HOW TO WRITE A BOOK IN 20 PIES (Andrews McMeel Press)

As a novelist, memoirist, and associate director of the New York State Summer Writers Institute, Amy Wallen has a few things to say about the writing world, many of them irreverent and snarky. From her perspective as a teacher, mentor, and published author, the way to survive the hard knocks of writing a book and trying to get published is to bust a gut working, laughing, and eating pie. In HOW TO WRITE A BOOK IN 20 PIES: Sweet and Savory Secrets for Surviving the Writing Life, she’s joined forces with illustrator Emil Wilson–who shares her sharp wit, sardonic look at the writing life and its demands, and her mad love of pie—to encourage readers along the journey of novel writing, from putting pen to page to finding an agent to celebrating publication. All with a piece of pie.

Illustration by @emilwilsonart