Before and After the Book Deal

A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book

By: Courtney Maum

Narrated by: Courtney Maum

Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2020 Courtney Maum (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Read this newbie writers!

This book was thought provoking and thorough. A great reference for any want to be writers!

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

Detailed How-To, Doesn’t Pull Punches, Great Sense of Humor

All new writers (young & old) should read this for our own good. It’s not a craft book. Maum writes about the mechanics of the other parts of publishing that may catch us by surprise. Her advice is frank and realistic, and she has pulled together a lot of data that only an experienced insider would know and be able to collect.

Honestly, the information is overwhelming at times, ALL the details—but it is reassuring to feel that so many things you wouldn’t have anticipated have already been covered for you. Now you know what to expect.

I love it when writers read their own audiobooks (Toni Morrison, Jonathan Haidt, Donna Tartt, Barack Obama, Valeria Luiselli, Michelle Obama, et al.), and Maum’s narration is fun. The audio quality is excellent. You’ll be able to listen without static on walks, workouts, cooking, etc., or while following along in the book. Maum’s voice is great, especially when she’s being witty and ironic.

I bought the Amazon / Audible package of the Kindle + audiobook, but I’m going to buy the hard copy now as well. It will be an essential part of my writer’s reference library.