Good morning!
At 1pm EST, I’ll be interviewing Jesse Shuman, editor at Ballantine Books (an imprint of PRH), and my dream editor for If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You.
Jesse called me at 9am yesterday to tell me I’d hit spot #27 on the USA Today bestseller list. This is my sixth book and the first one to hit the list (any list).
Prior to joining Ballantine, Jesse held editorial positions at Knopf Doubleday, A Public Space, Writers House, Massie & McQuilkin, and PEN America.
Jesse acquires upmarket and literary fiction, thrillers and suspense, and high-concept romcoms.
Niche areas of interest include: books about or set in the world of video games, food, and music; Japanese and Korean healing fiction and mysteries; books about the internet, mindbenders, cozy and classic-inspired mysteries, genre satires, and humorous history. You can read more about his wishlist and his author list on his website.
At my launch party last week, Jesse told me he saw my Note about glowing rejections and wants to respond from an editor’s POV! So we will definitely be talking about that.
I’ll also ask him:
About his wishlist and how he can acquire both commercial and literary fiction while at a commercial imprint
What he wishes agents were sending him more of, and if there is anything that feels oversaturated or overdone right now
About the popularity of “genre-bending fiction” AKA “literary plus”
How many submissions he receives in a week and what makes a manuscript stand out
What the editorial process is like for him and what he considers his “editorial superpower” when working with novelists
About how he art directs cover design and how involved an author can expect to be in those design decisions
I will interview Jesse for about 30 minutes and then open it up to your questions!
If you can’t attend live, there will be a recording available to watch for 7 days.
As a reminder, this is a private, off-the-record conversation, exclusively available to my diamond medallion members. You may not post quotes from the conversation anywhere on the internet, or create content out of my events. Keeping the Chat Room series private allows both me and my guests to speak candidly.