Last month at DeadDarlings, we were lucky enough to speak with three authors who’ve recently had new novels released. You can read the full interviews with Jenna Blum, Julia Fine, and Rebecca Makkai on our site, but we thought it would be fun for us to share what edits they took on before publishing their latest work. 

Jenna Blum, best-selling author and Grub Instructor

Jenna Blum, a 20-year Grub Street teacher and New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us (Harcourt, 2002) and The Stormchasers (Dutton, 2010), has just published her third novel ...

Jamel Brinkley's debut collection, A Lucky Man, has garnered great praise from all corners of the literary community. According to Publishers Weekly, “the nine stories in Brinkley’s promising debut address persistent issues of race, class, and masculinity across three decades of New York City’s history.”

The traditional publishing process can be full of surprises for a first-time author. Here's what a few writers publishing in 2019 have learned since signing on the dotted line.

We make all sorts of assumptions about what it will be like to actually become published authors for the first time

The final stages before book publication involve copyediting (and then proofreading). It's your last chance to make changes before your writing goes public. What can you do at this stage to assure your book stays true to your unique vision and style?

Every soon-to-be published writer is nervous and excited about copyedits. Will they require rewriting of beloved text

This month of DeadDarlings, Novel Incubator alum and author Rachel Barenbaum interviewed Leni Zumas about her new novel, Red Clocks (Little, Brown, 2018). Leni Zumas is also the author of Farewell Navigator: Stories (Open City, 2008) and the novel The Listeners (Tin House, 2012), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Leni lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is an associate professor in the MFA and BFA programs at Portland State University.