Podcast appearances and mentions of brooke warner

Andrea leads today's chat about selling a cookbook and all the nitty gritty elements that go into it. Kristin, Molly and Kate share some of their own insights and lessons learned about advances, royalties, contract negotiation, and how to keep the right amount of tension there. They discuss how to gauge the value of your idea, morality clauses and what to look out for when looking over a contract. Finally, they answer a listener SOS and Kate gets the lowdown on the angst of butter measurement.Hosts: Kate Leahy + Andrea Nguyen + Molly Stevens + Kristin DonnellyEditor: Abby Cerquitella  Mentions:An Agent Answers: “What Should I Expect for a Cookbook Advance?”Would You Write a Cookbook for Next to Nothing? by Priya KrishnaThe Trouble with Big Deals, by Brooke Warner“9 Questions For When A Book Publisher Calls”How to Make Sure Your Cookbook Deal Is Worth It, by Sonya ChopraThe Hidden Risks of Writing a Cookbook  by Sierra Tishgart Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

Welcome to Write-minded's 7th New Year's show—where Grant and Brooke always circle around their challenge with resolutions, even as they make them and break them and every so often vow not to bother with them. This year they look back to certain resolutions declared and uncompleted, and grapple with the reckoning that must come when you assert such intentions out loud. And yet, Write-minded is also all about the fact that this writing business takes the time it takes, and this show comes around each year to help unpack goals asserted and achieved, goals shifted and morphed, goal posts moved and realigned, and much more. Happy 2025, dear writers, listeners, and creatives. Happy to be on this journey with you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the podcast, Brooke Warner of She Writes Press and Spark Press, talks with Elly and Joe about her experience in hybrid publishing, how to tell if it's a good idea for your books, recognizing predatory publishers, and misconceptions about that particular branch of the industry.

This week's episode is inspired by Grant's recent rejection journey. Yes, listeners, Grant's book about rejection has been roundly rejected—so we're taking an excursion into the world of rejection, how we deal with it, and what some options might be for a book that doesn't get picked up by a publisher. Grant and Brooke explore their relationship with and to rejection—and unpack all the ways in which rejection is interconnected to the publishing journey—and not just for authors. This goes for publishers, agents, editors, and other publishing-adjacent folks too. This week's Substackin' gets into self-pity, which we might take straight up, or neat, or on the rocks with our rejection. Grant and Brooke are drawing from their own Substacks and others for these features, and we invite you to find us at https://grantfaulkner.substack.com and https://brookewarner.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I interview Linda Joy Myers, who had a difficult childhood marked by abandonment and an unstable home life. Her mother left when Linda was just four, leaving her to be raised by a grandmother who, while providing a stable home, also struggled with mental health issues that led to critical behavior. Linda had to focus on survival with little permission to have her own voice.One bright spot was music. Linda's grandmother had her take piano and cello lessons from a young age. Playing music became a way for Linda to express herself, feel something positive, and be transported to another world. It provided freedom and camaraderie with other young musicians.As an adult, Linda initially repeated some relationship patterns modeled by her mother and grandmother. Determined to break the cycle, she sought therapy, including an impactful 3-month group experience. Her therapist helped Linda see she was more than her brokenness. He recognized her artistic essence and held a vision of her wholeness.Linda's path led her to combine her skills as a therapist with her love of writing. She began teaching memoir writing groups and discovered the transformative power of writing one's stories. This grew into Linda authoring books on memoir writing, founding the National Association of Memoir Writers, and teaching memoir courses.Through this work, Linda helps others find their voice, write their stories, and experience the healing of being witnessed. Her own journey informs her message that even painful stories can be alchemized into something beautiful.__________________Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, is the author of award winning memoirs, Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and two books, The Power of Memoir, and Journey of Memoir. She co-authored Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and Magic of Memoir & co-teaches, Write Your Memoir in Six Months with Brooke Warner. A memoir coach for 30 years, she helps memoir writers find their voice and get their story into the world. Linda has just ventured into novel writing land, and her first novel, The Forger of Marseille, a WWII historical fiction novel won four awards in historical fiction and is published by She Writes Press.__________________Find Linda here:https://www.facebook.com/LindaJoyMyersAuthorhttps://www.instagram.com/lindajoymyersauthor/https://www.facebook.com/linda.j.myers Support the Show.I'm Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers and memoir coach joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about helping memoirists become their own good editors, keeping both the vertical and linear in mind when writing our stories, the importance of breaks when working on traumatic material, how writing puts our experience in perspective, finding a writing cohort, leaving bad writing groups, what we remember vs. what really happened, why truth is complicated, and the evolution of memoir.   Also in this episode: -her latest class offerings -fending off the inner critic -the promise we make to the reader   Books mentioned in this episode:  -Bluets by Maggie Nelson -In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado -You Could Make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith -Wild by Cheryl Strayed -Books by Abigail Thomas   Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, is the author of award-winning memoirs Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and two books on craft The Power of Memoir, & Journey of Memoir. She co-authored Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and Magic of Memoir & co-teaches Write Your Memoir in Six Months with Brooke Warner. A memoir coach for 30 years, she helps writers find their voice and get their story into the world. Linda Joy's prize-winning first novel, The Forger of Marseille was released in 2023.   Connect with Linda: https://www.namw.org/ http://lindajoymyersauthor.com https://www.facebook.com/linda.j.myers https://www.instagram.com/lindajoymyersauthor/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindajoy/ Get Linda's Book   — Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Jeff and Rebecca talk about Rebecca's recent visit to a big industry conference, a couple of notable publishing world dismissals, Dune, recent reading, and more. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. For more industry news, sign up for our Today in Books daily newsletter! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Discussed in this episode: The State of Publishing, as Seen from the Inside The Book Riot Podcast Patreon PRH dismisses Reagan Arthur & Lisa Lucas (related: Brooke Warner on publishing's backlash) The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley Reading the Room by Paul Yamazaki All Fours by Miranda July Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode, I'm taking a deep dive into the BIG shifts in publishing with my publisher, Brooke Warner.We're having an open conversation about:Publishing pathsThe world of hybridThe changing landscapeRealities of book distributionExpectations of a new generationOpportunities and tips for authorsAnd so much more! This episode is packed with insight that you don't want to miss!You can find Brooke Warner at:Website: https://brookewarner.comInstagram: @brooke_warnerSubstack: brookewarner.stubtack.comNicole Meier: Website | Instagram | Programs | Free Novel Writing Guide

Today we're responding to a series of articles that have gone viral over the last couple of weeks. They're all about the publishing industry, and whether or not it's dying out. Included: how big is the market for books? Is it growing or shrinking? Are publishers profitable? Is it even worth writing books anymore? What about indie books, self-publishing, e-books, and audio? What do publishers get right and what do they get wrong. James says the C word twice and apologises to all the Americans for being Australian. Main sources: No One Buys Books by Elle Griffin People Buy Books, Publishing Is Thriving, and Substack Will Never Replace Books, by Brooke Warner which also links to several other great pieces. The one we used most heavily was: Yes, People Do Buy Books, by Lincolm Michel --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Brooke Warner joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about nontraditional publishing, the massive sea change we're seeing in memoir, how for authors visibility and marketing work is never done, protecting our memoir worlds, accountability groups, what all memoirs require, the genesis of She Writes Press, balancing her multiple roles, the project she is working on now and the many resources she offers memoirists.   Also in this episode: -when creativity merges with our working life -carving out time to write -Substack and content-creation   Books mentioned in this episode: Heavy by Kiese Laymon Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith   Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She's the current Board Chair of the Bay Area Book Festival, and sits on the Board of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a weekly Substack newsletter @brookewarner, and a regular column for Publishers Weekly.   Connect with Brooke: Website: www.brookewarner.com She Writes Press: www.shewritespress.com SparkPress: https://gosparkpress.com   Brooke's memoir courses: www.writeyourmemoirinsixmonths.com www.magicofmemoir.com   — Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Pep Talk alert! Whether you're writing a ton or writing a-none, this week's episode is geared toward writers who are feeling the strain of the Muddy Middle. Grant and Brooke talk about strategies for staying on track and offer up encouragement for ways to keep with it—including how to break the wall. Brooke's references to Esther Perel's podcast episode, “Breaking News Is Breaking Us,” can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicole Chung, interviewed by Brooke Warner Nicole Chung follows up her exquisite debut with a wrenching new memoir, written in the wake of her mother's death from cancer in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Readers will find both sorrow and solace in her open-hearted new book. Buy the books here  Sponsored by She Writes Press

