Jane Friedman

How to Use Podcast Guesting to Promote Your Nonfiction Book | Jane Friedman One author appeared on 50+ podcasts before her book launched. Here’s what she learned about timing, pitching, and making it work for you.

Therapist and nonfiction author @oonametz.bsky.social was a guest on over 50 podcasts prior to her book's launch. Here's what she learned.

Base Your Story Structure on Principles, Not Systems | Jane Friedman There’s no one-size-fits-all way to structure a story, so understanding the core principles will help you decide what’s right for yours.

Try searching for “how to structure a story” and you'll get a panoply of instructions for the “right” way to structure a story:

Hero’s Journey
Three-act structure
Save the Cat
Snowflake method
Freytag’s Pyramid
Fichtean Curve

What do you do with them? @tiffanyyatesmartin.bsky.social advises.

I Hired a Book Publicity Firm for £1,800. Here’s What Went Wrong. | Jane Friedman One author reflects on how her desire to not just outsource marketing, but to outsource even thinking about it, led to regrettable results.

This case study in hiring a book publicity firm is both laugh-out-loud funny and highly informative. Few people share these poor experiences due to shame and embarrassment.

If you're thinking of hiring *anyone* to help you with book publicity, this is a must-read.

Editing Like a Journalist Will Make Your Publishing Journey Easier | Jane Friedman Making the leap from short online articles to longer, narrative work brought one writer into contact with a new challenge: being truly edited.

Making the leap from journalism to book-length work brought one writer into contact with a new challenge: being truly edited.

@julietizon.bsky.social shares lessons.

Embrace Quirky: 5 Benefits of Using Animal Point-of-View Characters | Jane Friedman By observing our own species through the eyes of another, something new just might be revealed to us.

Be forewarned, if you write fiction involving animal characters, especially for adult readers, people will likely refer to your story as “quirky.”

Book coach Erin Radniecki advises on when animal POVs can benefit your story.

Literary Agents and the Book-to-Screen Pipeline: Q&A with Jillian Davis | Jane Friedman I spoke with the head of the book department at LA-based Kaplan Stahler Literary Agency, which is most associated with adaptation deals.

Recently, the LA-based TV literary agency Kaplan Stahler brought on Jillian Davis to start their book department. She focuses on authors of YA, romance, and women’s fiction.

I’m grateful to Jillian for answering a few questions about the unique space she’s in.

What Is a Memoir’s Essential Question and Why Do You Need One? | Jane Friedman The first question is often some version of “What happened to me?” Understanding it helps craft a story that speaks to your readers’ needs.

"Readers don’t care about what you’ve gone through. It’s not that they’re callous ... they need to know what’s in it for them."

@lisacooperellison.bsky.social explains how to identify a memoir's essential question.

11 Steps from Your Big Fat Mess to Your Next Draft | Jane Friedman If you’re overwhelmed by the volume of accumulated words after months or years of generating new material, here’s how to tame and shape them.

If you view writing purely as process—a way to understand yourself—feel free to stop reading here.

If, however, you aim to shape your material into a work for others, then you need a follow-on practice.

Here's what to do, from @audreykalman.bsky.social.

If you're dealing with a company to create/run/host this kind of tool for you, the risk appears low unless that company's security were compromised (which, of course, happens).

What I Learned from Turning Myself Into an AI Chatbot | Jane Friedman One book coach wondered whether an AI tool, trained on his own archive of advice, could answer authors’ questions as well as he could.

For authors in the consulting/scholarly/nonfiction space: (1) retain chatbot rights in your publishing contracts and (2) readers may come to expect these tools as part of your published work. Amazon is already using chatbot functionality in books w/o having the rights (of course they are).

If you can't make it live, the recording will be available this evening at my YouTube channel: youtube.com/@janefriedman

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Business Clinic: Should Successful Indie Authors Pursue an Agent?. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Author D. Liebhart has achieved modest success as an independent author. Her first novel, HOUSE ON FIRE, has sold over 10,000 copies and generated 1.7 million KENP page reads in the two and a half ye...

I am quite excited for today's (free) business clinic where I'll discuss self-pub when you're successful versus the opportunity to work with a publisher. Author D. Liebhart has meticulously tracked her sales and expenses, and is openly sharing her numbers. This is rare! Join me at 12p Eastern today.

Why Your Story Keeps Stalling (and How to Get It Moving) | Jane Friedman Stories are like trains: a connected chain of main events (railcars) and transitions (couplings), with very little stopping at platforms.

Every scene needs three things:

1. A Railcar (main event).

2. A Coupling (transition/consequence). The piece of logic that locks one scene to the next.

3. Subjectivity (the meaning & feeling).

Author Leslie Bradford-Scott deconstructs scenes by using the metaphor of trains.

Writing Beyond Ourselves | Jane Friedman Writing outside our lived experience isn’t just about getting facts right—it’s also about learning who we are when we truly listen to others.

