Ben Sevier of the Grand Central Publishing Group On Five Things A Writer Needs to Get Their Book Published by a Big Publisher
…I would recommend that any author who wants to be published by a mainstream publisher work hard to find an agent who loves their work and understands the audience they’re trying to reach. How do you find that person? My advice is always: be a reader. Read the acknowledgements pages of books you like, books that feel similar to what you’re trying to do, or books that are reaching a similar audience. Look at who the agents are that represent those works. Agents often have publicly available instructions on how to query them and present your work. Become a student of that process. Follow the guidelines they’ve posted. Be professional, present your work the way they’ve asked, and then be diligent and persistent in querying and responding to feedback. If an agent takes the time to respond and shares anything about your pitch or manuscript, take that in. Try not to get defensive. See it as useful information to improve your next query, revise your current work, or shape your next book…
I had the pleasure of talking with Ben Sevier. Ben, a longtime figure in American publishing, currently serves as President and Publisher of the Grand Central Publishing Group, a division of Hachette Book Group. With more than two decades of experience across the major U.S. publishing houses, Sevier has built a career marked by editorial range, sustained author relationships, and a track record of commercial and critical success across both fiction and nonfiction.
Raised in Southern California by two professional librarians, Sevier was immersed in books from an early age. He recalls being drawn to mystery and thriller novels as a child, particularly The Hardy Boys series, which would later influence his editorial interests. Sevier studied communications and anthropology at UCLA, where a part-time job at the campus bookstore provided early insight into the world of trade publishing. It was there, amid stacks of commercial fiction and nonfiction, that he began to consider a career in the book industry, an interest sparked in part by a chance experience involving a delayed shipment of a new Michael Connelly novel.
After graduating from UCLA, Sevier enrolled in the Radcliffe Publishing Course, now the Columbia Publishing Course, a six-week intensive program designed to prepare recent graduates for careers in publishing. Upon completing the course, he relocated to New York City, where he secured his first job in the industry as an editorial assistant in the children’s division at HarperCollins. Though the role was not directly aligned with his editorial ambitions, it served as a critical entry point and offered foundational experience in publishing operations.
In pursuit of work more closely tied to his personal interests, Sevier moved to St. Martin’s Press, joining the then-fledgling Minotaur Books imprint, which specialized in crime fiction. There, he began acquiring titles relatively early in his tenure, an uncommon opportunity for a junior editor. His first acquisitions, including Buck Fever by Ben Rehder, quickly gained recognition, earning nominations for the Edgar Awards, honors that helped establish his reputation within the genre.
Over seven years at St. Martin’s, Sevier built a list focused primarily on mystery and thriller titles. His editorial work grew in scope, and by the end of his tenure he was acquiring and publishing more than 20 original titles annually. He then made the first of several strategic moves across the major publishing houses, joining Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, where he was tasked with building a list around one marquee author: Harlan Coben.
That partnership would prove career-defining. The first book Sevier edited for Coben reached the top of The New York Times bestseller list, marking a milestone in the author’s career and establishing a working relationship that has now spanned nearly two decades. Their collaboration has continued across multiple imprints and publishing houses, including Grand Central Publishing, where Sevier has led the division since joining Hachette in 2017.
Sevier’s editorial reach extends beyond genre fiction. At Grand Central, he has overseen the publication of a broad range of authors, including David Baldacci, Sandra Brown, Lisa Gardner, Nicholas Sparks, and Colleen Hoover. He has also launched the careers of debut novelists such as Louise Penny, Charles Finch, and Brad Taylor. In nonfiction, Sevier played a key role in acquiring and editing No Easy Day by former Navy SEAL Mark Owen, an insider account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The book, published in secret and released with little advance publicity, debuted at №1 on The New York Times bestseller list and sold more than two million copies.
He has worked with authors from diverse professional backgrounds, including actors, scientists, comedians, and military figures. His editorial roster has included names such as Sally Field, Drew Barrymore, Tom Segura, Nick Offerman, Admiral William McRaven, and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll. Sevier has also directed acquisitions for books by Brooke Shields, Dr. William Li, and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, reflecting a wide-ranging approach to nonfiction publishing.
At Grand Central Publishing Group, Sevier now oversees more than 20 imprints and business lines, managing a frontlist of roughly 600 new titles per year in addition to a backlist numbering in the tens of thousands. The division publishes across categories, including adult fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, illustrated works, children’s books, and games and puzzles.
