Frequently Asked Questions

The Aware Advocate Approach^TM is baked into everything and has long been part of how I see myself and describe what I believe is the duty of care authors and publishing professionals have to ourselves, each other, and readers.

I work with real people: artists, memoirists, and subject-matter experts who want to share their knowledge and lived experience with others in book form.

While many of my clients are highly accomplished, you’ll probably never see any of their faces smiling at you from the cover of a magazine as you stand in line to pay for your groceries. They may not be opposed to that kind of attention, but that’s not what motivates them.

My clients are budget conscious but willing to better understand what the cost of doing business means for all involved and find non-exploitative solutions to fit their needs and preferences.

While I do cover the entire author journey in The Aware Author Approach^TM, I specialize in supporting clients from the start of their journey up to the publishing phase of their journey.

So if you’ve already made an informed decision to self-publish and are interested in publishing services or coaching related to DIY publishing, I’m not qualified to support you in that way. That’s outside my zone of competence.

I do support authors who aspire to be traditionally published through the writing and pitching process and up to the point their publisher accepts their draft and the project moves into the actual production/publishing phase. Check out the other FAQs and pages on this site to learn more.

Soon…ish. I’m still processing some things and trying to find ways to adequately, accurately, and productively share my experience with a broad audience. I don’t want to become myopic or one dimensional. Doing so would not only limit my awareness and potential for personal growth and make me a worse not better writer, editor, and strategic partner.

I do want to say that this website refresh/rebranding project has helped me see that. I cannot thank Thayne Rigby, my website designer, enough for his grace and professionalism. He did for me what I try to do for my clients. He created a safe space for me to learn and grow. I didn’t realize how much I needed that.

If you want to gain a bit of insight into my journey and perhaps find resources to help you with yours, check out the “Insights Into Cristen’s Autistic Brain and Body” on my YouTube channel.

Writing, pitching, publishing, and promoting a high-impact, commercially viable book is one of the most difficult and rewarding journeys an individual can choose to take.

But a decade of work with more than 200 authors has taught me that even ambitious authors (and editors and agents) flounder and fail at predictable stages and for predictable reasons.

Winning the war of attrition requires 2 things: awareness and competence.

The Aware Author Approach™ addresses 5 categories of awarenesses and competency I’ve often found missing or lacking in my clients’ and workshop participants’ approaches to their author journey.

Click here for more details: About The Aware Author Approach™

Absolutely. As a developmental and substantive editor, I specialize in analyzing manuscripts and giving clients clear, actionable feedback. That aspect is always part of the deal and can be the only part of the deal depending on your goals, needs, preferences, and budget. For a list of my services and pricing, click here.

It’s mostly hype.

If peers and clients recognize you as a subject-matter expert, you’ve established yourself as a subject-matter expert. If you aren’t a subject-matter expert, writing a book is a great way to prove it.

There does come a time in the life and career of many subject-matter experts when writing a book is a natural next step. Even outside academia “publish or perish” is a real risk for some professionals.

But too many editors, ghostwriters, book coaches, and other publishing services providers put that fear into the minds of potential authors long before the threat is real and long before the potential client has something worth writing and reading about.

And too many of us are too in love books and writing to step back and help those who are considering writing a book determine if a book is the most effective way to reach the people who are eager to engage with their ideas.

If you’d like to hear a nuanced conversation about this, check out my conversation with business consultant and podcaster Gurmeet Judge: Why Should Business Leaders Write a Book? – Cristen Iris

If you’d like to schedule a consultation to discuss your goals and project, click here.

Some people claim that self-publishing is the best way to go while others claim that traditional publishing is the only legitimate publishing path. Both positions are too rigid to be useful, and proponents of self-publishing often willfully or unknowingly misrepresent the traditional side of the publishing industry and minimize the reputational and financial risks associated with self-publishing. On the other hand, proponents of traditional publishing often don’t recognize or aren’t willing to admit when and why a specific individual would be better off self-publishing.

Factors such as your short-, mid-, and long-term personal and professional goals, the type of book you're writing now, previously published books, plans for future book projects, your age and stage in life and/or career, and your cognitive and work styles all play a role in determining which publishing model is most appropriate for your current work in progress.

Before you decide on a path, I recommend that you read through all the FAQs here and speak directly to a coach-consultant who has a track record of success working with self-published and traditionally published clients whose life, career, and books are similar to yours. If you’d like to schedule a consultation with me, click here.

