Podcasts about Penguin Random House

In the summer of 2022 the federal government sued to stop the biggest publisher in the world from buying the fourth biggest, and for two weeks the people who run American publishing had to explain their business under oath.Asked how publishing decides what succeeds, the CEO of Penguin Random House said this: “Everything is random in publishing. Success is random. Bestsellers are random. So that is why we are the Random House.”That isn't a critic. It isn't a bitter writer with a drawer full of rejections. That's the man running the largest publishing company on earth, telling you the system doesn't know.This is the first of a series of weeks on what's actually happening in publishing right now, and what I think a publisher is for. Today: the real numbers, including the viral one that's false. Why an indie musician gets romance and an indie author still gets an asterisk. And what the word hybrid actually means, which turns out to be a story about Mendel's peas.Follow The Difficulty: Subscribe at chadprevost.substack.com, or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The Difficulty is produced by Crossroads Publishing Group, a message-and-meaning press. More at chadprevost.com. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chadprevost.substack.com

Author Tess Woods had always dreamed of her big day, growing up watching her beloved Nana create in-demand bridal gowns. The stories of these dresses became a way for Tess to understand her family's origins in North Africa, which she left in the late 1970s. (Warning: This episode references the loss of a child.)Tess moved to Melbourne from Egypt when she was five years old.At large family gatherings, Tess dreamed of a big, fat, Egyptian wedding with 250 guests, food for days, belly dancing — the works.But after she became engaged to her sweet, mild-mannered Australian boyfriend Paul, Tess' parents' marriage imploded and she decided to elope to Fiji with a wedding party of just 11.Tess' cherished and feisty Nana made her wedding dress and her wedding underwear, and the nuptials were an unexpected hit.Tess and Paul moved their young family to Perth to begin their own story, which would unfold with ambition, tragedy and religion.Further informationThe Cairo Bridal Shop is published by Penguin Random House.This episode refers to the loss of a child. Please contact Red Nose on 1300 308 307 if you need support.This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores migration, getting married, homemade wedding dresses, loss of a child, stillbirth, Japanese shrines, Kyoto, philosopher's walk, near death experience, collapsed lung, intubation, fear of death, religion, Coptic Christian, Catholic, lapsed Catholic, catholicism, church, Mass, Perth, physiotherapy, physiotherapist, historic fiction, divorce, family get togethers.To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

CAA literary agent Rachel Mann on what makes her say yes to a manuscript, how to navigate the submissions process without losing control of your career, and why cutting is the work that makes prose land. You'll learn Why the recognition an agent needs is physical rather than analytical. What to do when you're not sure your manuscript is ready to send out. How to buy more time after a full manuscript request without killing the momentum. Why telling other agents about your requests works in your favour, even if it feels grubby. The realistic rhythm for chasing an agent who has gone quiet. Whether refusing to use social media can cost a writer representation. A question worth answering before you sign with anyone, and why the answer shapes the edit. The edit most manuscripts need before submission, and why it rarely means adding. How poetry's distillation applies to prose, whatever you write. What still gives an agent hope in a market where people are reading less. Resources & Links Rachel's Website Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr Waterstones Puffin Jo Unwin Literary Agency Karolina Sutton agent Harriet Poland agent Sarah Harvey agent John Ash agent Boy Parts by Eliza Clark Ottessa Moshfegh author Society of Authors The Arvon Foundation To Query Rachel: Email her at rachel.mann@caa.com. To submit, please send a cover email, one-page synopsis and the first three chapters of your work, or the rough equivalent. About Rachel Mann Rachel Mann is a Literary Agent at CAA and represents a broad range of work – largely fiction, with some non-fiction — from commercial to literary, in adult, young adult, and middle-grade markets. Her clients include Eliza Clark, Caleb Femi, Jade LB and Aisling Rawle, and have won and been listed for major prizes, including the Granta Best Young British Novelist, the Forward Prize for Poetry, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, the YA Book Prize, The Bookseller Discover Prize, and the Carnegie Medal. She spent ten years editing and commissioning fiction for young people at houses including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, and was global publishing director at the Roald Dahl Story Company. She became an agent in 2018 and joined CAA in 2023. For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.For free writing sessions, join free Writers' Hours: writershour.com.*FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS' SALONTwitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalonInstagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalonFacebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalonIf you're enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** What can bicycles do for cities? That's the question we asked attendees at this year's Velo-city Conference, organized by the European Cyclists' Federation and held in the Italian city of Rimini. Lots of mayors and elected officials and even advocates talk a lot of what cities should do for cycling, but making it easier for people to cycle in a city unlocks a host of benefits, even for people who will never get on a bike. Hear what people from places around the world—including Mozambique, India, Switzerland, France, and the U.S.—think about the power of the humble bicycle to transform streets, society, and our planet. Our bestselling new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, published by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is available wherever books are sold. And don't miss our upcoming live shows, including our return to Hunter College on November 6th. Check out the full schedule at LifeAfterCars.com. www.thewaroncars.org

This week, we're joined by Itamar Shatz! Itamar is a jiu-jitsu black belt and a Cambridge University researcher whose new book, Solving Procrastination, is published by Penguin Random House. In this episode, Itamar explains why we procrastinate, and walks through the strategies research shows will help. Topics include: the self-control fallacy, hard conversations with your coach, if-then rules for unsafe rolls, perfectionism, and burnout.Get Solving Procrastination:https://solvingprocrastination.com/bookMental models discussed in this episode:Second-Order Thinkinghttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/second-order-thinkingSilver Bullet Fallacyhttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/silver-bullet-fallacyCurse of Knowledgehttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/curse-of-knowledgeCognitive Behavioral Therapyhttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/cognitive-behavioral-therapyAcute Stress Responsehttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/acute-stress-responsePrecommitmentshttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/precommitmentsEscalation of Commitmenthttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/escalation-of-commitmentAnalysis Paralysishttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/analysis-paralysisBuilding Your Triggershttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/building-your-triggersGrowth from Discomforthttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/growth-from-discomfortIncremental Learninghttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/incremental-learningConsistencyhttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/consistencyStress and Recoveryhttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/stress-and-recoveryPrioritize Longevityhttps://bjjmentalmodels.com/prioritize-longevity⬆️ LEVEL UP with BJJ Mental Models Premium!The world's LARGEST library of jiu-jitsu audio lessons, our complete podcast network, online coaching, and much more! Your first week is free:https://bjjmentalmodels.comNeed more BJJ Mental Models?Get the legendary BJJMM newsletter:https://bjjmentalmodels.com/newsletterLearn more mental models in our online database:https://bjjmentalmodels.com/databaseFollow us on social:https://instagram.com/bjjmentalmodelshttps://threads.com/@bjjmentalmodelshttps://bjjmentalmodels.bsky.socialhttps://youtube.com/@bjjmentalmodelsMusic by Enterprize:https://enterprize.bandcamp.com

In ep 187 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Louis Critchley joins Sam and Mark to talk about how energetic you have to go with a football commentator style commercial script. Is high energy through the whole read just too much? Is subtlety needed or wanted, and when you find a niche - you should exploit it.We explore how to play a baddie without it being over the top... Mark brings some bruiser energy, and we explore how to lean in on dialogue to get intimate with the listener.Our obsessions are sculptures and weeds, and there's a story the Royal Mail might like to hear. Our wildcards are a matriarch dragon, a little boy and an adorable kitten!Our VO question specifically for Louis this week is - how did you get an agent so fast? Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1SFX: Anticipatory football crowd, stadium atmosphereThey scratch left…They scratch right…One more scratch will do it…(Slight excitement) Is it?SFX: Crowd cheer uproariously(Jubilant) IT IS! IT'S A FREE FRESHLY BAKED DONUT AT TOM HOPKINS!Music: in – upbeat, energetic, feel-good themeWin today, with Tom Hopkins.Grab your scratch card when you spend £15 in store.Every card's a winner, with over 300,000 prizes to be won!Including drinks, freshly baked donuts, and gift vouchers!Visit your nearest Tom Hopkins, today.See Tom Hopkins dot co dot UK for details. Conditions applyScript 2You see, the boy in the barrel turned out to be horribly incompetent, so we must get our own information now. Between you and me, I can't understand what Hyram wants with this shit hole town or its shit hole people. But then I think about who Hyram is and it all falls into place. Let me put it this way, if you say your floorboards are brown and Hyram says they're red, he'll cut your family's throat over them before he lets you be right. If you say the sky is blue and Hyram says it's orange, he's likely to set your inn on fire rather than admit he was wrong.We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Louis Critchley has been working in the VO industry for 15 months with Voicefox Agency! 