Coming In May 2023 ... A Book!

It takes a village to raise a child. The same is true for book babies.

Anyeonghaseyo!

I’m filled with gratitude that you are here. Thank you. We’re starting the six month march to publication day of FLAWLESS, an exploration of beauty standards, the power of social media, the capitalistic narratives we’ve been fed about our bodies, and my own relationship with that tangle of ideas. It uses K-beauty’s global rise and my reporting on Korean women as an entry point to better understand where beauty culture is going, and how it could be changed.

I’ll need your help, in ways large and small, to get this book baby out into the world and find its people. I’m going to use this space to give first access to book updates, behind-the-scenes and assorted lessons from the publishing journey.

Title page of the 1P. I’d share more but it’s NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

Updates

• This past week I turned in the last edits on the 1P, short for first pass pages I assume(?), the version of the book that has been page-designed and laid out, but not yet final-final. The 1P was used to make NetGalleys available to early, early readers. I am not a fastidious person, I would never describe myself as “into organization.” So having to comb through meticulously for pesky punctuation errors and rethink word choices felt tedious. But it is over now, thank goodness. And I loved revisiting some of the characters in the book — like the ajummas in one of the final chapters — all over again.

• We also sold Japanese rights! I’m so excited to see FLAWLESS in hiragana, katakana and kanji!

For Now…

What burning questions do you have about the book? I want to answer them in a future installment of this newsletter. And how else should I use this space? I’m planning to host a couple Q&As with the constellation of people who have made the book possible, like my savvy literary agent Howard and my endlessly patient editor, Cassidy. Lucky them, they’re getting pulled into my content schemes…;)

THANK YOU AGAIN for signing up for this list!

More to come,

Elise

PS. If FLAWLESS sounds like a book anyone in your circle would love, forward them this email and have them sign up for this newsletter to stay in the loop.