By Leslie Lindsay
A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more
Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book
~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~
I’m about to hit ‘send’ to my beta-readers!
Welcome to it’s almost-very-nearly September! Aside from sending my first-born to college in a matter of days–I am going to be sending out another baby, in a sense. A manuscript. It’s been workshopped and caressed and ignored. It’s also been screamed at, and a few other million things. In a sense, I feel the very same uncertainty and apprehension as if I were starting school this fall.
Here are a few tips for sending out the manuscript to beta-readers:
Prep your manuscript:
Ask your beta reader how they would like to read your manuscript. Don’t assume they would like a Word doc or Google doc. You’re not asking for line-by-line comments, it might be best for the beta-reader to have a pdf or epub version. With those formats, it might be easier to transfer to a portable e-reader.
You might consider personalizing the file name: TITLE beta copy for Elizabeth August 2023, for example.
Don’t worry about front matter or back matter or any of that ‘stuff.” Watermarks make it challenging to read. No copyrights, either.
Prep your reader:
It’s best to ask your reader to focus on some very simple things. Here are a few examples, but the idea is to keep the list of questions or concerns very reader-centric. That means leaving things out like character development, dialogue, pacing, structure (these are things writers and editors think about). Readers think about wither the character is interesting, if they story is captivating. As a reader what captivates them, what they find boring.
What to ask:
- Where were you bored? Mark spots where you found your mind drifting.
- Where were you captivated? If you love something, let me know wo I don’t edit it out!
- Where wer you confised? Mark those spots (see how I did that?)
- After you finish, let me know if there ere any evnets in the story that seemed unneccsary or any promise I seemed not to deliver on.
The Spun Yarn, a service that connects writers with paid for beta-readers suggests these questions:
- What’s your impresson?
- What do you like?
- What’s bugging you?
- Do you have any unanswered questions?
You might consider peppering the manuscript with check-points throughout the book, like every quarter or so.
At the end, you might consider asking:
- What were your favorite aspects of the book?
- What do you believe are the author’s greatest strengths?
- Which area’s of the book could use the most improvement?
- What do you believe might be the author’s blind spots?
The ask:
Float your idea out in a pleasant way: “I’m looking for some early readers to comment on my manuscript. It’s about___, ___, and ___. You will get an electronic version of the manuscript and specific questions I am looking to address. Each reader will have ___[amount of time, typically 6-8 weeks]. If this sounds like something that interests you, let’s chat more about specifics.
When you do find beta-readers, it’s common courtesy to show gratitude, humility, and respect. Sensitivity too. They are doing you a favor.
Question:
What are your thoughts on beta-readers? Have you used them? Were they helpful? Not-so-much? Did I hit on the most important questions? Are there some I should have added? Other beta-reader tips? I want to know!
Respond here in a comment, or find me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
xx,
~Leslie : )
This issue of Musings & Meanderings is jam-packed with some really great stuff to get your [writing and reading] summer off on the right foot. Coaching, book recommendations, where to submit, reading recommendations, author interviews, recently published prose, and a quick 4 questions insights interview with the fabulous Uma Mannion on her newest domestic thriller, TELL ME WHAT I AM (Pamela Dorman Books, August 2023)
By the way, I do not get any ‘kick-backs’ or other kind of payment (in-kind, or otherwise) for mentioning these classes/workshops/books/individuals. Sharing because if helps me, maybe it’ll speak to you, too.
Some Writerly Things:
- Vermont and writing in the fall sounds down-right dreamy. If this excites you, I urge you to check out this retreat, hosted the first weekend of October 2023.
- I get so much out of The Writer’s Bridge, an online Zoom platform featuring FREE (last Tuesdays of the month) craft talks with special guests, hosted by Sharla Yates and Allison K. Williams. SIGN UP here to get on their list so you never miss out. They also offer fee-based webinars, workshops, etc.
- Sequestrum is looking for place family submissions. Both subjects are incredibly complicated and offer an endless source of material. They want stories of hauntings, of betrayal, of fractures and survival. Basically–your most ambitious place and family writing in its most imaginative form. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Deadline: 9/15.
- Do you have to be ‘in the mood to write?‘ Maybe, but not always. This online class may be just what you need to give you ideas, inspiration, and to invite the muse. Check it out, sliding scale from $50.
- Dorian Karchmar of William Morris Endeavor says you absolutely need to know where your book sits with others on the shelf…and why.
- Black Warrior Review (BLR) is now accepting submissions in poetry, nonfiction, flash, and fiction for their 50.2 issue. Deadline is September 2 via Submittable.
- Check out this class through Corporeal Writing featuring Lidia Yuknavitch and Janice Lee, whales, and narwhals!
New! Featured Author|Insights
Domestic Suspense
Una Mannion
TELL ME WHAT I AM: A Novel
Leslie Lindsay:
Without responding in complete sentences, what would you say TELL ME WHAT I AM is about?
