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Publishing: A Writer’s Memoir
Publishing is a personal story of a writer's hunger to be published, the pursuit of that goal, and then the long haul--for Gail Godwin, forty-five years of being a published writer and all that goes with it. A student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1958, Godwin met with Knopf scouts who came to campus every spring in search of new talent. Though her five pages of Windy Peaks were turned down and the novel never completed, she would go on to publish two story collections and fourteen novels, three of which were National Book Award finalists, five of which were New York Times bestsellers.
Publishing reflects on the influence of her mother's writing hopes and accomplishments, and recalls Godwin's experiences with teachers Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover at the Iowa Writers' Workshop; with John Hawkins, her literary agent for five decades; with John Irving and other luminaries; and with her editors and publishers. Recollecting her long and storied career, Godwin maps the publishing industry over the last fifty years, a time of great upheaval and ingenuity. Her eloquent memoir is illuminated by Frances Halsband's evocative black-and-white line drawings throughout. There have been memoirs about writing and memoirs about being an editor, but there is no other book quite like Publishing for aspiring writers and book lovers everywhere.
Publishing reflects on the influence of her mother's writing hopes and accomplishments, and recalls Godwin's experiences with teachers Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover at the Iowa Writers' Workshop; with John Hawkins, her literary agent for five decades; with John Irving and other luminaries; and with her editors and publishers. Recollecting her long and storied career, Godwin maps the publishing industry over the last fifty years, a time of great upheaval and ingenuity. Her eloquent memoir is illuminated by Frances Halsband's evocative black-and-white line drawings throughout. There have been memoirs about writing and memoirs about being an editor, but there is no other book quite like Publishing for aspiring writers and book lovers everywhere.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 13, 2015
10 people are currently reading
721 people want to read
About the author
Gail Godwin
51 books416 followersGail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.
Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, New York.
Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
October 8, 2014
3.5 I was slow to warm up to this one, but eventually all the book talk won me over. Have never been a big reader of this author, though I read and did enjoy her latest, Flora. Very interesting to read her road to publication, and the fluctuating state of the publishing busyness in general. Had no idea how often publishers and editors either left their jobs or switched houses. Did know how many of the bigger publishers have combined and the rocky road of book publishing in the current electronic everything climate.
Loved reading where she got her ideas for books, just thoughts or sentences she herd in passing often find their way into her novels. God in is in her seventies now, has had a long and prestigious career, many different editors and was published by many different publishing houses. Book signings, book parties, authors she met old and new and some interesting tidbits about them. The ideas behind her books and what they meant to her.
I found some of the book descriptions and meanings so intriguing, I bought a few to read. At one point I even contemplated trying to write, but I am a reader not a writer and have decided to level the writing to those who can. All in all this turned out to be a very interesting read and I have hopefully found a new author to cherish.
ARC from NetGalley.
Loved reading where she got her ideas for books, just thoughts or sentences she herd in passing often find their way into her novels. God in is in her seventies now, has had a long and prestigious career, many different editors and was published by many different publishing houses. Book signings, book parties, authors she met old and new and some interesting tidbits about them. The ideas behind her books and what they meant to her.
I found some of the book descriptions and meanings so intriguing, I bought a few to read. At one point I even contemplated trying to write, but I am a reader not a writer and have decided to level the writing to those who can. All in all this turned out to be a very interesting read and I have hopefully found a new author to cherish.
ARC from NetGalley.
May 17, 2021
In the 1980s my boss’s wife gave me A Mother and Two Daughters to read which I remember really enjoying and suddenly a new writer was on my radar.
The next book I came across of hers was A Southern Family and with the tragedy at the core of the novel I decided it wasn’t for me. After that I lost track of her for over thirty years. It’s a funny thing how that happens. I mean I knew of subsequent novels or the odd one here and there but just didn’t reconnect until my favourite bookshop, Lorelei kept Publishing aside for me.
Again another instance of the right book at the right time. For the last six weeks or so my eczema has been giving me hell. I’m also out of work and Gail Godwin’s memoir was just what I needed. Its quite a different memoir from her writing memoirs as well. I’m reading the first one now and enjoying. In Publishing the focus is obviously not on her notebooks and her aspirations for future novels but on the struggle to stay published and for that it is a real eye opener. As Godwin says herself:
“Publishing is about wanting for a long time to be a published writer and about the condition of living as a writer for a long time after you are published.”
Godwin begins with the ritual of a representative of Alfred A. Knopf, visiting her college at Chapel Hill in 1958. Her novel in progress at the time was entitled Windy Peaks. Disappointment awaits. Godwin then touches on what an influence her mother was on her writing. Her mother actually wrote herself and submitted stories, wrote plays and had them performed. Gail lived with the sound of her mother on her typerwriter.
In the next chapter Godwin outlines another novel that never saw the light of day. By 1964 she is living in London and still pursuing the dream of being a published writer. This won’t happen till 1970 and just when you think things will get easier for Godwin, they don’t. This book is fascinating, highlighting as it does the fickleness of the publishing industry, even for such a writer as Godwin’s standing. A Mother and Her Daughters was a major bestseller yet there was constant reshuffling within the publishing houses meaning that Godwin regularly lost a favourite editor or particular publisher in the process. Luckily though not her hardworking agent.
