“There Are so Many Posts About What to Ask the Agent on The Call, but What Will the Agent Ask...
The article reminds prospective authors that agent calls are two‑way conversations. While writers often bring checklists of questions for agents, agents also probe authors about their career goals, work habits, and expectations for representation. The piece outlines common topics agents explore, such as the writer’s long‑term vision, marketing involvement, and preferred communication style. It encourages authors to prepare thoughtful answers to demonstrate professionalism and alignment with an agent’s support model.
Q&A Friday
The author answers a reader’s query about publishing a novel as a weekly Substack serial. He confirms that serializing on a newsletter platform does not count as prior publication when querying literary agents. While a handful of books have secured...
Confusing the Normal Friday Linkfest for the Exceptional
The author’s new book *The Ecology of Ecologists* received its first scholarly review in the African Journal of Range Science, marking a notable academic endorsement. A recent experiment offering scientists a few hundred dollars to audit papers attracted minimal participation,...
Remote Work Was Destroying My Body… Until I Found This
The blog reviews "Move More, Hurt Less," a desk‑focused guide that promises to eliminate most remote‑work pain within days. It explains how prolonged sitting damages the hips, glutes, spine, and eyes, then offers a step‑by‑step ergonomic overhaul and 150+ micro‑exercises...
Shannon Hale’s Fantastic Princess Academy Is Now a Graphic Novel
Shannon Hale’s Newbery‑Honor book *Princess Academy* has been reissued as a graphic novel, illustrated by Victoria Ying and published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books on April 7, 2026. The hardcover retails for $24.99 and the paperback for $16.99, targeting readers aged...
Morgan Day’s Book Notes Music Playlist for Her Novel The Oldest Bitch Alive
Morgan Day joined Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes series to share a curated music playlist that inspired her debut novel, The Oldest Bitch Alive. The novel, praised by Kirkus as an ambitious, commanding debut, explores life from the perspective of a...
Review: Tomorrow, the War
Max Watman, a veteran nonfiction author known for immersive reporting, releases his first novel, "Tomorrow, the War," a 400‑page historical fiction set in antebellum Virginia. The story follows two young men—Jed, a poor white teen, and Raleigh, an enslaved musician—through...
'We Are in a Completely Mask-Off Fascist Moment'
Christopher Mathias’s new book, *To Catch a Fascist*, examines the evolution of U.S. antifa and its covert tactics against a resurging far‑right. The author details how Trump’s administration falsely labeled antifa a domestic terrorist group, amplifying right‑wing hostility. Inside the...
How Political Obsession Turned a Novelist Boring
Lionel Shriver’s latest novel, A Better Life, follows a progressive Brooklyn mother who takes in a Honduran asylum seeker under New York’s 2023 “Big Apple, Big Heart” program, only for the arrangement to spiral into violence and tragedy. The narrative...
Understanding MAGA
Laura K. Field’s new book *Furious Minds* maps the intellectual genealogy of the MAGA‑driven new right, identifying three core schools—Claremont Straussians, post‑liberals, and national conservatives—plus a tech‑bro accelerationist wing. The analysis links dozens of Claremont alumni to senior Trump‑era posts,...
Book Review – The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces
Seth Harp’s 2025 book *The Fort Bragg Cartel* alleges that U.S. Special Operations Forces have been involved in drug trafficking, murder and other crimes, shielded by a culture of secrecy and lenient oversight. Drawing on declassified files, trial transcripts and...
Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry
Devney Perry’s *Rites of the Starling* continues the romantasy saga of Odessa and Ransom, keeping their secret marriage and monster‑riddled world at the forefront while introducing a third perspective, Starling princess Caspia, from the distant continent of Nelfinex. The sequel...
Americans Still Opt for Print Books over Digital or Audio Versions
A Pew Research Center survey from October 2025 shows that 75% of U.S. adults read at least part of a book in the past year, but print remains the dominant format. Only 64% reported reading a physical book, down from...