15 MONTHS people! He loves creature and extreme vocals (his party trick is animal impressions). He primarily works in games, however he has also got a few audiobooks under his belt. Louis is always searching for ways to improve his craft, particularly finding truthful characters in fun and creative ways! This year he was nominated for newcomer of the year at the One Voice Awards!Louis's Website@louiscritchleyofficial on InstagramLouis's Facebook pageLouis on YouTubeResources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!Louis was reading an extract from:Dreams of Dust and Steel Series: The Price of Power by Michael MichelAvailable here: https://www.kokoroaudio.com/books/series/Dreams%20of%20Dust%20and%20SteelAbout your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

Political journalist, George Megalogenis has mapped key areas in our population, workforce and geopolitical standing in recent decades, and looks at how these shifts are impacting our collective political future.For the first time since Federation, Australia's population is mostly made up of migrants and their children. Professional women have now replaced men doing blue collar jobs as the largest segment of the workforce.And on the world scale, Australia can no longer rely on our traditional allies or trading partners.These three elements have already changed the political landscape in our country, and this will only continue as time goes on.Further informationThree Shocks: Who we are becoming in the 21st Century is published by Penguin Random House.This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.It covers auspol, populism, John Howard, Paul Keating, Harold Holt, Pauline Hanson, One Nation, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Western Australia, parliament, teals, Higgins, Bennelong, Chinese-Australians, Peter Costello, First Nations, Federation, convicts, migration, White Australia policy, one parent born overseas, census, data, graphs, data journalism and Prime Ministers.To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Patients, doctors and nurses are turning to AI for help identifying rare and undiagnosed diseases. WSJ reporter Alex Janin explains what makes AI good at playing medical detective, and how some people have used it effectively. Plus, the book publishing industry is in chaos, and AI is to blame. Journal reporter Anna Silman discusses the reckoning that authors, publishers and agents are facing over the use of AI in book writing. Belle Lin, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute, hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

***We're taking a quick summer break this week so we're releasing this recent Patreon bonus episode into the general feed. We hope you enjoy it as a taste of what you can get if you sign up to support The War on Cars. We'll be back soon with another regular episode.*** How can people who care about safe streets, transit, and other issues related to our movement take their advocacy to the next level to not just win hearts and minds, but influence elections and enact good policy? There are now a growing number of small political action committees and lobbying groups that have sprung up to explicitly influence and endorse candidates that they see as friendly to the cause. How did they get started? How have they wielded their influence to elect good people who will enact good policies? Does it take a lot of money to make a difference? If ordinary people want to start their own PAC or lobbying group, where do they begin? Doug talked with Eric McClure, the co-founder and executive director of StreetsPAC, which works to elect candidates in New York City and New York State; Kevin Bing, the co-founder of Streets PAC NJ, which focuses on New Jersey; Alex Nelson, a strategic advisor to Better Streets Chicago Action Fund; and Kyle Lucas, the co-founder and executive director of Better Streets Chicago. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Get 20% off a Fend foldable bike helmet by using this link. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

How are hip hop and Black Liberation connected? In this special Black August edition of Rattling the Bars, former political prisoner and Black Panther Mansa Musa sits down with artist, producer, and "Panther Cub" Mopreme Shakur on the rooftop of a hotel in the nation's capital. Together, they explore Shakur's memoir, This Thug's Life, tracing the trajectory from the rise and fall of Black Power to the birth of hip hop through the eyes of the son of a Panther and the stepbrother of a legend.Additional links/info:Mopreme Shakur, Penguin Random House, This Thug's Life: An Unapologetically Black StoryCredits:Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron GranadinoBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

In this ten minute segment Twanji Kalula chats to Vis Chetty, head of publicity at Penguin Random house about their hottest August titles