This is an onstage interview with Brooke Warner and this week's guest Nicole Chung. Brooke interviewed Nicole at the Bay Area Book Festival in May. The conversation is wide-ranging and covers the topics and themes central to Nicole's new memoir, A Living Remedy, as well as questions and considerations central to memoir and telling the stories that must be told. Don't miss this thoughtful and relatable interview. If you're writing your story, Nicole's words will make you feel like you can and should keep going! Also, Write-minded is celebrating our 250th episode this week. We thank you for your loyal listenership! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the guest author:Bestselling collaborative writer Jodi Lipper was a former fiction editor at Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, where she worked on numerous #1 New York Times best sellers. She has since become a six-time New York Times bestselling author herself who partners with high profile experts and celebrities to translate their experiences and expertise into highly effective and marketable books. In addition to Steve Madden and his memoir The Cobbler, she's worked with Dave Asprey, the “father of biohacking” and the creator of Bulletproof Coffee, Fran Hauser, whose book The Myth of the Nice Girl was named the Best Business Book of 2018 by Audible and was listed by Amazon as One of the Best Business and Leadership Books of the Year. Jodi has also worked with Jacqueline Brassy from the McKinsey Health Institute on the book Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World, which was also co-authored by Aaron De Smet, and Michiel Kruyt and published by Harper Business last year, and most recently Jodi worked with Emily Morse, sexologist and host of the top rated podcast Sex with Emily who's book Smart Sex: How to Boost Your Sex IQ and Own Your Pleasure will be published by Park Row (HarperCollins) in June.About the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. She recently finished her first YA crossover novel inspired by her nephew with Down syndrome. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her dog. To learn more about her books and private writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com or find her at Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne.You can listen to Page One on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher and all your favorite podcast players. Hear past episodes.If you're interested in getting writing tips and the latest podcast episode updates with the world's beloved master storytellers, please sign up for my very short monthly newsletter at hollylynnpayne.com and follow me @hollylynnpayne on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook. Your email address is always private and you can always unsubscribe anytime. The Page One Podcast is created at the foot of a mountain in Marin County, California, and is a labor of love in service to writers and book lovers. My intention is to inspire, educate and celebrate. Thank you for being a part of my creative community! Be well and keep reading.~Holly~Shoutouts to our sponsor:This episode is brought to you by the learning platform, Five things I've Learned. As a writing coach and former professor of creative writing, I am an ardent supporter of lifelong learning. So Five Things I've Learned is something I really like, and – full disclosure, it's something created by folks I know. Now in the middle of their third year, my friends at Five Things I've Learned make it super easy for artists, writers, musicians, and the thinkers they admire to offer live, online classes that share the essential ideas and experiences of a lifetime. This entire thing was conceived during the pandemic and it's brilliant.There are almost 100 Five Things I've Learned unique sessions already available online –from all sorts of disciplines. The best part: they're always live and you can check out the archive for classes you've missed. And of course, there are so many great classes by writers. And they have an impressive list of master storytellers!New York Times best-selling writer Meg Wolitzer just did a class about the “Five Things She's Learned about Writing about Family.” The amazing Steve Almond just did a class on what he's learned about “Where Stories Come From.” There are many more two-hour classes and workshops, from award winning authors like Isabel Allende and the wonderful travel writer Pico Iyer, and even from my friend, the writer and publisher Brooke Warner – and a whole lot more. You can view these and many other great classes on-demand any time so I hope you check out myfivethings.com right now and get to experience one of these live workshops yourself. I might see you there and teach a class soon—about the first page of a book. 

In this portion of my interview with publisher Brooke Warner of SheWrites Press and Sparks Press, we do a deep dive into hybrid publishing. Thanks so much for listening! Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. Visit the Aviatrix Book Review website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!-Liz Booker

Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and president of Warner Coaching Inc, where she coaches writers to publication. Brooke is passionate about books and helping writers finish their books and get published. Brooke has been in the publishing industry for 23 years, including eight years as the Executive Editor of Seal Press. She's guided hundreds of authors from idea to publication with her blend of upbeat encouragement and firm direction. Brooke has witnessed every form of procrastination, saboteur, and excuse that holds writers back from their goal of finishing their book and getting published.She is committed to the writing process and to helping writers become creative entrepreneurs and thought leaders, a message conveyed in her 2017 TEDx talk, “Green-Light Revolution.” She also has a popular weekly podcast for writers, “Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers,” co-hosted with Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo.She also writes a regular column for Publishers Weekly. She's the author of Write On, Sisters! Voice, Courage, and Claiming Your Place at the Table (2019), Green-Light Your Book: How Writers Can Succeed in the New Era of Publishing (2016) What's Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Idea to Published Author (2012), and How to Sell Your Memoir: 12 Steps to a Perfect Book Proposal. Brooke lives and works in Berkeley, California.

Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She currently sits on the boards of the Book Industry Study Group, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly. The Storytellers hosted by Grace Sammon, focuses on individuals who choose to leave their mark on the world through the art of story. Each episode engages guests and listeners in the story behind the story of authors, artists, reporters and others who leave a legacy of storytelling. Applying her years of experience as an educator, entrepreneur, author, and storyteller herself, Grace brings to listeners an intimate one-on-one experience with her guests. Visit Grace at her website www.gracesammon.net. Contact Grace about being a guest on the show, email her at grace@gracesammon.net Follow Grace: On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Twitter https://www.twitter.com/GSammonWrites On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sammon-84389153/ #TheStorytellers #Storyteller #Storytellers # Storytelling #AuhtorInterview #LetsTalkBooks #LeaveYourMark #AuthorLife #StorytellerLife #ArtofStory #AuthorTalkNetwork #BookishRoadTrip #AuthorTalkNetwork #AuthorsOnTheAirGlobalRadioNetwork #publisher #shewritespress #publisher #publishing #memoir #author #greenlight #publish #write The Storytellers is a copyrighted work © of Grace Sammon and Authors on The Air Global Radio Network.

Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She currently sits on the boards of the Book Industry Study Group, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly. The Storytellers hosted by Grace Sammon, focuses on individuals who choose to leave their mark on the world through the art of story. Each episode engages guests and listeners in the story behind the story of authors, artists, reporters and others who leave a legacy of storytelling. Applying her years of experience as an educator, entrepreneur, author, and storyteller herself, Grace brings to listeners an intimate one-on-one experience with her guests. Visit Grace at her website www.gracesammon.net. Contact Grace about being a guest on the show, email her at grace@gracesammon.net Follow Grace: On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Twitter https://www.twitter.com/GSammonWrites On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sammon-84389153/ #TheStorytellers #Storyteller #Storytellers # Storytelling #AuhtorInterview #LetsTalkBooks #LeaveYourMark #AuthorLife #StorytellerLife #ArtofStory #AuthorTalkNetwork #BookishRoadTrip #AuthorTalkNetwork #AuthorsOnTheAirGlobalRadioNetwork #publisher #shewritespress #publisher #publishing #memoir #author #greenlight #publish #write The Storytellers is a copyrighted work © of Grace Sammon and Authors on The Air Global Radio Network.

If you ever wanted a truly transparent look into the publishing industry, today's guest delivers just that. Brooke Warner is a veteran publishing professional who is involved in books, writing, and publishing from just about every angle. A former executive editor at Seal Press, she's now the publisher of She Writes Press and Spark Press, as well as an in-demand book coach and publishing consultant. Brooke is also a TEDx speaker, a columnist for Publishers Weekly, and co-host of the Write-minded podcast with Grant Faulkner. Now, if that doesn't already sound like a lot to you, then consider that Brooke is also the author of several books about writing and publishing, and is currently working on her own memoir. She knows the industry inside and out, and in this episode, she generously shares a wealth of realistic advice about what it takes to write, publish, and sell your book. You'll learn:What makes hybrid publishing different from traditional or self-publishing.Whether distribution into brick-and-mortar bookstores is important. (Hint: Genre matters.)Tips on writing a memoir—including how to determine whether yours is actually something that should be published.Why it's of utmost importance not to rush through writing your book.How an accountability partner can keep your writing project on track.What realistic first-year book sales numbers actually look like—especially if you're a new author with a small platform. (This will probably be a big reality check for a lot of listeners.) For more, check out:brookewarner.commaggielangrick.comwonderwell.pressAnd follow:instagram.com/brooke_warnerinstagram.com/maggielangrickinstagram.com/wonderwellpressinstagram.com/selfishgiftpodcast

Happy New Year! This short show to ring in the new year starts with a confession from Brooke about Write-minded's annual New Year's show—this is Number 5! Grant and Brooke share updates on current writing projects (including goals), episodes that rose to the top in 2022, and one creative takeaway from our writing lives. We invite you to reflect and get reinspired along with us as we forge ahead into a bright new year! And we hope you'll check out Brooke's class, 5 Things I've Learned about What It Takes to Get Published, coming up on February 19. Find the details at: https://myfivethings.com/class/brooke-warner-what-it-takes-to-get-published. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brooke Warner is an author, editor, and publisher with over two decades in the industry. She is the publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, President of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. She is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She currently sits on the boards of the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly and co-hosts the podcast Write-Minded with Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo. You can find her at www.BrookeWarner.com and www.SheWritesPress.com, and find her TedX talk at https://youtu.be/5a0w4KgWyP8. Sign up for the Literary Aviatrix newsletter, and find links to everything else here: https://linktr.ee/literaryaviatrix

Michelle Cox - the author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series - talks about how her spunky, sleuthing, sexy character Henrietta is based on a real woman. We're talking about book 5 in the series - A Child Lost - where multiple story lines of crime and passion weave together. It's easy to pick up the threads even if you're new to Henrietta's adventures. And, while there aren't any cliff hanging loose ends, you will find clues to draw you to Book 6, which is coming out this fall.  You'll hear us talk about the book's theme of lost children and the way poetry worked its way into this 1930's story.  You'll also hear a few minutes from the audiobook narrated by Jayne Entwistle - an Audie Finalist -  A Voice Arts Award winner - known for her work on book series - who you might have also seen acting in television shows like The Good Place.   Thanks to Brooke Warner at She Writes Press for connecting me to Michelle. If you'd like to hear more - please look for the audiobook of A child Lost on Libro.fm - I found all 5 of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard books in Libro.fm's library  - as well as more than 80 books narrated by Jayne Entwistle. Using this affiliate link supports the podcast and a local book store of your choice. Book 6 in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series will be out this fall. Check out Michelle's blog Novel Notes and Local Lore on her website.  Thanks for listening! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theresa-bakken/support

When you put a creative project out into the world, there's going to be pushback from the patriarchy. Ex. when a woman writes a memoir she focuses on the two family members who might be upset, not the thousands of women her story might help. Brooke Warner worked for 13 years in the publishing industry and now helps women write and publish memoir. In this interview we talk about common roadblocks in the creative process, the importance of truth telling and how many of these blocks were created by the patriarchy. If you're a creative, you're going to get so much out of this episode. Enjoy! Connect with Bryn Book a free consultation with Bryn here - https://tinyurl.com/yourfreeconsult www.brynbamber.com IG - https://www.instagram.com/bryn_bamber/ FB - https://www.facebook.com/bryn.bamber.5/ Connect with Brooke Warner www.brookewarner.com www.shewritespress.com www.writeyourmemoirinsixmonths.com http://www.magicofmemoir.com podcast.shewrites.com/

Andrea leads today's chat about selling a cookbook and all the nitty gritty elements that go into it. Kristen, Molly and Kate share some of their own insights and lessons learned about advances, royalties, contract negotiation, and how to keep the right amount of tension there. They discuss how to gauge the value of your idea, morality clauses and what to look out for when looking over a contract. Finally, they answer a listener SOS and Kate gets the lowdown on the angst of butter measurement.Hosts: Kate Leahy + Andrea Nguyen + Molly Stevens + Kristin DonnellyEditor: Abby CerquitellaMentionsAn Agent Answers: “What Should I Expect for a Cookbook Advance?”Would You Write a Cookbook for Next to Nothing? by Priya KrishnaThe Trouble with Big Deals, by Brooke Warner“9 Questions For When A Book Publisher Calls”How to Make Sure Your Cookbook Deal Is Worth It, by Sonya ChopraThe Hidden Risks of Writing a Cookbook  by Sierra Tishgart Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show 

Gina Frangello's new memoir, Blow Your House Down, was met with wide acclaim, impassioned support, and also the judgments and criticisms that people love to lob at women who write about their authentic, messy lives. She writes about adultery, a longtime affair, and eventually breaking up her family, with repercussions to all concerned, including her children. At the center of this conversation, moderated by Brooke Warner, are questions about how women are encouraged to be silent, or get silenced.