Many of my clients hate the idea of having to be active on social media but are under the impression that social media is the best way to market their books. They’re also under the impression that if they don’t have a large social media following literary agents and traditional publishers will automatically reject them.

If you love social media and are a competent marketer, great. That will likely be an important and sustainable part of your author journey.

If you hate social media and the type of marketing you associate with it, good news. You do not need to have a large social media following to be traditionally published or to successfully market your book. You do need a well-crafted book, evidence of a large and eager audience for your work, and a plan for reaching that audience that falls within your zone of competence.

I address the importance of individualized book marketing and platform building in The Aware Author Approach^TM, which you can learn more about by clicking here. Or you can schedule a consultation to discuss your specific goals, needs, and preferences.

Not necessarily. Many independent traditional model publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts, meaning you don’t need to be represented by a literary agent.

There are pros and cons to each tactic, but it’s important to understand the difference between what’s possible in general and what’s possible for you and in your best short-, mid-, and long-term interest.

If you’re not sure which is the best option for you, I invite you to schedule a consultation.

Yes. If I know a literary agent or acquisition editor that I think is a good fit for a client and their project, I will sometimes directly pitch clients to them. In other cases, I make clients aware of agents and publishers I think are good fits. In all cases, I help clients develop a pitching strategy and the documents they need to do it as effectively as possible.

All nonfiction books are pitched “on proposal,” meaning you’ll submit a book proposal that includes your proposed outline and a sample chapter or two when pitching literary agents and publishers. You can reverse engineer your book proposal by writing the book first, or you can sketch it out as mentioned to test whether the idea as written by you is attractive to agents and publishers.

Most advice is to do the latter. It’s great advice on its face, but I’m a proponent of writing the book first and pitching it after the fact. I think about it like this: The goal isn’t to start pitching as soon as possible or even to get signed with an agent or publisher as soon as possible. The goal is to secure a publishing contract with a publisher that’s right for you and your book.

A book proposal based on a well-crafted manuscript is much more compelling than one pitched on a concept even if the concept is solid. So, you improve your chances of getting a yes when you pitch because you’ve worked out all the bugs.

Second and perhaps most important is that far too often aspiring authors secure a contract with an agent or publisher based on their proposal, but when the time comes to write an excellent draft on a deadline  they can’t do. It could be that they lack the level of competence necessary to craft a high-impact, commercially viable manuscript or that they lack the resources to successfully manage all the competing goals and interests in both their personal and work domains.

When the stakes are so high, why risk undermining your chances of success or creating opportunities for additional stress and financial investment?

There’s another reason I recommend a manuscript-first approach. A common complaint I hear from traditionally published authors and proponents of self-publishing is that traditional publishers make or force authors to make changes that don’t reflect the author’s vision or voice.

There’s a lot to unpack there, but pitching a well-crafted full draft can mitigate this risk because the publisher knows exactly what they’re getting. If they have any change requests, they’ll likely discuss those with you before you sign a contract. I have yet to hear any complaints about unwanted publisher interference from clients who’ve taken this manuscript-first approach. I do, however, have clients whose projects are stuck in production hell because they had a compelling book proposal but didn’t have a well-crafted manuscript for publishers to start working with.

If you’re not sure which is the best option for you, I invite you to schedule a consultation.

This is very common. The problem could be related to one or more of many things. 

If you're getting form rejections or just being ghosted, I highly recommend talking to somebody who has a track record of success working with authors who aspire to be traditionally published because we can often quickly identify what's wrong and recommend ways to address the problem(s). This was the case with C.H. Armstrong.

Cathie and I connected when I was talent scouting for a few publishers during a pitch event. Here’s what she said after reading my feedback: "I just wanted to thank you once again for your notes on my manuscript. I can’t begin to tell you what a significant difference your thoughts made on my ability to tweak the writing and take it to a new level. Your advice was, I felt, so spot-on and I really just can’t thank you enough. All this time I’ve been sending to agents and editors and hearing, 'I like it but I’m not connecting,' with no thoughts on what they’re not connecting with or how to fix it. Yours was the first real advice I’ve been given and I’m just beside myself." Cathie went on to secure a traditional publishing contract and is now a literary agent at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

To help you troubleshoot, I recommend that you read this detailed blog post about what it takes to write an excellent book: The 5 Types of Editing Every Author and Editor Needs to Understand .

And check out my Services page  if you’d like to talk to me about your pitching strategy and/or have me look at your query letter and sample chapters (fiction and memoir) or your query letter and book proposal (nonfiction).