Sevier sees the evolving publishing landscape as an opportunity rather than a challenge, citing the expansion of digital platforms and social media as tools for reaching new readers and amplifying word-of-mouth momentum. He remains a vocal advocate for the role of literary agents, describing them as essential partners in guiding authors through the complexities of the publishing process.
Asked about his broader hopes for the industry, Sevier emphasizes the importance of openness, urging readers to engage with perspectives different from their own and to value books as vehicles for empathy, curiosity, and sustained attention. “Reading,” he says, “is how we get to the truth.”
Sevier continues to live and work in New York City, where he remains active in industry discussions and committed to championing new voices alongside established ones.
Yitzi: Ben, it’s an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood and how you grew up, and then the seeds for all that followed afterward?
Ben: Nice to meet you too. Sure, of course. Thank you for asking. I grew up in Southern California, and both of my parents were professional librarians, so I was surrounded by books from a very young age. I was encouraged to read early on and became a big reader of all kinds of books as a kid. The Hardy Boys really stand out for me and led me into mystery and thriller reading as a young adult.
I studied communications and anthropology at UCLA and worked part-time at the campus bookstore. It was a trade bookstore, selling all the bestselling fiction and nonfiction you’d find in a Barnes & Noble or independent bookstore. That was my college job. I thought I would go on to graduate school, become an academic, and teach, but I changed course late in my undergraduate years. I realized that wasn’t my path and started looking around for something else to do with my life.
Working at the bookstore, we had this amazing privilege. We could take books home, almost like it was a library, as long as we kept them in good condition and saleable. We could check them out and read them for pleasure. At that time, it was the early days of the internet, when authors were starting to have web pages to promote their work. One of my favorite writers was a guy named Michael Connelly. I knew from his website that his new book was coming out on a particular Tuesday, and I hoped it would be at the bookstore so I could take it home that night.
That day, the book wasn’t there. I mentioned it to the buyer, who discovered a mistake in the ordering. He got the book the next day and gave me a copy as a gift, just as a kind gesture. A light bulb went off for me. Of course I knew people brought books to bookstores, but in that moment, when I was trying to figure out my future, this small gesture had an outsized impact. It made me realize that publishing could be a real path. And all these years later, here we are.
Yitzi: That’s a great origin story. So I’d love to hear the next chapter of the story. Tell us how you started in the publishing industry.
Ben: Well, as I said, it was the early days of the web, late ’90s. After that experience, I started searching around to figure out how someone actually gets a job in publishing. I found what was then called the Radcliffe Publishing Course, which was taught at Radcliffe College on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge. It was a six-week professional development course designed for recent college grads interested in the business. That program has since become the Columbia Publishing Course and is now housed at Columbia in New York City.
I applied, got accepted, and graduated from UCLA on a Thursday. By Saturday, I was on a plane to Boston to spend my summer learning about the industry from publishing professionals. It was a great experience, and it’s also where I met my now-wife. So that summer program ended up being hugely valuable in a number of ways.
Yitzi: It’s beautiful. Let’s hear the rest of the story…
Ben: Six weeks in, we had met a bunch of editors, publicists, marketers, and publishing executives who came through the program to present, talk to us about what they do, and teach us about publishing. About a hundred of us moved to New York City and started applying for the same 20 entry-level jobs that were probably available at the time.
I remember interviewing at all of the big five publishers, as well as at a number of literary agencies, from small operations to big ones. I had some success, but there were also a lot of jobs that were filled quickly by my colleagues in the program who were maybe better fits for specific roles.
Ultimately, I got an editorial assistant job at HarperCollins in the children’s division, which was a wonderful starting point for me. It wasn’t the kind of book I wanted to build my career around. I had read children’s books as a kid, but at age 23, I didn’t have children of my own and wasn’t especially interested in children’s editorial work. Still, it was a terrific launching pad. I got to understand what it meant to be part of a support team for editors who were acquiring and publishing all kinds of books. I learned the basics of working in an office, all that stuff you get from a first job.
HarperCollins is undeniably one of the biggest, best, most successful publishing companies in New York, and being exposed to that environment was a real privilege. But a year in, I was looking around for a job that would be closer to the kind of editorial work I wanted to do, the kinds of books I saw myself acquiring and publishing in some mythical future where I might be successful.