* Linda Joy Myers is president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. Her memoir Don't Call Me Mother—A Daughter's Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award finalist and winner of the BAIPA Gold Medal award. She's also the author of five books about memoir writing, including two she co-authored with Brooke Warner. * Linda Joy shared how an early interest in memory and her family history eventually led to her interest in memoir. * Linda discussed the history of memoir as a genre and talked about current trends. * Linda Joy talked about the healing that can come from writing memoir, as well as how to ensure that a memoir also resonates with the reader. * Linda Joy offered specific advice for authors undertaking their own memoirs, including how to get started; she also touched on pitfalls to avoid. * In their teaching and writing, Linda Joy and Brooke don't focus only a memoir but, more specifically, memoir for women. Host Matthew Félix asked Linda Joy how writing memoir differed for women versus men. * In response to a recent "kerfuffle" in the New York Times, Linda Joy discussed the conference she and Brooke have organized, designed to address some of the key issues facing women memoirists, including what topics women can write about and expressing anger. * The Women Writing Memoir conference begins 10/4 and takes place weekly for six weeks.   Listen here or on: iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | TuneIn | Amazon | Player FM | Deezer Watch on YouTube   Links https://lindajoymyersauthor.com/ https://www.namw.org/ https://magicofmemoir.com/

As big name publishing houses continue to consolidate, their influence on which books become bestsellers only grows stronger. The ‘chosen’ books are consistently written by authors in privileged positions, leaving underrepresented authors, including women, people of color, and noncelebrities, off the bookshelves (and Kindles). Some authors have had enough, and they're finding new avenues through which to get themselves published.Join us today as publisher and writing coach Brooke Warner walks us through the exclusivity of publication and explains how hybrid publishing companies can support underrepresented authors.

On episode 64 of the podcast, I’m introducing a new segment called Writing Wisdom with Lori. On these mini-episodes, I’ll be sharing actionable inspiration for writers, aspiring writers and creative folks looking to put pen to paper. I want to give you a jolt of what you need to live your best literary life. Think tips, hacks and mindset motivation to get you going, or keep you going on your writing journey.   For this very first writing wisdom segment, I'm talking about the most important lesson all writers must learn, and that is that anybody can write. If you can follow a recipe, then you can learn to write. During this brief episode, I'm sharing how new writers and seasoned writers alike, can look at their writing practice like a person who is learning to bake. We start with a recipe, follow the steps, then begin to experiment until we can successfully execute a beautiful cake – or novel – from scratch. Listen to the show for actionable inspiration and writing wisdom that will hopefully help you believe in your right to write. Literary Links for more Writing Wisdom If you're looking for a good no-nonsense (recipe) book on writing, I love Stephen King's On Writing. I re-read it whenever I need inspiration and tips on writing fiction. If you love podcasts as much as I do, and would like to listen to an inspiring podcast on writing, try the Write-Minded Podcast. Hosted by the director of NaNoWriMo Grant Faulkner and the publisher of She Writes Press, Brooke Warner, the show offers interviews with stellar writers on specific craft-focused topics. If you want to take a writing class - anything from memoir to screen writing - consider Gotham Writers Workshop. They are based in New York City, but with online classes, you can live anywhere and take one of their courses.  If you want to hear how some badass women use their writing to change the world, for some added inspiration for your writing practice, listen to the How to Be a Revolutionary Writer episode from the MAMP podcast. (It will definitely get you fired up and ready to write.) And if after listening to this episode, you just want to bake a cake from scratch, try this recipe for Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake. It's the same one that appears on the back of the Hershey's cocoa tin and it is delicious.  Do you have any questions about your writing practice? Are you struggling with some part of your journey? Are you seeking permission to write? Leave me you questions and comments on the show notes page for this episode on the My American Meltingpot blog, and I'll try to answer them on my next "Writing Wisdom" episode. ******************************** How to Support the Show 1. Subscribe to the show on your favorite platform. 2. Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts 3. Do your online book shopping on the My American Meltingpot Bookstore 4. Make a donation via paypal on the My American Meltingpot Website. Thank you!    

Nina talks with Brooke Warner, co-founder of She Writes Press, about the ins and outs of the publishing industry, and new avenues for writers. 

It's a New Year!! Hallelujah. This week Brooke and Grant answer three questions around things they’ve been surprised that they miss, how their perceptions have shifted through the pandemic, and what they’re excited to get back to when things get back to “normal”—whatever and whenever that might be. And we invite our listeners to consider these questions for yourselves, too. HAPPY 2021!

I interviewed Brooke Warner in a previous Women in Publishing Summit about why she started She Writes Press and about Hybrid presses. This is a great interview opening doors to other routes to publishing.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley was determined to release her latest novel in 2020. Why? She knew we all could use an escape. And Perestroika in Paris is just that, as praised by Publishers Weekly: “the perfect book for those for whom the real world, wracked with pandemic and politics, has become something to avoid.” Imagine a Parisian fairytale for adults starring a runaway racehorse who finds friendship and freedom in getting splendidly off-track in the City of Light. In conversation with Brooke Warner.

Brooke Warner has spent her life finding ways to help people share their stories. She had a successful career in the traditional publishing industry before co-founding She Writes Press, an independent publishing company that was honoured as the 2019 Independent Publisher of the Year. As an author, she's published several books including Write On, Sisters! and Green-light Your Book. She's also written books on the topic of memoir writing and helps people craft and shape their own stories to share with an audience.Brooke is among a unique group of people who have spent time as a Tumbleweed at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, France and in this conversation she shares about her experience living in this iconic bookstore.She's inspired many with her TEDx talk: “Green-Light Revolution: Your Creative Life on Your Terms”. And weekly, you can tune into her podcast called Write-Minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers which provides a blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life.On this episode, host Angela de Burger chats with Brooke about why she's inspired to bring important stories to the forefront, how she followed her heart to stay true to her professional and personal goals, and her belief that everyone has the ability to green-light their own creative projects.Say hi to Brooke:  Website: http://brookewarner.com   She Writes Press website  Magic of Memoir websiteShow mentions and people who inspire Brooke:     - People who inspire: Lidia Yuknavitch, Elizabeth Acevedo, Elizabeth Gilbert     - TEDx Talk Green-Light Revolution: Your Creative Life on Your Terms     - Being a Tumbleweed at Shakespeare and Company----Creative Pulse Podcast socials:  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/creativepulsepodcast  Twitter https://twitter.com/CreativePulseTWMusic credit: https://www.purple-planet.com

Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner interview Courtney Maum about her indispensable new book, Before and After the Book Deal, for the Write-minded podcast. This conversation delves into everything aspiring authors want and need to know but might be afraid to ask, and doesn’t shy away from scary and taboo topics like rejection, money, and how much you really need to be on social media if you want to be successful. It’s sure to empower any writer to tackle the important journey to publication.

Then She Did: a Quest for More is back for Season 2! Slowly but surely we have found ways to move forward with our quest even in the midst of all the chaos. We can't wait to talk about it with you. Be sure to check out Erin's newsletter!And you can check out the class Erin talked about here How to Write your Memoir in 6 Months with Brooke Warner and Linda JoyCheck out these books of short lyric essays if you are looking to add some wonder and delight to your life. World of Wonders has pictures!World of Wonders by Aimee NezhukumatathilBook of Delights by Ross GayOh and...Chris Hemsworth on Dancing with the Stars a little wonder for you today!Let us know how your quest is going! If you are just joining us, let us know what your quest is! We'd love to hear from you!To connect with us:Email us at thenshedidpod@gmail.comor find us @thenshedidpod on Instagram, Facebook, and TwitterSound and Music: "Flying Free" by Tuf Francis http://www.tuffrancis.com/music

Memoirs are more than just first-hand accounts of the writers' lives, and involve more than stringing together a series of random happenings. In addition to describing some common features of memoirs, I explore the benefits this type of writing has for writer and reader alike. ************************************************************************************************************************************************** Email me: marisadellefarfalle@gmail.com Twitter: @marisadee13 Instagram: marisadf13 I'd also really appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, as it'll help a lot more people find out about the show! ************************************************************************************************************************************************** Helpful links: "Characteristics of a Memoir," by Melissa G. Wilson: https://networlding.com/characteristics-of-a-memoir/ "How to Write a Memoir: 7 Creative Ways to Tell a Powerful Story," by Brooke Warner: https://thewritelife.com/how-to-write-a-memoir/#:~:text=How%20to%20write%20a%20memoir.%201%201.%20Narrow,to%20bring%20your%20story%20to%20life.%20More%20items "How to Write Your Memoir: A 5-Step Guide," by Jerry Jenkins: https://jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-a-memoir/#:~:text=How%20to%20Write%20a%20Memoir%20.%201%20Step,Anecdotes.%203%20Step%203.%20Outline%20Your%20Book.%20 "How to Write a Memoir: The Complete Guide to Getting Started," by Bella Rose Pope: https://self-publishingschool.com/how-to-write-a-memoir/#:~:text=Here%20are%20the%20steps%20for%20how%20to%20write,Write%20a%20memoir%20you%20want%20to%20read.%20 "A Million Little Pieces": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Million_Little_Pieces

Coach Debby, interviews noted publisher Brooke Warner. “Brooke Warner is a woman of excellence dedicated to confident women who write,” said Coach Debby, adding, “We will both be sharing our experiences from behind the scenes from years of working in publishing.”