Here she is in 1968 not long before she finds her agent. She is referring to a story of hers entitled St George:
“In the morning I walked the fifteen blocks to EPB without publishing hopes and at night I walked back to the rooms that were laid out like those of Gwen the lonely graduate student who had fed St George the dragon Woolworth pearls until he grew too big for the apartment. As the author of that story I had been able to resolve how Gwen could free a dragon the size of a small bear into a more suitable environment and get on with her life, but I couldn’t see a way out of my own dilemma. Writing had lived inside me since I was a little girl, and the need to write had continued to grow like a beast, but how to give it the room it needed and not become a bitter human being?”
An enjoyable read and a very important question.
The next book I came across of hers was A Southern Family and with the tragedy at the core of the novel I decided it wasn’t for me. After that I lost track of her for over thirty years. It’s a funny thing how that happens. I mean I knew of subsequent novels or the odd one here and there but just didn’t reconnect until my favourite bookshop, Lorelei kept Publishing aside for me.
Again another instance of the right book at the right time. For the last six weeks or so my eczema has been giving me hell. I’m also out of work and Gail Godwin’s memoir was just what I needed. Its quite a different memoir from her writing memoirs as well. I’m reading the first one now and enjoying. In Publishing the focus is obviously not on her notebooks and her aspirations for future novels but on the struggle to stay published and for that it is a real eye opener. As Godwin says herself:
“Publishing is about wanting for a long time to be a published writer and about the condition of living as a writer for a long time after you are published.”
Godwin begins with the ritual of a representative of Alfred A. Knopf, visiting her college at Chapel Hill in 1958. Her novel in progress at the time was entitled Windy Peaks. Disappointment awaits. Godwin then touches on what an influence her mother was on her writing. Her mother actually wrote herself and submitted stories, wrote plays and had them performed. Gail lived with the sound of her mother on her typerwriter.
In the next chapter Godwin outlines another novel that never saw the light of day. By 1964 she is living in London and still pursuing the dream of being a published writer. This won’t happen till 1970 and just when you think things will get easier for Godwin, they don’t. This book is fascinating, highlighting as it does the fickleness of the publishing industry, even for such a writer as Godwin’s standing. A Mother and Her Daughters was a major bestseller yet there was constant reshuffling within the publishing houses meaning that Godwin regularly lost a favourite editor or particular publisher in the process. Luckily though not her hardworking agent.
Here she is in 1968 not long before she finds her agent. She is referring to a story of hers entitled St George:
“In the morning I walked the fifteen blocks to EPB without publishing hopes and at night I walked back to the rooms that were laid out like those of Gwen the lonely graduate student who had fed St George the dragon Woolworth pearls until he grew too big for the apartment. As the author of that story I had been able to resolve how Gwen could free a dragon the size of a small bear into a more suitable environment and get on with her life, but I couldn’t see a way out of my own dilemma. Writing had lived inside me since I was a little girl, and the need to write had continued to grow like a beast, but how to give it the room it needed and not become a bitter human being?”
An enjoyable read and a very important question.
January 30, 2015
(3.5) A fairly straightforward account of Godwin’s career, with a focus on the specifics of preparing books for publication: securing a publisher, being assigned an editor, and choosing titles and cover art, for starters. Then there’s also a book’s afterlife: its critical reception and sales, any awards won, and publicity efforts including book tours. A true introvert (see Susan Cain’s Quiet), Godwin admits that this part is always a challenge for her: “Once I’m in front of an audience I can perform, but when it’s over I collapse in solitude and wonder how I did it.”
For some reason I had mentally classed Godwin in the school of dirty realism. Instead it sounds like Flora is a mid-twentieth century version of Henry James’s mildly scary ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. A number of Godwin’s novels have had religious themes, featuring priests or nuns as central characters. Perhaps she was a forerunner of Susan Howatch and Jan Karon? Or, with her Southern background (she was born in Alabama and went to college in North Carolina), might she be closer in tone to Daniel Woodrell, Flannery O’Connor, and Thomas Wolfe?
Any life is full of odd surprises, and Godwin’s was no different. This is not a conventional autobiography, however, so sometimes the very events you’d like Godwin to expand on get short shrift. For instance, her mother, Kathleen Krahenbuhl, was also a writer; I would have liked to hear a bit more about her work. When her mother remarried, Godwin gained half-siblings, one of whom was murdered – an incident that inspired her novel A Southern Family. And then there’s this tantalizing passage:
In just this partial paragraph she hints at so many stories that are outside the remit of this book. One can only hope they’ve been explored elsewhere (Godwin has also published two volumes of her journals, entitled The Making of a Writer).
In 1958, when Godwin was a student, publishers still sent talent scouts out to the major universities to look for promising writers. She took along five pages of a novel in progress, only for Knopf to tell her that she wasn’t what they were looking for. (Can you imagine – publishers went searching for the next Great American novelist in the same way that music producers and baseball coaches search for the next hit singer or star player?! It was a whole different world.) Godwin recalls that she “trudged home under the starlit canopy of obscurity.” Luckily, she was not discouraged and went on to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a student of Kurt Vonnegut and a classmate of John Irving.
Godwin generally takes a thematic rather than a strictly chronological approach to her material, so you occasionally get phrases like “but I’ll come back to that in such-and-such chapter.” The structure might be an attempt to avoid tedious lists of what happened and what happened next, but there is, unfortunately, still an element of that. My eyes glazed over a bit when reading about one publisher merging with another or various editors being fired and replaced.