I applied for and got a job at St. Martin’s, another one of the big five, in a relatively new imprint called Minotaur, which published mystery and thriller fiction. That was my bread and butter at the time, what I loved to read, and still love to read, among many other things now.
I made a lateral move as an editorial assistant into an imprint that was much closer to my personal interests, and that was another great step. I stayed at St. Martin’s for seven years. I think I acquired my first book six months into that job, which was somewhat unique at St. Martin’s. Assistants weren’t just allowed to acquire books, they were encouraged to find viable projects, start building a list, make a name for themselves, and contribute in a meaningful way.
That first book was nominated for an Edgar Award, which is one of the big mystery and thriller awards, and that was a nice moment for a debut acquisition. Shortly after that, I acquired a second book that was also nominated for an Edgar. So through some hard work and a lot of luck, I managed to make a bit of a name for myself as someone who could pick mysteries and thrillers that resonated with readers.
I spent seven years at St. Martin’s doing that kind of work. By the end of that period, I was publishing around 20 or 25 original books a year that I had acquired and edited, which was just so much fun. I learned a ton from some of the best, most experienced editors in the business, many of whom are still great friends.
Like a lot of editors, I eventually wanted a new challenge. I wanted to be exposed to another way of doing things. An opportunity came up at another publishing company. It was a tough decision to make that change at that point in my career, but I took the leap and didn’t look back. I’ve made a few moves like that since then, from one company to another.
I’ve now worked at all of the big five publishers, so I’ve seen this business done just about every way it can be done within the corporate publishing world, and that’s been a real privilege.
I’ve worked with some amazing writers and with a lot of smart, dedicated publishing professionals who’ve taught me so much. I’ve now been at Hachette Book Group for almost 10 years, running a division called Grand Central Publishing. It includes a number of imprints and business lines, our imprint count is over 20 now. We publish about 600 original books a year and manage a huge backlist, tens of thousands of titles that are still selling and need ongoing attention. We work closely with authors and agents to keep those books alive and in readers’ hands.
It’s a really fun time in my career and a fun part of the business to be in. We publish a little bit of everything, every category of book, from adult fiction and nonfiction to books for kids, cookbooks, illustrated books, and even non-books. We now have an imprint that does games and puzzles. I’m having a huge amount of fun.
Yitzi: Unbelievable. You’re a great storyteller, and that was a great story. You probably have some amazing stories from your career, working with incredible writers, creating meaningful projects. Do you have one or two stories that stand out most in your mind from your professional life?
Ben: Oh boy, that’s a good question. Where would I go? What would I highlight? I’ve already told you about acquiring my first book and having that nominated for an award, which was really wonderful. That was a book called Buck Fever by a writer named Ben Rehder, who’s still a friend.
When I took what I guess was my mid-career job at Penguin, at an imprint called Dutton, the reason I took that job was because I would inherit one author. I’d be allowed to work with one existing author in that imprint, and then build a list around that relationship and around that book. That author was Harlan Coben. At the time, he was a New York Times bestselling thriller author who had been publishing for about 10 years and had probably written 10 books. He hadn’t yet been a number one New York Times bestseller, but he was absolutely successful and well-known. I was a fan, as many people were, and the opportunity to work with Harlan was a huge selling point for taking the job at Dutton.
The first book Harlan and I worked on together became his first number one New York Times bestseller, which was entirely his achievement, but it was a delight to be on that journey with him. Since then, Harlan and I have worked together continuously since 2007, so I guess we’re coming up on our 20-year anniversary in the not-too-distant future. We’ve done, I don’t even know how many books together, but roughly a book a year during that time.
We’ll publish two books this year. One came out earlier in the year, his annual entry in his thriller oeuvre, and then a second book is coming this fall, a collaborative novel he’s working on with Reese Witherspoon. The relationship that Harlan and I have built is one of the highlights of my career. I’m an early reader of each of his manuscripts, which is a great privilege. He and I talk about his ideas for his next book, so I have the privilege of seeing how he thinks and what he’s excited to write.
I’ve had a front-row seat to watching him develop his Hollywood career. He creates TV shows with Netflix and Amazon and other platforms, and that’s been great fun too. We’ve worked together across multiple publishing houses, and that’s one of the things I love about my career, not just publishing a book by an author at one moment in time, but developing a real relationship. That can be the greatest pleasure in this work. Doing it with one author over the course of 20 years is pretty rare, and it’s something I’m really proud of.
