Dear Graduate is now published by Clarkson Potter!

I will admit we didn't tell a lot of people about this over the last few months as this was all coming together. My skeptical side didn't quite believe it and I was waiting until our book was available through Clarkson Potter and Penguin Random House before I would share the news! 🥳 🥳 🥳

Dear Graduate book was an idea inspired by conversations I was having with my children, Adacie McEnerney and Declan McEnerney, about how to decide what to do with one's life as they were graduating college and high school. Instead of asking, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the book asks, "What will you do?" It turns out that leads to a lot more questions—29 in all—that would give a graduate (or anyone, really), some good food for thought.

After spending a couple of years printing and marketing the book ourselves, we kept hearing good feedback on it and had distributed it to more than 300 indie book shops and gift shops across the US. A big shout out also to Uncommon Goods for including us in their gift catalog, to Allsorted for distributing copies in the UK and Ireland, and to Faire for selling out of copies to gift shops and bookstores in 2024.

We were looking for an agent who could represent the book and pitch to publishers. I found InkWell Management, LLC and saw a photo of Kristin van Ogtrop, who, as Editor in Chief at Real Simple , I had worked with while at GBH (along with Jamie Haines, Nancy B., Dustin Smith, Kate Hathaway Weeks, and Bailey Snyder) on a Real Simple TV series for PBS.

Kristin had become a literary agent and we sent her a copy of the book, curious to see what she might think of the idea. She liked it and knew an editor at Clarkson Potter she thought might like it, too. They both saw the potential and Adam Larson and I are truly excited to work with them on bringing the book to many more retailers on April 29th, just in time for graduation season!

Thanks to everyone who read the book and gave us feedback and to Natalie Jackvony for her help along the way!

If you have any graduates in your life or know people who do, please let them know about the book. It can be pre-ordered on many sites–—and you can always ask your local book or gift shop to order it. If you see it out in the wild, please take a photo and send our way. 😎

Adam and I are looking forward to what's ahead and can't wait for more graduates to read it and hopefully help them as they take their next step forward in life.