In ep 186 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, US voice actor Allison Cossitt joins Sam and Mark to talk about how to perform an argument when you go in mid-way! Sam brings an extract from a multi-cast audio book, set way into the distant future. We examine the dread of doing a cold read in a session (or on the show!) and completely messing it up. Mark is handed some very honest feedback, and we reflect on why it's always easier when you've heard someone else read a script first - but the job is working it out for yourself! We're clowning around with an international softball team, there's dark roast deliciousness and a reference to Little Alex Horne!!Our VO question this week is all about why you put off becoming an voice actor for as long as you did?Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer.Script 2Vernon - I am a living, breathing woman, right in front of you. I'm not some story you can - STOP. Turn back around. Look at me. You do not get to ignore me. You don't have that privilege.[VERNON stares. The silence between them is palpable.]I know you're hurt. I know. But you can't think this is a surprise. You know things have changed between us. This is the most we've spoken in months. Stop. It's too late. That part has already been written, Vernon. No one short of god can change it now.We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Allison is a voice actor, writer, director and audio engineer. She is the showrunner for the award-winning audio drama Partial Veil and specializes in voice for audio dramas, animation, video games and audio books. She has 10 pet rats and no appendix!Allison 's Website@Allisoncossitt on InstagramAllison 's Facebook page Resources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!About your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

How can you tell where the real innovation in publishing is happening right now, and why is it emerging from the indie side first? How do you market your own book when you've spent 35 years marketing everyone else's? John Bond talks about Going Indie and what he's learned about authors who last. In the intro, my thoughts on writing with AI, Charles Dickens and encouragement for the 3-year-old dancing to K-Pop at the wedding, UK copyright law, The end of an era — Hugh Howey; Notre Dame, Paris; Today's show is sponsored by Bookfunnel, the essential tool for your author business. Whether it's delivering your reader magnet, sending out advanced copies of your book, handing out ebooks at a conference, or fulfilling your digital sales to readers, BookFunnel does it all. Check it out at bookfunnel.com/thecreativepenn This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn John Bond is the co-founder of Whitefox, a premium publishing services agency, and has over 35 years in traditional publishing, from bookselling to marketing and management. He's also the co-author of Going Indie: Publishing Your Book Your Way, with James Silver. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why 2012 was a watershed moment for publishing in the UK Whether the snobbery around self-publishing has finally gone How to co-write a book with someone, and why there's no formula The pride swallowing involved in getting endorsement quotes for your own book The shadow economy of indie sales that no industry chart measures The hallmarks of writers who build a long-term career You can find John at wearewhitefox.com. Transcript of the interview with John Bond Jo: John Bond is the co-founder of Whitefox, a premium publishing services agency, and has over 35 years in traditional publishing, from bookselling to marketing and management. He's also the co-author of Going Indie: Publishing Your Book Your Way, with James Silver. So welcome back to the show, John. John: Thank you, Jo. Thanks so much for having me. Jo: You were last on the show in 2022. You've been on a couple of times, but just set the scene. Tell people a bit more about you and your long background in publishing. John: I suppose I could say I started as a marketing manager at Penguin back in the early 1990s in London, and that role eventually evolved into running sales and marketing, as it often does. I did that at Penguin and at HarperCollins. Then I ran one of the publishing divisions at HarperCollins, including 4th Estate, and published Hilary Mantel and Jonathan Franzen and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and others. I left that in 2011 and set up Whitefox in 2012, and it's a classic startup story. It was somebody I worked with at HarperCollins. We sat around a kitchen table, came up with an idea for a business, which was Whitefox, and that's grown into the creative agency that it is today. Jo: So back then, did you think, “I can do this better”? Was that the impetus, “I can do publishing better than Penguin and HarperCollins”? John: No, I thought we would solve a problem. There's something very attractive about that whole startup mentality and beginning something from scratch. I mean, I was in my early 50s. I'd had a long career in traditional publishing. On the plus side, I knew a lot of people, and I thought I could get meetings, people would reply to my phone calls or my emails. On the downside, I didn't necessarily have the energy of a 20 to 25-year-old. I knew a lot of people and I knew quite a lot of things, and I also knew what problems something like Whitefox could solve. We set up with this idea that if we could galvanise and organise the diaspora of freelancers in the publishing space and make them available to anybody that wanted to make a book, that that would be quite a powerful thing. These incredibly creative, wonderful people who were below the radar and were not particularly valued or managed or utilised properly. I thought if we could access that and make that available not