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The podcast for authors, by authors, featuring 100% real talk about how to navigate the wild, weird world of publishing.

Authors Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (New York Times bestseller Seinfeldia, Sex and the City and Us) and Kimberly Potts (The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch) introduce #Authoring, the podcast by authors, for authors, featuring 100% real talk about the wild, wonderful publishing business. We're here to talk about everything that comes after writing the book: working with editors, promoting your work, making money, and beyond.

In this episode, we give you some background on our own credentials and walk you through what to expect from the rest of Season 1, from getting and keeping an agent to self-publishing, from planning events to publicity, and beyond.

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Every book project begins with an idea. And after that, it’s up to the author and her or his agent to get that idea out into the world (more specifically, into the hands of an enthusiastic editor).

From finding the right agent and how to manage what will hopefully be a long client/agent relationship to demystifying the process of publishing a book and working with editors, superagent Laurie Abkemeier (Marley & Me, Rise of the Rocket Girls, Seinfeldia) – Jennifer and Kim’s agent – engages in a real talk conversation about one of the most important members of an author’s professional team, the literary agent.

Bonus: the agent who didn’t even like dogs before she agented the greatest dog book of all time shares the idea for the book she’s dying for someone to write.

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With self-publishing available at the click of a mouse and traditional publishing struggling to find what works, going outside the Big Five looks better than ever. Is some form of self-publishing right for you? We’re talking with Anna David, the founder of Launch Pad Publishing, a company that walks you through the process, from idea and manuscript to a finished book available for purchase. David knows of what she speaks: She’s the New York Times bestselling author of eight books who lived the best and worst of Big Five life before she turned toward helping others achieve their independent publishing dreams. She spills it all here, telling us how to adjust those publishing dreams to current marketplace reality, what can go wrong with Amazon, and how to make a business out of your book.

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From selling a book idea to selling yourself as the best person to write it, a stellar book proposal is a must. Jennifer and Kim chat about the specific parts of a proposal – with examples from the winning proposals that sold their books – including your author biography, market research, a promotion and marketing plan, and the sample chapters.

We also chat with bestselling author Sheila Weller, writer of a fantastic new biography of Carrie Fisher, about how she comes up with her book topics.

And, score!, Jennifer offers listeners a free annotated copy of her book proposal for Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic!

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After you’ve written a book, what happens when you turn it over to your editor to be published? Suddenly, after months or years of being alone with your work, you’re suddenly subjected to outside feedback and faced with some major decisions regarding packaging, like choosing a title and subtitle and commissioning a cover. These steps are perhaps the most critical to how your book will look to the world—and the final decisions are not always within your control if you’re going the traditional publishing route.

In this episode, Jennifer and Kimberly share insights and war stories from working with editors and publishers on a book. They offer thoughts on when to push back on editorial decisions, how to haggle about titles and subtitles, when to ask your agent to step into a conflict between you and your publisher, and how covers come to be. 

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Introvert, extrovert, it doesn’t matter: asking other authors for help, especially for the considerable favor of a book blurb, can be nerve-racking. Jennifer and Kim have been there, and share some specific tips for approaching your fellow scribes for those back-of-the-book endorsements (hint: a little smooching of the tuchus is in order). And we talk with Gavin Edwards, author of wonderfully unique biographies of Mister Rogers and Tom Hanks and generous giver of book blurbs, who shares a great story about how he got a celebrity book blurb for himself.

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It’s harder than ever to break through the endless media noise to get the word out about your book. Grand Central Publishing publicist Kamrun Nesa walks us through how you, as an author, can generate publicity for your work, and how you can better work with your publisher and publicist. She offers insight about how and when to pitch your book to media, what the publicity cycle looks like, whether to hire an outside publicist, and when to ask for help.

You can find her on Twitter @kamrunnesa.

Think publishing a book is a competitive business? So is promoting one! Book tours are not a given for the majority of authors, and planning an event – even finding a venue to host you – takes a lot of time and know-how. On this episode of #Authoring, we chat with Allison Sansone, the Program Director of the American Writers Museum in Chicago, who tells us exactly what makes for an appealing author event, some specific things you can do to make yourself and your book event-worthy, and how to get people other than your mom and dad to show up at your event.

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It’s harder than ever to break through the crowded media landscape to get coverage for your upcoming book release. But one great way to do it—and to literally create your own publicity—is to pitch articles and essays that you yourself can write, tied to your book release.

Novelist Andrea Bartz (The Lost Night, The Herd) has been extraordinarily successful at this, and for good reason: She’s also a longtime freelance journalist and former magazine and online editor. In this conversation, she spills all of her secrets, from how she comes up with ideas to which publications to target and how to write the pitches themselves. She also shares the magical email wording that gets editors to respond to your follow-ups.

