“I'm not sure running the press has changed how I write (though perhaps it has in ways I can't see), but it has certainly changed my relationship to how books get made.” WayWritingMadeI CanBookRunningChangedPressesNot Sure Author:Danielle Dutton
“I can be a fairly hands-on editor, and when I'm editing someone I feel intensely invested in that writer and her work. I love helping to shape a book, and I feel very privileged to get to do that with writers I'm excited about. I think doing that work for the past six years has changed me, and it better prepared me for the questions and suggestions.” ThinkingFeelsYearsI CanBookHelpingHandsPastChangedShapesSixPreparedExcitedEditorsEditingPrivilegedSuggestions Author:Danielle Dutton
“I suppose also that watching marketing and publicity stuff play out from behind the scenes, making those plans and seeing each piece fall into place or not, each year, for each book, has made me a little more tranquil about the process for my own book than I might otherwise be.” YearsLittlesMadeBookPlayMightFallStuffProcessMy OwnBehindsPiecesPlansSeeingSceneMarketingPublicityTranquilBehind The ScenesFall Into Place Author:Danielle Dutton
“It's so exciting when a book catches traction you didn't even expect (or completely did expect!), and so frustrating when a book never quite catches the traction you know it deserves. But either way it doesn't change the book, it doesn't change how much I love that book, or how thrilled I am to be publishing it.” KnowsWayBookDeserveExcitingPublishingFrustratingNever QuitTraction Author:Danielle Dutton
“As a publisher what you are trying to build is a long life for a book, to help it find its readers in many different ways, whether or not it made this list or got that review, etc. I'm sure some of that thinking has been useful to me as a writer as well.” ThinkingWayTryingWellsLongHas BeensMadeBookDifferentHelpingReaderListsDifferent WaysEtcReviewsPublishersLong Life Author:Danielle Dutton
“Margaret Cavendish was one of the people who came up in the course. That was when I started thinking about her as a character for a book, but my idea was for a totally different book. It had all these characters in it; Samuel Pepys was one of the main characters. He famously wrote these extensive diaries through the period that are really funny and sort of saucy, actually.” PeopleThinkingBookIdeasDifferentCharacterCoursesPeriodsDiariesMain CharactersDifferent BooksThinking About Her Author:Danielle Dutton
“So it was this multi-perspective, multi-character book, and it went through all of these different manifestations. I'm not sure there was a single moment where I thought to myself, Oh, I need to write about Margaret Cavendish. She just kept taking over the book I thought I was writing.” NeedsWritingBookDifferentMomentsCharacterPerspectiveManifestationNot SureSingle Mom Author:Danielle Dutton
“I would be researching seventeenth-century garden design or I would be doing something with Pepys, but I just kept using all of it to write about Margaret Cavendish. It took me a long time to realize that I just wanted to write a book about her. Years.” WritingYearsLongBookWould BeWantedRealizingCenturyDesignLong TimeGardenGarden Design Author:Danielle Dutton
“I sense people expect something to show for ten years. But I do feel like it is dense. Some of my own favorite books are slim, but there's a lot of weight and power in them.” PeopleFeelsYearsBookShowsMy OwnTenWeightDenseSlimFavorite Book Author:Danielle Dutton
“The way I've talked about my research process is that it was like magpies. I was just sort of moving through all these books and when something shiny would pop out I'd be like, Ooh, I love it! and I'd pluck it out. It's fun to figure out how to use those bits you really love - like I'd read about gold shoes with cork heels. Obviously, Margaret would have to wear those shoes.” WayBookUseMovingFunBitsProcessFiguresResearchGoldShoesPopsHeelsPluckCorkMagpiesGold Shoes Author:Danielle Dutton
“I was obsessed with the scientific instruments people were building and all the weird experiments they were doing. I did actually wind up working in some of that, but there were whole sections I'd written about these instruments that ultimately had to be abandoned when I realized that the book really was about Margaret Cavendish. I couldn't justify using all of them.” PeopleBookWholeWrittenBuildingWindInstrumentsI RealizedExperimentsObsessedJustifyAbandonedSections Author:Danielle Dutton
“I'm not entirely sure what a historical novel absolutely has to be, but you don't want a reader who loves a very traditional historical novel to go in with the expectation that this is going to deliver the same kind of reading experience. I think what's contemporary about my book has something to do with how condensed things are.” ThinkingWantKindBookReadingNovelReaderExpectationsHistoricalContemporaryTraditionalHistorical NovelsReading Experience Author:Danielle Dutton
“I loved reading historical novels when I was young, but I definitely don't think I wrote one. When I read my book through, when it was completely done and in printed galleys, I was surprised by how uninterested in the passage of time and history the book seemed to be. Even though you can feel it all there, that's just not what it's focused on.” ThinkingFeelsBookDoneYoungReadingNovelHistoricalFocusedPassagesPrintedPassage Of TimeUninterestedHistorical Novels Author:Danielle Dutton
