PubCrawl Podcast

JJ and Kelly start a new series on Author Career, talking today about Author Persona--how do you craft one, and why should you craft one in the first place?

Kelly and JJ share all their tips and tricks for crafting pitches for Twitter Pitch Contests. How can you distill your book into 280 characters? We've got some ideas!

JJ and Kelly continue to break down children's publishing by taking a closer look at MG and YA.

JJ and Kelly start a new multi-episode series about children's publishing! From Picture Books all the way through New Adult and YA/Adult crossover titles, let's break down all the ins and outs of the fastest growing categories in publishing.

It's Q&A time! Should published authors review on Goodreads? Are you ever too old to launch a publishing career? How do you deal with rejection? JJ and Kelly answer these questions and more in today's episode.

The PubCrawl podcast is officially back! JJ and Kelly reunite with a sprawling discussion about organization and goal setting as it applies to writing and publishing. JJ has kicked her reading rut at last, and Kelly is deeply in love with spreadsheets, per usual. We missed you!

Popping back in to announce that we're kicking off the quarterly First Pages Live Critique for Patreon supporters on December 8th. You can submit your page for critique to publishingcrawl@gmail.com. The podcast proper will be retuning in the New Year, and we can't wait!

After seven months long unintended absence, JJ and Kelly are BACK! (Well, we will be shortly, at any rate). Tune in for some exciting announcements about the future of the Pub Crawl Podcast! PS. we've really, really missed you.

This week JJ and Kelly talk reviews, publishing's necessary evil. Bottom line? Reviews are not for authors. Repeat: REVIEWS ARE NOT FOR AUTHORS.

This week Kelly and JJ discuss Publishing Relationships, or how connections help the industry move forward. Also what happens if you get orphaned by your editor, if your agent isn't interested in representing your project, and more.

This week JJ and Kelly conclude their Crafting Characters series with NARRATIVE ARCS. Apologies for sounding scatterbrained; JJ was up until the wee hours trying (and failing) to kill a video game boss while Kelly has the plague.

This week Kelly and JJ continue with their Crafting Characters series with RELATIONSHIPS. If a tree falls in the middle of a wood and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If a character is fully realized but has no other characters to witness it, are they truly three-dimensional?

After another unplanned hiatus, JJ and Kelly are back once again! (We'll never be gone forever, don't worry.) This week they continue their series on characterization, this time focusing on STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES or personality traits.

This week Kelly and JJ discuss HOW to write compelling characters. Once again, we talk way too much about Dragon Age and Life is Strange.

So what is life like after your first book comes out, or as Kelly would say, when you're no longer the baby of the family? This week JJ and Kelly talk about expectations and the things that change in your life once you become published. As per usual, they are On Brand with some downer talk, but hey, you love listening to us for this, right? ...right? Also, be prepared for so much discussion of the Dragon Age video games. Lots of games, actually!

The Thanksgiving holidays are over so we are back to a regular posting schedule! This week Kelly and JJ are discussing Conferences and Festivals: what they are, which ones are worth attending depending where you are in your career, etc.

WE'RE BACK! JJ and Kelly have at long last found a way to be together...on the metaphorical airwaves, so to speak. Some catching and answering of questions are owed y'all. We think this is the return to our regularly scheduled podcast episodes, so stay tuned!

Whoops. We kinda vanished on you.

Kelly and JJ answer questions this week! What does it mean when an agent or editor follows you on twitter? How can you be an effective moderator for a panel? How can you cancel your book contract or break up with your agent? You've got questions, we've got answers!

JJ and Kelly wrap up their Summer of Archetypes with Coming of Age narratives! Did you read and love The Pigman in middle school? We did. Also, we can't help but discuss the Handbook for Mortals/NYT Bestseller List shenanigans! If this episode seems particularly choppy, that's because we were interrupted several times by Kelly's 3 year old daughter, who makes a guest appearance in the bloopers.

