Does Promoting Other Authors Sell Your Books? The Schools and Soaps Edition

A Literal Literary Loses Doubles Down on Decency

Last week, I wrote about my new YouTube channel, exclusively devoted to promoting other authors’ books (to the point where I sometimes forget to mention my own; bad marketer, very bad). This week, I double-down on the premise that helping others isn’t just good for the soul, it’s good for the book sales by spotlighting one particular author.

Rebecca Hanover and I worked at the soap-opera Guiding Light together. She as a writer for the show, me as the producer of their official website, and co-author of the tie-in novel, Jonathan’s Story (hey, look, I remembered to promote one of my own books! Yay, me!)

Rebecca and I, along with another GL writer, Danielle Paige, were interviewed by The Locher Room, here:

Now, Rebecca has a new book coming out on October 24, 2023. It’s called The Last Applicant, and it takes place in the world of New York City high-stakes Kindergarten admissions. Something I happen to know quite a bit about, as I’ve also written a book called Getting Into NYC Kindergarten (hey, look at that, I remembered to mention another one of my books; I am on a roll today!).

In light of this amazing overlap, I felt I had to interview Rebecca about her latest novel. Please find our Q&A - featuring both schools and soaps - below:

Alina Adams: You've written two young adult dystopian novels, The Similars and The Pretenders. What made you decide to set your first adult novel in the dystopia that is NYC schools admissions?

Rebecca Hanover: I love that you're calling NYC school admissions a dystopia—it truly is! That's brilliant. The truth is, this idea came to me organically while I was having coffee with a friend, at Starbucks. She was asking me for advice on the preschool admissions process (absurd, I know). But it's a thing, here in San Francisco, and probably not even to the level it is in New York. But here, you still have to write essays, do interviews, etc. And nothing is guaranteed! Parents send "first choice" emails... to preschools. 

I'm also very invested in thinking about how we parent, in 2023, and this whole idea of "intensive parenting," which really drives all this competition in the first place. In a flash, I had this thought—what if someone stalked an admissions director at a private school? Who would be desperate enough to do that? And why? I ran with the idea after that, and it all sort of came together in this glorious vision that I then had to try to commit to paper (or, well, my laptop screen). I wasn't sure if I would be able to. I had been reading a lot of domestic suspense—I love the genre, as a reader—and those books inspired me to give it a try. The deeper I got into the characters and the story, the more determined I got to finish it.

AA: Though you lived in NYC when you were a writer for Guiding Light, you currently reside in the Bay Area with your kids. How did you research what it's like to apply to school here?

RH: Some very anonymous NYC friends gave me some very anonymous tips. In all seriousness, though—I did go through the kindergarten application process here in SF. It reaches a fairly high pitch, even here, so I think a lot of the ideas are somewhat universal in major cities in the US. The competition, the stress around it... the high stakes parents feel. With that said, it is just fiction. I took liberties where I needed to, in order to make the story work. 

AA: I've been working in school admissions for almost 20 years now, and, I have to admit, no one has ever gone as far as the characters in your book. (Though I've seen some families go pretty far to secure their tot a highly coveted seat!) Without spoilers how did you come up with your characters and situations?

RH: I kept marinating on this idea of a mom who would stalk an admissions director, and I kept coming back to the same question—what would motivate her, beyond the obvious desperation that she feels to helicopter (or snowplow!) her kid into NYC's top school? I wanted the book to be surprising, and for the cards that get turned over to not be what the reader expects when they go into the story. When I did finally realize what made Sarah tick—and developed Audrey, the admissions director, in relation to her—it all started making sense, and it felt truly authentic, in that the characters almost told me what they'd do, and how they'd act. I found situations for them that best showcased their flaws and anxieties and that gave them the most obstacles. They do some pretty out-there things, but those things all had reasons behind them that I feel were 100 percent necessary for this story to be told. Sorry if that was vague—no spoilers here!

AA: And now, for my soap-opera fans, how did being a writer on GL help when it comes to plotting a novel, especially one where things get as twisted as yours? Can you imagine any Springfield folks behaving in a similar manner?

RH: You just made me laugh out loud, as I'm envisioning P&G being pitched the plot of this book... I can't even imagine their reactions. That said, writing for GL absolutely taught me so much of what I know about storytelling, and how to make it character-driven. Yes, the characters on soaps do outlandish things... but it's all in service of their deep-seated relationships and inner turmoil. 

From a really practical standpoint, I use SAVE THE CAT religiously to outline my novels, and this one was no different. I really can't start writing until I have the skeleton of the book worked out. Much like a beat sheet. And, finally—I could see Reva Shayne as a character in this novel... couldn't you?!

The Last Applicant is available for pre-order now! (And if you feel like proving the theory that promoting other authors does help to sell your own books, you can pick up a copy of my historical fictions, The Nesting Dolls and My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, too! How did I do with the self-promotion?)