So I’d highlight my relationship with Harlan and the work we’ve done together. That’s one thing that’s kind of unique about my career.
I guess the other story I’d point to is a moment when I was lucky enough to get a call from an agent who said she had been talking with a guy who was wondering whether he had a book in him, a story to tell. She wanted to know if I thought he had a viable project. She told me, in confidence, that the author was one of the Navy SEALs who had been on the raid to capture Osama Bin Laden.
My answer was yes, I thought that could absolutely be a viable book project, and that there would be an audience for what this author had experienced.
We made a deal to publish that book, which became No Easy Day by Mark Owen. We published it in secret. It was a surprise release, we announced it at the last minute and sprung it on the world. For a period of time, the publication of that book and the story behind it were dominating headlines across the U.S. Everyone wanted to talk to Mark Owen. Everyone wanted to buy his book, and a lot of people did.
It became a number one New York Times bestseller. It stayed on the list for six months. We sold more than two million copies in a very short time. To have published a book that dominated the national conversation and had the attention of the whole world, even for a brief moment, was something extraordinary.
I’m extremely proud of that book. It’s an extraordinary piece of eyewitness history. The publication process was challenging in all kinds of ways, and the author and I worked closely with a big team to create something that made history. That was really fun.
Yitzi: I bought that book. I read it cover to cover right away. And then I saw the movie, Zero Dark Thirty. You influenced me (Laughs).
Ben: What an amazing thing, right? I don’t know how many years it’s been since that publication, ten years, let’s say, and it’s still very meaningful to me. But it’s also meaningful to people who read the book at that time. As I said, it was eyewitness history. You don’t get too many opportunities to be involved in something like that. That’s something I’ll carry with me forever.
Yitzi: That’s an amazing story. It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake you made when you were first starting out, and the lesson you learned from it?
Ben: Gosh, probably too many to even remember.
I do think having a growth mindset has been crucial to whatever success I’ve had. Especially in this industry, where we’re picking books well in advance of their publication and we don’t know what the world will be interested in 18 months or two years down the line. There are so many variables that determine whether a book will be successful and find a big readership. No one has a 100% hit rate. It’s a little like Major League Baseball, if you can get it right 30% of the time, you’re going to the Hall of Fame. At least, that’s the metaphor I think of sometimes.
I’m wrong at least as often as I’m right, and that’s meant I’ve had to embrace humility in my career. I’ve come to understand that success and failure are often out of my control. But if I’m doing my job right, we at least have a good chance of finding a readership for a book. And when we don’t, I work hard to learn as much as I can from whatever mistakes we’ve made, whatever misjudgments I introduced into the process, whatever variables might have broken a different way and made a difference.
Trying to learn those lessons over and over again is such an important part of how I approach my work, it’s actually hard to pick out just one mistake.
I do remember one, though, sort of embarrassing, but I’ll tell you. When I took that job I mentioned earlier at Dutton, where I was going to be working with Harlan Coben, he was easily the most successful author I’d been trusted with at that point in my career. We were going to meet for lunch early on to get to know each other a bit. I had met him once before, maybe at a party, but we didn’t know each other well.
He came by the office, and we were talking. I was super engaged, really wanting to do a good job and make a great first impression. We walked out the front door of the building, and I suddenly realized I didn’t know where the restaurant was. I knew the name of the place, but this was before I had a smartphone in my pocket to just look it up. I had a general idea of where it was in the neighborhood, but I was in a new job, in a new part of town, and didn’t know the area well.
We’re having this great conversation, and at the same time, I’m internally panicking, thinking, “Oh my God, I’ve got to get this guy to the restaurant and I’m not even sure where it is.” We ended up walking five or six blocks south of the office, and I was quietly mortified. Then, like something out of a movie, I turned a corner and there it was, the restaurant. It was either divine intervention or pure luck that we found it.
The lesson? Be prepared. Know what you’re doing. Know where you’re going before you walk out the front door. It’s a pretty silly one, but it definitely stuck with me.
Yitzi: Okay, so let’s come to the main part of our discussion. You mentioned working with first-time authors and also with veteran authors. Is the editorial process different when you’re working with a really experienced writer? Do you take a lighter touch with them? Are you more hands-on with a novice writer?
Ben: You know, it’s really hard to generalize, because the truth is every editorial relationship is different. Every writer is different. In my estimation, the most successful editors can work in any number of ways. It’s about being the editor that particular author needs at that particular time, for that particular book.