The Things We Never Say
Elizabeth Strout’s eighth novel, *The Things We Never Say*, will be released in about a month, with pre‑orders already available. The book is a standalone story, meaning readers don’t need familiarity with her previous interconnected characters. Strout’s editor notes that...
Who Wants an Early Read of I Eat the Stars?
Author Sarah Wilson shares a draft of her upcoming book "I Eat the Stars" and asks readers for help identifying compelling excerpts. She plans to turn those snippets into social‑media tiles to attract new readers before the official launch. Wilson...
The Internet Doesn't Want Your Attention. It Wants Your Effort.
Andrey Mir’s essay argues that the internet no longer merely seeks attention—it harvests user effort through every click, turning those micro‑decisions into unpaid labor that powers digital capitalism. The constant dopamine hits from likes and reactions rewire the brain, favoring...
Why some Authors Feel Threatened by Romantasy — and What that Reveals About the Genre’s Power
Romantasy has moved from a niche trend to a dominant force in publishing, maintaining bestseller status for over two years through relentless reader‑driven promotion on platforms like BookTok and Reddit. The genre’s emotionally charged storytelling now drives narrative structure, extending...
Something Is Not Right
The author announces a new book, *Modern Humans in Search of Ground in a Nihilistic Age*, and is releasing its chapters as working drafts. The preface, shared in this post, frames the project as an interactive experiment where reader feedback...
Listen up, Diva. Nobody Wants to Read Your Memoir.
The author argues that the current memoir boom, fueled by the "trauma dump" trend, has saturated the market with personal suffering that often lacks broader insight. Readers care more about the meaning derived from a story than the raw details...
For Lovers of Horror and Romance...
Ophelia’s new novel *Fruit of the Flesh*—a horror‑romance set in Gilded‑Age New York—has already earned a USA Today bestseller badge. The book follows a wealthy ex‑ballerina and a struggling sculptor whose marriage of convenience spirals into a macabre love story....
Brad Meltzer on The Viper, Witness Protection, and Starting Over
Brad Meltzer appears on Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People podcast to discuss his latest thriller, The Viper, which draws on research inside a secretive funeral home and the world of witness protection. He introduces the artistic term pentimento—seeing the original sketch...
Craft Template: Celebrate Earth Day and the Great Outdoors
The blog post spotlights a new Earth Day‑themed classroom activity built around the children’s book *Fatima’s Great Outdoors*. The story follows an immigrant family on their first camping trip, highlighting confidence, belonging, and a love of nature. Teachers are invited...
Reversing the Burden of Proof: French Authors Guild Urges Parliament to Pass Landmark AI Copyright Bill
On April 8, the French Senate voted unanimously to advance a landmark bill that creates a statutory “presumption of use” for copyrighted works employed by artificial‑intelligence systems. The legislation flips the traditional burden of proof, requiring AI developers to demonstrate that...
Decline of the Book Review, Gin Secrets, and More
The post observes a sharp decline in traditional book‑review journalism, a staple of the Enlightenment era, now eclipsed by algorithmic recommendations. It also links the cultural resurgence of gin to hidden histories, citing fresh revelations about the Cambridge Five spy...
Government Project: Why We Revived This Lost Classic
Senior fellow Kevin Kosar partnered with AEI Press to revive Edward C. Banfield’s 1951 classic *Government Project*, issuing a new paperback in December 2024. The book, a detailed case study of the New Deal‑era Casa Grande Valley Farms cooperative, quickly...
Beyond Quantum with Khrennikov
Andrei Khrennikov’s *Beyond Quantum* presents Prequantum Classical Statistical Field Theory (PCSFT), a framework that seeks to derive quantum mechanics from classical random fields. The book argues that detector calibration, not abstract qubits, is the true source of quantum statistics and distinguishes...
