HeyJaredBooks Are Life
Welcome to my newsletter all about writing, reading and a behind-the-scenes look at author life.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 3
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- Sep 18, 2026
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- Jul 23, 2026
Latest issues
Introducing My Next Novel: BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="739.5934065934066" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!vR3W!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe23694c9-265e-425b-8414-6cb14dcc38
The Query Letter That Helped Me Land My Literary Agent (opens the original)
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When you’re a novelist who hasn’t yet perfected the elevator pitch for your next project, the question you probably dread receiving most is, “what’s your book about?” Because when you’re in the process of drafting an ~80,000-word story, it can feel impossible to cleanly and effectively distill that story into a 30-second synopsis.This is also what makes writing query letters to literary agents so daunting. Many agents receive thousands of submissions each year from authors seeking representation
The Agony (& the Ecstasy?) of Copyediting a Novel (opens the original)
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When the manuscript for my second novel—which intrepid Googlers may have gotten a sneak preview of—was officially accepted as complete by my editor in May, many friends said some version of, “Congratulations! How does it feel to be done?”The thing is, while the Herculean developmental edits were behind me, I knew the process of bringing a novel into the world was far from over. And one of the phases that I find most psychologically daunting was just ahead
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