Generally speaking, sure, with first-timers there are some similarities. You have to explain the business to them. They haven’t been through the experience before, so there’s a certain amount of orientation that happens, things you don’t need to do when you’re 20 years into your relationship with someone like Harlan Coben, for example.
But beyond that, sometimes a very experienced writer actually wants and needs a lot of deep editorial conversation before they start a book, while a first-timer might be absolutely confident in the story they want to tell. That’s a little counterintuitive, but it happens. It can also be true that someone is so good at what they do that they need minimal editorial work, and in that case, your job is more about shepherding them and their work through the process, representing the company to them and representing them to the company.
So I’d say it’s hard to generalize because it really can be, and often is, different with every author.
Yitzi: How do you balance the authenticity of the writer’s voice with what you know is needed for commercial success, or even just to make the book more resonant and widely accepted by readers?
Ben: I think you work hard to develop an authentic human relationship with every author you work with, so that you can be honest about how you feel, whether it’s about the book as a whole, a specific decision, a passage, or a character. And at the same time, you always remember that it’s the author’s work. It’s their book, their name on the front cover, and ultimately their decision whether they want to listen to a piece of editorial feedback, and if they do, how they choose to address it.
Having real respect for the author is key. That means having the respect to be honest about how I feel, but also respecting that it’s their judgment, their decision, and their creative vision. I would never insist on my own vision.
Instead, I see my job, and I think this is true for any editor, as being the first reader. To react honestly. To give feedback that hopefully helps the author think about the book in a different way. And then, ultimately, it’s their call.
Yitzi: I’m sure in your work and in your mind, you have an algorithm, at least a kind of internal one, for what you think will become a successful book. Do you have stories or experiences where something you didn’t think would be great became really popular, or the opposite, something you thought would be amazing, and then it didn’t really work?
Ben: I wish I had an algorithm. What I have is a gut. I have decades of experience reading, and, though fewer decades, still many years of experience publishing books, watching the marketplace, and learning from authors and readers. But there’s no real formula in our business, unfortunately.
Every day is a surprise. I’ve been fortunate that many books I’ve worked on have been successful and reached the level of success we hoped for. But I have at least as many examples of books where I wished we could have found a larger readership than we did.
Even the best AI model in existence, if it could absorb everything I know and look at every book I’ve ever published, would still struggle to extract a reliable formula. That’s because there are just too many variables, cultural, emotional, social, even random ones, that influence what works and what doesn’t. What people want at a specific moment in time is unpredictable.
I do think books of high quality will eventually find a readership. More than ever, that readership might come “late” in a book’s life, what we used to consider late, because we now have so many formats and channels: audiobooks, ebooks, print-on-demand, online marketplaces. Books don’t go away. A book can be discovered and catch fire years after it was first published. And what a wonderful thing that is.
Yitzi: So that leads to this question about marketing. To what degree does marketing influence the success of a book? Do you have stories where a book wasn’t really heavily marketed but went viral, or something that got a big marketing push and didn’t move the needle much?
Ben: I think marketing is essential for success, but I see it mostly as something that enhances and expands the impact of a book that’s already starting to get attention, because people are reading it, loving it, and talking about it.
Over the years, I’ve heard it said that the only thing that really sells books is word of mouth. Someone reads a book and tells someone else they loved it. I think that’s basically true. Even the best marketing is, at its core, just a tool to amplify that word of mouth.
You see it all the time with books that go viral on Instagram, TikTok, or other social media platforms. That virality comes from people reading, reacting, and sharing their experiences. Other people see those reactions and want to have that same emotional experience, so they go read the book too.
So, I don’t know if that fully answers your question, but that’s how I see it.
Yitzi: A lot of people dream of one day getting their book in front of the Big Five. My understanding is that nowadays, the only way to do that is by hiring a literary agent. So I guess the question is, which agents should they turn to? How do they get a good agent? What’s the process?
Ben: I do think literary agents play an essential role for most books published by Big Five publishers, not because there needs to be a gatekeeper between the writer and the editor, but because writers need a trusted partner. Someone who can help figure out who the right publisher might be, how to approach those publishers, and how to present the work so it has a real chance to make an impact and be seriously considered.
