Megan Abbott

Okay.

So I'm not going to say new at this point, but I started with the pandemic.

So, okay.

Okay.

So, and, but, and I'm sure you've heard tell of like different sort of things that were shook up the business or people thought would shook up the business.

And then when everyone thought that there would be no more physical books, I mean, that was really a thing.

And, you know, all these sort of, and then, you know, book talk and all that.

And the one thing I've learned is that, you know, I mean, I think that there's larger concerns with corporate consolidation, et cetera, things that are out of our pay grade, but as writers, but that are, you know, definitely ongoing challenges.

But a lot of the other stuff, I think they are trends and phases and, you know, you just have to think of the long haul and there's going to be ups and downs and it's, you know,

Um, you just kind of ride it out and believe in yourself, you know, that cause it's, you know, there's never, it's, it's always, I feel like calling it a business isn't even quite right publishing because it is a little more, you know, and people are in it for a love of it, which is the best thing about it, but that you got to kind of ride out those big waves and trust yourself and the people that you work with that you trust.

I love that.

So I had a call today with my mentor and boss, Wendy Sherman from Wendy Sherman Associates, which is where I work.

And I was like, Wendy, this is happening in publishing and this is happening in publishing.

She was like, you know what, Cece?

For every contraction, there's an expansion.

For everything that closes, there's another thing that opens.

And I have been in this business long enough to know that it all works out in the end.

And she didn't say it in like a toxic optimism way.

She said it in a very thoughtful, like earned optimistic sort of way.

And I take, I love that.