Jess Lourey’s The Verdant Cage Is Atmospheric Upper YA
Jess Lourey’s new upper‑YA novel *The Verdant Cage* (hardcover $22.99, April 7 2026) delivers a gothic‑tinged dystopia set in Noah’s Valley, a walled community where a teenage apothecary, Rose Allgood, investigates her mother’s murder. The review praises Lourey’s atmospheric world‑building, a tightly...
These Infectious Ideas Are Spreading Like a Plague – And They’re Killing Free Thought
Gad Saad’s new book, *The Parasitic Mind*, frames contemporary “woke” ideologies as "idea pathogens" that hijack reasoning and suppress dissent. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, Saad argues these mental parasites thrive on tribal instincts, virtue signaling, and social exile, especially within...
Why Andrew Scandal Is a MeToo Moment for the Monarchy
Andrew Scandal discusses his investigative biography Entitled, which probes the British monarchy’s hidden power structures. He reveals that he reached out to 3,000 individuals for testimony, faced the collapse of the book’s U.S. release, and endured legal intimidation. The conversation...
Late Diagnosis Club Meeting - 8 April 2026
The Late Diagnosis Club held its second April meeting, a book‑club session centered on Susan Choi’s novel “Trust Exercise.” Participants dissected the book’s three‑part structure and its exploration of trust, deception, and trauma. The discussion emphasized how neurodivergent readers interpret...
Book Briefing: ‘Crisis Engineering’ by Marina Nitze, Matthew Weaver, and Mikey Dickerson
Crisis Engineering, co‑written by former Healthcare.gov lead Marina Nitze, former Google engineer Matthew Weaver, and ex‑U.S. Digital Service chief Mikey Dickerson, offers a playbook for turning organizational emergencies into lasting advantage. Drawing on high‑profile recoveries and private‑sector consulting, the book...
Teach Your Book: Designing a Class Around Your Memoir
Author Melissa Fraterrigo launched a free two‑hour memoir‑writing workshop tied to the release of her upcoming book, The Perils of Girlhood. Participants proved purchase receipts to join, and the class combined theory, personal excerpts, and hands‑on timeline exercises. The format...
Dua Lipa to Curate Southbank Centre’s 2026 London Literature Festival
Global pop star Dua Lipa has been appointed curator of the Southbank Centre’s 2026 London Literature Festival, coinciding with the venue’s 75th anniversary and the UK’s National Year of Reading. The festival runs from 21 October to 1 November and will feature...
The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
Sarah Beth Durst’s third Cozy Fantasies novel, *The Faraway Inn*, follows heart‑broken teen Calisa as she arrives at a crumbling Vermont B&B run by a stubborn great‑aunt. The story blends domestic detail—maple‑syrup shelves, quirky guests, a talking mirror—with gradually escalating uncanny magic,...
The Truth About Cookbook Proposals (My LIVE with Dianne Jacob)
In a March 25 Substack LIVE, food creator Yvette Marquez sat down with writing coach Dianne Jacob to demystify cookbook proposals. They explained that a proposal is a 60‑plus‑page business plan covering concept, audience, marketing, and sales strategy—not just a...
Spirit of America
The essay chronicles the rise and fall of the Lamb of God covenant community, a Baltimore‑based charismatic Catholic group that flourished in the late 1980s before dissolving in the 1990s. It details the community’s intense Pentecostal practices, the hidden abuse...
Night Contracts: Japan’s Vengeful Dead
The post explores Japan’s yūrei and onryō—ghosts that embody unresolved grief and vengeful justice—framing them as a cultural system rather than mere monsters. It explains how these spirits linger because relationships and obligations were left unfinished, and how traditional rituals...
My Interview with Peter Canellos, Author Of "Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement"
Peter Canellos released "Revenge for the Sixties," a biography of Justice Samuel Alito that traces his immigrant roots, the impact of Warren Court rulings on his family, and his rise through the Reagan Justice Department. In an exclusive interview, Canellos...