I have two thoughts about this:

1. First and foremost, my concern when working with professionals is to help them protect their professional reputations and avoid knowingly doing anything that may limit their career trajectory or threaten their primary source of income. In the publish-or-perish environment of academia, “publish” means by academic-oriented publishers. I recommend discussing your idea with colleagues at and above you on the academic career ladder. If you’re confident that writing your book as an academic-trade crossover and pursuing a deal with a trade publisher is in your best interest, consider the next thought.
2. Most academics don’t yet have a wide audience for their ideas outside academia. While published papers are part of your author platform, you’ll likely be much more attractive to a trade publisher if you’re also the author of a book published by an academic press. In other words, a book published by an academic press serves as a bridge to a trade publisher. So even if there doesn’t appear to be any professional risk associated with publishing outside academia before publishing inside, you might be at higher risk of rejection by trade publishers if a book published by an academic press isn’t part of your author platform.

If you’re interested in learning more about the differences between academic and trade books and what trade publishers want, click here: schedule a consultation.

Absolutely. That’s one of my favorite things to do. If you’re ready to explore how we might work together, let’s talk.

Yes, sort of, sometimes.

Traditional publishers invest in authors and projects by paying the costs associated with producing and distributing physical, digital, and audio copies of books. This includes some upfront developmental feedback if needed and after your “acceptable” draft is submitted copy/line editing and proofreading.

Keep in mind that signing a contract with a traditional publisher isn’t the same as delivering an “acceptable” manuscript to the publisher. Your contract includes a deadline for delivering your final manuscript, and “acceptable” is defined by the publisher. If your publisher has recommended that you hire a freelance editor, book coach, or ghostwriter, it’s probably because you’re struggling to execute the revisions the in-house editorial team has requested. It also means that they aren’t able or willing to expand the production budget for your project, which is why you’ll be responsible for paying the professional you choose to work with.

If you’re in this situation, you may be frustrated or concerned about the unexpected financial burden. I totally get it and would love to help you any way I can.

To help us identify the problem and potential budget-friendly solutions, check out my answer to this FAQ: What is The Aware Agent Approach™, and how can it help both literary agents and authors?  (Think publisher instead of agent.)

I also recommend that you read this blog post: The 5 Types of Editing Every Author and Editor Needs to Understand.

And check out my Services page . Discussing what you find with the in-house editor may also be a great opportunity to better understand their needs and goals and determine if and how I can help you both.

Not necessarily, but there’s a lot to know and many well-meaning but unqualified beta and sensitivity readers out there.

If you’d like to discuss specific concerns, I invite you to schedule a consultation. These are low-key, ask-me-anything sessions. And don’t worry about saying the wrong thing. The whole point is to help you find the best questions to ask and identify the most qualified sources of information.

The Aware Editor Approach™ is an editor-oriented version of The Aware Author Approach™. To learn more, check out The Aware Author Approach™ overview. Replace “author” with “editor” and references to writing craft with editing craft as appropriate.

If you’re struggling with a specific challenge or just want to better understand the publishing industry and your place in it, I invite you to schedule a 1-on-1 consultation session.

The Aware Agent Approach^TM is an approach to minimizing misunderstandings and maximizing opportunities for authors and their literary agents. This approach focuses on The My/Your/Our Zone of Competence Framework^TM, the decision-making framework within The Aware Author and Editor approaches.

The Aware Agent Approach^TM is for literary agents who want to learn more about how they can apply the principals of advocacy, awareness, and competence to their own practices, specifically:

• how to make their agencies more accessible to Autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD authors
• ways to overcome obstacles related to thinking styles, work/productivity patterns, and/or communication needs
• how to be better advocates for clients during the book publishing process (based on my experience helping clients navigate relationships with their agents and publishers)

It’s also for agent-represented authors who are frustrated by obstacles related to thinking styles, work/productivity patterns, and/or communication needs. I can help you identify potential causes of the problem and develop self-advocacy skills that help you regain the control you need and peace of mind you’ve lost.

Click here to learn more: About The Aware Author Approach™

To schedule a 1-on-1 or 3-way consultation, click here.

Absolutely. I love working with clients who’ve been referred to me by their literary agents. I can help you and your client with book proposals and query letters, developmental and substantive editing, and even book doctoring/co-writing.

If you’d like to discuss a specific project or schedule a get-to-know-each-other chat, hop on my calendar.