"How was a middle-aged male, a cop for that matter, supposed to write about a woman trying to make sense of her complicated life? More to the point, how do we write authentically when a character’s life experience is so different from our own?" —David Lane Williams

The Big Mistake That Keeps Writers From Finishing a Novel | Jane Friedman One writer explains why you shouldn’t necessarily get feedback on your first draft—and what you should do instead.

Writers hear the advice to join a critique group and perhaps hope it will serve every need—motivation, accountability, encouragement, feedback, companionship. But it’s hard for one group to provide all those things to all members at the same time.

@zenaryder.bsky.social suggests what to do instead.

Finding the Right Tone for Your Memoir | Jane Friedman Your story’s tone and content don’t have to match—and when they don’t, they can combine to create something greater than their sum.

"Divorcing your tone from your content does not strip your memoir of its authenticity—in fact, it deepens it. There’s more to your book than just what happens in the story. Pairing content and tone can give you access to meaning beyond merely the scope of the plot." —Stephanie Mitchell

How I Navigated My Way to a Memoir Deal from a Small Publisher | Jane Friedman Learning from others and practicing patience while navigating the publishing industry led to a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

"Every small publishing house led to another small publishing house I had never heard of before. So, despite my starting out with a short list of publishers, the list of possibilities for unagented submissions just kept growing."
—Audrey Ship (@audreyshipp.bsky.social)

The Glimmers You Find While Chasing the Whale | Jane Friedman While in pursuit of our writing goals, the serendipitous experiences along the way might be just as meaningful as landing the big fish.

"I was introduced to glimmers during a workshop facilitated by author Pam Houston at the Breadloaf Conference in 2023. She spoke of experiences that stay with you because they make life sharper, sweeter, and meaningful."

Why author Sheila Myers continues despite her 1099s looking poor.

Publishing for Minnesota Silent auction 'Publishing for Minnesota' hosted online at 32auctions.

A great opportunity here to help yourself and do some good for others at the same time. Publishing auction ends tonight.

How NOT to Confuse Your Readers | Jane Friedman A successful story unfurls in a way that both keeps readers grounded and keeps them guessing—so withhold information, but not context.

Withholding information is an important storytelling skill. But you shouldn’t withhold any old information; you should hold back information that matters to the character.

Insight from writer and editor @erinhalden.bsky.social.

Honored to run it, thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Writing at the Intersection of Fear, Politics and Responsibility | Jane Friedman Writing is an act of exposure, especially when it’s about something personal, political, and dangerous. But we write anyway.

"[Writers will] be misunderstood. We’ll be criticized by strangers. Sometimes even by people we love. Writing is an act of exposure, and writing about something this personal, this political, and this dangerous feels like standing in a blizzard naked." —@rebeccamakkai.bsky.social

What Improv Comedy Taught Me About Writing Novels | Jane Friedman Improv is about being in the moment, and showed one author how to let go, listen better, take risks, and move on when something doesn’t work.

"Improv clarified something important for me about writing. When I hedge in my novels ... it’s the same impulse at work: self-protection. But just like onstage, hesitation drains momentum. A bold choice, even an imperfect one, gives the story something to push against." —Kyla Zhao

The Art of Connective Tissue: What Raymond Carver Teaches Us About Building Character and Showing | Jane Friedman Small bits of action—descending the stairs, cleaning off the car—might not be insignificant if they tell something about a character’s world.

Most writing advice tells you to cut ruthlessly.

But what if some of the most powerful writing happens in the spaces between your “important” scenes?

Author Seth Harwood offers powerful insight into storytelling using Raymond Carver as an example.

A bar chart showing the electricity use of several daily activities with the subtitle "The 'typical query' is not a useful way to think about coding agents' energy use." The bar for a 'typical ChatGPT query' is not even visible. My median Claude Code session is somewhere between the average US household per minute and toasting bread for three minutes. My median day with Claude Code is something like running a dishwasher.

Whenever I read discourse on AI energy/water use that focuses on the "median query," I can't help but feel misled. Coding agents like Claude Code send hundreds of longer-than-median queries every session, and I run dozens of sessions a day.

On my blog: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01...

Please don't abstain—I don't! 🤓

The Pros and Cons of Launching a Book Without a Publicist | Jane Friedman A publicist can be an invaluable part of your launch team when your book is published, but it’s also possible to do it on your own.

Should you hire a book publicist? There's no one right answer for all. I tell every author: don't expect the investment to come back to you in the form of sales. But it can be a worthwhile investment that delivers a career-long boost.
@heathersweeney.bsky.social offers pros & cons.

Later this month: I'll be speaking at the IBPA and BookLife Boot Camp, where author @russellnohelty.com and I will discuss how authors can control their own destiny, leverage their intellectual property, and build their audiences.

Learn more: www.ibpa-online.org/store/viewpr...

YouTube: youtube.com/@janefriedman

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Indie Author’s Guide to a Standout Amazon Listing. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. For self-publishing authors: Learn practical strategies for optimizing your Amazon book listing for more visibility and sales. Book coach Elizabeth Lyons will show you how to identify the keywords you...

Today at 1p Eastern! This one is setting some registration records.

Can't make it? 🥲 Recording will be available later on my YouTube channel. See comments for link.

Register for free: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...