Before and After the Book Deal
A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book
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Narrated by:
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Courtney Maum
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By:
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Courtney Maum
About this listen
Everything you've ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide by acclaimed author Courtney Maum. Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including internationally best-selling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob. Agents, film scouts, film producers, translators, disability and minority activists, and power agents and editors also weigh in, offering advice and sharing intimate anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry.
Are MFA programs worth the time and money? How do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Did you get a good advance? What do you do when you feel envious of other writers? And why the heck aren't your friends saying anything about your book? Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential (and everything in between), Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it's really like to be an author.
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- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Manifest Now provides a step-by-step guide with tools, techniques, and proven strategies to raise your frequency and create the reality you want. This audiobook is designed to guide you through the mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of manifesting and creating all that your heart desires. You'll learn how to start removing mental and emotional blocks so you can rediscover that manifesting is your natural birthright. You'll feel more confident, reconnected, and powerful as you listen.
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This is my first review of 2 years subscribed!
- By Rodrigo on 02-22-19
By: Idil Ahmed
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30 Covert Emotional Manipulation Tactics: How Manipulators Take Control in Personal Relationships
- By: Adelyn Birch
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Identifying covert emotional manipulation is tricky. You sense something is wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on the problem. This powerful book will reveal to you if manipulation is at play in your relationships. It will open your eyes. You will learn 30 tactics manipulators use to get what they want. You will also learn to spot the warning signs within yourself that expose covert manipulation is taking place, even if you can't identify the specific tactics being used.
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This book can change your life!
- By Cat O. on 04-04-18
By: Adelyn Birch
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Mind Mapping
- Improve Memory, Concentration, Communication, Organization, Creativity, and Time Management
- By: Kam Knight
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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This is a comprehensive guide to learning about a wonderful technique called mind maps. Mind maps are an amazing organizational and creativity tool that can improve memory, concentration, communication, organization, creativity, and time management.
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make sure to practice
- By Meryem on 04-24-17
By: Kam Knight
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There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather
- A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)
- By: Linda Åkeson McGurk
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Bringing Up Bébé meets Last Child in the Woods in this lively, insightful memoir about a mother who sets out to discover if the nature-centric parenting philosophy of her native Scandinavia holds the key to healthier, happier lives for her American children.
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Great concept, interesting writing.
- By Kate on 11-03-17
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How to Write Best-Selling Fiction
- By: James Scott Bell, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: James Scott Bell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
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Most people think the way to write a best seller is to have a lot of talent and even more luck. As you will learn, there is a recipe for success, and luck may be the least important ingredient in creating a best seller. No one has cracked the code better than James Scott Bell. A best-selling author himself, and the author of the number-one best seller for writers, Plot & Structure, Mr. Bell has been teaching the principles of best-selling fiction for over 20 years, principles that apply to any genre or style.
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I'm a writer and this course is to blame.
- By accentrique on 07-22-19
By: James Scott Bell, and others
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English Grammar Boot Camp
- By: Anne Curzan, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Anne Curzan
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
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Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar? In fact, it's the integral basis of how we speak and write. As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word.
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Spectacular
- By Quaker on 09-24-16
By: Anne Curzan, and others
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Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
- The Untold History of English
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar. Why do we say "I am reading a catalog" instead of "I read a catalog"? Why do we say "do" at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history.
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Great for casual linguists
- By Bertie on 01-11-10
By: John McWhorter
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Easy Spanish Step-by-Step
- By: Barbara Bregstein
- Narrated by: Rachel Story
- Length: 37 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Easy Spanish Step-by-Step is designed in such a way that each section builds upon the last to help your brain progressively create lasting and meaningful connections to each new word and grammar concept. Simply by listening and speaking out loud with us, you will naturally progress, step-by-step, toward Spanish communication and fluency.
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Best so far . . .
- By Medusa in Akron on 07-20-21
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Survival Theory
- A Preparedness Guide
- By: Jonathan Hollerman
- Narrated by: Jim Pelletier
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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This preparedness guide will help you develop a plan to escape the deadly rioting and looting, showing you where you can take your family to keep them safe, even if you can't afford a fully-stocked survival retreat. Jonathan Hollerman's in-depth expertise and recommendations will cover many topics including bug-out bags, SHTF Weapons, tactical gear, survival tools, knives, long-term food storage, livestock, bug-out locations, survival retreat recommendations, and much more.
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Literally a half decent book.
- By LA on 09-29-16
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How to Boost Your Credit Score 100+ Points in 30 Days Without Credit Repair!