This week, Kelly and JJ are still chatting about Archetypes with a discussion of Cataclysm and Survival Stories. These narratives highlight humankind's innate resourcefulness and desire to survive. We're the cockroaches of the universe!

Hey guys! Our apologies for the late episode; while JJ is working on revising SHADOWSONG Kelly is taking over editing duties, and her technical ineptitude, plus ancient equipment, plus mercury in retrograde all conspired against us. Thanks for your patience! This week we're talking about some of our favorite core narratives: Redemption and Revenge.

This week Kelly and JJ continue their Summer of Archetypes with HEIST NARRATIVES. We're cheating a bit as Heist Narratives are really more of a plot construction than an ARCHETYPE, per se, but we wanted to talk about movies and stories we love! Also a tangent into the adventure genre of story, a la Indiana Jones, and...a lot of Nic Cage's filmography.

This week JJ and Kelly discuss Robin Hood-type narratives, or The Oppressed vs. the Oppressor. As per usual, it is tangent heavy on other things we like (plus JJ is loopy from Too Much People-ing), like the Trickster archetype. Also JJ reveals her unfounded bias against Dan Stevens.

This week Kelly and JJ (with surprise guest Beth Revis, New York Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe trilogy and Star Wars: Rebel Rising) continue their Summer of Archetypes series with ROMANCE NARRATIVES. If the conversation is a bit incoherent this week, it's because JJ is—once again—podcasting from the road (this time San Diego Comic-Con). Kelly and JJ discuss their favorite types of romances and whether or not romantic narratives fall into a Conflict-based narrative or an Evolution-based narrative. Also, lots of tangents this week, sorry!

This week JJ and Kelly continue their Summer of Archetypes series with The Fatal Flaw! Some museum recommendations! Hamilton also makes a reappearance!

This week Kelly and JJ kick off their Summer of Archetypes with The Chosen One. What constitutes a Chosen One narrative? What are some examples? What are examples of a subverted Chosen One? CAN you truly subvert a Chosen One narrative? Also, our gripes with the TV show LOST.

This week JJ and Kelly run another query critique podcast! The quality of the submissions were pretty high all around, so barring a few nitpicks, we encourage y'all to keep querying! Also, lots and lots of fangirling over the Netflix original show GLOW.

This week, Kelly and JJ give a little overview about archetypes, stereotypes, and cliches to kick off their Summer of Archetypes. What is the difference between all of these things? Also, they answer a few questions and give (probably unsolicited) advice on how to become more civically engaged in the US political process.

JJ and Kelly are back with an evergreen topic: queries! We revisit query letters and what makes them successful. There's also a long tangent about tropes and singing the praises of homemade cold press coffee.

WE ARE BACK! FOR REALSIES, Y'ALL. Kelly and JJ go through a backlog of questions, give answers, and catch up a bit on life. Also: their call for submissions for their query critique podcast is still open! If you would like your query critiqued by the two of us, please send them to publishingcrawl@gmail.com with the subject QUERY CRITIQUE.

JJ and Kelly are back with another Half Pint Happy Hour (that's more like a full size pint this time around. We're chatty). We answer questions about social media in fiction, how to finish a draft, and how (not) to personalize your query for agents. Also, snail slime face cream! This is Kelly's first time editing the podcast (standing ovation for JJ, who has edited every single other episode to date) so her apologies if the audio quality is not what you're used to. She's learning.

We're BACK! Despite deadlines and life chaos in general, Kelly and JJ just couldn't stay away. Welcome to Half-Pint Happy Hour! These are short episodes where we check in, catch up, and answer questions to tide us all over until we can return to full-length content.

This week Kelly and JJ talk about promotion and getting the word out about your book, including whether or not to put money into your own promotion, hiring a publicist, making swag, or putting out a newsletter. We also announce a brief hiatus for the month of March, but we'll be back in April with our next Query Critique episode, so send us your queries!

A bit of a contentious topic this week, but JJ and Kelly discuss the boundaries between your public self and your private self and how that can affect your publishing career, including tips on what to do when your book is called out for harmful content. They also have tips about skincare, especially Korean beauty, if you're into that sort of thing.