Coach Debby, interviews noted publisher Brooke Warner. “Brooke Warner is a woman of excellence dedicated to confident women who write,” said Coach Debby, adding, “We will both be sharing our experiences from behind the scenes from years of working in publishing.”

Eimear McBride’s career is an underdog’s dream: she spent six months writing her debut novel, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, and nine years trying to sell it, only to take the literary scene by storm when it was finally published in 2013 to an avalanche of acclaim, awards, and rapturous comparisons to James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Now, McBride joins Brooke Warner in celebration of her eagerly awaited new novel, Strange Hotel, which further cements her singular place in the contemporary canon.

We’re thrilled to welcome novelist Chelsea Bieker in conversation with Brooke Warner. Bieker’s literary debut Godshot is a hymn to the salvation found in hard-won personal rebirth. Stricken with drought, the community of Peaches, California clings to a cult leader for salvation, and 14-year-old Lacey is left to reap a revelatory harvest of her own. Godshot has won Bieker comparisons to Margaret Atwood and Emma Cline. The beauty lies in Lacey’s incomparable voice, who you’ll miss after turning the last page.

Have you ever wanted to write a book? In her early thirties Brooke Warner left a major publishing company because she wanted all women's voices to be heard, not only celebrities.  She wanted to create a place where our voices and stories are valued, and celebrated.   And that is why she created She Writes Press.  In her interview, Brooke shares with us what pursuing a fulfilling career means to her. Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker, weekly podcaster, and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press.

Tayari Jones can “touch us soul to soul with her words,” said Oprah, who dubbed Jones’ newest novel a Book Club pick for 2018. In her work, Jones takes the scars of the American South, including traumas around wrongful incarceration, and rubs them raw. She is interviewed by Brooke Warner of She Writes Press. Sponsored by She Writes Press; also with the support of Women Lit members.

