Joshua Malbin

Soap and Water chapter 31 is now posted at Red Lemonade. This is another chapter with optional reading in the appendix associated with it, so that’s also posted there. E-reader versions of the chapter are also up on the Soap and Water page here, as are e-reader versions of the entire appendix, all the newspaper articles mentioned throughout the book. Plus, audio versions of chapters 14 and 15.

Finally, in case you haven’t seen it, I wrote another blog post for Red Lemonade, about gadgets and doodads.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Chapter 30 of Soap and Water is now posted to Red Lemonade. As always, you can find the e-reader versions on the Soap and Water page here, along with new audio recordings of chapters 12 and 13 for your listening pleasure.

Lots of exciting news this week thanks to you guys! Ryan O’Connor (who I believe has joined this mailing list–hi Ryan!), editor-in-chief of the highly awesome nthWORD Magazine has generously invited me to contribute a chapter to their upcoming ninth issue. And Brian McFarland of Red Lemonade has invited me to do some kind of podcast interview after the holidays. Both invitations I attribute directly to all of you commenting, sharing, and generally raising the book’s profile. So thank all of you who read, and especially all of you who help me share and promote. The boulder is moving inch by inch up the mountain, and I couldn’t do it alone.

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Soap and Water chapters 28 and 29 are now posted at Red Lemonade. Did I say things were starting to happen last week? Well one of these chapters has sex in it, and in the other Veronica rediscovers her badassery. Plot is happening, people. No closely observed miniatures of dysfunctional family life for you.

I’ve also posted audio versions of chapters 10 and 11 on the Soap and Water page. That’s the same place you can find e-reader versions of all posted chapters.

I want to continue to thank all of you for reading, commenting, and sharing. Every one of you is helping more than you know.

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I’ve been going over my records of correspondence with literary agents today, and have realized that perhaps a quarter of the ones I’ve ever been in contact with have failed on some basic level of correspondence. So since they all have fairly snooty guidelines up on their websites about how to query them, here are my guidelines for how I’d like to be rejected.

1. Nobody expects any kind of response to a first, cold query letter. It’s fine if you don’t answer. No complaints here.

2. If you do answer, though, and request to see all or part of the manuscript, while it’s fine if you take a while to read it, I do eventually expect a form rejection note. At least ten different agents have asked to see chapters and then simply never responded—and never responded when I followed up, either. It’s not that hard to send a form rejection. Really.

3. The form rejection is fine. While I appreciate the intention behind sending a personalized critique of the work explaining why you didn’t like it, I’m not going to pay attention to it. I don’t know you. I don’t know what I think of your taste. Save yourself the bother.

4. If you request revisions, especially major revisions, and I put in the effort to make them, I think you owe me the courtesy of actually reading them. It’s pretty shitty to ask a writer to put in months of work on something and then not look at it. It’s less shitty, but still kinda shitty, to request revisions and then send a form rejection.

That’s it. How has the publishing world disappointed you today?

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Soap and Water chapters 26 and 27 are now posted at Red Lemonade. The action has picked up! Things are moving! Excitement is happening!

I’ve also recorded audio versions of chapters 8 and 9, and those are on the Soap and Water page here, along with e-reader versions of the new chapters.

Thanks to all who continue to read, comment, and share!

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Soap and Water chapter 25 is now posted on Red Lemonade. This one’s a bit longer than I’d have posted in the past, mainly because more happens. I’m still trying to figure out the right timing for these things: based on the response from you guys I think every other week is too long, and twice a week seemed too much, so we’ll try once a week for a little while and see how that goes.

E-reader versions are on the Soap and Water page as usual. I’ve also recorded another audio chapter—I’ve gotten up to chapter 7 now—and posted that in the same place. Please let me know if you’re downloading these: I can’t see it in my analytics, so I can’t decide whether it’s worth it to spring for the service that auto-syndicates to iTunes for you. (Alternatively, if anybody knows how to help me set up an RSS feed for iTunes, I could syndicate it to iTunes myself.)

We’re more than halfway through now. I can’t thank you guys enough for sticking with this. It’s made an enormous difference. Please continue to comment and help me promote this on Facebook etc. Everything helps.

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Soap and Water chapters 22, 23, and 24 are now posted at Red Lemonade. I’m putting up more at once and doing it less frequently because that seems to be the way people are actually reading the book—catching up a few chapters at a time. Let me know how that works for you.

I’ve also put up mp3s of the first six chapters on the Soap and Water page here, and will continue to put up more. If it’s easier for you to listen on the go than sit down in front of a computer and read, those are for you. Just please make time to comment on Red Lemonade when you’re done. As always, e-reader versions are all in the same place, on the Soap and Water page.

Thanks as always for reading, commenting, and sharing. I truly appreciate it.

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I’ve got audio versions of the first four chapters up on the Soap and Water page. Use this post to let me know what you think, and if there are any more convenient ways of getting them to you.

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Soap and Water chapter 21 is now posted at Red Lemonade. E-reader versions are on the Soap and Water page here as usual. Also newly on that page is a podcast of the first chapter I just recorded. Hopefully it won’t be too difficult for you guys to download and listen to should that be what you want to do. More chapters will be following as quickly as I can get them done. And a third thing newly on that page is a way to sign up to receive email updates when I post new chapters, should you somehow not already be on my email list.

I’ve also got a blog post up on Red Lemonade now about why I chose to serialize the novel rather than putting it all up at once.

I have the feeling that I’ve outstripped readers’ ability to keep up, or perhaps over-pestered my email list (a big email marketing faux pas). So I’m going to throttle down the pace of publishing for a little while: the next chapter won’t appear until at least next week, possibly two weeks from now.

Thanks as always for reading, sharing, and commenting!

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Soap and Water chapter 20 is now posted to Red Lemonade.

Just a few words this time: I’m going to be writing a blog post for Red Lemonade about serializing your novel, and while I have a pretty good idea of what I want to say, I’m interested to hear from you guys about how you think it’s gone so far. Do you think that having more regular contact has induced you to read it more often, comment more often, or Tweet or share it on Facebook more often? Are there any of you just waiting for me to put the whole thing up so you can read it all at once? Do any of you read the e-reader versions? How do you feel about the length and frequency?

Of course don’t feel like you have to answer all of these questions, but if you have a reaction to any of them just drop me a line. It’ll help add a little color to the article.

Thanks as always for reading, sharing, and commenting. You guys are the best. E-reader versions on the Soap and Water page as always.

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