When your first manuscript doesn’t land with publishers, how do you transform that draft into the foundation for a book that does?

In this episode of Bookbound, Fran Hauser and Bethany Saltman sit down with Cecily Mak, attorney, co-founder of Wisdom Ventures, and author of Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits. Cecily talks about the long, non-linear path to her debut, revealing how she spent years writing a 300-page memoir that will likely never be published, but became the essential groundwork for Undimmed. She shares how a breast cancer diagnosis just as she left her tech executive career reshaped both her timeline and her clarity of purpose.

Cecily also deconstructs the nuts and bolts of the publishing process: finding the right agent, rewriting her proposal around a prescriptive framework, and selling her book at auction. She opens up about the role rituals played in sustaining her writing practice, why feedback from agents was invaluable, and how building community through Substack and Instagram fed both her process and her book’s message.

Connect with Cecily on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearlifejourney/

Connect with Cecily on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilymak/

Check out Cecily’s book Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits: https://www.amazon.com/Undimmed-Awarenesses-Freedom-Unwanted-Habits/dp/1250385180

Check out the ClearLife Substack: https://cecilymak.substack.com/

Join Bethany & Fran for their Read Like a Writer Book Club here: https://www.bookboundpodcast.com/club
Download Bethany & Fran's e-book on how to craft a standout book proposal here: https://www.bookboundpodcast.com/e-book

Produced by Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/