I have a fairly high tolerance for witnessing bad things beyond my control but Amber that is a lifelong post-traumatic nightmares video
Founding Partner, Neon Literary. Get in, loser, we're making it art. www.neonliterary.com
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I have a fairly high tolerance for witnessing bad things beyond my control but Amber that is a lifelong post-traumatic nightmares video
Jesus Christ. One is asleep and the other is on her iPad and seems to have not registered what she was hearing but Jesus fucking Christ how do we live like this
I opened this fucking app waiting to pick up my 6th grader from school and that cucking video autoplayed on my car speaker with my two younger children in the back seat. Fuck this, fuck this, we live in hell
it’s a beautiful day to shut the fuck up
Latest newsletter: yeah, sorry, the already-famous are almost always gonna get most of the pie. neonliterary.substack.com/p/yes-the-au...
do you know of anyone who is or was in a long term relationship because of iNaturalist DMs?
I just want to read things I've never read before that make me recognize and give shape to things I've felt all along
Poor Jon Karp having to share his spotlight with Tayvis 😪
This is great: a National Guardsman standing up to say every member of the National Guard and military "is legally obliged to disobey an illegal order."
Democrats have so failed this moment in US politics.
HEY GUESS WHAT, @jenashleywright.bsky.social is a national bestselling author, specifically @usatoday.com bestselling author. She’s had bestselling author VIBES this whole time, but it’s nice to make it official and I’m very, very proud of her. On Sale Now: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jenni...
Just saw someone call the military occupation of DC a distraction, and that’s it, the it’s a distraction people have lost it. We should wait until the bulldozer is running over your house and all chime in with “isn’t there something else we should be talking about”
Kind of disappointed you didn’t work Martin Jay into our bird pun email exchange the other week but ILY anyway
In Megan’s case: she directed preorders to Bookshop in a post here and was able to track sales from the link
(Still very much going to buy the shit out of Laura's book on literary agents, though!)
1. I love Bluesky for having moved 1000s of copies of my client Megan Greenwell's BAD COMPANY. 2. Candidly, the key to effective BlueSky book promotion is not to come in with the attitude of "if you people don't give me the one-way utility I want, I'm bouncing."
Absolutely. At this point, it's moved thousands of copies of my client @greenwell.bsky.social's book BAD COMPANY. I think mission-driven progressive nonfiction is going to hit harder here than other stuff, but for that, it's waaaaay better than Twitter EVER was IMO. bookshop.org/p/books/bad-...
Thank you ❤️
Is It Pinkeye Or Melting Sunscreen: The Ocular Struggles of a Summer Mom in Midlife
😬
Hell yeah! Go down the main path halfway between the gate and the chapel and look left. There are six of them right there off the path, each about 15’ tall. This time of year they should have rotting brown catkins on them
Now that’s a-spicy metaphor ::grateful Mario sobbing::
Have you ever seen a more perverted ellipsis in your life?
On Biden's book deal and other things at the intersection of publishing and mortality: neonliterary.substack.com/p/am-i-too-o...
A wealthy, private institution should be the first to stand up because other institutions are more vulnerable because they lack the resources. Columbia chose a different course. I would never send a child here to be educated.
❤️😭😭
"I just want to say to them, ‘Well, I started in publishing in the late 70s. I heard that then, and I’ve heard it every minute since.’”
Different Gary, same murmuration: airmail.news/issues/2025-... neonliterary.substack.com/p/on-murmura...
😱😱😱
Oh my God, SMUT backwards is TUMS
For more about this phenomenon, chef recommends: ALL WE WANT IS EVERYTHING: How We Dismantle Male Supremacy, @sorayachemaly.bsky.social, November 11, 2025 neonliterary.substack.com/p/on-murmura...
NEW for @hellgatenyc.com: Having failed spectacularly at stopping Mamdani, the Times is now unveiling its tried-and-true strategy to drum up controversy—and question the legitimacy of a person's humanity—by doing the dirtiest of work for the worst-faith actors. hellgatenyc.com/nyt-race-sci...
the amount of times i have explained to excited Scrabble players that it is actually a mathematical logic game, and as such, I am terrible at it
DS & Durga: David Moltz has an uncanny ability to transport you to far off places. I like Cowboy Grass, Debaser, Amber Kiso, and Burning Barbershop. If you can get a sample of his Pale Grey Mountain, Small Black Lake Sample (part of his Hylands collection), it's really good with tailored tweeds.
PS here's my latest newsletter neonliterary.substack.com/p/do-you-rea...
Children of TikTok: you do not "ball your eyes out." If your eyes are getting balled out, you are in a highly specific sex position in which I wish you much boisterous glee. OTHERWISE THE WORLD IS BAWLED! BAWLED!
What’s the word for when you don’t believe in witch shit but are also not exactly thrilled about the amount of dead crows that have crossed your path in the past week
😍😍😍😍
OH MY GOD HI
This is a great, hopeful, victorious article and you should read it and let yourself feel happy for New York City and for progress 💙
(No but in all seriousness I thibk about him at least once a day: neonliterary.substack.com/p/an-unhinge...)
Thank you so much — and since you mentioned it, here’s a picture of the baby American chestnut growing under the monkey puzzles in their Andes region 😭
True story: I was inspired to (re)write this today after a branch hit my car while I was driving and I almost screamed myself unconscious (the dent was minor) open.substack.com/pub/neonlite...
aw, thank you!
You can honestly cut it down to just “if you had to fuck a Muppet” and same results
One of those "Glow" posts I wrote so I had relevant written materials to hand clients at this juncture in the future neonliterary.substack.com/p/so-youve-m...
