July Meeting + More on Personal Connection in Nonfiction
+ June Meeting Notes
Hello authors!
Here is your invite for the July 2024 meeting:
Authors’ Meeting July
Thursday, July 25 · 5:00PM PST/6 MST/ 7 CST / 8 EST
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/pfd-vqka-omx
Support the group!
Thank you to the people who have paid subscriptions, which you can get by clicking “Subscribe” in the brown box above! This newsletter/group is free but I’m very grateful for any support. If you want to contribute with a different amount of money, I have PayPal. If you would like to donate to a 501(c)3 charity instead, might I suggest a $10 donation to Small Town Community Cats (where I got my beloved Bijou) or Wyoming Arts Alliance, which has been generous to me. I’d love it if you could mention me/ANBIP in the note of the donation, just because I’m curious to see if and how much this may result in.
Notes from June Meeting
We got another person signed with my agent, Jane Dystel!
Her agency has represented Dan Fagin (Tom’s River), Colleen Hoover, and Barack Obama. And me. I highly recommend her, and she is responsive. If you have a query letter ready to go and you’ve read all the FAQs and such on her website, you can pitch her. Feel free to mention me/this group. I’d probably be amenable to sending a personal introduction for you if you send me some high-quality published writing in the same genre as your book.
She’ll also be at the Jackson Hole Writers Conference if that happens to be something you’re interested in. The conference takes place the day after the south gate to Yellowstone closes, so if you want to see Yellowstone, plan accordingly.What is the meaning or message of a book?
We discussed the challenge of having a message, meaning, or point in a book when we’re mostly journalists who are supposed to be as-unbiased-as-possible. (Well, I’m a journalist, and that’s what I learned.) I also learned that being “unbiased” is impossible so instead we say “fair and accurate.” But there is, at the same time, meant to be some sort of message in all journalism and adjacent fields.
Someone mentioned the newsletter of Ed Yong, a very successful science writer/author. In his post “How to Start a Book,” Yong writes:“…a nonfiction book should promise readers something beyond mere knowledge about its subject matter. An Immense World is about animal senses, but readers hopefully walk away with a dizzyingly upended understanding of even familiar parts of their world, and newfound curiosity and empathy for the creatures in it.”
I know for sure that I’m not writing my book, Carcass: On the Afterlives of Animal Bodies for the purpose of convincing the world that all animal products are inherently good or bad. I absolutely stand by my belief that animal welfare and life is important and to be protected, but also that death happens and there is value in animal bodies. I don’t know, can I say that the message in my book is “appreciation and understanding?” To challenge the idea that carcasses are gross nasty things to be hated and destroyed? Working on it. Comment the message of your book if you have one!
Other Stuff
In the last post, I sent a series of mini book-reports on including memoir-y elements in non-memoir. I got some good discussion when I posted that on other sites! Adriana Barton commented that she has written a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog called “How to Write a Hybrid Memoir,” in which Barton discusses writing a science book and being asked to put more and more of herself in it. The book is Wired for Music: A Search for Health and Joy Through the Science of Sound.
Another topic I’d be interested in discussing at a future date is the use of emotion in books. A lot of media is memorable for the way it makes you feel, and one bookstore owner posted a TikTok saying he asks his customers what they want to feel when reading a book before recommending one to them. I’m not sure how relevant this is to nonfiction non-memoir, but it’s something to think about.
Publishing drama! I won’t get too far into it, but I’ll link to this video Gina Denny, a very knowledgeable author/editor/publishing professional has some commentary on some of the controversial things going around. If you were worried, don’t be too much, much of the drama is misleading or rare.
See you next month!