I most enjoyed the sections where Godwin intersperses details about her writing with vignettes from her personal life – a longtime relationship with a composer and their home in Woodstock, New York. Bibliophiles will also relish hearing about the process of birthing a novel, especially the challenges of choosing titles and cover art. The only time Godwin gave in to a publisher’s demands and changed a novel’s title (from The Red Nun to Unfinished Desires), she lived to regret it – her Catholic girls’ school novel now sounded like romance pulp.
I daresay any reader of this book will come away with a list of at least three or four Godwin books they’d like to try. I hope this pleasant little memoir will have the desired effect of getting an underappreciated novelist some more attention.
(This review originally appeared at Bookkaholic.)
For some reason I had mentally classed Godwin in the school of dirty realism. Instead it sounds like Flora is a mid-twentieth century version of Henry James’s mildly scary ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. A number of Godwin’s novels have had religious themes, featuring priests or nuns as central characters. Perhaps she was a forerunner of Susan Howatch and Jan Karon? Or, with her Southern background (she was born in Alabama and went to college in North Carolina), might she be closer in tone to Daniel Woodrell, Flannery O’Connor, and Thomas Wolfe?
Any life is full of odd surprises, and Godwin’s was no different. This is not a conventional autobiography, however, so sometimes the very events you’d like Godwin to expand on get short shrift. For instance, her mother, Kathleen Krahenbuhl, was also a writer; I would have liked to hear a bit more about her work. When her mother remarried, Godwin gained half-siblings, one of whom was murdered – an incident that inspired her novel A Southern Family. And then there’s this tantalizing passage:
My life after Chapel Hill had been studded with drama: On assignment for a Miami newspaper, I had spent the night in jail with a woman who had murdered her husband and I had flown on a navy plane into the eye of a hurricane. I had been fired by the same newspaper, been married and divorced within the space of five months, sailed to Europe on a freighter, lived in Copenhagen and the Canary Islands, and, for the last two years, in London, where I worked at a glamorous menial government job.
In just this partial paragraph she hints at so many stories that are outside the remit of this book. One can only hope they’ve been explored elsewhere (Godwin has also published two volumes of her journals, entitled The Making of a Writer).
In 1958, when Godwin was a student, publishers still sent talent scouts out to the major universities to look for promising writers. She took along five pages of a novel in progress, only for Knopf to tell her that she wasn’t what they were looking for. (Can you imagine – publishers went searching for the next Great American novelist in the same way that music producers and baseball coaches search for the next hit singer or star player?! It was a whole different world.) Godwin recalls that she “trudged home under the starlit canopy of obscurity.” Luckily, she was not discouraged and went on to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a student of Kurt Vonnegut and a classmate of John Irving.
Godwin generally takes a thematic rather than a strictly chronological approach to her material, so you occasionally get phrases like “but I’ll come back to that in such-and-such chapter.” The structure might be an attempt to avoid tedious lists of what happened and what happened next, but there is, unfortunately, still an element of that. My eyes glazed over a bit when reading about one publisher merging with another or various editors being fired and replaced.
I most enjoyed the sections where Godwin intersperses details about her writing with vignettes from her personal life – a longtime relationship with a composer and their home in Woodstock, New York. Bibliophiles will also relish hearing about the process of birthing a novel, especially the challenges of choosing titles and cover art. The only time Godwin gave in to a publisher’s demands and changed a novel’s title (from The Red Nun to Unfinished Desires), she lived to regret it – her Catholic girls’ school novel now sounded like romance pulp.
I daresay any reader of this book will come away with a list of at least three or four Godwin books they’d like to try. I hope this pleasant little memoir will have the desired effect of getting an underappreciated novelist some more attention.
(This review originally appeared at Bookkaholic.)
February 16, 2015
3.5 stars. My review for USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/bo...
Writing about writing should always be as practical as possible. It's fascinating to hear about how writers make money, what they take in the coffee they bring to their desks, how many pages they produce a week.
It's never nearly as fascinating to hear about inspiration. Parenthood is a similar subject, in a way – the experience is already so emotionally intense that only by describing it as sparely as possible can you avoid sounding hysterical.
Publishing, a new memoir by Gail Godwin, succeeds because it possesses this kind of wry matter-of-factness. Godwin, 77, has spent her life writing novels, and in not-quite 200 pages, she takes us through it all, her first publications, the book tours she was sent on, the best-seller lists she hit.
The result is an agile, winning book, never exactly riveting, but at its best moments of the same sensible good humor that makes Roger Angell, say, so pleasurable to read.
Godwin's career really began at the University of Iowa, where she studied among various boldfaced names, including Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Coover and John Irving. (Godwin has always been a fairly stubborn realist, and one of the book's funniest anecdotes, whether intentionally or not, is about a story she wrote under Coover's postmodernist tutelage, in which "a lonely graduate student, Gwen … cracks an egg and finds a tiny dragon and tries to raise it in her apartment.") After Iowa, she published a string of increasingly successful novels, culminating in A Mother and Two Daughters, which sold millions of copies.
Since that pinnacle, Godwin has become less widely read, less fashionable. Why? From an outsider's perspective, it certainly seems as if she made a fatal mistake in splitting from Robert Gottlieb, her renowned editor, who had guided her to two National Book Award nominations. The reason sounds like vanity: she tells her agent that she wants to start over with "an editor who is over the moon to have won me."