just to traditional publishing people who know about these people, but to individual authors, businesses, brands, people that wanted to make a book, and if you added a layer of our expertise from traditional publishing, that could be quite powerful, I suppose. That's what I was thinking back then. Jo: It's funny, though. You said these wonderful freelancers who were not particularly valued or managed or utilised properly. That could also apply to a lot of authors in traditional publishing. John: Totally. Totally. But if I'm honest, I don't think I was thinking about that. What's really evolved since we started, even in that 2011, 2012 period, is so much has happened to independent writers, indie authors. The whole ecosystem has become much more vibrant, and what is accessible to those writers is much greater. I'd like to think we've played a part in that. What that's done is put power back into writers' hands, and that quickly became apparent in the business as a byproduct of what we'd set up. Jo: Yes, and 2012 I do think in the UK was a pivot point, because I got into self-publishing in 2006/2007 when the Americans did with the beginning of the Kindle and the iPhone. Really the American ecosystem grew first. I happened to be in Australia, and so I think I was able to escape the negativity of the vortex in the UK, which took a number more years to embrace self-publishing as a force to be reckoned with as opposed to an embarrassing thing in the corner for vanity press. Do you see 2012 as a changing point in UK publishing? John: I think we'd just come out of the Kindle moment, hadn't we? There were all sorts of conversations going on about how that was going to change things forever. I think no one quite knew what the upshot of that was going to be, but we knew that it was incredibly disruptive. In 2012, Penguin, as it was then, before Penguin Random House, had offered to buy Author Solutions for $115 million, presumably seen as some kind of defensive measure as to what the market was going to evolve into. I think it felt like a real period of change. In the UK, James Daunt took over running Waterstones, and he was then ultimately going to run Barnes & Noble. It felt like a bit of a watershed. I think we were lucky in that sense, that maybe in the UK and in London, what we were creating coincided with an opening up of opportunity and creativity, and people wanting access to more tools to be able to do things themselves. Getting this idea that you invest in your own talent and what that could mean for your ability to do things quicker, better. Some of it was happenstance, but lucky for us. As you say, we then became aware that in a sense a lot of these things had come to fruition earlier on the US side. In London, that whole idea of setting up something that wasn't a traditional rights-owning model, but where you wanted to be working with people creatively, felt actually really exciting and timely. Jo: And when you started to work with independent authors, probably a couple of years after that, you started to work with a lot more indie authors and things really started to change in terms of the business side. Did you feel any of the snobbery from the traditional industry? Like you mentioned, you have a lot of contacts, a lot of connections. I came to your wonderful launch party and there were just people from all over the industry. I wondered if you got any kickback, or if anyone raised their eyebrows a little bit at who you were choosing to work with? John: Oh, definitely. And I would say I really think that's gone. You may think differently, Jo, but from my perspective, I think there has been such an evolution in the nearly 15 years that we've been going. So any of that residual snobbery, looking down your nose at people that were going DIY, producing multiple books, learning from every single publication. We've spoken about this before. I remember you sat on the panel of a FutureBook conference in the UK, which was run by a trade magazine, with this idea of looking at the, in quotes, “digital future of the business.” It felt like there were a lot of things being talked about, but not a lot of action on the traditional side. I suppose some sort of awe that there was some magic going on with people who were making a success of self-publishing. But then quite a lot of people looking down their noses at things that shouldn't get through the gatekeepers. I do think that's gone. Or if it's not completely gone, I can see it on the way out of the door, because there's no room for that when agents are struggling to sell books to publishers because publishers are looking at the next indie author, the next Freida McFadden, the next Sarah J. Maas, the next Rebecca Yarros. So whoever it may be, or wherever they're publishing, whatever they're doing now, wherever they may be, knowing that a lot of those people will already be publishing and be on not their first, second, third or fourth, but potentially their 10th or 11th book. It's a race to see who can help those authors, as a traditional publisher would see it, amplify what they're doing. I think the idea that there's an us and them, if it did exist then, which it certainly did in certain publishing quarters, is gone. I used to go to those conferences, like the FutureBook Conference, and certain publishers would talk about publishing, and when they meant publishing, they meant a really tiny area of quite literary, traditional imprints. That's what publishing meant. They