3 Books With Neil Pasricha

Chapter 140: Amy Einhorn on powerful pages and publishing possibilities


Listen Later

‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett. ‘Big Little Lies’ by Liane Moriarty. ‘Let's Pretend This Never Happened’ by Jenny Lawson. ‘American Dirt’ by Jeanine Cummins. ‘This Is How It Always Is’ by Laurie Frankel. ‘Listen for the Lie’ by Amy Tintera. ‘We Begin At the End’ by Chris Whittaker. ‘A Higher Loyalty’ by James Comey. ‘The Book of Awesome’ by Neil Pasricha.     What do these books have in common? The famed but invisible editor pulling the strings from behind the curtain: Amy Einhorn     Fifteen years ago my seven-month-old blog ‘1000 Awesome Things’ was nominated for ‘Best Blog’ from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. I was approached by literary agents and my new agent Erin Malone told me she wanted to auction my blog to publishers … next week. Suddenly I was in the foreign position of interviewing editors who were somehow clamoring to publish my book.     I signed with Amy Einhorn—a woman I’d never heard of, who had just started an eponymous imprint I’d never heard of, within Putnam Publishing, which I’d also never heard of. But I was immediately and magnetically attracted to her vision for the book. “It’s a hardcover, Neil,” she said. “It’s for moms. It’s a gift book. You gotta lose the frat boy posts. No blowing your nose in the shower. And I need a lot more new content.”     I learned everything about editing from Amy in our passionate late night diatribe emails, our hot-potato-ing of 300-page Word docs back and forth with 100s of comments in red down the sides, and arguing—good arguing!—about every single element along the way. I’d sit in her office and she’d have a variety of ‘cases’ laid out on her desk. “What do you think of 5” by 7”?” she’d say. “Too precious? Too cute?”     Amy is one of the most successful editors in the world today with the highest percentage of books edited hitting the New York Times bestseller list. According to a feature in The Observer, “New York editors and publishers speak of Amy Einhorn's success as the product of an almost mystical editorial instinct.” She has a knack for sniffing out voice, for knowing what will work and what won’t and, as you can imagine, I’ve been begging her to come on 3 Books for six years to hear how it all works.     So I flew down to NYC to talk with the bright, brilliant, and beaming Amy Einhorn about what an editor does, how a book gets published, what helps a book sell, Amy's 3 most formative books, and much, much more.     Let’s flip the page to Chapter 140 now…
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

3 Books With Neil PasrichaBy Neil Pasricha: Bestselling Author

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

251 ratings


More shows like 3 Books With Neil Pasricha

View all
On Being with Krista Tippett by On Being Studios

On Being with Krista Tippett

10,272 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,766 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,212 Listeners

The Moth by The Moth

The Moth

27,213 Listeners

Good Life Project by Jonathan Fields / Acast

Good Life Project

3,289 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,345 Listeners

10% Happier with Dan Harris by 10% Happier

10% Happier with Dan Harris

12,542 Listeners

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso by Lemonada Media

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

1,208 Listeners

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes by Vulture

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes

1,441 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

378 Listeners

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown by Vox Media Podcast Network

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

23,615 Listeners

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out by Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

4,401 Listeners

The Interview by The New York Times

The Interview

1,444 Listeners

All There Is with Anderson Cooper by CNN

All There Is with Anderson Cooper

9,732 Listeners

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus by Lemonada Media

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus

10,834 Listeners