A Few Things | October 8
My most vulnerable book, and why I starting crying in an interview.
My Most Vulnerable Book
Yesterday, I was interviewed about our parenting book for a major media outlet, and it shifted something in my brain. I’ve been very nervous about how The Kids Are All Right will be received. For a few reasons:
1) We haven’t had a chance to share the ideas from the book on public platforms and we don’t know what will resonate. And that means we also don’t know what ideas will offend people. Ideally, none of the ideas would be offensive to people, but I’ve written on the internet long enough to know that literally anything can offend people. When I know what kind of reactions are coming, I can mentally prepare. But with this new book I don’t really know what the reactions will be. Will we be facing anger? Annoyance? Appreciation? Disinterest? All of the above?
2) Parenting is a fraught topic. It feels so high stakes because we’re talking about real live human beings. It’s not theoretical, it’s extremely present and real. There’s such a high risk of misunderstanding a situation and giving bad advice; of hurting instead of helping.
3) Parenting discussions are so personal, and I felt really vulnerable writing this book, and it was sometimes uncomfortable. I feel much more vulnerable about this book being out in the world than I do about my last book (even though the last book topic was much edgier).
And then yesterday happened. And as I mentioned, my brain experienced a big shift during an interview about The Kids Are All Right. (Yes, I’ll share the article from the interview as soon as it’s published.) The interviewer, a mother of two kids aged 6 and 8, started the conversation by showing me her copy of the book — which had dozens of post-it notes sticking out the top and the side. She told me she first started marking a few possible topics to cover in the interview, but found so many passages she wanted to remember and found useful and wanted to return to, that a few post-its became many.
I wasn’t expecting that and I started getting emotional right off the bat. Obviously, we want this book to be truly helpful for parents, but to see this post-it-proof that it actually IS helpful, sort of rocked my world.
A couple other things she mentioned that meant a lot to me: She recently read The Anxious Generation (a book about kids and screens) and felt hopeless and discouraged afterward. And then she read our chapter on screen time, and said she felt a big wave of relief, like she could breathe again. It made me so happy! So many parenting books feel like they’re fear-mongering, and we want this book to be the opposite: totally reassuring, a book that will relieve parental stress in real ways.
She also wanted to know how we came up with the topics that we cover in the book; she said that she had once considered booking an Office Hours call with me to talk about parenting, and that this book covered everything she would want to ask me in a one-on-one meeting. Again, she couldn’t have paid us a better compliment. We want this book and the topics in it to resonate so much, and to hear that they do, is a big deal to us.
We’re one week until launch day: Tuesday, October 15th. If you’re thinking about pre-ordering, I hope you will. It’s a truly helpful thing you can do to support an author. You can pre-order from any of these links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
Bookshop.org — Bookshop sources from independent booksellers
Get signed copies via Talk Shop Live
You could also request it from your library if pre-ordering isn’t in your budget. If you’d like to learn more about the book before ordering, you can watch the video from our first book event, or take a look at my recent Reels or Tiktoks (a brand new account!).
Side note: For those wondering if we’re doing solo interviews or being interviewed together as co-authors, the answer is some of both. Ben Blair and I have lots of podcast interviews and other media interviews on our schedule — sometimes they want to speak with both of us, but other times the interviewer or podcast host prefers one person. Yesterday, we were both interviewed together on a podcast, and then I was interviewed solo for another outlet.
Alt Summit Open Call For Presenters Ends TODAY!
If you’re thinking about pitching to present at Alt Summit, happening March 14-17, 2025 in Palm Springs, do it asap, because the 2025 Open Call For Presenters ends today (Tuesday, October 8th) at 11:59 PST.
Alt Summit is looking for stand-alone speakers, roundtable discussion leaders, topic experts for Q&A desks, workshop instructors, panelists, moderators, craft teachers, and artists. If you need a refresher, take a look at the session overview. Basically, if you’ve got something to share that will resonate with the Alt Summit audience, the Alt team would LOVE to hear from you!
Find all the info on the Alt Summit website and submit your pitch here.
Get Ejaculate Responsibly for only $4.50!!
Something unexpected: Today is Amazon Prime Day, and as part of their book promotions they put the Ejaculate Responsibly Kindle Edition on sale for only $4.50!
I have never seen it priced that low before, and I don’t expect to see it priced that low again. I’m not sure how long the sale will last — I’m told it could just be one day.
At this price, you can order an e-book for you and for anyone you think would benefit from reading the book. Order one for everyone in your son’s fraternity. Gift one to the high school coach. Send one to your urologist. Order copies for your book club.
Only $4.50! What a bargain!
I think that’s it for now. Feel free to comment on anything above, or whatever is on your mind. I hope you are having a happy start to your week. And thank you so much for supporting my books.
kisses,
Gabrielle
I preordered the book and can't wait to read it.
I did have an office hours with you about parenting, specifically about chores, and I found your advice so helpful, pragmatic, and actionable. I cannot wait to read your book!