July Replay: "Read Like a Writer" Book Club

Hello, Protagonists! In this post, you’ll find:

🎥 The video replay of our July meeting

🗓️ Book Club schedule for the rest of 2025

“Read Like a Writer” Book Club is for our community members who want to dive even deeper into how great books work. Come nerd out with us! 🤓

🎥 Video Replay: Crazy Rich Asians

If you missed our last Book Club meeting, you can now watch the full replay above.

💬 During the book discussion, we chatted about:

• The voice is both satirical and emotionally sincere. How does the author balance those tones?

  • Does it ever feel like the book is winking too much at the reader?

  • Innovative use of footnotes to convey narrative voice

• The author immerses readers in a lavish world, often pausing to detail clothes, food, and social history. Does he pull that off without info-dumping? (or does he fail?)

• Third person narration: omniscient vs. close

• There are many POVs—do they work together to form a cohesive arc, or do some feel extraneous?

  • What might have been the reason for keeping or cutting these in the screenplay?

• Some of the major structural and character changes between the book and screenplay

• If you were to adapt your own story with a sprawling cast, what would you keep in mind after reading this?

• Book adaptations—what works better and where is the industry headed

  • TV vs movie

💬 During the “behind the scenes of writing” portion, we talked about:

• How do you build a long and sustainable career in publishing if your first book (or two) is not a huge success?

  • Why is the “mortality rate” in publishing so high (many authors do not publish more than two books)?

• Author visibility—how do you keep readers aware of your books when you’re not actively launching a new novel?

  • How can you introduce new readers to your backlist while you’re working on your next book?

• Are there any great craft books on self-editing (i.e., how to take your draft to something polished enough that you can query or self-publish)?

  • I haven’t read these but did find positive mentions of them online:

    • The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

    • The Anatomy of Story by John Truby (I did try to read this once upon a time and found it dry, but lots of writers swear by it, especially for structural rewrites)

    • Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

    • Revision & Self-Editing for Publication James Scott Bell

    • Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon

• Are there any case studies/examples of publicity and marketing campaigns that made a book “big”?

  • (note: some of these links try to sell you products/services, which I’m not endorsing; I’m just sharing these articles in case they are helpful)

    • Case Study: Andy Weir's The Martian

      • https://bookawardpro.com/blog/story-marketing-101-andy-weir-and-the-successful-failure-of-the-martian/

      • https://contentmatters2019.blog/2022/10/02/marketing-the-martian-an-authentic-victory/

    • Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Yellowface, Lessons in Chemistry

      • https://www.authorsbreeze.com/blogs/book-marketing-campaigns

    • Misty of Chincoteague

      • https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-marketing-of-misty-of-chincoteague-def52860?st=wsepto&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

As always, the replay is available to paid subscribers to keep our discussions cozy and private.

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📅 Book Club Picks for the Rest of 2025 - UPDATED WITH DATES

This list has been updated to include the meeting dates, in case you want to mark your calendars!

In case you missed it, here’s what we’ll be reading next:

"Read Like a Writer" Book Club Picks for the Rest of 2025

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• 2 referrals = 3 months free

• 3 referrals = 1 year free