didn't even mean publishing to mean educational publishing, or children's publishing, or academic publishing, and certainly not Kindle or POD or whatever. So I think that's had to change for very good, sound, commercial, economic reasons. Jo: Yes, you're right. I definitely have heard, as we go to similar events sometimes, and you do hear agents used to talk a lot more about finding books very occasionally in a slush pile, or doing courses so you could meet people and do pitch events and all this. Now it's often build an audience on BookTok or whatever, and sell lots of books, and traditional publishing as an amplifier, as you said. That's how I always hear them pitch it now, the question of— What can traditional publishing still do when indie authors can do so much? It does seem to be, well, we can amplify you, we can get you into traditional press, we can get you in traditional bookstores, we can help you with film and movie deals, that kind of thing. So that's really interesting, because that's actually changed quite a lot. They don't now seem to say, “Oh, well, we can make sure we pay you,” or, “We are editorial success as such.” John: I think they don't say editorial success or quality or indeed marketing, because that was what used to be said. I think there's an understanding that a lot of indie writers are better marketeers of their own books than traditional publishers, and if you go into the publishing machine, then you'll get your slot. It lasts for a certain period of time and then that moves on to another book. Whereas obviously if you're writing your own book and you're marketing your own book, you're able to do that yourself 24/7 wherever you are in the world, and you will know more about your readers and your audience and how that evolves than a traditional publisher would. What they probably mean now is, as you said, as much as anything, distribution, or even physical distribution. Because to be part of that process, I think that is still where a large conglomerate is able to wield some muscle, with this idea that if you physically want to see your book in bricks and mortar retailers in X outlets around the world, that's potentially easier to do if that is your aim, via a traditional publisher. So it is constantly evolving, because it used to be that marketing was the silver bullet, and I don't think that's the case anymore. Jo: No. We'll come back to marketing, shall we? Struggling with marketing. So let's get into your book. You recently co-wrote Going Indie with James Silver, Publishing Your Book Your Way. Obviously you already knew a lot about indie authors, so I wonder, what did you discover in the process of researching the book and the interviews you did? And I was one of your interviews. Did anything come up that surprised you, since you're already pretty embedded in the world? John: I would say some of it was reinforcing what I knew. So how everything is so intertwined, how in some ways unlinear everything is. People are doing lots of things in a different order to the way that traditionally writers would perceive this relay race of a manuscript gets passed to an editor, an editor passes on. That's just not how it is or needs to be anymore. I still think there is—not even a misconception—but I think there's a received wisdom that when you're talking about self-publishing, you're talking about fiction. The majority of books that Whitefox produces are not fiction, they're non-fiction. Some of them are quite mainstream, some of them are quite niche. That idea of connecting to your audience and your followers, and being slightly more scientific about how you find readers in your non-fiction niche, I think is still unspoken about in a way, in that genre fiction tends to be what people automatically assume the conversation is about. This probably doesn't surprise you, but I was pleasantly surprised to have it confirmed to me quite how much swapping and sharing there is of skills and knowledge in that space. I'm not saying indie writing is egoless at all, but there's quite a lot of sharing of knowledge and what works, and collaboration, which I think is great to see. Again, if you've, as I did many years ago, come out of corporate conglomerate publishing, traditional publishing, there's less of that by the very nature of the kind of organisation. And look, we just talked about marketing a little while ago. I do think this whole idea that the cutting edge of experimentation, it's not traditional publishing, it's indie writers. They are looking at not just how to find readers, but how to fulfil orders, how to make commercial sense of what they're doing from the absolute outset and get-go of what they're doing. And just how now the lines are blurring between what would be classified as traditional digital publishers and the writers who are doing their own thing, or doing their own thing on behalf of a few other writers. Those lines have completely blurred. There used to be this traditional hardback, paperback, X number of books a year, a year after hardback there's a paperback. This is the model we have been doing for centuries, and people doing things on their own. I think that's blurring massively, and the Venn diagrams of people's areas of expertise are just overlapping massively. Jo: Well, I think you're right there, and certainly the hardback special editions with sprayed edges and foil. A lot of us now are doing that first and not putting out the other, or putting out the rest