Mackenzie Lane finally wrote the perfect ending: His own.

After selling his first thriller novel for six figures, Mackenzie "Mack" Lane quit his job as a journalist to become a full-time author. But now, a few years later, his career is spiraling downward. With each book doing worse than the last, he fears his status as a Boring White Dude is partly to blame.

With his bank accounts dwindling, Mack has to find a way to make more money: his ex-wife wants to send their son to a private high school, and his current wife wants to have a baby. Mack begs his agent and editor to sing the praises of his new novel and do everything in their power to encourage his publisher's marketing team to make the book a bestseller.

But as Pub Day for his fourth novel approaches—without the interviews and publicity he'd so hoped for—Mack knows his book is in trouble. And with it, his career and personal life. Growing more desperate, Mack concocts a risky and more-or-less unethical idea for a publicity stunt. His agent, Wallis Wallace, reluctantly goes along with it—after all, if it works, she stands to gain 15% of his windfall. And if it doesn't work, Mack is the one who will suffer the consequences of being ridiculed and cancelled. 

#AuthorLife is a satire about an author who gets the wrong sort of inspiration from his dying career—because publishing is a bloody hard business.

About Joe Zagets

For fear of retribution, Joe Zagets feels it's best not to say too much about himself. At present he cohouses in an apocalyptic fantasyland with several felines, a spotted unicorn, a domesticated raccoon, and a gregarious coven of vegetarian witches. When not writing, he can be found outside digging holes. This is his first (and probably last) novel.