Once a writer has a publisher interested in the work, an agent becomes a partner and guide through the deal-making process, the contract process, the publication process, someone who’s really looking out for the author’s interests. I’m a huge proponent of literary agents. I’ve worked with dozens, probably hundreds, of agents I adore and have long relationships with. I’m a booster, a fan of agents.
I would recommend that any author who wants to be published by a mainstream publisher work hard to find an agent who loves their work and understands the audience they’re trying to reach. How do you find that person? My advice is always: be a reader. Read the acknowledgements pages of books you like, books that feel similar to what you’re trying to do, or books that are reaching a similar audience. Look at who the agents are that represent those works. Agents often have publicly available instructions on how to query them and present your work.
Become a student of that process. Follow the guidelines they’ve posted. Be professional, present your work the way they’ve asked, and then be diligent and persistent in querying and responding to feedback. If an agent takes the time to respond and shares anything about your pitch or manuscript, take that in. Try not to get defensive. See it as useful information to improve your next query, revise your current work, or shape your next book.
I don’t know if there’s a better way to do it. If your roommate’s cousin’s boyfriend’s father is a literary agent, absolutely make use of that connection and see if you can get your work in front of them. But overall, persistence is key. Read a lot. Try to understand the book marketplace and figure out which agents represent the kind of work you’re trying to create. That’s the key.
Yitzi: This is the centerpiece of our interview. So, based on your experience and your success, can you share the five things an aspiring writer needs to get their book published by a big publisher?
Ben: Five things they need? Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.
- First, they need a great idea.
- Second, they need a well-executed proposal or manuscript draft for that idea.
- Third, they need to demonstrate an understanding of the audience they’re trying to reach with that book or proposal.
- Fourth, they need a literary agent.
- And fifth, they need to be ready to work really hard to make that idea into the best possible version of itself, to shape the book in a way that gives it the best chance to get out into the world, find a readership, and ideally build momentum for the next great idea they come up with.
Yitzi: This is our final aspirational question. Ben, because of your great work and the platform you’ve built and embody, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Ben: I guess what I hope my career has played a small part in influencing, and what I wish for the world and the one my children will inherit, is an open-minded willingness to read and experience the ideas, thoughts, and opinions of people who are different from you. People who come from different parts of the world, who see things differently than you do.
I would love for everyone on the planet to not just be willing or open, but actually interested and motivated to read the work and appreciate the ideas of people different from themselves.
I think that’s what book publishing, and reading and writing books, really does. It promotes ideas. Whether you agree with something or not, whether you appreciate a written work, a thought, a character, or a story, try to be open-minded about what it might bring you, what you might learn from it.
That’s a little bit how the book market works. As I’ve said, we don’t always know what’s going to connect. But I believe that if we put great people, interested, curious people, like the ones I’m describing, in positions where they’re reading and evaluating what others are writing, and then bring forward the things they’re excited about, publish it well, and put it out into the world, the market and the readership community will have the opportunity to be exposed to those books. And I believe that will make the world a better place.
Yitzi: I recently heard a good line, that books allow us to scale empathy.
Ben: Yeah, that’s exactly right. I don’t know who said that, but whoever did is a very smart person, and I completely agree.
To read a book, a long-form book that isn’t interrupted by commercial breaks trying to sell you something, or by the next headline on your phone about something awful happening in the world, is to really engage deeply with a work someone has poured hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours into. Probably years of their life. And doing that allows you to see the world through their eyes.
So I want more of that. I want more people reading more books by more authors about more subjects, promoting more ideas. Because I think that’s how we get to the truth.
Yitzi: So beautiful. Ben, how can our readers continue to follow your work? How can they support you and your work in any possible way?
Ben: I would ask you to support writers. Go into your local bookstore, whether that’s an independent shop or a Barnes & Noble, or order books online, or check them out at the library. Just read more books.
I’d love it if they were books published by Grand Central Publishing Group here at Hachette, but honestly, I’m happy if it’s a book of any kind. I’m happy if you got it for free, if you paid for it, if a friend lent it to you, or if your teacher gave it to you. That’s what I would ask: read more books.
Yitzi: Ben, it’s really been an honor to meet you. I wish you continued success and good health, and I hope we can do this again next year.
Ben: That’d be great. It was really nice of you. Thank you for your interest.
Yitzi: I look forward to sharing the article with our readers. Thank you so much for your time.
Ben: Have a great day.
Ben Sevier of the Grand Central Publishing Group On Five Things A Writer Needs to Get Their Book… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.