of it at the same time. I dare say probably there are more indie authors with sprayed edge hardbacks than there are traditionally published authors. John: I'm sure that's right. And what's interesting is if you go to a traditional book printer, they are loving the direct communication with writers, that's not coming through traditional channels and traditional relationships. It's great business, it's interesting. I think that's something that's even developed in the last couple of years, that cutting out of some of the middle men required. Jo: Yes, and in terms of supporting freelancers and small publishing houses and printers and stuff, the other thing I've heard is that indie authors pay upfront, or they pay quickly, compared to some of these big publishers who are asking for long lead times and steep discounting. So actually a lot of these independent businesses are doing better under indie author work than they were under traditional. John: I think that's right, and that's what I mean also about the sharing of information and this collaborative idea of sharing creative knowledge. I mean, I'm making it sound like a kind of 19th century cooperative, which it isn't. I'm not suggesting that for a second. It's this idea that there's a lot of people learning a lot of things and there's a keenness to share some of that information, because if you've developed your own readership for your unique creative product, some of those learnings are very exciting. The printers I've spoken to love working on those kinds of things, because they are also being challenged to come up with new ways of developing ever more innovative physical product. Jo: Yes, I think it's a fun, creative time for sure. Things like Kickstarter, which you came on and talked about crowdfunding years ago, and I've obviously done. I think, what am I on now? Seven? I've just done my seventh. John: Wow. Jo: It's so much fun. But now what's happening is traditional publishers are arriving on Kickstarter and all that kind of thing. So we really see a blurring. Let's come back to your book, so Going Indie. You co-wrote it. Now obviously there are lots of positive sides of collaboration, but in terms of any challenges with collaboration and co-writing and the writing process of doing this? Because I've done this several times and I've found it very challenging. So tell us about the collaborative writing process. John: We thought a lot about it before we took it on. What I would say, having done it, is I am assuming there is no formula for how you do this. At Penguin I worked with a married couple who were crime writers, and they wrote books together. They merged their names so it appeared to be one name. I could not tell you, and they didn't share what that process was, whether they were writing different chapters or … I don't know. So I can only speak from my own experience. James is an established journalist. He's great with deadlines. He was very good at chivvying me along when I needed to be persuaded to hit the deadlines that I'd promised. I write blogs, I write newsletters, I write content for our website, but this is my first book. I've never written anything of this length. So in a way it started with the structure. It started with this idea that we would play to what we perceived as our respective strengths in terms of writing. We absolutely were not each writing every third word or anything like that. It was a process of trust in different parts. I thought, James had done some research and will be better at writing that. He deferred to me on areas that he took to be my areas of expertise. We did every interview for the book together. We went over the notes from those before they became part of the interviews for the book. And some of the book's elements are diagrammatic, so those are very easy to collaborate on. I think we tried to be professionally, creatively constructive with each other. So it was raising an eyebrow rather than shouting at each other if we didn't agree about something. A lot of it was down to the editing, and I don't know what your experience was like with a co-writer, but a lot of it came down to: here is something which is quite baggy. How do we, between us, make this as tight as we possibly can? I don't mean copy editing or proofreading. I mean the actual sort of, how do we get this into a pithy, usable, practical but discursive book? We didn't ever set out for this to be a pure reference book at all. We wanted to take a snapshot of what was going on. So a lot of it was genuinely trying to do some research and get people to feed into what was going on from lots of different perspectives, which is why we wanted to get mainstream traditional publishers, we wanted to get agents, we wanted to get indie writers, we wanted to get people who have all sorts of experiences and perspectives. That's what makes it what it is, which is, here's what we think are some of the interesting discussion points of what's going on now. Jo: It is a fantastic snapshot. I think it's really interesting—and obviously you also have seen my book, Successful Self-Publishing, which is on its fourth edition—this is one of the difficult things with snapshot type books. So have you already thought about that? I know this one has just come out, but have you thought, “Oh no, in five years we have to do it again”? John: Well, I think we thought we're going to have to address AI, which we do in the book, and we really tried to caveat that with saying, look, so