. If it didn’t support the larger story, it was excised.

This is just good writing advice but it’s not easy to apply to your own writing. We writers get very attached to phrases, characters, stories and it helps to have someone else, like a dramaturg, director, editor or coach, be vigilant about ensuring that every word feeds the engine of the story.

Jane Rosenman: Also, do you have ideas for how memoir writers who are not performers might find other creative ways to change the form of their stories?

Gigi Rosenberg: You don’t need to be a “performer” to tell a good story to a live audience. In fact, not being a performer may make you a more authentic storyteller. The best storyteller sounds like this is the first time they’ve ever told this story. If a performance feels overly rehearsed or pre-planned, it’s less interesting for the audience.

If you’re a writer you would never perform your story in front of an audience even with coaching, what other form could your memoir take that puts it out into the world? Here are some ideas:

• Publish a chapter on your own blog (or as a guest blogger on someone else’s blog) with photos or illustrations, if possible. (I published several stories about living in Siena, Italy on my blog and received more feedback from readers than any feedback I’ve ever received from publishing in a literary journal.)

• Print a few copies of a tiny book you create of one chapter or a complete story. You could do this at your neighborhood copy shop.  (I did this with a speech I gave once and everyone got to take my story home with them).

• Read a few pages of your story wherever you can: at your next dinner party, coffee date, open mic. Stay attuned to audience reaction.

The goal is to get your work out however you can. If one door shuts, find another crack somewhere else. Be flexible to form.

When I first set out on this project, I wanted to have a memoir in book form that I could hold in my hands. But after years of rewriting, I finally surrendered. And in doing so, I found the beating heart of the story. It wasn’t the story I set out to write but it was the story form that had more life in it—which in the end is what matters.

The Eye of the Beholder

As a freelancer I love learning new tricks of the trade, even after all the years I’ve been in it, as well as thinking of new applications for older ones. Teachers say they learn a great deal from their students; I’m often editorially refreshed by new assignments.

A review of a client’s novel brought up fascinating issues of gender in fiction: how does a male author convincingly portray a female protagonist fighting for her place in a man’s world?

Let me point out upfront that I am doing a little fictionalizing of my own to respect the client’s privacy. And whenever I comment on issues like gender identification in a novel, my goal is always to help the writer create a wholly credible world on the page, with characters that ring true to readers; I have no “agenda” separate from that.

My client’s story, set a bit in the past, is a detective story whose central character is a female cop working in a robbery unit on a big-city police force. The theft of a set of rare jewels from a high-end hotel was well-conceived: the credibility of the main character was the defining factor in the rewrite I advised. After all, women buy most of the novels published every year, even crime novels; and strong female protagonists are key not just to book sales, but also to the dramatic adaptations this writer clearly envisions.

One of the first things I noticed as I took notes were the frequent mentions of the main character’s physical appearance in a way that distracted from her efforts to solve the crime. Yes, we want to “envision” the physical appearance of the main characters in a tightly paced crime novel to keep them straight as the twists and turns in the plot pile up. But when the character’s ethnic origins (in this case, Puerto Rican) and body type (J. Lo is a role model) are mentioned every time she seizes the reins of the investigation, it’s as if her very desirability is being used to undercut her competence in this very macho workplace. And when in the sight lines of her potential love interest, a fellow officer in a competing unit, she releases the tightly-wound topknot that holds her unruly curls in place, a gesture reminiscent of romantic comedies in which the bookish female lead releases her chignon.

One of the reasons my client’s tough-as-nails protagonist lacked credibility was that she had no believable female friends or family members in whom she could confide: Wouldn’t an ambitious protagonist in a story like this have a girlfriend on the force, I asked, even a colleague in a lab or front office--someone with whom to share war stories about the obstacles in her path to a promotion?

Most female leads in crime novels defy the stereotype of the “loner” crime fighter, even forging alliances of varying intensity with male partners like Harry Bosch in Michael Connelly’s bestselling books, which also rely on his eventual relationship with his daughter to bring out a more rounded dimension to the character.

In The Black Echo, the book that introduced Bosch to readers, Harry meets an F.B.I. agent known as E.D. Wish, whom he’d assumed was a man: “She was tall and lithesome with brown wavy hair about to the shoulders with blonde highlights. A nice tan and little make-up. She looked hard-shell and a little weary for this early in the day, the way lady cops and hookers get. She wore a brown business suit and a white blouse with a chocolate-brown western bow. He detected the unsymmetrical curve of her hips beneath the jacket.”

Bosch is surprised to see a Luger at her side, since he’s always known lady cops to carry their guns in their purses—a detail that tells you all you need to know about these two characters, in Connelly’s economical prose. The lady is lovely, but she is a pro. And we are seeing her through the eyes of Bosch, who takes her measure aware of her feminine charms, but also of her strong stance.

Wish turns out to be a highly conflicted character of considerable complexity. We don’t need to see the world of the novel through her perspective, because we have Harry to show us. In the case of my client’s book, the heroine was less compelling as an officer of the law because as each male character encounters her, from a pizza delivery man to her supervisor on the force, the reader hears about some aspect of her appearance, often in similar terms: this is the view of the author, superimposed as omniscient narrator.

In my editorial letter, I found myself writing, “All this is from the male gaze,” though I view “political correctness” in fiction overall as a form of self-censorship. True, our heroine fights to solve her cases and advance on the force in a realistic manner: but in the details of her private life, and in the prose in which she is described, the male author showed a lack of access to a realistic female perspective.