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There are any number of things related to releasing a book that can send your stress level off the charts … like, for instance, monitoring how well your book is doing on the sales charts! That’s why it’s so crucial to practice extra good self care at these times in your authoring career.

From setting and maintaining routines with your physical and mental health – yoga! meditation! healthy meals! – and talking to friends and colleagues who’ve had similar experiences to taking the time to celebrate your work and taking care to make sure the rest of your life doesn’t go to H-E-double hockey sticks, we get real about the challenges and importance of keeping everything in perspective during the weeks, months, even years, surrounding the release of your book baby (because really, isn’t that how you think of them?).

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Publishing a book is stressful enough, as we have noted many times on this podcast, even in the most normal of times. But books are continuing to come out, even as much of the world takes to quarantining itself in the coronavirus pandemic. That means many authors are left with cancelled book tours and are now scrambling to refocus their efforts toward online promotion—and hope at least some readers can tear themselves away from the news, tune in, and buy some books online.

This week, we’re attempting to remain calm while talking through the options with our guests: Author Andrea Bartz, whose (great!) book The Herd (PLEASE BUY NOW!) is out this week, shares how she’s shifting her promotion and joins us in recommending some other upcoming releases for your quarantine reading list; and media strategist Lauren Passell of Tink Media gives us a complete playbook for getting your book onto podcasts, a perfect alternative right now.

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We continue our discussion about how to handle book releases when events are canceled, authors are stuck in their houses indefinitely, and it’s nearly impossible to break into a packed—and terrifying—news cycle. This week, we get insightful social media tips from Sarah Frier, the author of the excellent new narrative history No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram; and we brainstorm publicity ideas with Edward Gross, the co-author of Nobody Does It Better, an oral history of the James Bond franchise that came out amid both breaking pandemic news and the delay of the latest Bond film.  

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Whether you’re making most of your living from writing books or using it as a side hustle, you still must contend with some sticky financial issues: how to manage large(ish) checks with long dry spells in between, how to pay taxes when they’re not automatically deducted for you, and how to pay for, you know, life when those authoring checks aren’t enough to live off of.

Journalist and author Jen A. Miller has figured this stuff out better than most: She has been freelancing for more than 15 years and has developed systems for dealing with the uneven flow of money and paying taxes—which she shares with us in this episode. We also talk about how she balances books (like her memoir Running: A Love Story) with her work as The New York Times’s running correspondent and her less glamorous, more lucrative gigs creating content for business publications and universities. She spills many of her secrets to making a very comfortable living—even during the current pandemic—but you can get even more in her indispensable e-book Notes from a Hired Pen: How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing.

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We continue discussing ways to strengthen your author business plan in a recession with superstar business coach, branding expert, and author Dorie Clark. As Clark explains, authors are uniquely positioned to turn their platform into more money-making opportunities to further fund their writing.

Here, she walks us through why authors should work through their resistance to personal branding, how we can do it in totally authentic ways, and why we should embrace making the money we deserve. She also offers concrete steps for ways to translate our authoring into coaching, public speaking, podcasting, blogging, teaching online courses, and other business ventures.

You can get even more detailed (and life-changing!) plans for money-making opportunities in her indispensable books Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams, and Thrive; Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It; and Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future.

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We know it means money in our bank accounts, but beyond that, there is a lot about book advances that a lot of authors don’t know. While it might seem, for instance, that publishers are just pulling arbitrary numbers out of the air, there is a process they follow before every contract they offer: the P & L, or profit and loss spreadsheet. How exactly does that work? It’s a key document in any traditionally published book project, and we’re lucky to have superagent Laurie Abkemeier (Marley & Me, Rise of the Rocket Girls, Seinfeldia) – Jennifer and Kim’s agent – to break it all down for us. In this incredibly informative chat, Laurie also dives deep on royalties (Is it ever a bad thing to get them? Maybe …), how the category/type of book your project fits into helps determine your advance, and what it means when your book goes to auction. And what’s the deal with “earning out? Does not earning out mean the end of your career as an author? Laurie spills all the details! 

 And in one of the many reasons we’re so proud to call her our agent, she tells us about her exciting efforts to make the publishing industry more inclusive with the We Need Diverse Books internship program and by seeking out diverse voices to represent.

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Anna David’s done the memoir thing, to critical acclaim. And having shared her own story, as well as that of one very interesting, Golden Globe-nominated actor, in multiple books, now she’s created a clever new way to tell even more of her life experiences, while helping other writers figure out how to tell theirs: introducing the “biz-oir.”

