How My Newsletter Helped Me Land an Agent and a Big Five Book Deal | Jane Friedman

I%u2019d been writing my newsletter, Write More, Be Less Careful, for just under a year at that point. It had started as a daily writing prompt to celebrate National Poetry Month in April 2021, and I%u2019d continued after that, sending newsletters two or three times a month with writing tips and revision exercises, interviews with writers and other creative types, and encouragement to keep writing. I envisioned it as a place to bring together different parts of my brain: my own creative practice, my love of teaching writing, and my research expertise in the field of writing studies. Across those parts of my life, I%u2019d thought a lot about why writing is hard, and I%u2019d developed strategies for doing it anyway. I imagined the newsletter as a way of sharing those ideas with other writers. I didn%u2019t start it as part of my efforts to get an agent and a book deal%u2014but it ended up playing a pivotal role in that journey.