As the book makes clear, however, Godwin is used to the vicissitudes of publishing; a large advance for a book can make you a bigger disappointment, a TV spot can make your face go numb and not matter all that much for sales anyway. She writes now with an admirable tone of durability, pleased but philosophical about the reception of her work.
After all, it's been the better part of a century since her first yearning to see herself in print. She's lived long enough to see the rise of feminism – a subject she handles with aplomb, in one funny moment, for instance, recalling a friend who had been elected president of an association of architects, a great moment except that "the man who introduced her started off by praising her legs" – and to see publishing change beyond recognition. She's lived and lost enough to gain a great deal of perspective.
Still, Publishing concludes with a party for Godwin at Jim Lehrer's house, a few last boldfaced names. Writers are odd, insecure creatures, both full and empty of ego, and somewhere behind the even-handed wisdom of this memoir lurks Godwin's old, scorching determination to be heard.
She describes this beautifully by describing everything else a writer experiences, all those practicalities – everything, wisely, except the writing, which can only be described by itself.
Writing about writing should always be as practical as possible. It's fascinating to hear about how writers make money, what they take in the coffee they bring to their desks, how many pages they produce a week.
It's never nearly as fascinating to hear about inspiration. Parenthood is a similar subject, in a way – the experience is already so emotionally intense that only by describing it as sparely as possible can you avoid sounding hysterical.
Publishing, a new memoir by Gail Godwin, succeeds because it possesses this kind of wry matter-of-factness. Godwin, 77, has spent her life writing novels, and in not-quite 200 pages, she takes us through it all, her first publications, the book tours she was sent on, the best-seller lists she hit.
The result is an agile, winning book, never exactly riveting, but at its best moments of the same sensible good humor that makes Roger Angell, say, so pleasurable to read.
Godwin's career really began at the University of Iowa, where she studied among various boldfaced names, including Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Coover and John Irving. (Godwin has always been a fairly stubborn realist, and one of the book's funniest anecdotes, whether intentionally or not, is about a story she wrote under Coover's postmodernist tutelage, in which "a lonely graduate student, Gwen … cracks an egg and finds a tiny dragon and tries to raise it in her apartment.") After Iowa, she published a string of increasingly successful novels, culminating in A Mother and Two Daughters, which sold millions of copies.
Since that pinnacle, Godwin has become less widely read, less fashionable. Why? From an outsider's perspective, it certainly seems as if she made a fatal mistake in splitting from Robert Gottlieb, her renowned editor, who had guided her to two National Book Award nominations. The reason sounds like vanity: she tells her agent that she wants to start over with "an editor who is over the moon to have won me."
As the book makes clear, however, Godwin is used to the vicissitudes of publishing; a large advance for a book can make you a bigger disappointment, a TV spot can make your face go numb and not matter all that much for sales anyway. She writes now with an admirable tone of durability, pleased but philosophical about the reception of her work.
After all, it's been the better part of a century since her first yearning to see herself in print. She's lived long enough to see the rise of feminism – a subject she handles with aplomb, in one funny moment, for instance, recalling a friend who had been elected president of an association of architects, a great moment except that "the man who introduced her started off by praising her legs" – and to see publishing change beyond recognition. She's lived and lost enough to gain a great deal of perspective.
Still, Publishing concludes with a party for Godwin at Jim Lehrer's house, a few last boldfaced names. Writers are odd, insecure creatures, both full and empty of ego, and somewhere behind the even-handed wisdom of this memoir lurks Godwin's old, scorching determination to be heard.
She describes this beautifully by describing everything else a writer experiences, all those practicalities – everything, wisely, except the writing, which can only be described by itself.
November 27, 2014
Many Thanks to 'Goodreads' give-a-way offerings --to Bloomsbury Publishing company and to the author herself: Gail Goodwin.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this wonderful 'writers-memoir'. It felt very intimate, and real! I learned a little about each of her books. I personally already have a desire to read "A Southern Family" --(the author 'herself' felt it was the most challenging & complex - closer in autobiography than her other books).
The book "FLORA' sounds heartbreaking wonderful.
"Mothers and Daughters", "Evensong" and "The Angel Keeper" are just a 'few' of the other books which have me interested in reading now.
Gail Goodwin is a 3-time National Book Award Finalist and bestselling author of 14 novels. I loved reading about her journey --'her drive' --'her passion' --and her 'trust-of-listening' to her gut. (most of the times).
She says..."Writing lived inside me since I was a little girl, and the need to write had continued to grow like a beast, but how to give it room it needed and not become a bitter human being?"
Once Gail Godwin was beginning to have more success --she needed to make 'choices'. Sometimes taking the safe road in life is the smart choice to take --other times it just might kill the human spirit...
She says, "I want to start over, I told John, with an editor who is over the moon to have won me.".
I'm not a writer, and I got tremendous value & joy from reading this. Gail Goodwin is one heck of an accomplished woman! Writers will find this especially valuable.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this wonderful 'writers-memoir'. It felt very intimate, and real! I learned a little about each of her books. I personally already have a desire to read "A Southern Family" --(the author 'herself' felt it was the most challenging & complex - closer in autobiography than her other books).
The book "FLORA' sounds heartbreaking wonderful.
"Mothers and Daughters", "Evensong" and "The Angel Keeper" are just a 'few' of the other books which have me interested in reading now.
Gail Goodwin is a 3-time National Book Award Finalist and bestselling author of 14 novels. I loved reading about her journey --'her drive' --'her passion' --and her 'trust-of-listening' to her gut. (most of the times).