Do women authors face unique challenges? Autumn and special guest, Alexa Bigwarfe, delve into this topic as well as ways to support women authors. Alexa is a USA Today bestselling author, runs Write, Publish, Sell and is the organizer of the Women in Publishing Summit. This episode has tips not just for women, but for anyone who is busy or feels too overwhelmed to tackle dreams such as writing. Check out the Women in Publishing Summit which runs from March 2 - 8. Registration starts at FREE! Check it out at https://womeninpublishingsummit.com/. Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (0s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need in literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Autumn (29s): Hello, I'm autumn and this is episode 61 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and the women have taken over today. Yes, for is a way, and so today we instead have author and organizer Alexa Bigwarfe and she is joining me for a discussion on the hurdles facing women authors. So hello Alexa welcome to the podcast. Alexa (51s): Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy you could join us today. And actually right now I'm over in Vermont and it's a beautiful sunny day, so thank you for being inside and, uh, hanging out with me. Absolutely. Well, I'm in South Carolina where it's normally beautiful and sunny, but today it's overcast and gross, so Autumn (1m 13s): that worked out for you then. It's great. Fantastic. And so I have a little introduction so that people can listening can get and feel of for who you are. And so we'll just get that out of the way till we can free up the discussion. So Alexa you are a wife, a mother of three, a dog owner, which I'm going to have to ask what kind of dog and an advocate for those without a voice. You are passionate about advocating for women's and children's rights and discusses these topics on your podcast, which is the same name as a series you've written lose the Cape. So you're also a USA today bestselling author and you're an editor and publisher of lose the Cape anthology series sunshine after the storm, a survival guide for the grieving mother. Ditch the fear and just write it and many other books. And if all of that isn't enough, you also run and organize the women in publishing summit every year, which I took part last year and loved it and I can't wait to it for it to be this year. And you also run the write publish sell website, which is dedicated to helping authors. So I don't know how you fit all of that. And really Alexa (2m 22s): I don't sleep much is my standard answer on that one. Autumn (2m 26s): I understand. I know when I first started writing and people asked how I found time to do it, I would look at them straight with a dead pan face and say, I'm a vampire, I'm gonna start using that one. That's a much better answer. Oh, you know, it throws them off. Like they were kind of like, are you serious? Alexa (2m 44s): I love it. Well, you know, now that my three children are all in school for seven hours a day like it or six, seven hours, however long they're gone, um, it makes a big difference and I'm able to cram a lot more in. My husband swears that multi multitasking is impossible and that is just one of the many differences between men and women because I think women can run circles around men and doing multiple things at the same time. Autumn (3m 10s): I highly agree, which is so like I said, it'd be so much fun for taking over the podcast today, we'll probably, you know, solve all the problems of the world. While all smell disgusting, you know. Right. That's right. That's right. Excellent. Well, I'm so happy to have you here and I have to say, so I'm a dog lover too. Um, my, I have a current terrier who is like a giant golden version of Toto. So what kind of dog do you have? Alexa (3m 33s): Dog Mia is a, she's definitely a mix of a yellow lab and something else that could be picked could be bulldog, could be all kinds of combinations. She's a mutt. She was a rescue, so we don't know what she is fully, but she is truly the sweetest dog we've ever come across. And she's a gentle giant. We love her. Autumn (3m 54s): Yeah, that's just, I absolutely adore dogs. And that was actually sort of how I ended up with my husband. He had the cutest dog. Oh my God. So I fell in love with a dog, kept the boys. It's worked out Alexa (4m 6s): well. There you go. So there is some truth to be told to men getting puppies and taking them for walks in the park if they're looking to pick up chicks. Huh? Autumn (4m 13s): Yeah. So we're already giving dating tips to anyone out there listening. Yes. If you are trying to get together with someone, a really cute dog or a wonder, Alexa (4m 22s): well you know, being a writer can be such a life of solitude that maybe maybe we do need to throw out some tips for social interaction from time to time. Autumn (4m 33s): That's like she probably, we could get away with a podcast of like writing or dating tips for writers because we're all introverts, so we're like, I know sometimes if my husband didn't be like, are we eating today? Are you doing anything other than taking your laptop somewhere of like, Oh you are here. I didn't know you were in the house. Alexa (4m 50s): Exactly. I did the same thing though with my three children. It's generally not a good thing. So we have a rule that when I'm working they're only allowed to come bother me if one of them is bleeding or, or really like truly needs my help. It can't be an argument over which television Joe they can watch. So Autumn (5m 9s): yeah, I saw a reverse am blog article once, which I wish I could find it again. If anyone is listening and knows of this one, it was a family's interpretation of a mother's writing, a writer, mother's hand signals, and you know, she would hold up the one finger which to her about one minute and the family is like, okay, give her five. If she holds up two fingers, it's like give her 10 not two minutes. And if she gives you a full stop, it means do not fricking bothering me right now. She is on a roll. Go leave the house and come back into. That is so true. It's just like there's what we think we got going on and then there's what the rest of the world realizes. We really mean when we say no, not now. Oh my gosh. So yes, if anyone knows of it, please send it to me. I've lost the link and it just cracked me up whenever I read it. It was fantastic. But anyway, so I'm so excited to have you here and I love that you're a USA today bestselling author. You have so much information and so many things that you're doing, but how did you start out? When were you, when were you a newbie and how did you start writing Alexa (6m 16s): well, it's kind of a sad story, so I'm sorry to bring anybody down here. Um, I actually, I wanted this, so the first part, it's not so sad. I've wanted to write since I was a little girl. I mean I started writing my name all over my grandparents couches and walls as soon as I could hold a pen, right. Which, uh, they were not very happy. But um, um, so I I self, I self illustrated and wrote my first book at the age of six called my unicorn. My mother threw it away at some point in time, so tears, no, but I always wanted to write and I'm one of those kids who if you go back and look through my stuff from like middle school and high school, like I have stories upon stories that I started but never quite finished. I have like index cards of, of I, I one of those title people. So I would just daydream titles for day is, you know, cause I had like 700 titles of books and stories, you know. But um, somewhere along the line, uh, my dad was the mill in the military. We moved overseas. I totally fell in love with am overseas stuff and I wound up majoring in international studies and then eventually I went into the air force. Um, so I was doing, I was in air force intelligence officer and I did for for a decade. I did technical writing and briefs and really, uh, really honed my writing, my writing and speaking skills through that career. And then writing um, some counter terrorism, uh, briefings and things like that for the state of South Carolina after I left the military. It's a very interesting career. Very, very interesting. I loved what I did. Um, like I said, 10 years total time working for the air force and for the state of South Carolina and doing really, really cool things and writing a lot of emergency plans and all this kind of stuff, grant writing, all of that dry boring stuff. But it trained me very well in technical writing and am I decided to, it was, it was hard working in counter terrorism and by that point in time we had two small children. So I decided to stay at home and um, be a stay at home mom because I thought that would be easier. Um, it was not, we decided to have our third child cause my husband and I are both the third of four children and we were like, we can't stop before we get to number three obviously. Um, and when we, I went in for my first ultrasound and they found out that there were two. So we had number three and 4:00 AM together. But a long, long story short, um, the babies were identical twins. They had, they suffered from a syndrome called twin to twin transfusion syndrome, which is very, very deadly if not treated. It was very scary and we thought both babies were going to die. We went through a lot of, lot of stuff, a lot of hospitalizations and they were born 10 weeks early. And, um, Caris, my surviving twin was one pound 10 ounces and she spent, yeah, she was a little bitty. She lo fighter, she spent three months in the NICU and her sister, Catherine, um, just had entirely too many, uh, issues. And she only stayed with us for two days before she was, it was very sad. So in that time frame, there's obviously a lot of stuff going on. And I started blogging as a way to deal with grief and anger and just shock and awareness to tell other people about this syndrome that I felt my doctors were so poorly educated on. And, you know, all these things. So I took the blogging and, um, really found a space and place for not only helping other grieving mothers, but for helping people who didn't know how to deal with grieving mothers. Like what might be the most common search term is still to this day, eight years later, uh, what do I say to someone who's just lost a baby? So I started writing on those topics and um, and I decided that I wanted to do more. By that point in time, I had am really gotten into a big community of other bloggers and writers on grief. And so I reached out to a bunch of people that I knew who, who were, who were doing things, either they were setting up organizations to support grieving families where they were blogging about it or they were doing all these different things. And I invited, um, I think it's 34 of us total. So I reached out to all these people and ask them to be a part of this project that I wanted to do, which was a book called sunshine after the storm, a survival guide for the grieving mother. And it's basically like, Oh yeah, it was. So, it was a really healing project for me. So part of my mission across the years has been using writing as a tool to heal and how no matter what genre, whether it's a children's book or a nonfiction book or even a fiction book, like there's so many ways that you can use your writing to work through things in your own life to heal to all of those things. So, yeah. So I became an accidental publisher basically because, you know, I just, I fell in love with the process and wanted to learn everything I could possibly learn about publishing. And then we started the lose the Cape series, which is our guide for am for moms. Cause I was still raising children. So we did that and like, so now I've got more books coming out and people are coming to me, what are you doing? How are you doing this? I want to write a book. How do I do it? Yeah. So right. Publish sell was born. Autumn (11m 44s): That is amazing. So yes, I mean basically from almost before you started putting the words that became your published novel on paper, you've been helping other on their journey from the get go. Right? Alexa (11m 55s): Yeah. So, so yeah, through the, through the blogging and then through am basically kind of, so some people who were also writing on grief came to me first. And this is when I realized that that there was an opportunity for me to really help a lot of other people is because they came to me and they were like, Hey, I don't know how to get my book a formatted and I don't know how to do this and I don't know how to do that. So it started off with me just kind of helping out my friends in the green area who wanted to write and publish books too. And then, you know, word caught on. I started realizing that I, well, first of all being a stay at home mom, but just never quite worked out for me. I, I wanted to be doing more like constantly. So I knew I didn't want to leave my kids though I still wanted that flexibility of being able to be home with them. And so I was looking for opportunities and at this time, like this is when like digital, the digital world was just blowing up. I mean, so all this stuff is happening, eBooks coming out, you know, all these, all these big transitions. So I was able to start looking at maybe I could be a blogger and make money through blogging. Maybe I could do this, maybe I could do that. And so I just built my business from the ground up, doing a lot of different things. And, and um, eventually as I was working with these different writers, I realized that I didn't want to just help them prepare their book for publication. Like I wanted to be a publisher. So I took on that role and we have am, Kat, biggie press and purple butterfly press and Chrysalis press, which are nonfiction, basically hybrid press, a children's book, hybrid press. And then Chrysalis is our traditional publishing house. But we have, we had a slow down, we took on way too much, way too fast. So we have stopped submissions for all of those for a while because now I'm focusing on the women and publishing summit Autumn (13m 43s): I know, I can't wait til we talk about that, but before we do, I want to, so what do you think I get into, what do you think are the differences between a woman author and our account? Our male counterparts because I know I've definitely seen some differences and it's interesting. It's so it's kinda fun to open up that conversation and maybe some guys will get some perspective into, you know, helping their struggling female partners who want to be writers too. There's so many different Alexa (14m 9s): is across the board from the way that we tackle our projects to our mindset issues. Like when guys in general, this is all generalizations of course, but generally speaking, when a dude decides he's going to do something, he sits down and he does it. If a guy decides I'm gonna write a vampire paranormal, romance, Blab, blah, blah, shape shifter, you know, whatever. Throughout all your, I'm not a fantasy writer, so I do Autumn (14m 37s): you're doing really good. This might make these next book. Alexa (14m 42s): I decided I'm going to sit down and write it. Generally speaking, I'm not saying that they don't have fears and challenges in that, but they sit down and they do it. Whereas a woman were like, well, do I know enough? I don't have an MFA. I've never taken a writing class. Can I do this or are people gonna laugh at me? What are they going to do? Like who am I? Like all these things just start going through our minds as women. So we have issues from there, you know, just in terms of can I do this, will I do this? But then I mean there's like a thousand other things women whether you're a mother or not, women tend to be the ones who take on the roles of caretakers, caregivers, planners, organizers. So we're doing all the things in our lives. We're the ones who generally speaking, again, nobody threw rotten tomatoes at me. And you know what, there is a shift going on like my husband now is a stay at home dad, so I can't, you know, stay at home dads slash he works part time in my business now. But um, but, but you know, so, so I know that men are doing all these things as well. But generally speaking, like we just, we approach things differently. We have different things that hold us back. We have different things that hold us back in the world. Like the, if you, every once in a while I see the article come up about how many women had to um, use mail pen names because that's the only way they could sell sell books, you know, so, so there are not only internal things that stop us from moving forward. There are still very definite external things happening in our world that, that keep women from having the same level of success. And I'm not one of those, you know, door bang feminists, like men need to die, all that kind of stuff that you see that you see some people on the far extreme side. But I what I do, but I do see, I do see some challenges that women have to face and especially marginalized voices, women of color, women in any type of super minority type thing. You know, there, there's a lot of challenges still out there. So you know, it Autumn (16m 45s): no. Yeah, I totally agree. Cause I know like I think my F the first question I often hear when female authors asking themselves is when can I find the time? Because I agree. It seems like every woman author I know is even myself, I don't have kids. We decided not to a long time ago before we even got together, so it worked out. But it's still, I'm the primary cook, you know, I tend to do the primary organizational things that he does the primary and be like maintenance things and he's putting them in. But you're right, it's like, I'm going to go and I'm going to go do this now and then it'll be done and then I'm going to go and do this now. And for me it's like, well, I've got to juggle this. I gotta deal with this. I've got to get this done today at blah, blah, blah. You know, it's like I have 16 balls in the air and I'm like, can I throw out the 17th if it's a pedo of size? But it means, I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Yeah. Do it's exhau. It's, I really think we struggle with trying to hold it all together and carve out that time for ourselves. It's Alexa (17m 41s): very unusual, um, from the men that I see in my life again. So I'm just using my little am snapshot of the world here. It's very to see a guy when I see them want to do something to stop and think, now, wait a minute, what am I going to get the laundry done and when am I going to get food and do I have a menu plan and do I have, you know, no. They're like, okay, I'm going to join the hockey team and I'm going to go play hockey or I'm going to write a book or I'm gonna, you know, learn how to play the guitar or go hang out with friends or go, you know, that's they, they just, they do. And some women just do two and it's a L it's a thing that I'm having to teach myself actually, is that it's, if I have to focus on whatever it is, that is my priority and if it is my priority, then I have to be willing to let other things slide. It's okay if we eat leftovers for two days in a row. My kids don't think so, but I'm okay feeding them. It's okay to order from time to time. It's okay to let them watch movies as well. I write on a Saturday afternoon, you know, so, Autumn (18m 45s): Oh, I love that. No, I, I totally agree and I think that's we. I love your lose. Lose the Cape series. I hadn't seen it until I was looking up stuff, but it's so true. We all think we have to do it all. We have to do it and I've learned even in my life to be much more advocating too. I think that's one thing. Guys are really good at saying, I am doing this and they stayed at, they go and do it and if they don't get something done or if someone else has to pick up the Slack wherever the chips fall, they just go and do it and women. We tend to be like, how can I fit that in where if it's something we're passionate about, sometimes you just have to say, I am doing this and you're either going to have to help or it is not going to happen because I am doing this and it's so scary. Sometimes we'd switch with you in a relationship where you're the one who tends to pick up the other half of everything. But yeah, sometimes you just have to do it. And even am I've hit 45 now and I'm still learning. Alexa (19m 39s): Okay. That's really funny. If you've been in a relationship with somebody for a long time when you're like, Nope, I'm not doing that anymore. Sorry. You've got to do the grocery shopping. You've got, you know, it's funny, as we shift roles a little bit now, this is a recent change for us. So we are still very much in the figuring it all out phase of him being the primary house person and you know, it's still in my nature to like stop work. It's like look at the clock and be like, Oh my gosh, it's six o'clock we have to eat dinner and I somebody, somebody's got to cook it. So it must be me. So you know, I've had to stop and say, you know what, he knows where the food is, you know, and tell him like, Hey, it's six o'clock I'm not ready to stop yet. I have deadlines, I need you to make dinner. And you know, we're getting better at it. But it is, yeah, it's a, it's a challenge. Autumn (20m 28s): It is. I mean, I've been with my husband, we've known each other 20 years this year and we've been married 18 and so agreed. We've, I mean for any relationship to last that long, it goes through a lot of changes. There's a saying that may you have, um, I think it's one merit, one spouse in many marriages, in other words, stay with the same person, but your marriage shifts and changes and it's a, it's a wonderful terminology saying, you know what? Nothing is ever the same. Everything keeps changing. You're both going to change. And yes, I've seen that. Definitely as we've grown from our twenties to our thirties and now we're the hitting our forties. And it is just interesting to see the dynamics change in me learning to be much more of an advocate and him learning to he's, I still think guys, sometimes they cannot, if you do not tell them by the way this needs to be done, they don't really figure it out. But maybe that's just all the guys I go with my life. He's like, okay, the thing sitting in the front in the middle of the room. Yes, there's some general truth to that, but I do feel, so