"...you often end up with a situation where the incentives are divorced, and what is good for the firm in charge is very often the opposite of what is good for the portfolio company that they own." The Roth x Greenwell mashup we've all been waiting for:
Very few authors believe me when I say this, so hopefully this will convince you all: sometimes a vicious review is the gift from the fucking gods 😭❤️
lmao so I can look up on Bookshop how many people preordered my book through my affiliate link, and thus I must thank Gary for the very good sales day today. 😈
The best reason to take a high advance is because it is the only kind of advance commensurate with the work actually involved in writing a high-quality book. You can also use it to hire a freelance publicist or marketer as needed. DO NOT assume it’ll translate to Lamborghini-level help in house
I’m afraid it’s not true for many if not most frontlist titles. “Marketing spend” is a closely guarded secret at major houses, but I know from experience (and also intel) that it’s much, much, much lower than you’d think for lots of high-advance authors.
Elon Musk, the genius visionary who could not predict that the guy who has betrayed every person he has ever met would betray him
I meant Boolean but ::pats own back:: nice unintentional pun
Both also 100% in my library. Ron, we have found a major new Bookean overlap here
if it works, listen to this one next: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMUY...
My goal is that you emerge from this having internalized not just the important publishing career advice, but a love for highly repetitive minimalist music!!1! neonliterary.substack.com/p/please-tel...
😘
Mean bc I am jetlagged open.substack.com/pub/neonlite...
I’m 40 and my great great was Civil War 💀
well, there goes my favorite piece of presidential trivia.
Reason #903824092834 why you shouldn't obsessively check your Amazon rank if you're an author: you do know that Amazon's search algorithm depresses results for product pages that get lots of clicks that don't convert to sales, right?
So fun at parties, often gives great advice, but do not join any religions or movements, do not trust the gossip no matter how plausible and emotionally satisfying, assume he will try to involve you in a robbery at some point, etc. etc.
It’s really best to think of ChatGPT as your *most* fun high-IQ friend who has an intermittent mental problem at the intersection of factitiousness and psychopathy.
Beautiful (and hideously depressing) piece on Columbia’s fall. nymag.com/intelligence...
A robot had to re-teach me math for this. Buhuhuhuhhuh neonliterary.substack.com/p/agents-are...
I was DUMBFOUNDED
Yesterday at lunch, @janefriedman.com low-key roasted me for not knowing you could organize Substack posts by subject and thereby dazzle people with your back catalogue. BLESS YOU, JANE. (Psst--I've made all the pinned posts free) neonliterary.substack.com
I am obsessed with this man running for local office and his total design incompetence. WHO WRITES PARAGRAPH-LONG SIGNS AND PUTS THEM IN MAJOR ROADWAYS!
Holier news than Chicago Pope, IMO
NYT just asking questions about whether or not people should be paying independent writers is like an oil company critiquing an electric car
BAD COMPANY is out in one month (minus one day, oops)! Preorders mean the world for a debut author’s career; please consider ordering my (Kirkus-starred!) book. www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
Waving my big foam CONCLAVE finger so hard rn
On a plane, holding my own book as if I’m reading it, holding my chin, nodding thoughtfully, and occasionally catching the eye of my seatmate, pointing at the page and saying “you should really check this out. It’s gonna blow your hair back”
This is so embarrassing.
"It’s hard to create home from contingency, or a feeling of belonging from worthlessness." SUCH a beautiful piece from @lindarmonkjd.bsky.social: www.southerncultures.org/article/whit...
Want to read a really good book about vampires? I just finished the new @greenwell.bsky.social and feel a phantom bite lingering in my neck.
Oh God I need more screenshots
The A PHYSICAL EDUCATION BOOK TOUR kicks off this week, like so many gatherings of the juggalos but for the cunning and brave LA/ Skylight Books, Tues May 6, 7p Chapel Hill NC/ Flyleaf Books, Thurs May 8, 5:30p NYC/ The Strand, Fri May 9, 7p Details here www.caseyjohnston.website/my-work/a-ph...
😘 KEEP AT IT
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😭❤️😭
me, 4/22 (left) CNN, today (right)
I cannot wait for Oliver Platt to get his Oscar in the inevitable biopic
My advice on the part no one likes. neonliterary.substack.com/p/everyone-p...
❤️😭❤️
As @legroff.bsky.social breaks down in this thread, they are trying to cut into the small share indies have managed to create.
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I know, I know, all the cool kids are anti-blurb now, but I have never been cool! What a ridiculous honor to have my book read so thoughtfully and generously by some of my favorite narrative nonfiction writers on the damn planet. (1/2) @christopherleonard.bsky.social
God, the indignities of being a mouth breather during gnat season
what every day feels like in my brain now www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqwH...
That’s one hell of an exit line.
Live your life so that when you visit the Pope and he dies the next day everyone’s first thought isn’t “bet he killed him”
The "Not Like Us" of papal homilies
My Best Of album. neonliterary.substack.com/p/a-40th-bir...
Please oh God *please* let him be traveling with decent security
I have been thinking the same thing on loop: Leo Ryan, Leo Ryan, Leo Ryan
It ys a such challenging, turbulent, difficult tyme. My greatest wisshe ys that you may fynde sum small moment of peace, delight, mirthe, pleasure, discoverye, connectioun, or fascinacioun that doth make yower day just a litel bettir. Ich wisshe thys for thee wyth all of myne hearte.
Columbia fumbled the ball big time. Cowardice gets you nowhere.