The Bifurcation of Rights: What’s Old Is New Again
Self‑publishing authors are increasingly striking deals with traditional houses, reviving the practice of splitting rights across multiple publishers. The surge in hybrid agreements lets writers allocate print, ebook, audio, and foreign rights to specialists, optimizing each format’s market potential. This...
The Empress and the Empire
The Classical Wisdom blog’s second installment examines Empress Livia Drusilla’s controversial role in the early Julio‑Claudian succession crises. It recounts how the deaths of heirs like Marcellus sparked political turmoil and how Augustus’s strategic marriages, especially to Agrippa, reshaped power...
The Simplest of Gestures
Jami Attenberg is opening registration for her May 9 "Why We Write" workshop and promoting the intensive "1000 Words of Summer" writing program, which runs May 30 through June 12. She also announced a series of live events in Atlanta (April 30), Asheville (May 19,...
Updike in Tehran
The author reflects on John Updike’s two‑volume collected stories, highlighting the early‑2000s tale “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” The story uniquely frames the 9/11 attacks from multiple viewpoints, including an elderly Updike‑type narrator, a hijacker, and a plane passenger. While...
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel *Yesteryear* follows Natalie Heller Mills, a curated influencer‑turned‑farm‑owner who awakens in a disorienting past. The book alternates between her present‑day brand‑building life and flashbacks that trace her rise from a Harvard student to an eight‑million‑follower...
Book 33: Reading the Dardanelles Disaster in the Age of Hormuz (100 Great Books)
Dan van der Vat’s *The Dardanelles Disaster* revisits the World War I attempt to force the Turkish strait open, illustrating how geography can outwit even the most powerful militaries. The book, written by a veteran journalist‑historian, shows the catastrophic gap...
Henry Miller: On the Bleak Future of ART and What Modern Man Dreads Most
Henry Miller argues that prolonged global conflicts will marginalize art, as societies prioritize security and material needs over creative expression. He warns that artists may become economic outcasts, with poetry and other forms repurposed for destructive ends. The essay suggests...
Paul’s Book of the Month: Fiona McIntyre – Sacred Earth
Fiona McIntyre’s new hardback "Sacred Earth" (120 pages, £35 ≈ $45) documents her recent work rooted in deep engagements with rugged North‑Atlantic landscapes. The book intertwines paintings of Scotland’s pines, Iceland’s retreating glacier, and Galicia’s Bronze‑Age petroglyphs, all created with self‑made mineral pigments. It...
From Mohamed Abd ElGawad’s ‘A Report on the Pussycat’
Mohamed Abdel Gawad's novella "A Report on the Pussycat" dramatizes a satirical clash in al‑Labban between tuk‑tuk driver Omar Abu Treika and bus driver Mahmoud the Gecko, sparked when a girl chooses a bus over a tuk‑tuk. The street battle...
Department of the Vanishing (2026) by Johanna Bell
Johanna Bell’s debut adult novel, *Department of the Vanishing*, wins the University of Tasmania’s Best New Unpublished Work prize and presents a dystopian eco‑fiction narrative about near‑future bird extinctions in Australia. The book is constructed as a collage of archival...
HarperCollins Is Turning Authors’ Books Into AI YouTube Shorts
HarperCollins has signed a multiyear agreement with AI‑powered studio Toonstar to convert the publisher’s top‑selling titles into short‑form animated videos for YouTube. The partnership will generate a pipeline of AI‑driven YouTube Shorts designed to capture the attention of younger viewers...
Awards Season Is Over, Now Elle Fanning Gets on the Press Push for “Margo’s Got Money Troubles”
AppleTV+ announced a limited‑series adaptation of the bestselling novel "Margo’s Got Money Troubles." The project stars Elle Fanning, with veteran actress Michelle Pfeiffer attached, and has already sparked buzz through a glossy press campaign. The adaptation follows AppleTV+'s recent push...