The biz-oir, as per the term Anna coins, is a combination memoir and how-to on writing your own life tale; like the title says, how to Make Your Mess Your Memoir. We are thrilled to chat with Anna about the grace and vulnerability of sharing her personal life with her readers, and about the advice she has for other writers who are considering this very intimate genre. How do you know if you should write a memoir? How do you decide which stories you should share? How do you know if some of that sharing might get you sued?

Anna tells all, including useful info on getting your book out into the world once it’s written, and how to market it in ways practical and creative once it’s published. 

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Curious about self-publishing? Considered trying it, but found the whole process complicated and more than a little intimidating? Ditto, which is why we sought out expert advice from Miral Sattar, founder and CEO of self-publishing go-to sites Bibliocrunch and LearnSelfPublishingFast.com.

Miral chats with us about why now is the perfect time to try self-publishing, who makes a good candidate to be a successful self-publisher, and what the keys are to selling a self-published book.

Hint: marketing, marketing, marketing. That’s the name of the game for every author, self-published and traditionally published, but since self-pubbed authors are completely responsible for getting their books into the hands of readers, it’s no exaggeration to say they have to become marketing experts, and we could all learn a lesson or 20 from them.

Miral also touches on the nuts and bolts of self-pubbing – the cost, the best outlets for releasing your book, how to get started on the self-publishing journey – and talks about hybrid authors, writers who self publish and traditionally publish their work.

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Ben Widdicombe is the only writer to have worked for the New York Post’s Page Six, TMZ, and The New York Times, “an unusual Triple Crown,” to say the least. It also helped him build a resume of interviewees that includes bold-faced names from Hollywood, high society, New York hotspots, and the White House. He recalls his most memorable experiences with all of them in his fun, insightful new book, Gatecrasher: How I Helped the Rich Become Famous and Ruin the World, which he talks to us about on this week’s #Authoring.

Run in with a red-faced Donald Trump? Ben had one. Breaking the story of Kim Kardashian’s career-making videotape? He did it. Gain new respect for Monica Lewinsky as he saw her refuse to allow herself to be permanently cast as a political villainess? He did that, too.

Widdicombe, who launched his media career after moving to New York from his native Australia in the ‘90s, names names and shares details of time spent with the biggest celebrities of the last 25 years. But he also turns a breezy summer read into something deeper by putting these decades of pop culture into a larger cultural context, connecting the dots on how the likes of Paris Hilton and reality TV made it possible for a Trump presidential win.

And we also get some tips on the art of dealing with a difficult interviewee from the man who’s maneuvered dozens of them.

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We answer questions from listeners Beth Schap, Kirthana Ramisetti, and Curtis Honeycutt!

From Beth: Can you become enough of an expert on a passion topic to be a credible author of articles or books if you're not in that industry? And if so how? (Spoiler: yes, and we tell you how!)

From Kirthana: Right now I'm back on Twitter and am trying to re-establish my presence and organically increase my followers. I like what I've seen of the book community on Twitter, and would love to connect with other debut writers and novelists, but not quite sure how to do that. Also, I know Goodreads is hugely important and have never used it, so insights on the best way to use it and engage readers there would also be great. (We’ve got tips on what has worked on our own social media, and even better ideas from Roxane Gay’s online genius.)

From Curtis: thanks for the episodes about book launches in the age of coronavirus. I’d love more advice on getting out there. Do FB ads work? (We share some resources for super-creative ideas for online events, as well as what works and doesn’t work on a more practical level from friend-of-the-show Anna David.)

Plus, we talk up the #AuthorsForBlackVoices online silent charity auction to benefit literary racial-justice non-profits, which includes several offerings from Jennifer and Kim as well as agents and authors auctioning off critiques and writing career coaching. We'll be on a short hiatus for the remainder of summer, then back with more in the fall!

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Why do you have to finish your novel before getting an agent? What should you look for when choosing agents to send it to? What does an effective fiction query letter include? We walk through exactly how to get from having a cool novel idea to having a cool agent representing it with the help of Kate McKean, VP and agent at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency and author of the indispensable Agents & Books newsletter.

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Just because you started your career in one genre doesn’t mean you have to stick with it for the rest of your life—just ask Judy Blume and J.K. Rowling! But it’s not as easy as it might seem (especially when you’re not Judy Blume or J.K. Rowling). It may involve starting all over with a new agent, a new publisher, and new readers.

We talk this week with Leah Konen, the author of five Young Adult novels, who recently published her first adult thriller, All the Broken People, about how she did it—with two more adult thrillers and a TV adaptation on the way. She offers great tips for anyone interested in genre-switching, writing thrillers, or simply injecting more suspense into anything you write.

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You want to write a nonfiction book. Maybe you’ve already written a book proposal. Maybe you’ve already sold the book. Now you have to actually write it, which has you wondering: HOW DO I ACTUALLY WRITE A BOOK?! They don’t give you a handbook with the book contract (no matter how much you may wish for one), and no bookstore shelf has yet contained that magic tome that will guide you step-by-step through the writing of 300 glorious pages of prose (trust us, we’ve looked for such a treasure). 

