“Caitlin Barasch’s debut novel is described as an edgy and hilarious psychological thriller about an aspiring novelist who finds herself stalking and then writing about her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.”
See the Good Morning America clip here.
HBO Adaptation of The Stationery Shop In Development
Read more about the stellar team bringing Kamali’s tale of star-crossed lovers to the small screen here!
NYT Best Seller and Reese Witherspoon’s June Book Club Pick: Seven Days In June by Tia Williams
“A sexy, modern love story to start the summer off right” — REESE WITHERSPOON
“A smart, sexy testament to Black joy … I absolutely loved it” — JODI PICOULT
If you haven’t bought Seven Days In June, what are you waiting for? Buy your copy today!
OMag Highlights Two WSA Books
We are so proud to share that two WSA books represented by Nicki Richesin, Everybody (Else) Is Perfect by Gabrielle Korn (January 26, 2021) and Red Rock Baby Candy by Shira Spector (March 23, 2021), have been highlighted by Oprah Magazine in a list of “32 LGBTQ That Will Change the Literary Landscape in 2021”!
Read more here.
Congratulations to WSA’s Michelle Bowdler on being long-listed for the National Book Award for Nonfiction!
We are so proud of Bowdler’s Is Rape A Crime? (represented by Nicki Richesin) which has been long-listed for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Here is the complete list below:
2020 Longlist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction:
Michelle Bowdler, Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a ManifestoFlatiron Books / Macmillan Publishers
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented AmericansOne World / Penguin Random House
Jill Lepore, If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the FutureLiveright / W. W. Norton & Company
Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm XLiveright / W. W. Norton & Company
Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian TerritoryW. W. Norton & Company
Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
Tin House Books
Jonathan C. Slaght, Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers
Jerald Walker, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
Mad Creek Books / The Ohio State University Press
Frank B. Wilderson III, Afropessimism
Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company
Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Random House / Penguin Random House
How To Sell A Book by Sarah Ruiz
Pictured: My notebook from creative writing class in high school.
How to sell a book.
2000-2009: Write a story about a kid farting. It amuses your 4th grade teacher. Write weird stuff in MS and HS, including some angsty poetry. Get a teacher who critiques your work and teaches you revision.
2009-2013: Start a writing club in college with your BFF. Write a bad novel about a psychic teen named Cayce Edgar (lol). Take a fiction writing class and become the prof’s TA. Convince him to advise a fiction honors thesis, even though you aren’t a cw major. It almost doesn’t get approved. Work harder on it than you ever worked on anything in your life.
2015: Apply to 1 MFA program. Get waitlisted.
2016: Work on your app stories for NCSU’s MFA program every morning at 5 am. Get accepted on April 1st while on a plane. (It’s not a joke. Also you’re pregnant and have a toddler.)
2016-2018 Start your MFA 7 months pregnant. Be bummed your water doesn’t break in class. Write a novel.
Dec 2018: Query novel. Miraculously spend less than a month in the query trenches. Assume sub will be easy (lol).
March 2019: Go on sub. Revise book with an editor, but the book never sells.
Aug-Nov 2019: It’s okay. You were already working on the next thing. Send your agent the first 80 pages. She gently/accurately tells you it’s not great. Agree and freak out for 2 days. Read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. An old idea pops into your head. Write the first draft in 70 days.
Feb 2020: Send horrible 2nd draft to your agent. She sees potential but gives GIANT feedback. Gut it and revise for 3.5 months.
May 2020: Agent loves it. Give your dream editor (the one who liked the first book) an exclusive.
June 2020: Commence the longest two weeks of your life. Expect rejection every day. Oh wait! The editor makes an offer. Cry, roll on the floor, drink champagne. (Not simultaneously.)
The point: Getting published is hard. Everyone’s path is different. I had a LOT of failures along the way (and expect plenty more), but each was a step forward, not back.
–Sarah Ruiz, author of forthcoming LOVE, LISTS, AND FANCY SHIPS