An Antidote to Impostor Syndrome
When Esinam Bediako learned she had won Red Hen Press’s Ann Petry Award, which comes with book publication, she was ecstatic. But as she prepared to publish her winning debut novel, Blood on the Brain, the impostor syndrome hit: “I felt like I didn’t belong in the literary world: I didn’t have an agent; I didn’t have an editor,” says Bediako. “I didn’t know anything about publicity.”
Bediako is not alone. After toiling for years to land a book deal, writers all too often find themselves unprepared for what comes next. With countless books vying for attention, book publishers, especially smaller independent presses with limited marketing budgets, look to their authors as sales partners. But few writers have experience promoting books, and outside resources to help writers navigate this crucial moment are scarce.
“There are a lot of workshops on every other stage of writing and publishing—finishing a book, agenting, acquisition, and editing—but when it comes to publicity, writers are still quite mystified by why some books get all the coverage, and some don’t,” says May-Zhee Lim, a writer and former publicist at Riverhead Books. For debut writers like Bediako, the sudden pivot from writer to salesperson can be overwhelming. “Often writers don’t even know what questions they need to ask,” adds poet and publicist Jennifer Huang.
Poets & Writers created Get the Word Out to fill this gap. Writers with a first or second book forthcoming are invited to apply, and each year up to ten poets and ten fiction writers are selected to join a twelve-week intensive that offers expert advice and peer support at no cost to the authors or their publishers. Under the mentorship of experienced book publicists like Lim and Huang, participants attend a series of workshops that help them identify and harness opportunities surrounding the release of their books while building camaraderie with peers.
Authors who have taken part in the program report being buoyed by the knowledge and support they gained. Among them is Hillary Behrman, whose debut story collection, Lake Effect, is being published in May by Sarabande Books. “As an older first-time author…the world of book publicity and marketing felt unknowable and really uncomfortable,” Behrman says. “Get the Word Out changed all of that.” As poet Yamini Pathak prepared for the release of her first collection, Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps (Milk & Cake Press, 2025), her perspective on publicity changed: “I was shy to talk about [my book’s publication], and I confused publicity with bragging. Thanks to Get the Word Out, I now see that book publicity is a necessary step in publication.” For Bediako the program was an antidote to the impostor syndrome she initially experienced: “Get the Word Out gave me confidence and the ability to see my novel as a work of art that was worthy of exposure and publicity.” Kerry Donoghue, who published her debut collection, Mouth (Unsolicited Press, 2025), without a publicist or an agent, describes the program as “an absolute lifesaver,” one that brought connections to booksellers, buzz from literary influencers, and attention across social media while providing an environment of mutual support: “It ended up being half therapy and half compass…. It was one of the best things to happen to me as a debut writer.”
Alumni of Get the Word Out frequently cite the connections they’ve formed with others in their cohort as equally vital to the professional insights they gained. “I can’t imagine going through [a book launch] without having my Get the Word Out cohort—not just as a place to go for publishing advice, but also to vent…. We were each other’s sounding board, we were each other’s cheerleaders,” says Lena Valencia, whose short story collection Mystery Lights was published by Tin House in 2024: “We stayed in touch for each of our publication dates. We remain in touch today. They are all doing some fantastic things. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”
Applications for the next fiction cohort of Get the Word Out open in June 2026; poetry applications open in January 2027. To learn more, visit at.pw.org/GTWO.