I started reading with fantasy. Um, it was definitely, you know, it is my genre, it's what I'm passionate about. But I always felt very fortunate because the first author I picked up was ed McCaffrey. So a woman. My next favorite was Mercedes Lackey. My favorite book was written by Terry Wendling and I've always loved Margaret Weis. This is like from the day I started reading fantasy and fell in love with it. I've had these Paragon women's, I didn't start with, um, Tolkin or you know, all the guys I started with the women and I've always, I didn't realize it at the time as a young girl, I always joked that my mother never believed in women's lib and I think she just didn't know what to do with me. When I started getting my boys, she's kinda like, I don't know where you came from. She wanted a, a daughter would have kids and stay near home and a son who would go off and conquer the world. And she got a son that stayed home and had kids and a daughter who wanted to go off and conquer the world. So she got what she wanted just in the wrong genders. And I'm fine with that. And she's learning. But it's always, I've always seen all these very wonderful Ursula Kayla Gwyn. I mean all these wonderful, I can ramble off all these women named, but you're right. So many genres women authors have either hidden, their names are using, sit at pseudonyms or initials. And I do still see that with the young authors I work with. Uh, it's becoming more rare, which is really exciting. But even like, I think two years ago I had someone say, you know, I don't want, I don't want my first name, you know, Joanna or something. I want to use my initials cause I don't want them to know I'm a woman. I was like, wow, that's still out there. Alexa (23m 11s): And, um, the, I I pretty sure, no, I'm just pulling this out of nowhere like most people do with statistics, but, um, I'm fairly certain it was still as late as 2018, maybe even the 2019 report that showed that book sales by either, um, male names or books by men. We're outperforming books by women authors like tremendously. So Autumn (23m 36s): it would not surprise me any of that. But I know I've seen it with Alexa (23m 43s): Apple years. I don't know if that has shifted, um, since since the me too movement really. I mean a lot of things have really, really taken a different turn since then. And that was a very, very well-timed, uh, movement to happen actually because it happened right as I was getting ready to launch my first womeninpublishingsummit three years ago. So that's amazing. I was like, sweet. The rest of the world is on the same page as me. Autumn (24m 13s): That's right. We were ready for something specific, a space for women to be able to help each other. And I think for so if we're as long as week, stay away from undermining each other when you, but authors are so good at not looking at other authors as competition. And I think women authors can be so helpful and supportive of each other even more so than you know, many other areas in places I've been in, other things I've done and seen super true. Alexa (24m 39s): And the fiction side, like I have seen fiction authors really band together really well. I love to see the authors cross-promote each other. I mean, I think everybody's smart enough to know that you ha that it works with people in your own genre. Like it's hard to cross promote someone who's writing something that your audience doesn't want to read. But, um, I think I, I've seen some really great partnerships on the fiction side. I think the w the nonfiction side is still a little bit different and I think it's because I want to say something that's probably, I'm, I'm glad you have a fiction audience, so hopefully there's not a lot of nonfiction. Autumn (25m 14s): So there'll be kind, everyone be kind NonFiction's Alexa (25m 17s): aren't like that. Okay. The word I will choose to use is a day in and day out authors like fiction writers. This is what you want to do every day, all day, all the time. You write your books, you read your books and all this kind of stuff. But a lot of nonfiction authors, unless they're in a series like unless they do autobiographies of all the presidents or something like that, where it is truly their thing, like a nonfiction author often has a, a particular subject that they focus on and they write books as part of a bigger thing, right? Like I was writing my lose the Cape books as part of a bigger community for mothers. Um, I was writing my S my grief books as part of a bigger thing. Like I didn't come on thinking I'm going to write a 25 part series on, you know, grieving weathers. So, so I think what I see sometimes is that not, not, uh, not that they don't want to help each other, but they don't, they haven't been raised to realize that they're not competition raised in their genre, if you know what I mean. So, um, it's not the case at all in the grieving mothers community. Like everybody is 100% supportive of each other. We share all each other's stuff. We do everything that we can. But in some other industries I think you see people get very nervous about competition and that's um, kind of another one of the things that we take on is letting people know that, um, the, you know, the expression with, with a rising tide, we all ships rise, you know, so it's, it's w if you're helping other women, if you're helping other people in your genre, if you're helping promote other, and the reason I came to form this opinion just to let you know, is that because I saw it in action, I reached out to my network and I said, I have an author that's publishing a book on X, Y, Z. um, we would love for you to be part of her launch team and advanced reader team. And the, and the answer that we got back was, I can't do that. I have a book that's coming out. It's on a similar topic. The books were not similar at all. Like, I mean they were in the similar genre, but like in terms of the key takeaways of the book. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So the key takeaways and everything were different enough that, and the audiences would have been different enough but yet enough the same to support each other, you know? And it really, it really made me think that there's still a lot of people who don't maybe don't realize like how much better we do when we're helping each other. Um, so anyway, sorry, that was a long tangent. That really is, I just, I just want to put that out there to say that like they're really, it really, you made the comment that there is not a lot of competition in books and I really truly agree that there is not competition in books. And the reason I say that is because I'm a voracious reader and I know my reading habits and I right now am on a huge world war two bad-ass females kit. Right? Right. Any stories of women who just did incredible crap in world war II is on my, I will read everything out there. I don't care if the storylines are similar, I don't care. Like I want to read it all. And I think that's how many readers are, would they, they want everything. Right. So by being able to share about other writers who write in similar, similar types of things, you're able to say, Hey, I don't have anything new for you, but if you like my stuff, you're going to love these books and keep them entertained until your next one comes out. Right. Autumn (28m 56s): All right. Uh, yeah. Especially, yeah, when books take you over a year sometimes to write if not longer, especially nonfiction, if you're researching can take you so long and yeah, it's better to support each other than, you know, pretend like no one else exists in everyone's waiting with baited breath just for your book. And even like no Alexa (29m 19s): could be considered a very competitive, a cookbook for example. Like, if you've got two people rating vegan cookbooks, well I can tell you that I like a variety of recipes and I like a variety. Like I just, cause I buy one vegan cookbook doesn't mean I'll never buy another one again. You should see my cook. Autumn (29m 37s): Exactly. It's ridiculous. Yeah. I, I think, uh, the internet and being able to Google recipes is become one of my favorite things about the writers. Your day may have come. No, but there's still something really nice about that big book with the big pictures that you can put on your counter and look at why you're, but anyway, we digress and you don't have to worry about them battery dying or getting like flour. Alexa (30m 4s): Exactly. But, but back to the idea of like this, this community, um, the real reason behind the women and publishing summit was, um, I was like I told you once I decided I was doing this thing, I wanted to learn everything in the world that I could about publishing. So my writing summit is one of many summits that are out there that happen all the time for writers, publishers, authors, you know, marketing, book, marketing, all these things are happening all the time. So I'm, I'm attending as many of them as I can and learning from as many people, but I was noticing like on the panels and the presentations, one, there was very little female representation. So for like, yeah, for like every five guys there was like one girl and then um, the number of minorities was almost nonexistent in some of the ones that I was looking at. So, Autumn (30m 55s): and your pro, your, you know, I didn't really think about it, but yeah, you're right. I most of the ones I'm very, very, very white and very, um, at least the people, maybe the attendees are a lot of women out there, but you're right, a lot of the panels and stuff don't seem to always include. So I reached out Alexa (31m 12s): do the one that I was attending at that particular time and I was like, Hey, where are the ladies? Was like, I follow a lot of women in the publishing world. And I know that there's some women doing some fantastic things with writing and publishing and book marketing and editing and I'm like, I don't see them in your thing. And he was just like, oops, we'll work on that for the future. It's been three years since then and I haven't really seen an increase, but that's okay because I filled the gap with my own annual all summit but women and people that identify as women. Autumn (31m 48s): That is so wonderful. And so you started, this will be your third year coming up. Correct. And it's coming up just around the corner. So this, we're recording this early, but this'll be released at the end of February and the next summit is March. Then you can register for free, Alexa (32m 4s): free at women and publishing, summit.com am Autumn (32m 9s): and I'll have that in the show notes so people can follow the little things. A lot of fun. Alexa (32m 13s): What I decided to do with it was I was like, okay, so this is cool. We started out our conversation with talking about how women are different. So one of the things that's going to make this and that does make this thing different is that we talk about the things that make women different. Like we don't specifically say in an interview. So what makes you different as a woman writer, Autumn (32m 32s): but we do, we talk about my process that Alexa (32m 37s): are applicable to women and men. If you have men in your audience, they're still gonna learn a ton of information because the knowledge base is incredible, but we're not afraid to talk about things like, well how did you schedule it around having three children and this and that, or what was it like when you're, you know, if you're doing this and that or you know, what are the challenges, the mindset challenges that you deal with? Because we do have different mindset challenges and well, you know, marketing strategies that work better for, for women because we are afraid to just say I'm doing this and go for it or not all of us. Again, you know, these are just common things that pop up are we talk about topics that are like really, really, really unique to women in most cases. Like trauma, sexual trauma, and, um, the, the need for our stories to be heard. And, um, and what it's like to be a minority minority or what is like to be a transgender am women yeah, I guess he is. He is now a man that are transgender, um, participant from the first year. So, you know, we, we did deep, it all relates to publishing or relates to writing or do the things related to the production and publishing of a book. But from this, from the viewpoint of being, you know, the, the woman's viewpoint on things. Autumn (34m 1s): It sounds, I know. And I know it's a wonderful summit and I, like I said, I was, uh, took part as a participant last year. This year I get to be on a panel and so excited. But yes, I love it. Writing tips. So that'll be fantastic. But it's just a, it's a wonderful dynamic and I agree. I love the fact that guys can attend. So like if there's a single father out there who's struggling to make everything juggle and also wants to write or has had past trauma because goodness knows between PTSD and there's so many things the me too movement is letting guys know that they can show this side of themselves as well. So it is a very inclusive and welcoming summit where if you have questions that just everyone seems to gloss over and a lot of, Oh we just do it, you know, go get it done. So the next step just go to the next step. And they don't deal with the emotional hurdles that are underneath or between those steps. This is a great place to get those like answered it without being embarrassed. And I figured out how to juggle it all and keep going and still get up the next day and keep them away Alexa (35m 3s): real. It's a very professional conference, but we get really real and um, you know, and some of them, some of them are just straight up teaching and knowledge and information and you're now going to find that touchy feely side to it because we want people to know, you know, this is how you market a book. This is how you build your email list. This is how you find an editor. This is how you make sure you're not getting screwed over by an editor. This is the important things. And so the way we've organized it is the five days we have day one is like the big picture stuff. Why, if you're just thinking about writing a book am why you might want to do it. It's, it's more like inspiration and that the types of things that we were just talking about, those would, we definitely hit on a day one marginalized voices and how we feel and you know, all those types of things. We dig right into it. And then, um, or over the course of the next four days, we hit things like all the tools that you need. Not all of them obviously cause there's a bit Jillian Brazilian. But the main things like editing tips, editing, production tips, getting your book formatted, am how you distribute your book, all of these types of things. We talk about marketing a lot, lots and lots and lots of great marketing stuff. Um, and then, uh, the day five this year, we've changed it up a little bit in day five is all about the business of being an author. So if you're struggling, yeah, if you're struggling with things like I don't think we have anybody talking about taxes this year. I may put my, uh, I may put the one from last year and as a replay just cause it was great information. But you know, just knowing these things, like now you're writing books with the hope to sell like you're a business owner. Own it. Autumn (36m 43s): Oh wait, stop wondering if you're truly an author and own your business and do it. That's a, that's a very good tip to anyone listening who has a book out there. Alexa (36m 55s): Stinks. And, and, uh, you know, we want to write we have our passion, we're doing these things. And it stinks to have to sit and say, okay, now I have to go through all my receipts and log my expenses and you know, gather up my data and all this stuff. But there's some really, really, really important things that authors don't know that they need to know. Like if you are selling your book directly from your website, you better check in with your, your local state to find out if you have to have a retail license so that you don't get, cause yeah. Cause I mean that they might cost 25 to $50 to get registered as a retail license, but if you get, they're cracking down harder and harder on digital stuff. So if you get fined for not doing things properly, it's going to be worse for you. You know? Um, and just as a side note, if anybody's panicking about it, if you just put links through to like Amazon or iBooks or anything like that, you're not the retailer. They are. So you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. They collect taxes, they do all of that stuff. But if you actually have a Shopify store or a PayPal button and you are actually selling books directly from your website that you then, you know, distribute and all that kind of stuff, you do do need to check in and see what, what kind of protections you need to have, what kind of paperwork you need to have, all of that kind of stuff. So that's just one little tip there that's totally off the topic. But it's important. And this is something that I learned along the way and I was like that's really scary cause I'm telling people all the time to sell their books on their website to make more money and not have to worry about, you know, Amazon or whatever. And um, I might be getting them in trouble if they don't know the rest of the story. Autumn (38m 35s): Do Alexa (38m 36s): that's, I mean that's a huge nugget that I don't think anyone else has really ever been mentioning cause you're right, I've even heard like, you know, sell signed copies, do this on your website. But that's perfect because that's a little lovely little teaser tips. So if people want to go enjoy this summit that's the type of information you're going to find there. And that's why it's really fantastic to join this one because it is information that there might be other ones out there, but I think yours has a different feel and a different vibe and different topics that you might not hear in many other channels. So it's really exciting. I'm looking out for each other, we're looking out for each other and we're making sure that we don't make mistakes that are costly. Autumn (39m 16s): Yes. And I, again, I think that's what women are amazingly good at. We help each other out and make sure that, you know, we keep each other safe and supported and you know, we're also very welcoming. So for anyone else who's looking for support, we like to open our arms and you know, make sure they're doing okay too. Well, is there any other tips? Anything else you want to tell us about the conference? Like I said, I will put it in the show notes and it's coming up on March 2nd and you said registration is free on the website. Alexa (39m 45s): We have am three tiers so you can register for free and you can come each day. You have to, you do have to register to receive the links, you'll get the links each day. Um, and we dropped like between five and eight videos every day that are available for 24 hours. And then they go away at 10:00 AM the next morning. And, um, if you, if you're like, I cannot sit in front of my computer all day long, every day, you could buy just those videos for $47 and watch them whenever you want. Or you can upgrade to am or we're calling the full conference pass. And that includes all the videos. We have some workshops that are only available to the conference pass holders. We have a, um, a private community where we do additional workshops and training, not only the week of the summit, but throughout the entire year. Um, we've got bonuses from all the speakers and sponsors. So it's, it's really, if you, if you get that prior to the summit starting, so if you hear this at the end of February and register, it's on only $67, it's going to increase in price as time goes. But um, and it's just, it's another opportunity for us to take, um, what we have going on and to continue it between at the conference so that we're not just dishing out stuff that first week of March, but all the way through. And by the way, the reason we chose the first week in March, March is women's history month. And the last day of the week of the first week of, of March is always international woman's day. So on the eighth we'll have Brooke Warner who is the CEO of, she writes press and she is the author of am right on sisters. And she does a lot of talking about this particular topic, like the, the challenges that females face in the publishing industry and why it's so important to share our stories and why it's so important to band together. So she's going to be our closing keynote and I am pumped up about that. Autumn (41m 33s): Great. Yeah. Awesome. I can't wait. So, yeah. Well fantastic. I am so happy that you joined me on here and we've got to talk about those. And I mean I could still think of topics that I think women face just, you know, I don't think we're so good at making sure we toot our own horn and tell people that, you know, like you're a USA today bestselling author. I don't think that was even first in your biography or so. It was kind of buried in there and I think that's typical of us. So, Hey, we all have things to we need to remember about ourselves, but thank you so much for joining us and I really appreciate the time and I count to see you're here. Some of my listeners, uh, over at the conference and like I said, I will be participating in a panel for tips. So I'm looking forward to seeing something, make sure you use the link that, um, the item's going to send out cause that's a better link. For that's a better link. Alright. Sounds good. Yes, I will have that am posted up there on the show notes. Yes, I think that's right. You did send me one and yes. Disclaimer, we're always honest. I think that is an affiliate link. I want to be able to reward you for sending your community, so make sure you go through her affiliate link. Well, thank you and I had even forgotten that we got those as speakers, but Hey, that's so cool. Thank you. Alright, well again, I can't wait to see everyone at the conference. I can't wait to see quote unquote see you at the conference. Alexa and thank you again. It's been a blast. Yes. Thank you for tuning in next week. Yes. For we'll be back and we'll have another exciting new episode and hope you will join us. Then Narrator (43m 22s): if you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