Una Mannion :
A missing woman. The impact of her disappearance on her sister and four year old daughter. Coercive control. Memory. Sisters. Mothers and daughters. The resilience of women who refuse to forget. How remembering can be an act of recovery. How forgetting can be a kind of violence.
Leslie Lindsay:
Where did you write TELL ME WHAT I AM ? Do you have any special writing routines or rituals? Do they change with each project, or remain constant over time?
Una Mannion :
I find it hard to write in small snippets of time. I need whole days, for days on end. Because I teach, there are breaks over the year, including summer, and I have used these to write immersively. A large portion of Tell Me What I Am was written in the mountains in Tennessee while I house sat for a friend and took care of her dog. I knew I had that one window and wrote furiously every day for five straight weeks. While the specific place I’ve written each project has been different, I know that for the writing part I need to feel like I am in it, that it is all I think and dream about.Editing is different. I don’t need the same sense of time and space. I can do it anywhere and in smaller chunks of time. I get up early and do a few hours before work in the morning and all through the weekends.The mug of coffee beside me is nearly ritual.
Leslie Lindsay:
If you weren’t writing, you would be…
Una Mannion :
A better mother! Less demented. Less happy. I feel like there’s no going back. Even if a book doesn’t do well, I am compelled to keep trying. Writing is quite consuming, and it is hard to remember what my life was like when I was just teaching and parenting. It’s funny because even though I find writing difficult it is even more difficult to not be writing. If I weren’t writing, I think I would still be doing something with my hands like furniture restoration or something with textiles.
Leslie Lindsay:
What ten words do you use on a daily basis—either in spoken or written language?
Una Mannion :
Demented. A word I use to self-describe. Especially this past month as I have just moved house. I don’t think it is used that much in the Sates but it is here.
Grasp. I love how this word suggests both catching hold and reaching for at the same time
Umm. I asked my children what word I most use and two of them said “um” which is not a word. Apparently it demonstrates my level of distraction and daydreaming.
Lashing. In Ireland, lashing refers to torrential rain. This month, unfortunately, I’ve said it’s lashing every day.
Shrug. A verb that carries both a visual action and emotional response.
Get Down. To the dogs jumping on the couch.
I suppose. I just listened to a podcast I did and realize this is a conversational crutch I use constantly, as if I am afraid to just assert something.
Y’all. I lived in the southern states for a few years and have retained this shortcut. In Ireland “ye” is the shorthand for “all of you”, but y’all does so much more work and I use it liberally.
Splintering. A word that makes me think of light being scattered.
Gash. I am not sure I use it every single day but I favor this word in my writing. It has so much heft. I can see an abyss of emptiness and pain in its small space.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Una Mannion was born in Philadelphia and lives in County Sligo Ireland. She has won numerous prizes for her poetry and short stories. Her debut novel, A Crooked Tree, was an international bestseller. Her second novel, Tell Me What I Am (August 2023) is published by Harper Books.
“I tore through this book with my heart in my throat, desperate to know what happens, but also not wanting it to end. It’s the perfect combination of really good writing, a propulsive plot, and fully realized characters. I’ll read anything Una Mannion writes.”
— Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon
- For more information, or to purchase a copy of TELL ME WHAT I AM, pop over to my Bookshop.org
- You can connect with Una on Instagram
- Or visit her website
Browse my Bookshop.org see what I’m reading in 2023, and other titles featured on Insights|Musings & Meanderings …and more!
You can find me, Leslie Lindsay, on Instagram for more bookish news, book unboxing reels, artsy flatlays, and book talks.
Some Readerly Things:
- This one might be a little writerly in theme and scope, but THE HORSE AT NIGHT takes a look at Margurite Duras, Elena Ferrante, Renee Gladman, others and discusses why it’s important to wander in creativity. Check out this brief about the book from P&W, listen/watch this podcast with author Amina Cain on Reading the Room.
- I love finding bookstores on my travels. It helps keep bookstores in business, it gives me an excuse to shop, a souvenir to remember my trip, supports local business and authors…and more. Check out this piece from Reader’s Digest for more insights.
- Before I got into this book biz, I had no idea what it meant to pre-order books. I mean, why order books at all when there’s a library?! Why not just wait? Here’s the thing: preordering books helps publishers know how many books to print (they call that ‘print-run,’ the more the greater chance it has of becoming a bestseller). It also helps authors. And it helps you, too, because getting ‘fun mail’ (i.e., a book in the mail!) is so great. Often you’ll forget you preordered and then–ohlala–BOOK IN THE MAIL! Check out these books coming out in 2024 you might like to preorder now, includung a new one from Caroline Leavitt, debut thrillers from Kate Brody and Ashley Elston.
Some Recently Published Interviews, Prose, Etc.:
- A double-interview featuring Cassandra Jackson and Jasmine Brown and their respective books, THE WRECK: A Daughter’s Memoir of Becoming a Mother (Viking, May 2023) and TWICE AS HARD (Beacon Hill, February 2023) ran in Hippocampus Magazine. See how and why I chose to pair these two titles and my connection to the material.