She says..."Writing lived inside me since I was a little girl, and the need to write had continued to grow like a beast, but how to give it room it needed and not become a bitter human being?"
Once Gail Godwin was beginning to have more success --she needed to make 'choices'. Sometimes taking the safe road in life is the smart choice to take --other times it just might kill the human spirit...
She says, "I want to start over, I told John, with an editor who is over the moon to have won me.".
I'm not a writer, and I got tremendous value & joy from reading this. Gail Goodwin is one heck of an accomplished woman! Writers will find this especially valuable.
January 19, 2015
This book is a fascinating peek inside the graces and hazards of the publishing world at a time when we had to find pay phone booths on the streets to make a call. Gail Godwin’s ‘struggling’ writing life began at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with Kurt Vonnegut as her teacher. What a start, right? Partners on her publishing dance card, as she describes it, were names Robert Gottlieb, David Segal, Harvey Ginsberg, Nancy Miller, agent John Hawkins to name a few. Not a bad group to have in your camp in the 1970s/1980s. As a struggling writer myself with two novels out in the indie world, I can say Godwin’s early years will make any aspiring author emerald green with envy. Her fans will enjoy it immensely. Writers will find a map here of writer/publisher relationships. In this book, Godwin addresses her trials and joys with agents, publishers, and editors and how they affected her stories, her writing, and book sales. I especially enjoyed the time she spent on editors’ cuts to the manuscripts—how to differentiate between an editor’s desire to improve a book vs. the author’s desire to protect the vision and integrity of the work. Her chapter on Reviews is inspiring: Ginsberg’s advice to her on bad reviews is “If a review makes you wish you had done something differently, file it away. If not, toss it.” Which of her fourteen novels is Godwin’s favorite failure (termed a publishing failure)? You can find out on page 93. I was shocked.
January 24, 2015
Publishing: A Writer's Memoir did not live up to my expectations. I was hoping for more about the publishing industry's transition over the period of this author's experience, and I wanted to know heaps about the significant people she worked with. I expected an emphasis on these important bits and pieces from an author whose publications spanned the decades from 1970 to the present, and because the book jacket touts "her insider's experiences with the world of New York publishing (agents, editors, publishing executives, and others) as she matured as a writer" (Nancy Pearl). At any given decade, the industry has changed right along with the technology of the times, but Godwin did not share enough of her insight into this forty-plus period of time.
My lack of engagement with Publishing--except for sporadic instances when she actually named and described key editors in her long line of publishing, or the gobbling of smaller presses by the larger--will certainly be because I am not a fiction writer and because I have not read any of her novels (Am I the only one?).
Gail Godwin is, of course, a megastar author: three-time National Book Awards finalist, fourteen critically acclaimed books, a handful of prestigious awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. So, it was quite right for her to focus at length on the development of the plot lines in her books, her battles for contracts, her negotiating to keep the titles she wanted for her books, and for finding and liking editors who loved her work. Her narrations of navigating through these processes are informative and interesting, despite an absence of appreciation for the singular position she was in with top-notch editors (like Robert Gottlieb and Linda Grey) at top-notch publishing houses (like Knopf and Viking) with top-notch advances ($20,000 and more--not bad for the old days!). How I wish "her insider's experiences with the world of New York Publishing" would have carried more weight than her novel-writing experiences.
My lack of engagement with Publishing--except for sporadic instances when she actually named and described key editors in her long line of publishing, or the gobbling of smaller presses by the larger--will certainly be because I am not a fiction writer and because I have not read any of her novels (Am I the only one?).
Gail Godwin is, of course, a megastar author: three-time National Book Awards finalist, fourteen critically acclaimed books, a handful of prestigious awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. So, it was quite right for her to focus at length on the development of the plot lines in her books, her battles for contracts, her negotiating to keep the titles she wanted for her books, and for finding and liking editors who loved her work. Her narrations of navigating through these processes are informative and interesting, despite an absence of appreciation for the singular position she was in with top-notch editors (like Robert Gottlieb and Linda Grey) at top-notch publishing houses (like Knopf and Viking) with top-notch advances ($20,000 and more--not bad for the old days!). How I wish "her insider's experiences with the world of New York Publishing" would have carried more weight than her novel-writing experiences.
May 15, 2016
I found this in one of my favorite independent bookstores (The Country Bookseller in Wolfeboro, NH, USA) and read it in one afternoon and evening, staying up past my bedtime to finish it. Godwin writes in a conversational tone about wanting to be a published writer, and her adventures and misadventures in becoming one - finding an agent, getting read by editors and publishers, finally appearing in print and all the hoopla associated with becoming a famous writer, like fans and book tours, the pressure to be a bestseller and to continue being a bestseller. I was surprised to find how precarious being published can be for even established and bestselling authors, how much attention publishers pay to the NY Times Bestseller List - you'd better be somewhere on it! - and the pressure to play it safe to be commercially attractive. Or what publishers considered commercially attractive. Godwin changed publishing houses several times in order to get her books published. She was discouraged enough at times to think of giving up, but she never did, the drive to be a published writer was too strong in her for that. One of the incidents that kept her going was of a fellow student in the Iowa Writing Program having her story torn to shreds by classmates and being told it was too "obscure" to be published. After this was over the girl stood up and said to her classmates, deadpan, "So. What do I risk? Obscurity?"