I’m so grateful that I was able to interview California native and leading independent book publisher, Brooke Warner, for the Brave Girl podcast. Before she launched her own ventures, Brooke was the executive editor of Seal Press, one of the most enduring feminist publishing houses. She currently sits on the boards of the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers. We both share a love of books, writing and the life of a creative and we talk about all of this on today’s episode. In addition to Brooke’s publishing role at She Writes Press and SparkPress, she writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly and is the president of Warner Coaching where she mentors and coaches authors. You’ll want to check out her website to see how her publishing model works and merges the best of the traditional publishing model with new and innovative strategies for first time writers and emerging creatives. With more than 32,000 members and more than 350 groups, She Writes is the world’s largest online social community for women writers at every stage of their writing lives, working in every genre and representing every generation.  In addition to her publishing work, Brooke has also written several books and her most recent book, Write On, Sister is now available on Amazon and I highly recommend it. I also recommend Brooke’s weekly podcast Write-Minded that she co-hosts with Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo, a community for writers. Each episode features a pep talk, a green-light moment and a writing action. You will also want to watch her TEDx video, Green Light Revolution: Your Creative Life on Your Terms that she talks about on the show.  I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did creating it!

What does a traditional publisher do and how do they decide what to publish? What's the difference between indie, hybrid, and traditional publishing? Brooke Warner dives into the business of publishing in this informative, educational episode. Learn more about self-publishing with IngramSpark at https://selfpub.is/2XfzcPF. This episode is sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association, the largest publishing trade association in the U.S. IBPA offers a free 3-month trial membership for IngramSpark publishers at https://selfpub.is/2rsh5KY.

Brooke Warner's deep love for stories and books led her to a career in publishing where she eventually became an acquiring editor for an independent women's press—her dream job. But when the publishing industry changed, aiming more toward celebrity than substance, she feared her dream was fading. With determination, taking huge risk, and sometimes stumbling, Brooke co-founded She Writes Press, overcoming industry opposition to build a nationally recognized, award-winning alternative to the old models for book publishing.

This week Martha's guests are Damon Young and Brooke Warner.

Brooke Warner is the publisher of She Writes Press, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters! (brand-new this August), Green-Light Your Book, What’s Your Book?, and How to Sell Your Memoir. She is committed to helping writers become creative entrepreneurs and thought leaders, a message conveyed in her 2017 TEDx talk, “Green-Light Revolution.” WebsiteL http://brookewarner.com/ Twitter: @brooke_warner Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/warnercoaching/ Instagram (@Username): @brooke_warner She Writes University: https://shewritesuniversity.com/ ======================  Request to Join the FREE Meredith Atwood Community & Coaching https://meredith-atwood-coaching.mn.co/ ======================  Buy Meredith’s Books: The Year of No Nonsense https://amzn.to/3su5qWp Triathlon for the Every Woman: https://amzn.to/3nOkjiH =======================   Follow Meredith Atwood & The Podcast on Social: Web: http://www.swimbikemom.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/swimbikemom   =======================  Want to Connect?  Email: same24hourspodcast@gmail.com =======================  Credits: Host & Production: Meredith Atwood Copyright 2017-2020, 2021 All Rights Reserved, Meredith Atwood, LLC

Previously working in traditional publishing, Brooke noticed the injustice, specifically that many talented writers do not get their due and that publishing decisions did not appear to be about the content or quality of the work. As champion for the underdogs, Brooke set out to do something about it. She established safe and trusted communities of writers and warriors that have shared values and support one another. Through her tireless efforts, Brooke has brought legitimacy to non-traditional publishing. She shares these powerful nuggets of life wisdom: - sometimes, we get in our own way and turn against ourselves - we need to be mindful not to internalize negative messages - rejection of our work is not rejection of ourselves Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker, weekly podcaster (Write-minded with co-host Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She currently sits on the boards of the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers.  She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly.  http://brookewarner.com/ https://www.facebook.com/warnercoaching/ https://twitter.com/brooke_warner https://shewritespress.com/ https://gosparkpress.com/ tags:  Brooke, Warner, She, Writes, Press, SparkPress, Warner, Coaching, author, writer, coach, TEDx, speaker, Write, On, Sisters, Green, Light, Your, Book, What's, memoir, podcast, Write-minded, Independent, Book, Publishers, Association, storiesthatempower.com, stories that empower, empowering stories, empowerment stories, stories of empowerment, stories of empowering others, self empowerment stories, stories empower, inspire, inspiring, inspiration, uplift, uplifting, upliftment, hope, light, Sean