All this got me thinking: how often do writers of one gender really get inside the mind and heart of characters from the other?

In fact, how often do writers truly “know” characters outside their own experience? In the New York Times Book Review (6/3/18), novelist Victor Lavalle points out that in Stephen King’s new book, some of the characters are better realized than others. The king of horror doesn’t presume to be “an insider” when writing Mexican American characters, for example: “King doesn’t imply that he knows them with the same authority, yet he writes them as vital members of his cast. This strikes me as the very definition of the difference between appropriation and inspiration: presumption versus humility.”

Humility, and curiosity about people unlike yourself: are these qualities to be cultivated by readers as well as writers? Do readers of a certain gender or ethnic background or sexual orientation need to “relate” to characters in a book to find it pleasurable? I have no need to identify with Raskolnikov to find Crime and Punishment truly riveting; but I advised my client that if a piece of commercial fiction is targeted to a certain readership, yes, the central character must be fully rounded, with all-too-human frailties as well as virtues. It comes down to the artistry and intent of the writer.

These issues come to the fore when one of our literary giants passed away in May 2018. In “What Philp Roth Didn’t Know About Women Could Fill a Book,” novelist and New Jersey native Dara Horn argues that she felt unmoored when she read Goodbye, Columbus, in which she recognized every restaurant, synagogue and cemetery: “So how could this Jewish girl from Short Hills, and the many others like her who populate Roth’s books, feel so unfamiliar? Despite the years that divided us, wasn’t Brenda (the protagonist of Goodbye Columbus) supposed to be a girl like … me?”

She elaborates: “Roth’s three favorite topics — Jews, women and New Jersey — all remain socially acceptable targets of irrational public mockery, and Roth was a virtuoso at mocking the combination of all three.”

Still, Horn disavows a “culture police” perspective: “After all, if one policed literature for bigotry, there would be little left to read. The problem is literary: these caricatures reveal a lack of not only empathy, but curiosity.” In her view, Roth’s main flaw is artistic narcissism: “Philip Roth’s works are only curious about Philip Roth.”

Critic and novelist Zadie Smith offered a differing perspective in The New Yorker: “At an unusually tender age, he learned not to write to make people think well of him, nor to display to others, through fiction, the right sort of ideas, so they could think him the right sort of person. ‘Literature isn’t a moral beauty contest,’ he once said. For Roth, literature was not a tool of any description. It was the venerated thing in itself.”

Smith admits that “Like all writers, there were things and ideas that lay beyond his ken or conception; he had blind spots, prejudices, selves he could imagine only partially, or selves he mistook or mislaid. But, unlike many writers, he did not aspire to perfect vision. He knew that to be an impossibility. Subjectivity is limited by the vision of the subject, and the task of writing is to do the best with what you have.”

Still, some women felt that it was somehow “wrong” to like Roth’s work. In an opinion piece called “Philip Roth’s Toxic Masculinity” (New York Times, 5/23/18), writer Sam Lipstye quotes just such a female friend. But Lipsyte asks, wrong according to whose calculation? After all, he notes that Roth himself described his method this way: “I dig a hole and shine my flashlight into it.”

As obnoxious as characters such as Mickey Sabbath, the protagonist of Sabbath’s Theater, may be, he argues, Roth is exploring “how social norms about gender and sexuality deform a large percentage of our population and mire it in violence, rage, shame and a kind of zombie-fied eroticism.” In other words, so-called toxic masculinity is no picnic for men, either.

Lipstye also points out the way that cultural norms shift with time: the author of Portnoy’s Complaint and Goodbye, Columbus was surveying the American social landscape well in advance of the #MeToo era. Not to mention that Roth’s main theme was “not so much sex but the idea of the individual in America, the immigrant or striver, the kid straining against the confines of the kind of appropriate behavior elders consider linked to success. A possibly immature but exuberant carnality was rebellion against conformity.”

In other words, through Roth’s “wit, fearlessness, and emotional acuity,” his work transcends simple us vs. them, sexual equivalencies.

For me, ignoring or refusing to acknowledge Philip Roth’s literary achievement because you don’t like the women (or lack of them) in his books is akin to saying that you don’t like Huckleberry Finn because it contains the n-word. I once had a heated argument with a well-known writer, improbably in the locker room of a swim club, about whether Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being was a worthy book. She deemed it less so, because he is “a male chauvinist, like his pal Philip Roth.” I wasn’t having it.

Reading Roth as a young woman was subversive: As I recall, after my Catholic mother found my dog-eared copy of Portnoy, along with an edition of Newsweek with Sophia Loren on the cover in a wet T-shirt, she delegated both to the trash can. But it was too late.

I’m with Times reader Vera Mehta of Brooklyn, who wrote about reading Portnoy as a new arrival to London from Mumbai, India, when she was pregnant and unemployed. Up to that point in her life, she had very little knowledge of American literature: “All my favorite authors were 18th and 19th century British novelists. There was nothing in my experience that I could ‘relate to’ in Portnoy’s story, but after finishing it, I became one of Philp Roth’s most ardent and lifelong fans.

“That anyone could be so funny and write so well about the human condition and all its weirdness, absurdity and vulgarity was a revelation.”

Her last words are key: if a writer gives his or her characters a life on the page that conveys the beauty, absurdity, and even cruelty—in the case of crime fiction—of the world we live in, readers will follow—man, woman, or child.