Godwin's mother was a writer and she tells us how she grew up watching her mother type and mail away stories, and of the storytelling and writing "games" they played. In her later years her mother kept a detailed daily journal of her life till the day before she died.
Godwin shares the development of her books from their first glimmers through to publication, a journey I found fascinating and insightful. It's also made me want to read more of her work. On my next trip to that favorite bookstore I was happy to find "Unfinished Desires."
Godwin's mother was a writer and she tells us how she grew up watching her mother type and mail away stories, and of the storytelling and writing "games" they played. In her later years her mother kept a detailed daily journal of her life till the day before she died.
Godwin shares the development of her books from their first glimmers through to publication, a journey I found fascinating and insightful. It's also made me want to read more of her work. On my next trip to that favorite bookstore I was happy to find "Unfinished Desires."
February 21, 2015
This book caught my eye because I have been in the (indie) publishing industry for nearly 10 years. Working every day with writers who want to publish a book, I thought this memoir would be interesting. It certainly was, although I would recommend it more highly for readers who are already fans of Gail Godwin. I had never heard of her before, so I did have one regret while reading the book -- that I had not (yet*) read any of the books she discusses writing and publishing. If I had, I think I would have felt more connected with her while reading her memoir.
Besides discussing the reading and publishing of her books, however, Godwin also talks about her experiences as a writer - studying under Kurt Vonnegut and writing stories with her mother - and also the changes that she saw happening in the traditional publishing industry over the years (from her perspective as the author). I found both of these themes in her book very interesting.
*I have reserved A Mother and Two Daughters by Gail Godwin from my public library and am looking forward to reading it.
Favorite quote: "Publishing is about wanting for a long time to be a published writer and about the condition of living as a writer for a long time after you are published."
Besides discussing the reading and publishing of her books, however, Godwin also talks about her experiences as a writer - studying under Kurt Vonnegut and writing stories with her mother - and also the changes that she saw happening in the traditional publishing industry over the years (from her perspective as the author). I found both of these themes in her book very interesting.
*I have reserved A Mother and Two Daughters by Gail Godwin from my public library and am looking forward to reading it.
Favorite quote: "Publishing is about wanting for a long time to be a published writer and about the condition of living as a writer for a long time after you are published."
October 15, 2014
Gail Godwin brings us into her world and her journey as a writer.Wefollow her first attempts at getting on to bidding wars editors coming&going publicity tours.We are also given the back stories for some of her novels .The intimate moments from her&friends lives that she turned into her famous novels.reading about her editors her friends her loves the day to day grind of the publishing world.A wonderful book for anyone who treasures reading&enjoys the insiders scoop.
March 8, 2015
Maybe four and a half? Memoir of her experiences over the years in the changing landscape of publishing. Godwin is another of those writers who can pull off the authorial equivalent of the actor who can hold an audience while reading out the telephone directory (something that is becoming a historical curiosity in itself... what would be the contemporary equivalent?)
April 30, 2023
A surprisingly engaging look at a world of publishing that I am pretty sure doesn’t exist anymore, but isn’t it pretty to think that it did.
March 12, 2022
Self indulgent af
April 28, 2018
After reading Gail Godwin's GRIEF COTTAGE I realized I'd missed this memoir, and was glad to remedy that. While it will most interest people who've read her novels and can thus enjoy the tidbits about what went into them and how they were received, there's a lot here for any serious literary writer and also any observer of publishing.
That latter is what I take away the most, sadly. There's a long paragraph that resonates so much with my own 17-year experience in publishing (not trade, but professional and educational). In it, Godwin writes:
"A proliferation of nondancers has taken to the floor, wearing in their lapels tiny logos that have nothing to do with publishing. They don't dance but just monitor our movements, like bodyguards...only it isn't our bodies they are protecting, it is an unseen corporate body. A mood of foreboding has blighted the air of camaraderie and grace. We sense we are expected to dance faster or more gainfully, and our uncertainty makes us tense. Any one of us could trip, or fall behind, and be tapped on the shoulder by one of the corporate nondancers and asked to leave the floor."
Oh, God, yes. That.
The other bit I absolutely loved was this little tidbit: "'When I was in seminary,' Father Edward had told other guests around the table when he was purchasing his books, 'my spiritual director told me not to read theology. Read novels, he said, and I have.'"
On the whole, this is the story of a talented and persistent author who got to experience the last glory days of American publishing, and has managed to do better than most as it turned corporate. As such, the unpublished author might be tempted to roll her eyes or feel there's a bit too much name-dropping going on, but this is an honest memoir about the triumphs and foibles of an author who has led an interesting life.
Godwin doesn't live far from me and I've occasionally fantasized about trying to make personal contact with her, since we have some similar concerns in our writing, but after reading this I'm quite certain she would consider me a hopeless slob who's gone about things in absolutely the wrong way -- not out of cruelty, just as a reasonable conclusion from where she's sitting, in what she herself calls her "silver eminence."
Anyway, this fast read is highly recommended to Godwin fans and to those interested in publishing or how writers mine their own lives and the world around them to make meaning.
