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A note from Jane

My husband, Mark, and I have been preparing to put our house on the market since January. And I’m learning something new about Mark in the process.

When he’s anxious, he obsesses over the details.

Now, he’s already a detail-oriented person—it’s one of his defining traits. Our very first interaction, in fact, was him flatly telling me all the details I got wrong in a book. (To be fair, that was his job.)

But for this trait to become amplified, well, it starts to become comedic material I can use, like for this newsletter. 😏

The day before showings began—after all the photos were done, the videos final, the staging in place—Mark had a list of new concerns to review with our agent. Like, should he replace the dining room light bulb so that it wouldn’t take a couple minutes to come to full brightness? And the lamp in his office leaned a little bit, so maybe it needed to be removed? (He made an executive decision to remove it.)

As the agent patiently listened, it occurred to me that Mark’s obsessing was kind of like writers fussing with the margins of their manuscript and playing around with the fonts. Focusing on what you can control, even trivial matters, helps you feel better about what you can’t control.

But eventually you just have to put the work out there, and that’s how you learn what details really matter.

When you work with assistants or teams, it can be helpful to have documentation available for your operations. E.g., I have documentation on troubleshooting tech problems with students, processing refunds or invoices, and setting up registration forms. It can then be shared with assistants or anyone responsible for administrative work.

Rather than write out instructions, which can be time consuming and leave out important details, Tango allows you to take screenshots and compile visual documentation. A starter account is free.

As memoirists, we’re told to write about what keeps us up at night. But what if your up-at-night topics include distressing stories that keep you up all night—or worse, they derail your writing process? In this class taught by Lisa Cooper Ellison, you’ll learn when it’s safe to write about traumatic experiences, how to write about them without re-traumatizing yourself and, if trauma pops up unexpectedly, how to administer emotional triage. Lisa will teach you the P.A.C.E. method, a mindful way to moderate the intensity of your writing and explore painful experiences from a place of resilience and strength.

In the last issue, a reader asked where to find free art/photography resources for DIY book covers. The most popular suggestion by far was Unsplash.

I’m a graphic designer and I mainly use images from a stock image subscription site. But usage rights on those are limited when used on merchandise, calendars, and so forth—so when that happens, I use Unsplash. —Kelly Stanley (Kelly also suggests looking at Pixabay, Vecteezy, Gratisography, Reshot, FreeNatureStock, StockSnap, KaboomPics, Pexels, and Artvee.)
Canva is great for book covers. —YC Takahashi
My vote for best free photos with extensive inventory is Dreamstime. I used them in the past successfully. —Maria Murad
Patrick Henry suggests several sites: The Library of Congress, Smithsonian, and Wikipedia Commons
123rf might be a worthwhile resource. You need an account, but you don’t have to buy a subscription or a download pack. You can buy credit packs, which start at about $40. —Nicole Phelon
Over on the Discord server, Dori suggests Flickr, FreeImages.com, PicJumbo, LifeofPix, Public Domain Archive, and ArtBreeder.

Next question: Your favorite source for quotations? Bonus points for sources that have some means of ensuring accuracy. Hit reply to this email or share on Discord.

Feb. 23: Write Your Nonfiction Book Proposal with Jane Friedman
Feb. 24: Writing about Trauma with Lisa Cooper Ellison
Feb. 26: The Magical Marketing Trifecta for Writers with Jane Friedman
March 3: Finding the Right Literary Agent with Howard Yoon
March 9: Writing Memoir for YA & Middle Grade with Allison K Williams
March 10: Effective Book Marketing for Any Author with Jane Friedman
March 17: Instagram Smarts for Writers with Ashleigh Renard
March 25: How to Pitch Your Book to Scholarly Publishers with Laura Portwood-Stacer
April 21: Blogging Strategies That Work in 2022 with Jane Friedman
June 29: Query Letter Master Class with Jane Friedman

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