Counter Craft

Books as Art Projects

On books you want to hold in your hand or slip in your pocket

Dec 5 • 

Lincoln Michel

60

19

9

November 2025

Literary Philosophy and Philosophical Literature

On philosophers who wrote novels and novelists inspired by philosophy

Nov 25 • 

Lincoln Michel

94

28

18

Short Little Difficult Books

Novels that challenge with style, story, or form that you can read in a day.

Nov 18 • 

Lincoln Michel

482

77

113

Interview: Fisher the Bookseller Explains How Bookstores Decide Which Books to Sell

The ins and outs of how books are bought and sold in bookstores

Nov 6 • 

Lincoln Michel

146

12

24

October 2025

The Counter Craft Halloween Horror Writing Guide

🚨New book announcement! 🚨Plus, unlocking bone-chilling articles from the archives

Oct 31 • 

Lincoln Michel

71

10

6

Processing: How Erin Somers Wrote The Ten Year Affair

The author on comic writing, reading drafts aloud, and being "lower than a worm" while writing

Oct 21 • 

Lincoln Michel

96

13

21

Processing: How Dan Chaon Wrote One of Us

The author on historical fiction, writing villains, and the darkness of older children's literature

Oct 16 • 

Lincoln Michel

61

4

13

Shirley Jackson and the Eerie Omniscient Narrator

Some thoughts on the horror classic The Haunting of Hill House

Oct 8 • 

Lincoln Michel

148

18

26

To Understand What Books Are Published, You Must Understand How Books Are Sold

Plus cyborg baseball and the Anthropic AI author settlement info

Oct 2 • 

Lincoln Michel

145

8

25

September 2025

The Book Club Industrial Complex, Speculative Detectives, Remembering Maxine Clair, and Other Sunday Sundries

A Sunday roundup of writing-related things from the past week.

Sep 28 • 

Lincoln Michel

116

18

21

Style Is More than Sentences

In defense of style and the infinite possibilities of storytelling

Sep 24 • 

Lincoln Michel

245

53

59

Scattered Thoughts on the State of Book Reviews

rainy day thoughts on a rainy day

Sep 10 • 

Lincoln Michel

131

6

26