the publishing stories of mercury retrograde

🚨 plus, a course drop 🚨

Y’ALL.

As of 8:11am Eastern, Mercury Retrograde is over. What a hellion this one was. I for one am ready to start getting things in order.

First order of business: there are so many new folks here. Thank you for allowing me in your inbox.

For those who may have missed it (and, I suspect, the reason there are so many new faces): I was profiled in the New York Times (!!). I interviewed with them way back in September; you really never know when things are coming down the pipe. I also recently did an interview about evangelicalism and my debut memoir, Heretic, with The New Yorker Radio Hour as part of their “What to Do with the Problematic Past” special. It’s been a busy month.

You have a more proper newsletter coming for the New Moon in Aquarius this weekend, but given how active this Mercury Rx was in the book world, I wanted to mark the occasion. And also — your favorite class is back.

Jeanna

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4 Publishing Headlines of Mercury Retrograde

Lord above, it was hard to stay on top of all the publishing news these last few weeks. Mercury is the planet that, among other things, rules communication and writers, and retrogrades can expose misfirings and poor planning. I’m sure I missed a few.

This last Mercury Rx in Capricorn was particularly fraught because it was also in charge of warrior Mars’ Retrograde through Gemini. A classic setup for fighting words, conflict, and exposing oneself through language, even more so than usual.

The Romance Writer Who Faked Her Own Death

Recently summarized over at the paper of record, the tl;dr is that a novelist recently materialized on her Facebook page saying she was back and ready to participate in community several years after her daughter implied her death by suicide. There has been significant backlash from both fans and colleagues in the industry who feel betrayed and who are accusing her of disappearing in order to make more money.

This event, while specifically causing shockwaves in Romancelandia, is also resurfacing old concerns around the potential toxicity of online communities and the importance of protecting one’s mental health and creative energy. All of which falls under Mercury’s purview.

Atria Books Cancels Colleen Hoover Coloring Book

Fact: Colleen Hoover outsold the Bible last year. Fact: It Ends With Us revolves around a story of domestic abuse. Fact: her publisher, Atria, in the pursuit of the almighty dollar, was like, do you know what seems like a good idea? An abuse-themed coloring book! I simply cannot.

This is the kind of thing Mercury Retrograde is good for. Catching things that should have been caught the first time — even (especially?) if it leads to public embarrassment. Who knows, maybe a Big 5 won’t greenlight a domestic abuse coloring book again. The bar is in the basement.

illustrated by @catleeart

HarperCollins Union: 50 days on strike

Today marks 50 days of the HarperCollins Union strike. This should be a bigger story than it is. Nurses recently went on strike here in NYC and had a new contract within two days. The publisher can afford to bid billions on PRH and buy entire independent publishers like HMH in a $350m cash deal, but won’t budge on a $1m line item for their unionized employees that increases starting salaries to $50k in the most expensive city in America. The hubris and greed of HarperCollins executives continues to shock and awe.

Things you can do: Donate to the union strike fund. Subscribe to their brand new newsletter. Join me in clogging the inboxes of Brian Murray (the heartless CEO) at brian.murray@harpercollins.com and the People Team at peopleteam@harpercollins.com.

Prince Harry’s Memoir

It is very hard to be online right now without being aware that a man named Harry Windsor wrote a book about his fucked up family. I mean, who among memoirists? But this is such a Mercury Rx book: from its launch being delayed to the fact that so many outlets and readers do not understand that he had a premiere ghostwriter, the lauded J.R. Moehringer. If you want the summary, the New Yorker’s review is the one to read.

And the nature of Harry’s press tour reflects Mercury Rx itself. Very, let’s look at everything from a different angle. Fill in the gaps that are missing. Set the record straight. And, in traditional Capricorn: Revise history.

She’s Back

My Mercury Rx project was a new website — largely motivated by my desire to have a digital home better suited to host new courses, which I am planning more of in 2023. But the very first order of business was an obvious one.

The class 150+ of you have taken and loved, Astrology for Writers: How to Make Your Writing Work for You, is available for immediate download — for the first time in a year.

SHE RETURNS

On a brand new, intuitively structured platform.

With a brand new, much requested payment plan (!!).

More accessible than ever.

Here to support your 2023 writing goals.

the nitty gritty details:

This is a self-paced, beginner to intermediate astrology course in which we focus on 1) how to read your own birth chart, always with the understanding of you as a writer and 2) how to set up your creative life in a way that honors the foundational environment and energy you are working with.

Here, we divest from the capitalist bullshit that tells you that you are only worth what you can produce.

First, we go through the foundations of the chart, such as the elements and modalities. Essential for beginners, but always good a refresh for more advanced students. We also work through the sun, moon, rising, respective chart rulers, and Mercury, which, no matter where they are in your chart, is the ruling planet of all writers.

The more intermediate concepts that this course addresses are the houses, and house rulers, that pertain to areas of life particularly significant to a professional writer (2nd, 3rd, and 10th, or, your money, your writing routines, and your overall career). This should not be a surprise to longtime readers of this newsletter, but it bears calling out that I work with the traditional and Hellenistic practices of whole sign houses and planetary rulership (e.g. I consider Saturn, not Uranus, the ruling planet of Aquarius).

Each module contains an example chart of a famous writer (Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison are two of them) in which we apply what we’ve learned, and there are accompanying workbooks.

The class is $375, or 3 installments of $125 a month. Please note that if you are brand new to astrology and are still working on grasping basic concepts (e.g. what your sun sign means), I would recommend investing this money in a personal birth chart reading with an astrologer. We all start somewhere, and I want the folks who take the course to be well positioned to collaborate with the material.

For those who are interested, here is what some course alumni have to say:

"I come back to this class all the time. Jeanna's explanations of everything - from house to sign to planet to aspect - are so clear and distilled that I can count on gaining meaning whenever I'm looking at a new chart or studying an aspect of my own. Her metaphors for the signs through the seasons are a core part of how I understand and apply them."

— Melissa L.

"Take this class. You owe it to yourself to finally understand how YOU work. There is so much content in the world about how to write and what your goals as a writer should be. Yet, none of it compares to the wisdom you will gain by looking inward and understanding your birth chart. After taking Astrology for Writers, I gained clarity on my purpose as a writer as well as the confidence to pursue it. However, the most fulfilling thing that I walked away with was a deep sense of compassion, acceptance, and self-love for the unique process I need and have to write my best work. In all honesty, every writer, no matter where they are in their career, should make the time to take this class with Jeanna. It is THAT remarkable."

— Luna Damiana

I’m excited to continue supporting your writing practice in 2023. Thank you for allowing Astrology for Writers — the newsletter, this course, and more — to be part of your journey.