297 Zibby Owens | How to Get Published & The Truth About the Book Business

okay very cool and this is you said like you said seventh book this is you've done a few essay collections now a few anthologies of things

correct so i have edited three anthologies meaning other i mean i'm sure all your listeners know but anthologies are other people's essays which i have aggregated i'm like the you know, like the schoolmaster collecting in everybody's essays and then putting them in a book for everybody to read.

This book is my first standalone collection of only my own essays.

Although I'm so tempted to aggregate more stories that I've also launched a between chapter sub stack, which is other people's essays.

We have over a hundred already of other people writing about what chapters they're in between, because I just can't help myself.

I really love hearing other people, what other people are up to.

So I do have that as a companion, but it is not a book.

And the book is my own essays.

Okay.

Right.

Okay.

That makes sense.

So this additional sub stack that you've created between chapters, is that, is your goal for that to just be an ongoing thing that will kind of keep going indefinitely?

yes i'm learning so much from that to be honest i mean i already know what happened to me i'm i'm excited to share it with everybody else but i get every day we have a new essay and i get to learn like what is it like to go into retirement what is it like to graduate college now what is it like to lose a child or something absolutely horrific so everybody is is sharing these deeply personal moments and that helps me get through my life which is really why i love books because I turn to books and writing, and I'm sure you do too, for all of that older sibling kind of advice where you get to read about other people's perspectives and experiences.

And I don't know, I feel armed with all of their help from all the books I read.

I get to live my life a little more informed and prepared.

yeah it's about the finding like empathy right because sometimes and i bet you you've probably found this already with between chapters is like someone will write an experience that you maybe are familiar with but then because of various different things that happened to them during that time they kind of reacted differently or felt differently about that situation than you had

totally yes i think it's really important to understand different perspectives and be able to tolerate different opinions as opposed to just putting your own forth as the be-all, end-all.

We have to have room for everybody's thoughts and feelings.

Otherwise, how do we even... really go ahead as a functioning group of human beings.