on Jane Friedman site:

I’d been querying agents for nearly two years when I got a promising email. After some kind rejections and a couple of “I really like this but—” close calls that break your heart, this agent’s enthusiasm made my pulse race. “Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw your name,” she wrote, describing herself as a fan of my newsletter. She said she’d love to talk more about the nonfiction project I’d described in my query letter.

I’d been writing my newsletter, Write More, Be Less Careful, for just under a year at that point. It had started as a daily writing prompt to celebrate National Poetry Month in April 2021, and I’d continued after that, sending newsletters two or three times a month with writing tips and revision exercises, interviews with writers and other creative types, and encouragement to keep writing. I envisioned it as a place to bring together different parts of my brain: my own creative practice, my love of teaching writing, and my research expertise in the field of writing studies. Across those parts of my life, I’d thought a lot about why writing is hard, and I’d developed strategies for doing it anyway. I imagined the newsletter as a way of sharing those ideas with other writers. I didn’t start it as part of my efforts to get an agent and a book deal—but it ended up playing a pivotal role in that journey.