Mentor Lisa Levy is a 25-year veteran book critic, editor, and essayist. She writes a monthly column about crime books for the Washington Post Book World. She is also a contributing editor at Lit Hub, a founding editor of Crime Reads, and the former Mystery & Noir editor at the LARB. She is working on a book called Funeral in My Brain: A Biography of Migraine, a narrative nonfiction book that looks at the long history and storied lives of migraineurs from Freud and Darwin to Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion; new advances in the treatment of headache disorders; and a memoir of her sudden and debilitating descent into chronic migraine which sold in a pre-empt to St Martin's. You can read her work in the New York Times,  Lit Hub, the LARB, Brevity, and The New Republic.

If you think you need a fancy MFA or insider connections to make it as a writer, you're wrong. What you need is a strategy and the tenacity to stick to it. In this mentorship, Lisa Levy, a veteran freelancer and book reviewer, will help you formulate short-term and long-term goals for your writing.  

This mentorship is for writers who want to learn how publicity works and harness its power, including:

• Writers who have a book under contract and a house publicist but want to work on pitching and submitting author essays in tandem with the publicist's efforts. 
• Writers who plan on self-publishing and want someone to help them plan a campaign or who need help deciding if they want to hire an outside publicist and how to find a good one.
• Writers who want feedback on proposals and/or queries in the context of their careers, or who are stymied by the prospect of writing queries and/or proposals.
• Writers who are preparing to query agents or submit book-length manuscripts to editors who want to beef up their publication records.
• Writers who want to pivot and build bylines and showcase their expertise in a new field or genre with an eye toward a book down the line.

Most writers see their careers as one deadline or project after another without considering how to make real progress—however you define it. But writing is a long game, and if you are just scrambling from piece to piece you might want to pause and consider what your long game might be. Not only do you want outstanding examples of your work where people can find it--a decent website is a better investment than hours of social media--you want to think about who your ideal reader is and how to reach them. Progress is subjective; but by setting publication goals you can gain a sense of control over your writing life. This mentorship will set you up to do your best work and reach an engaged and enthusiastic audience. 

In this mentorship, you will work with a gatekeeper to understand how decisions about book coverage are made. We will break down what to expect from a publicity campaign. Most critically, we will discuss what you can do on your own to drum up coverage and engage your potential audience. We will work on pitching pieces that will whet the public appetite for your book. In demystifying the publicity process, you will learn what a house publicist will do, what an outside publicist might offer, and what you can do independently, including writing and placing author essays to run alongside your book (these are sometimes called publicity essays).

As a veteran book reviewer and editor of book reviews, Lisa has worked with many writers on author essays and will help you generate ideas and find possible outlets for them. The author essay, or publicity essay, can be a vital way for you to show off your expertise and your writing. Lisa has edited these pieces for years, and knows what editors look for.

Lisa has a flexible approach to mentoring and designs each mentorship with the mentee's input, so goals and deadlines are mutually understood. Each mentee will have their own program, with readings, writing deadlines, and critique at the sentence and the developmental level. Lisa will give you actionable feedback and advice, as well as pushing you to think about your overall goals as a writer. She will also fill in the larger picture of how publishing works from how to land a book deal to how the book publicity sausage gets made.

You will leave this mentorship with real-world writing tips, ideas about structure and form, and a better understanding about how to deal with rejection and other realities of publishing. You will also be free to ask about other aspects of developing a writing practice and how to achieve your short- and long-term goals. Overall, Lisa will help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and to devise ways for you to improve and grow. At the end of the mentorship, you will have a new vision of how to polish and proceed with your writing, and a plan for the short and long-term in your writing career.

Mentor’s Input:

Meetings will be roughly biweekly, which breaks down as follows:

• 6 one-on-one meetings for the three-month program; 12 one-on-one meetings for the six-month program; 24 one-on-one meetings for the 12-month program.
• Inline comments and critiques on submitted work, with actionable feedback for revision.
• Reading lists tailored to the mentee's needs and interests. 
• Suggestions of where to submit or pitch your work, now or in the future, and materials that will aid you in preparing submissions or pitches. 
• Ideas for creating a writing practice and structuring your goals as a writer.
• Critical resources, discussions, and ideas related to book publishing.

Mentee’s Input:

• Commitment to one-on-one mentoring.
• Regular biweekly meetings.
• A greater understanding of writing as a practice and a process.
• Honor all deadlines and responsibilities.
• Submit pages to mentor based on goals negotiated with a mentor at the beginning of the program.
• Assess progress based on a schedule and rubric devised by the mentor and mentee.
• Do readings and assignments based on your goals and interests.

What You'll Learn:

• The secret to writing great pitches: not just offering topics but proposing pieces with a strong argument that will entice editors. "I want to write about the decline of crypto," is a topic. "The decline of crypto is a direct result of globalization" is a pitch.
• Find your Cat Fancy: there are publications that cater to every audience and interest. Placing a sharp piece in a targeted publication is more likely to grow your reputation and your audience that a general piece in a larger venue. 
  