That latter is what I take away the most, sadly. There's a long paragraph that resonates so much with my own 17-year experience in publishing (not trade, but professional and educational). In it, Godwin writes:
"A proliferation of nondancers has taken to the floor, wearing in their lapels tiny logos that have nothing to do with publishing. They don't dance but just monitor our movements, like bodyguards...only it isn't our bodies they are protecting, it is an unseen corporate body. A mood of foreboding has blighted the air of camaraderie and grace. We sense we are expected to dance faster or more gainfully, and our uncertainty makes us tense. Any one of us could trip, or fall behind, and be tapped on the shoulder by one of the corporate nondancers and asked to leave the floor."
Oh, God, yes. That.
The other bit I absolutely loved was this little tidbit: "'When I was in seminary,' Father Edward had told other guests around the table when he was purchasing his books, 'my spiritual director told me not to read theology. Read novels, he said, and I have.'"
On the whole, this is the story of a talented and persistent author who got to experience the last glory days of American publishing, and has managed to do better than most as it turned corporate. As such, the unpublished author might be tempted to roll her eyes or feel there's a bit too much name-dropping going on, but this is an honest memoir about the triumphs and foibles of an author who has led an interesting life.
Godwin doesn't live far from me and I've occasionally fantasized about trying to make personal contact with her, since we have some similar concerns in our writing, but after reading this I'm quite certain she would consider me a hopeless slob who's gone about things in absolutely the wrong way -- not out of cruelty, just as a reasonable conclusion from where she's sitting, in what she herself calls her "silver eminence."
Anyway, this fast read is highly recommended to Godwin fans and to those interested in publishing or how writers mine their own lives and the world around them to make meaning.
March 20, 2015
FIRST THOUGHTS: I will preface this by saying I am actually unfamiliar with Gail Godwin's works. However, her style of narration and the candidness with which she shares her publishing experience is interesting. She's worked with a lot of people, gone through ups and downs and it's clear that she's firm in her control as the writer of this memoir.
REVIEW:
(Originally posted on Alexa Loves Books)
Let me preface my thoughts with two facts:
1) I have yet to read a novel by Gail Godwin.
2) Nonetheless, I wanted to read about her experience as a published writer.
Publishing is a non-fiction novel where Godwin highlights the start, the ups and the downs of her prolific writing career. The chapters are not necessarily chronological, which was unexpected. But since they are dutifully titled, and include references to the time period/novels/publishers involved in the subtitle, it was less confusing than one might think.
Personally, I found her style of narration very candid. She named names, talked about the troubles she faced and the highs of her career in equal measure. It was undoubtedly an eye-opener when it came to viewing the publishing industry, as Publishing is a novel where Godwin tells it how it is. While delivery was a little dry, it was still fascinating to read about all of the things Godwin has experienced so far.
Godwin has graced us with her anecdotes, feelings included, and it’s downright compelling at certain points. Still, Publishing is not the type of memoir I would easily recommend, though it certainly has its merits. It would be the type of read I’d suggest to fellow writers, or those with an interest in publishing, or perhaps fans of Ms. Godwin herself.
REVIEW:
(Originally posted on Alexa Loves Books)
Let me preface my thoughts with two facts:
1) I have yet to read a novel by Gail Godwin.
2) Nonetheless, I wanted to read about her experience as a published writer.
Publishing is a non-fiction novel where Godwin highlights the start, the ups and the downs of her prolific writing career. The chapters are not necessarily chronological, which was unexpected. But since they are dutifully titled, and include references to the time period/novels/publishers involved in the subtitle, it was less confusing than one might think.
Personally, I found her style of narration very candid. She named names, talked about the troubles she faced and the highs of her career in equal measure. It was undoubtedly an eye-opener when it came to viewing the publishing industry, as Publishing is a novel where Godwin tells it how it is. While delivery was a little dry, it was still fascinating to read about all of the things Godwin has experienced so far.
Godwin has graced us with her anecdotes, feelings included, and it’s downright compelling at certain points. Still, Publishing is not the type of memoir I would easily recommend, though it certainly has its merits. It would be the type of read I’d suggest to fellow writers, or those with an interest in publishing, or perhaps fans of Ms. Godwin herself.
March 5, 2021
This book is interesting and informative. It is an inside look at a successful author's journey with the big publishers. If you want to know what it was like to be a successful author in the heyday of traditional publishing you will enjoy this book. The author explores some dilemmas that authors still face in this new age of publishing - maintaining the integrity of your work, fighting for the cover or title you want, or changing editors in mid-stream. With so many twists and turns, it actually made me question if the success of this particular author is something I would want for myself even if it were achieved. Reading about how Ms. Godwin's novels came to be has led to my adding several of them to my reading list. Over five years out of the gate, it would be interesting for the author to add an appendix addressing the major changes in the publishing arena over the last few years and how or if they have have any impact. I would think that for an already established successful author like Ms. Godwin those would be of no consequence.
March 19, 2015
It was fascinating to get an author's perspective on all the shuffling around of imprint and publisher ownership over the last 20-30 years, since I've been dealing with the same thing as someone purchasing materials for a library. But for me, it's just a pain to keep track of what belongs where. For Gail Godwin, this involved changes in editors and publishers with entirely different approaches to what a book (and author/public persona) should be.
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July 22, 2016Page 31
"That's exactly what she said," Lorraine told me. "After they finished tearing her story apart because it was too 'obscure' and nobody would publish it, she stood up and said in that husky deadpan voice of hers, 'So? What do I risk? Obscurity?' Just like that. You could have heard a pin drop."
"That's exactly what she said," Lorraine told me. "After they finished tearing her story apart because it was too 'obscure' and nobody would publish it, she stood up and said in that husky deadpan voice of hers, 'So? What do I risk? Obscurity?' Just like that. You could have heard a pin drop."