- I had the honor and priviledge of chatting with Priscilla Gilman, author of the memoir, THE CRITIC’S DAUGHTER (W.W. Norton, February 2023 for The North American Review. We talk about Guess jeans (with ankle zippers!), being the responsible older sister, challenging parents, and more. Gilman is the daughter of renown literary agent Lynn Nesbit and Richard Gilman, Yale School of Drama professor and theater critic.
- This poem, CLOTHES ON THE LINE was published in Abandoned Mine and was inspired by my fascination with ancestors. It’s speaker is a young girl in a dreamy, almost flow-of-conscious voice.
- A hybrid piece, AMERSAND & EPHEMERA was published in the latest print issue (vol. 16) of DASH Literary: Futurisms, and it’s a gorgeous issue all around. It’s a bit of a centro in which I cobbled together titles from spines of books on a shelf into a cohesive memoir-poetry-catalog.
- This piece, MODEL HOME: A Study Under Compression, in On the Seawall, is something I am so proud of. It was conceived in a craft store when I wandered down the model train aisle. At home, I already had the moss and tiny house and vials. I wanted to depict something with words and photography that would spotlight my family falling into disarray…my mother’s mental illness, the ‘perfect’ home, the family divided. This was my answer. It’s my first text + image publication. Here’s a sampling:
- I am bowled over by the reception my poem, CREVASSE, received by Luke Johnson in the Spring 2023 issue of Ballast. Check out our dialogue about one another’s work HERE. Also, that landing page! Swooning.
- Two pieces of poetry, TRUNDLE and HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS were published in Neologism Poetry Journal and both have to do with mental illness, one is particularly emotional; it has to do with my mother’s first psychotic episode when I was ten and Dad had to lock me in my room for safety.
- You can find some of my other poetry at Empyrean Literary Journal. This piece was conceived in a workshop at StoryStudio Chicago in which the prompt was to combine two totally different things with one’s childhood street. I chose my grandfather’s profession as stained-glass artist and the year 1989. The resulting piece is COLLAPSE.
- Thrilled to have this byline in LitHub! Here, I chat with 82-year-old poet Pattiann Rogers about her new collection, THE FLICKERING (Penguin Poets, April 2023).
- Speaking of Apraxia: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 2nd edition (Woodbine House, 2021) through some online retailers, your local library, used bookstores (it’s now officially out-of-print), and the audio edition is downloadable (with additional PDFs, resources) through Penguin Random House.
There’s more to this newsletter. Keep scrolling.
What’s Obsessing Me:
- This event, Chicago Women & Architecture has grabbed my attention. It’s a little pricey, but benefits the Edith Farnsworth House.
- I’m reading this book, THE CREATIVE ACT: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin, and it’s amazing. It’s one of those perineal reads I’ll return time and again. About inspiration, rest, competition (actually, lack of), more.
- Girls Write Now! I love this idea of spreading passion, knowledge, and the power of words (our voices) to girls. Girls Write Now pairs women and gender expansive mentors with mentees aged 14-24 for a holistic approach to writing, career and college advice, and wellness. Join us virtually from anywhere in the United States or in-person to learn in dynamic writing workshops, create in community with other women and gender expansive creators, and form a mentoring relationship that can last a lifetime. Are you interested in becoming a mentor? Applications are being accepted now.
What I’m Listening To:
I just tuned into the podcast, The Book I Had to Write hosted by Paul Zakrzewski (after taking a mini-flash class with him through Hippocampus Magazine). The particular episode I’m listening to is with Abigail Thomas, the author of Safekeeping (among others), and also ‘the mistress of white space.’
You are reading Musings & Meanderings, a consistently inconsistent weekly newsletter about the literary life from Leslie Lindsay, and home of an archive of bestselling and debut author interviews. I’m also on twitter and instagram. I try to answer comments as best I can. Feel free to find my book suggestions on bookshop.org, and also check out the authors I’ve hosted in in-depth interviews HERE.
In the meantime, catch me on:
Reviewing books and talking about them with others on-line and in-person is one small way to engage with & support the literary community.
Thank you for letting me guide you on your bookish journey.
Let’s walk this bookish path together.
THANK YOU!!
Some of you have been reading my reviews, interviews, and meanderings for more than a decade now. That’s huge and I am so humbled. Thanks for being here.
More than 2,800 folks read Musings & Meanderings.
Wishing you much renewal & sunshine
Created by Leslie Lindsay. I’m a proud book nerd. Let’s connect on Instagram, and Twitter. See what I’m reading on Bookshop.org. Find my reviews & ratings on GoodReads. I’m also a Zibby Books Ambassador, part of the Riverherd with Riverhead Books, a proud supporter of the Between the Covers podcast hosted by David Naimon and produced thru Tin House, and an early reviewer of Penguin Random House titles. My book, SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (2021), is available in audio only by PRHaudio.
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Leslie A. Lindsay 
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