• Work toward your Big Goals and get advice about publishing and all of its parts, from pitch to publication.
  
• How to find and track pitch calls and submission windows
  
• Ways to keep current on your beat or genre and make inroads into finding a writing community
  
• Milk your ideas by approaching them from various directions, which will increase your ratio of successful pitches and conserve your energy for your most important projects
  
• Work through the fears/issues endemic to writers: imposter syndrome, overwhelm, fear of rejection, procrastination, focus, etc.
  
• How to negotiate with editors (and make them want you back)
  
• Ways to keep track of achievements, milestones, and victories with your ultimate writing goals in mind.
  

Praise for Lisa Levy:

I usually have so many article ideas bouncing around in my head I have trouble figuring out which one to work on next. Lisa helped me flesh out potential stories, brainstorm where to submit them, and edited my pitches and drafts. Her guidance has been invaluable to me in helping me target my pitches to the publications most likely to accept them and strategize around covering a specific beat. —Rachel Kramer Bussel, freelance writer and editor of Open Secrets Magazine

Lisa is that unicorn among editors and writing advisers: attuned to both the big and small pictures, empathetic and generous and direct. Where I can’t see the forest for the trees with my writing sometimes, she always pulls the focus back so I can see where I’m heading in the longer journey. The ideas she shares always ring the bell of truth. Why didn’t I think of that? is a common reaction after receiving Lisa’s wisdom on all matters writing. And the answer is You can’t see what she sees, and you don’t know all that she knows. In moments of self-doubt or confusion, the clarity Lisa has been able to offer has felt nothing short of uncanny. —Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of "The Perfect Vehicle"

Lisa was a pleasure to work with: razor-sharp, professional, and keenly insightful. She provided multilayered feedback ranging from the macro level (exposition, emotional stakes) to the micro (fewer adverbs!). Her deep understanding of genre, narrative structure, and character development were instrumental in refining my manuscript. Highly recommended. —Matt Dojny, aspiring crime writer

Lisa is a rare combination of sensitive reader and straight shooter that every author yearns for. She intuitively understands your goals as a writer and makes them her own. —Brett Foraker, aspiring crime writer

I’m a novice writer and Lisa has helped me find my voice. She not only has great ideas on story structure and development but also a sense of when you need encouragement and feedback to keep working toward your goal. Her guidance has taken my writing to a new level and I love working with her. —Matt Sterling, memoir student

Transitioning from an academic writing background to a more historical nonfiction writing format has been a challenge for me. Lisa has been patient and knowledgeable with the difference between the two and has guided me on how to drop the academic tone to find my own voice in historical nonfiction writing. Writing about the arts is a narrow field. Lisa has educated herself to the artists and time of my focus and has been an asset for editing and writing ideas and directions to consider. She is easy to talk to, smart, well researched for our meetings, and kind. I highly recommend her as an editor with whatever genre you are writing about! —Elizabeth Raney, author of Warhol, Dr. Seuss, and the Making of America

Lisa Levy enabled me to see the shape of my book and organize my material when I got bogged down. She read deeply for subtext and helped me surface the themes in my work. I had never undertaken a memoir before. With Lisa at my back, I felt less intimidated. Her keen knowledge of genre helped me understand what my narrator needed to do. All this while she kept me laughing! —Kathryn Trueblood, author of Take Daily As Needed

I spent several months in a writing mentorship with Lisa, and she helped me break loose from my academic writing to make my work more publishable. I am writing about the lives of criminals, and she was right there with me—understood the nuance I was trying to capture. She is thoroughly professional as well as kind, and very productive. She taught me how to get out of my rut and be more creative. Very helpful. —Kate Allen 

Working with Lisa Levy is rewarding and inspiring. She keeps me focused, productive, and up-to-date on the latest publications in my areas of expertise. I recommend her without qualification as a mentor and writing coach. —Amy Stambach (author of Faith in Schools and Lessons from Mount Kilimanjaro)

I came into my three-month mentorship program with Lisa with very tactical expectations, and left with so much more as a writer. I had three essays I wanted to work on, and I hoped that Lisa could help me prepare them for submission. Not only did Lisa provide me with guidance and edits on those pieces, but she helped me become a better and more serious writer, in multiple ways. She helped me build a rich and regular writing practice, she guided me through the ups and downs of writing, she made excellent and inspirational book recommendations that nourish my writing life, she helped me set ambitious and attainable goals as a writer, and she exposed me to resources, templates, and strategies for the publishing side of things. I got so much out of our time together, and would highly recommend Lisa to anyone looking for guidance, excellent edits, accountability, and someone who will support you as a whole writer. —Julie Shah Lamba

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