August 18, 2015
Writers especially will enjoy this delightful romp through decades of publishing, from the 1950s to present, through the eyes of Gail Godwin. If you're an author, it will make you long for days when publishing was a genteel sport.
October 14, 2017
Found this at Burnley Library after a 'meet the author' event at the literary festival.
The beginning (battling with the fear of being never-published), is richer than the end (parties, book tours, reviews, minders).
Gail Godwin developed her imagination in league with her writer mother from an early age. Her first story is of a girl who brought home a hen's egg and found a baby dragon inside. The growing George is a metaphor for Gail's desire to be an author.
But would she ever make it?
Maybe she would teach literature until she was 65 'then decide whether to go on living'.
The joy of this book is in the stories of the characters Gail loves. But there are tips and hints in here too, and comfort, for the aspiring author.
To make biscuits, you roll out the pastry, cut the circles, gather the cast-off dough and roll it again to make more. Hopefully it will stretch. And this is how it goes with searching for plots and people from the raw material of your life.
The beginning (battling with the fear of being never-published), is richer than the end (parties, book tours, reviews, minders).
Gail Godwin developed her imagination in league with her writer mother from an early age. Her first story is of a girl who brought home a hen's egg and found a baby dragon inside. The growing George is a metaphor for Gail's desire to be an author.
But would she ever make it?
Maybe she would teach literature until she was 65 'then decide whether to go on living'.
The joy of this book is in the stories of the characters Gail loves. But there are tips and hints in here too, and comfort, for the aspiring author.
To make biscuits, you roll out the pastry, cut the circles, gather the cast-off dough and roll it again to make more. Hopefully it will stretch. And this is how it goes with searching for plots and people from the raw material of your life.
September 17, 2018
This is a memoir written by author Gail Godwin about her efforts to get her books published. While she always dreamed of being a published author, it wasn't until 1968 when she was 33 that she had her first novel published. She has been a popular and prolific writer during her career. This memoir discusses working with agents, publishers, and challenges she has had along the way. Although I wasn't familiar with her books, I discovered one on my nightstand in my "to read" stack, "Father Melancholy's Daughter." The book does give insights into how she developed characters from people that she knew and plot lines. I enjoyed it, but I think it would be more enjoyable for someone who had read her work, which I plan to do. Then perhaps I will revisit her memoir.
December 3, 2019
A wonderful book about writing and publishing in general. Although Godwin does not go in full detail of her publishing experience, she paints a well rounded picture of what it's like being an unpublished writer and then transitioning into a published one. One can say that she had a unique and specific experience, having been published in the US, but her writing here shows a general reaction to the hardship of publishing. One that most writers in the world can relate to.
The names of editors can confuse you at times, but it did not take me away from the world that Godwin paints.
The best thing to take from this book is that, now, I really want to read her fictional work.
The names of editors can confuse you at times, but it did not take me away from the world that Godwin paints.
The best thing to take from this book is that, now, I really want to read her fictional work.
January 12, 2022
I enjoyed reading about Gail Godwin's career as an author with all of its ups and downs. I found her memoir very encouraging, and it helped me see my works-in-progress in a new light. I'm always interested in the inspiration behind each novel, and she delivered! However, I wish she had revealed more about the behind-the-scenes look at the publishing house mergers. I look forward to reading more of her work.
June 19, 2023
Clearly written to be most enjoyed by someone familiar with her work, still I liked this without having ever read anything else she had ever written. I thought this was an interesting look at the business of being a writer. You read so often of people who fail to achieve of long-term success, it was great to see the story unfold from the other side. She comes across as a serious person, serious about her work and whose focus has paid off well.
January 4, 2018
This was just the wrong book for me. I thought Gail Godwin was a publisher; she is a writer. And I have never read any of her books. The writing in this book is fine, except for the chapter about the different publishers and editors she has had--there were too many changing dance partners to keep track of. But most of the book is about her writing, so I was left out.
October 9, 2019
Interesting view from a successful fiction writer. I am not sure why I enjoyed it, because she shared lots of facts and names that didn’t interest me. But I did enjoy traveling through the years with her... early rejections, jumping editors and agents and publishers... battles and victories and struggles with novels. It was fascinating.
January 2, 2024
Belo livro sobre os problemas e prazeres de ser uma escritora no século XX. Faz um apanhado interessante das mudanças no mercado editorial ao longo do tempo, comentários excelentes sobre o que é ser um bom editor e, mais importante, dá vontade de ler quase tudo o que ela escreveu. Mesmo sem ter lido nenhuma das obras dela, é uma leitura prazerosa e interessante.
December 14, 2025
A piquant, bittersweet memoir that uses the publications of Godwin’s various novels as frames for explorations of her life, both personal and professional.
As a recently published author myself, I picked this up for an obvious reason, even though I’ve never read any of Godwin’s fiction. I might have to now.
As a recently published author myself, I picked this up for an obvious reason, even though I’ve never read any of Godwin’s fiction. I might have to now.
December 31, 2018
Enjoyable for about 3/4 of the time. The sense of self-worth and privilege are probably necessary, but also tiring. Most of all, this needs an editor, which really only proves Godwin right in the end.
November 18, 2017
A specialist book -- for those who are either very interested in Gail Godwin or in the largely bygone days of the publishing business.
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