Today’s author interview guest is Brooke Warner, author of Write On, Sisters! There are more outlets than ever for writers to spread their messages and share their work, more opportunities to speak out and be seen. Writers expose themselves freely […]

Courage takes many forms. For some it's telling our truths and denying those who tell us to shut up. For others, it's organizing to resist the densest military occupation in the world.   This Labor Day, September 2, on KPFA Women's Magazine, Preeti Shekar and Tara Dorabji speak with scholar Athar Zia, author of the book They Gave Us Blood: Normalcy, Sacrifice, and Terror in Kashmir, and Menaja Jehan, a local organizer with Stand with Kashmir, about how women are organizing to oppose the Indian military occupation in Kashmir in the wake of the Indian government's surprise announcement rescinding the autonomy of the contested Muslim majority region. Then Kate Raphael speaks with publisher, author and podcaster Brooke Warner about how women are finding new ways to make ourselves heard. Brooke's new book is Write On, Sisters! Voice, Courage and Claiming Your Place at the Table. The post September 2, 2019 – Brooke Warner on Writing with Courage; Athar Zia and Maneja Jehan on Women's Resistance in Kashmir appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode is an on-stage interview of Eve Ensler by Write-Minded host Brooke Warner. This interview explores Eve’s newest book, The Apology, in which Eve envisions the apology she wishes her father would have given her before he died for all the abuse and violence he perpetrated upon her when she was young. This interview touches upon how apology can set free survivors of abuse, as well as the impact of real apology on the perpetrator—and we delve into a bit of politics too.

"Vagina Monologues" creator Eve Ensler discusses her groundbreaking new book, "The Apology," in which she imagines an apology from her long-dead father who physically and sexually abused her as a child. Ensler is interviewed by Brooke Warner of SheWrites Press.

This week’s special episode is an interview between Write-Minded host Brooke Warner and the writer Rachel Cusk, who’s been hailed for “reinventing” the novel. Brooke asks Rachel about form, and how she approached this reinvention, whether she could have done it without the insights she had through writing her memoir, and what it means to call oneself—or be called—a feminist, or “post-feminist,” writer. In this clear-eyed and thought-provoking interview, Rachel gives insight into why she thought the novel needed to be re-thought in the first place, and why the pursuit of truth lies at the heart of everything she writes.

One of the most important fiction writers comes to Berkeley from England to celebrate the paperback release of "Kudos," the final installation of her acclaimed "Outline" series.

Why the hybrid model makes sense for authors and publishers, with guest Brooke Warner Brooke Warner, publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, talks about independent publishing and how the hybrid model is helping authors thrive by creating opportunity and diversifying the marketplace. Highlights include: What is hybrid publishing? What is the hybrid business model? Who pays, and what does it cost? What benefits does hybrid give the author? The publisher? How hybrid democratizes the list: all books get attention, not just the “lead titles” What points do authors need to pay attention to in hybrid contracts? Why do hybrid publishers still meet resistance from some reviewers, contests, and associations? What’s the future of indie publishing? (Hint: it’s bright!) Challenges ahead: costs of paper, book pricing, Amazon dominance IBPA’s role in promoting standards Key point: we need to rethink the way we do things and update our idea of what a book is: the current model may not be sustainable Here are two essential IBPA checklists related to this podcast: “Hybrid Publisher Criteria” https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.ibpa-online.org/resource/resmgr/docs/IBPA-Hybrid-Publisher-Criter.pdf “Industry Standards Checklist for a Professionally Published Book” https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.ibpa-online.org/resource/resmgr/docs/IBPA-checklist-FINAL.pdf Participants Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of the forthcoming Write On, Sisters! Voice, Courage, and Claiming Your Place at the Table, as well as five other books on publishing and memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker, weekly podcaster (“Write-minded” with co-host Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She’s the Board Chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association and writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly. Tweet: @SheWritesDotCom Listen to Brooke’s TEDx talk "Green-Light Revolution: Your Creative Life on Your Terms" https://youtu.be/5a0w4KgWyP8 Peter Goodman (host) is publisher of Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley, California. He began his publishing career in Tokyo, Japan, in 1976. A longtime member of IBPA, he has served on the IBPA board and as IBPA board chair.

A must-see for anyone who believes they have a book in them: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Executive Director Grant Faulkner appears in person with coach and publisher Brooke Warner to discuss turning inspiration into a tangible product.

Slimani, author of "The Perfect Nanny," is a bold, eloquent speaker on writing, women, and society today. She was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981 and now lives in Paris with her French husband and their two young children. Come see this extraordinary writer! She will be interviewed by Brooke Warner, Publisher, She Writes Press.

Most people who start working a nine to five job off of college believe that to succeed in business means working crazy hours, which has some truth to it. But Morten T. Hansen experienced firsthand that working to do less is more beneficial than obsessing about how everything can be more efficient and productive. Learn […]

Most people who start working a nine to five job off of college believe that to succeed in business means working crazy hours, which has some truth to it. But Morten T. Hansen experienced firsthand that working to do less is more beneficial than obsessing about how everything can be more efficient and productive. Learn how to focus on one task and go all in as well as gain the ability to work well with others so you can make work lighter and better. There are a lot of people in the world with great stories, but they don’t know how to share them in an interesting way. Brook Warner of She Writes Press thinks that all stories are interesting, but need to be told in a compelling way that will have readers glued and asking for the next part. Brooke shares her insights on memoirs, ghost writing and how she became an expert in the traditional and new publishing realm. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Take The Lead community today: Dr. DianeHamilton.com Dr. Diane Hamilton Facebook Dr. Diane Hamilton Twitter Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn Dr. Diane Hamilton YouTube Dr. Diane Hamilton Instagram

Most people who start working a nine to five job off of college believe that to succeed in business means working crazy hours, which has some truth to it. But Morten T. Hansen experienced firsthand that working to do less is more beneficial than obsessing about how everything can be more efficient and productive. Learn how to focus on one task and go all in as well as gain the ability to work well with others so you can make work lighter and better. There are a lot of people in the world with great stories, but they don’t know how to share them in an interesting way. Brook Warner of She Writes Press thinks that all stories are interesting, but need to be told in a compelling way that will have readers glued and asking for the next part. Brooke shares her insights on memoirs, ghost writing and how she became an expert in the traditional and new publishing realm. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Take The Lead community today: Dr. DianeHamilton.com Dr. Diane Hamilton Facebook Dr. Diane Hamilton Twitter Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn Dr. Diane Hamilton YouTube Dr. Diane Hamilton Instagram

Brooke Warner, Publisher, is the founder and president of Warner Coaching Inc., where she specializes in helping writers get published. In her fourteen years in the publishing industry, including eight years as Executive Editor at Seal Press, Brooke has shepherded hundreds of books through the publication process. Brooke’s expertise is in traditional and new publishing, and she is a champion of all writers committed to making their dream of publishing a book a reality. Brooke mentors memoirists in her biannual course, Write Your Memoir in Six Months, and sits on the boards of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) as an executive board member; the National Association of Memoir Writers, and She Writes.Her newest book is titled,Green-Light Your Book: How Writers Can Succeed in the New Era of Publishing. She's also the author of What’s Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author (She Writes Press, 2012) and How to Sell Your Memoir: 12 Steps to a Perfect Book Proposal (She Writes Press, 2013).

Making your summer reading list?  You're going to want to hear about these two sexy new books: GODS OF TANGO, by Carolina de Robertis, is a steamy story of music, migration, romance and identity.  Leda, a young Italian bride, arrives in Buenos Aires to find out that her husband has died.  In seeking herself in her new country, Leda becomes Dante, playing violin in one of the bands taking the scandalous tango from the brothels and tenements to the high-society cabarets.  Carolina de Robertis is the award-winning author of The Invisible Mountain and Perla. EROTIC INTEGRITY: How to Be True to Yourself Sexually, by Claudia Six, is a how-to guide to a better sex life.  Frankly presented and illustrated with candid case studies, Dr. Six, a clinical sexologist for 20 years, leads readers through ten sexual themes including performance anxiety, sexual boredom, newly dating, coming out, and more. Or maybe you plan to spend your summer writing a book.  Publisher Brooke Warner talks about how books are made in the new world of independent and hybrid publishing.  Brooke Warner is the publisher of She Writes Press, an acclaimed writer and the author of three books on publishing, including the newly released GREEN LIGHT YOUR BOOK. The post Womens Magazine – May 30, 2016 – Summer Is For Reading appeared first on KPFA.

Green-light Your Book with Brooke Warner and Crystal-Lee Quibell discusses how to navigate the publishing world as an indie author. How should you approach booksellers, wholesalers and retailers and, promote your work? Learn how to succeed in the new era of book publishing without breaking the bank. Brooke Warner is the publisher of She Writes Press, a writing coach at Warner coaching, and devoted ally to aspiring writers. Brooke is the author of several titles including How To Sell Your Memoir and, her latest Green-light Your Book. Crystal-Lee Quibell is the host of Literary Speaking, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping writers learn from best-selling authors, literary agents, and publishers. Founder of The Magical Writers Group, a private teaching forum for writers specifically focused on memoir. She is a champion for the written word, student of publishing and an obsessive book collector with a serious case of wanderlust. A self-described mermaid and witchy woman for life, she believes that life is better with books, chocolate, and the occasional cheese board. Her upcoming essay is to be featured in the forthcoming book, The Magic Of Memoir: Inspiration for the Writer's Journey.   

Author Joy Castro and publisher/author Brooke Warner on discrimination against women in publishing; Pam Peniston of Queer Cultural Center and Sean Dorsey & Shawna Virago of Fresh Meat Productions preview offerings at this year's National Queer Arts Festival; Myriam Fougere discusses her film, “Lesbiana: A Parallel Revolution”.  We'll also have a brief conversation about the contoversy over the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival's partnership with the Israeli government. The post Women's Magazine – June 17, 2013 appeared first on KPFA.