COURT­NEY MAUM is the author of the nov­els Costale­gre, Touch, I Am Hav­ing So Much Fun Here With­out You, and the hand­book Before and After the Book Deal: A writer’s guide to fin­ish­ing, pub­lish­ing, pro­mot­ing, and sur­viv­ing your first book, forth­com­ing from Cat­a­pult. Her writ­ing has been wide­ly pub­lished in such out­lets as the New York Times; O, the Oprah Mag­a­zine; and Poets & Writ­ers. She is the founder of the learn­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive, The Cab­ins, and she also runs a ser­vice called ​“The Query Doula” where she helps writ­ers pre­pare their man­u­scripts and query let­ters for an agent’s eyes.