Why should you subscribe to my upteenth newsletter?

To be honest, you probably shouldn’t. Did you know that I find a good number of writers to be insufferable and overly precious about their writing? That’s why you should stay away.

You will not find nuts-and-bolts publishing information in this newsletter. Nothing practical, nothing inspiring—only my conflicted feelings about writing advice and the publishing industry. After 25 years of being in the business of publishing, and helping writers (see my sincere work), I’ve rarely talked about the insecurities and psychological calamities of the path I’ve charted for myself. I continue doing it because … what else can I do with my life at this point? I’ve mastered this thing.

The name of this newsletter comes from a 2004 article in The Believer by Tom Bissell, who described Writer’s Digest [where I was publisher] as “possibly the most sinister malefactor of Panglossian expectations in the literary world today. Some of its books are useful. Most are pandects of stupidity.”

You’ve been warned.