- By: Brian Diez
- Narrated by: Mike Norgaard
- Length: 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Did you know that you could have credit scores in the low 600s even if you never missed a bill payment in your life? That's because your payment history is only 35% of your credit score. How to Boost Your Credit Score 100+ Points in 30 Days Without Credit Repair will show credit industry secrets for maximizing the other 65%. The best part is you will see real results in just 30 days.
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Don't waste a credit on this!
- By typhoidtrish on 10-01-18
By: Brian Diez
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Informative and useful
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Heart felt story about how horses can help heal us
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What Editors Do
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A must!!!
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many great tips
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Writers talk about their work in many ways: as an art, as a calling, as a lifestyle. Too often missing from these conversations is the fact that writing is also a business. The reality is, those who want to make a full- or part-time job out of writing are going to have a more positive and productive career if they understand the basic business principles underlying the industry.
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Informative and useful
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Great content!
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Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether newcomers or accomplished professionals. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions, how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place."
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Excellent advice and examples for better writing.
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The vast majority of writers begin the storytelling process with only a partial understanding of where to begin. Some labor their entire lives without ever learning that successful stories are as dependent upon good engineering as they are artistry. But the truth is, unless you are master of the form, function, and criteria of successful storytelling, sitting down and pounding out a first draft without planning is an ineffective way to begin. Story Engineering starts with the criteria and the architecture of storytelling, the engineering and design of a story....
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dislike narrator voice/intonation, didnt get far
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How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is the author's manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and the nation's history.
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The unexpected how-to
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What listeners say about Before and After the Book Deal
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-08-24
The best book for first-time authors
Absolutely a must-have for first-time authors. Not only insightful and honest, but fun (funny) to listen to (at times) and Courtney's a great narrator.
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- Amazon8675309
- 07-19-20
Read this newbie writers!
This book was thought provoking and thorough. A great reference for any want to be writers!
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- Patricia C Murphy
- 09-29-20
Love it!
Maum gives all the right advice with the perfect sense of humor. This makes the bad news more palatable and the good news a celebration.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-04-22
Informative!
I liked the book. The thing that kept taking me out of the book was when the author would refer to Trump a couple times. A pointless person reference for an irrelevant point to taxes. As an enrolled agent and CPA myself, I would advise that you overlook the tax portion entirely. seek that information else where. other than that... amazing book. thank you for sharing the accumulated information you have for writing and the industry.
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- Augusta Allen-Jones
- 08-07-23
My Bible!
Loved Courtney’s narration!
This book has everything you need to know about the arch of publishing your book! Right down to the snacks you’ll need along the way. All the while being humble, humorous and human! Highly, highly recommend it to any writer, new OR already published. I will return to it throughout all my writing endeavors! Thank you Ms Maum, THANK YOU!!!
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- angie
- 10-15-20
Best investment Ever
A gem. Practical, insightful, illuminates the business of writing that both makes me feel better for not ‘making it’ right away and fortifies me to keep trying.
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- donalurn
- 07-24-22
Useful, real information for writers.
This book is real about writing for profit. It also has enough encouragement to make the most cowardly writer feel positive. New writers get questions answered. I feel that anyone writing would benefit from this book.
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- Ludmil Mitrev
- 03-20-21
A gem for early-stage writers
Courtney Maum's latest, "Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book" is a gem of a guidebook for early stage authors who are preparing to publish. It is well-written, informative and to the point. Ms Maum is warm-hearted, generous with her advice and genuine in her desire to help fellow writers. Her reading carries the book well and her voice naturally draws you in. Moreover, she delivers her knowledge with delicate humor, and strikes a welcome balance between realism and inspiration. The book is well-researched and draws on the experiences of many an editor, publisher, agent and author, all individuals whom she interviewed for this opus. Well done, Courtney Maum, and thank you!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michael Anson Schroeder
- 01-04-23
The Book Deal
I was afraid of this book. More specifically, I was afraid of producing a substandard work of fiction and, then, not needing this excellent work of nonfiction which navigates the publishing world so deftly. Thank God Courtney Maum saw fit to set down on paper her prescient observations regarding how to maintain sanity ‘before and after the book deal.’ For in truth, that is the true subject of her nonfiction—How not to go ‘batshit crazy’ while attempting to publish one’s first book. Many thanks, Courtney Maum.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cherilyn Parsons
- 05-17-20
An essential guide and debut author’s best friend
There’s no other book I know of in the publishing realm like this: a warm, witty, trenchant, and super informative guide to the process of getting published for the first (or second) time. Courtney Maum truly is a writer’s best friend. I run a major literary festival and also am preparing my own novel to go out into the world, so I gobbled up every word of this book. I’ll be recommending it to everyone! And yes, Courtney was supposed to be in my festival, which we had to cancel because of the coronavirus, but we’re re-creating many of the events virtually. Hoping Courtney can join us!
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