Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

In the pinnacle of my literary geekiness, I’ve started reading acknowledgements pages in books.

You can learn a lot—how many people it takes to make a book, how many friends contribute and the professionals who supported the writer.

Today, Joie Jager-Hyman tells us about everybody who helped her book get written--proving once and for all that no book is an island. Fat Envelope Frenzy--a non-fiction look at the college application process.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
I know your writing group played a large role in writing this book. Can you describe that experience? What was the moment or aspect in your book that your writing partner helped you the most? How can writers find these kinds of relationships?

Joie Jager-Hyman:
My writers group helped me at every step of the process. Continue reading...

I found my agent, Tracy Brown, through my friend, Courtney Martin, whose book Perfect Girls Starving Daughters was a big success. 

I also spent a ton of time with Kate Torgovnick, who was writing Cheer! (A MUST READ) at the time.  We had almost identical deadlines so we literally worked together seven days a week towards the end. 

It helped that Kate's book had a similar format in that she followed three different cheerleading teams throughout a year of competition.  She knew what it was like to travel around the country and write about real people going after their dreams. 

Finally, I have to say that being able to share my work in writers' group meetings was invaluable not only because of the feedback I got, but also because it helped me get over any fear I had of making my writing public. 

Coming from academia, I wasn't used to writing stuff that a lot of people might actually read.