How to Deliver a Book Manuscript
"I think maturing as an artist means respecting what you were able to do on instinct alone and never lose that." - photographer Collier Schorr
PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL NEWS
On April 9th, I will speak at NYU with New Yorker contributor Eyal Press and historian Roger Horowitz. The event begins at 5:30pm and is free. You can register here. On Saturday, April 19th, at 3:15 p.m., I will be on a panel at The Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri, with authors Crystal Hana Kim and Aisha Abdel Gawad. On May 6th, I will be in NYC for the 2025 Lukas Prizes Award Ceremony. Ann Friedman, whose generosity to writers is famed, interviewed me for her newsletter about my book. A school district in Illinois is considering banning some books that “may be problematic under the Trump administration.” The books include The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and Life and Death of the American Worker by me. Great company for being banned.
How to Deliver a Book Manuscript in Many Steps
Hire a fact-checker (the average cost, paid by the writer, is $10,000)
Find a pro-bono lawyer to advise on legal issues
Let the manuscript sit for a few weeks because you have read it too many times and can’t look at it.
Feel hope
Rewrite the first chapters
Feel doom
Feel confused about the chronology
Remember that you have to footnote all sources
Spend a day cursing footnotes
Read memoirs for inspiration
Read dystopian fiction because that is more your thing (The Dream Hotel, The Unworthy)
Write an email to your agent saying there is no way you will finish the manuscript on time
Write another email promising to deliver the manuscript on time
Work on instinct alone and finish it
Don’t judge it
The hardest part is not judging your own work, yourself.
Keep at it,
Alice
That's some good company, keep getting into 'good trouble!'
of all the memoir tips, classes, and videos I’ve consumed—no one has brought up the fact checker or the lawyer AND THOSE ARE THE THINGS I NEED TO KNOW! 10k 😬