So what’s an author to do when she can’t find the book she and her fellow scribes have been searching for for years? Write it herself, of course, which is exactly what #Authoring co-host and bestselling New York Times nonfiction author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong did! The result, her fantastic new e-book How to Come Up With All Those Words: A Practical Guide to Writing a Successful Nonfiction Book, from Conception to Publication, is available now. This week, we preview the book – everything from the importance of vetting your book idea and the power of an intricately detailed outline to how to start and organize your research and why finding books that inspire your book writing process (like this one!) will be valuable to you throughout your authoring career.

Tune in for even more great advice on how to write the book, and go directly to Jennifer's website to buy your copy of this must-read primer now.

You’re writing your book, dreaming of the Hollywood stars who will play the leads in the TV or movie version. But what are the chances you’ll really see your book on the small screen? How might that happen? And what are the chances of that happening right now, given the pandemic? We get all the answers from Chris Ceccotti, head of development and content strategy at Gidden Media. He walks us through the process of a book getting a producer’s attention, finding its stars and writers, and becoming Netflix’s next big thing. And he’s got (tempered) good news about the state of book options mid-pandemic.

The concept of “building an author platform” provokes fear in many writers: Why do we need to be media stars in addition to writing great books? The simple answers: so you can get paid more for your work, get your books into more readers’ hands, and go on to write and sell more books. But building a platform might not be as hard as you think—and it doesn’t necessarily require Today show appearances or millions of social media followers.

Luckily we have publicity expert Brielle Cotterman—who helps clients raise their profiles through books, media, and public speaking—on this week’s episode with some simple, actionable tips to become just a little bit more of a celebrity, at least within your own niche. You might even have some fun along the way.

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That parenthetical quote above comes directly from the fantastic new book Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan, and we are very excited to have that book’s authors, Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson, on #Authoring this week. The sports journalists have written a deeply insightful and thoughtful examination of the many issues that today’s thinking sports fan faces when considering their fandom.

From the life-altering brain injuries plaguing NFL players and insensitive mascots rampant throughout sports at all levels to the legal problems some of our favorite sports stars find themselves in to the systemic racism and sexism that is at the center of many ongoing sports problems, Jessica and Kavitha tackle all those issues and more, and offer a nuanced, hopeful look at how, as the book title says, the modern fan can feel better, and maybe even take some action, about loving sports.

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Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider's Guide to Jeopardy! For $1000, Alex, what is a fantastic new book from author Claire McNear? Culture and sports journalist McNear has written a delightful history not only of the game show itself, but she also chronicles the fascinating history of the impressive efforts of would-be contestants to get a spot on the ultimate trivia show.

Aspiring competitors have built elaborate systems and spent years in some cases for the chance to show off their deep knowledge of everything from sports and history to literature and pop culture, and McNear shares their intense, endearing efforts.

The author joins us today to talk about that and more, including those Jeopardy! sketches we all love on Saturday Night Live, the evolution of beloved host Alex Trebek’s 30+ years on the show, and what, and who, might be the future of Jeopardy!

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Meet Your Hosts!

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Jennifer Keishin Armstrong grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, where she spent most of her time putting on shows in her parents’ garage, studying TV Guide, devouring Sweet Valley High books, lip-synching to Debbie Gibson, and memorizing every note of every George Michael song. This finally came in handy when she got a job at Entertainment Weekly, where she worked for a decade. Her work has since appeared in many places, including BBC Culture, The New York Times Book Review, Vice, New York Magazine, and Billboard. She’s the author of the New York Times best-seller Seinfeldia: How the Show About Nothing Changed Everything; a history of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted; and Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love. She now lives in Manhattan. You can visit her online at JenniferKArmstrong.com.

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Kimberly Potts is the author of The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch. She grew up in a very small Ohio farm town, where she spent time reading any magazine she could get her hands on, feeling certain no one would ever be funnier than Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton on "Family Ties" (she was right), listening to and cataloging Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 40 countdown each week (look it up, kids), and, most importantly, plotting her eventual escape to New York City, because, duh, that’s where Duran Duran and Madonna hung out. Fast forward to that Manhattan arrival, which has been followed by writing six books, getting paid actual cash to watch and write about television (the greatest form of pop culture) for the likes of Vulture, TV Guide, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, and Yahoo, and interviewing her TV heroes, including Bryan Cranston, Carol Burnett, Robin Williams, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Betty White, Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Laurie Metcalf, and Conan O’Brien. Oh yeah, Shaquille O’Neal once called her Kimberly Wimberly.

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