This week Kelly and JJ discuss Wintersong because JJ didn't have the brain space or the bandwidth to participate in a cogent discussion about writing or publishing. Also: SPOILERS. If you haven't read the book, you might want to give this episode a skip, or just skip to the very end, where we move on to our other usual sections. Spoilers start at 13:15 and end at 49:35.

This week JJ and Kelly tackle another writing topic: POV, or Point of View. APOLOGIES FOR THE DELAY, everyone! The week this episode was supposed to go up was release week for JJ, so she had no time to edit or put up show notes. Still, better late than never, right?

This week Kelly and JJ talk about SALES & SUCCESS, or Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Paper. We're kind of a downer in this episode, but we want to keep things real for you. Also, we know these are trying times, so remember to take care of yourselves too.

This week JJ and Kelly continue with their Publishing 101 REDUX series with Submissions. As per usual, JJ Keeps Things Probably a Little Too Real. Als: JJ finally gets Kelly to admit that puns are great, and they discuss their love of Lemony Snicket.

This week Kelly and JJ revisit an old topic: Querying & Representation! It's been over a year since we last discussed this topic, so we decided to give it another go. Plus, Kelly has news that is highly relevant to this week's episode. ;-)

Happy new year! Going a bit off schedule by just playing catch-up from the holidays and looking back on 2016, as well as a look forward into 2017. SPOILER: It was a rough year for us, and we don't think we were the only ones suffering from reading and writing slumps.

This week Kelly and JJ start a new series about TROPES IN FICTION. What makes a trope cliche? How do you subvert a trope? Also, HAMILTON MIXTAPE.

And we are back! After a bit of an unplanned hiatus, JJ and Kelly are back to regularly scheduled podcast episodes. Apologies for some of the audio quality—Kelly was apparently dying and we are out of practice with podcasting. But we wrap up our Writing Mechanics series this time around with SENTENCE CRAFT, or what makes good writing on a sentence level, not just macro level things like plot and pacing.

AND WE'RE BACK! This week Kelly and JJ continue their Writing Mechanics series with TONE & MOOD. As we recorded this before the US election, some of this is...quaint, in hindsight.

This week JJ and Kelly resurrect the Writing Mechanics series with PACING. Also Kelly does tone research and JJ recovers from an emotional book hangover.

This week Kelly and JJ conclude their series on adaptations with TRANS-MEDIA ADAPTATIONS. What does that mean? Er...anyway! Basically, we mean it as a catch-all for all adaptations that are not TV or film, such as graphic novels and theme parks (yes, theme parks).

This week JJ and Kelly continue their discussion about adaptations, moving on to TRANSFORMATIVE ADAPTATIONS. Their definition is a little...loose, but essentially they consider transformative adaptations those that take the source material and transform it into something entirely different by shifting the focus, or else changing the meaning of the source material. WARNING: WE SPOIL THE HECK OUT OF WICKED (both the book and the musical) SO LISTEN WITH CAUTION.

This week Kelly and JJ discuss FAITHFUL ADAPTATIONS: what makes a good or faithful book-to-screen adaptation? Also, we answer some listener questions and have A LOT of books and movies to talk about, so prepare thyselves.

This week JJ and Kelly wrap up their Publishing 301 series with WARRANTIES and INDEMNITIES, or what you are actually on the hook for when you sign a publishing contract, so to speak. Also, they FINALLY have some recommendations for you this week, as both are slowly returning to consuming media after an entire summer off.

This week Kelly and JJ continue their Publishing 301 series with PERMISSIONS & FAIR USE, or Wherein They Define Copyright and How Not to Violate It. Also Kelly is training for her first 5K and JJ went to Savannah and possibly took a picture of a ghost.

This week JJ and Kelly move into the higher levels of publishing with their Publishing 301 series, this time talking about LICENSING & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Also they answer more listener questions about publishing and writing, so keep 'em coming!