much may change so quickly, and here we are talking about what we know now. We obviously tried to set the context for where we are now, and we tried as much as possible to make something which would last as long as we can. I think what we did think was, we have tried to make it as international a perspective as possible. But at the same time, we are a London-based agency, and a lot of the views will be from people based in the UK. So I think what I would like to explore is something that looks at potentially somewhere like the US, where I think there'll be different people that would perhaps have different perspectives on different things. So I think we thought about potentially there being future iterations of the book, but not yet. Jo: Not yet. This is the challenge with non-fiction, of course. On that, I would say what you just said around the US and stuff, the successful UK authors all use the same systems as the US. So I wouldn't say that the US … I mean, we all have the US companies we all use. I say Kobo is obviously Canadian, but I would say that we use the same ways of doing things. Obviously you might interview a different author, but … John: That was all I meant. I meant interviewing. Because we've interviewed agents and authors and publishers and they are largely UK based. So it was the idea that maybe there are some perspectives on things rather than systemic. Jo: Differences. John: Yes. Just that. Jo: So then I guess another challenge, we've kind of nodded to it so far, is marketing. So let's talk about the challenges of getting this book out in terms of publishing and marketing. Because you've been on the inner circle side, trying to do that for other people's books, but your own book, this is a whole nother thing. So tell us about that. John: Well, how do you do it, Jo? I mean, honestly, I've loved some of it. I get how you become completely obsessed with your book and trying to make sure that you can get it into the hands of the people that you want to get it into the hands of. We've got some great endorsement quotes, which was a task that, how can I say this? I would call it pride swallowing. The idea that you really try and get people to say nice things about your book and, if they don't reply, you think, “How much do I pester them? How much do I annoy them by asking them again nicely?” And the absolute sheer unadulterated joy when they come back with something positive that you can use and utilise in some way. So that whole process of waiting for feedback, I suppose, and hoping that people are going to like what you've done and help you spread the word for it. We had a launch event, we've given books away. We've published the book as ebook and POD. I think one of the great things about that is it's enabled us to be completely adaptable and make changes right up until the last minute. That drove everybody in my team completely crazy because we were making changes up until the last minute. So, is the book definitely going to be available on publication date? What's it going to do? You know, all of that kind of stuff. Also, just getting this idea that I suppose you can never stop. Is that a very obvious thing to say to a writer? It probably is. You just can't stop, because if you go, “Right, well, I've done it,” complacency is the enemy. Just as soon as you've got that quote, or someone said that they're going to give you an opportunity to talk about it on a platform, it's just another day and you've got to keep thinking about how you can spread the word and tell people that it exists. Jo: Yes, well, I think that's right, and particularly non-fiction, which unless it's very timely and you must get it out right now. But other than that— Most books you just have to keep marketing for years. Then just as you say, when do you stop? Well, you kind of never stop unless you want to, unless you want to retire and just give up, basically. Dean Wesley Smith, who's a big writer in the US and a kind of a mentor of mine in past years, he talks about it as this massive sea of books. And when a book arrives, he pictures it coming down and landing on the water. So the day you launch, it's landed on the water, and then it begins to sink. Then there are all these other books coming down. It's like this rain of books, and your book is sinking as soon as it lands. And your job is to keep it afloat somehow. John: Keep it afloat. Jo: Yes. John: I think you're right, and it's such an interesting perspective for us, who work with a lot of people who have one book. You know, they've spent 10 years writing it. It's their life story. It's their memoir. It's their self-help book. It's their book that accompanies them on their speaking journey, or whatever. Then there are the people who are writing constantly and can't stop writing because they're exercising that creative muscle all the time and wanting to get better, and wanting to improve and learn and understand why this works and why that hasn't worked. Just getting a glimpse into what it must be like for that person for whom writing is not a hobby. I kept saying to myself, “This is not something you're doing as a hobby.” I want this book to be of value to people, and if I'm investing that time and effort into something that I want to get out there, you've got to commit to whatever it is you need to do to make sure you're not sinking. Jo: Yes. John: I will now not be able to get that image out of my head. Jo: Yes. I know there's people listening who don't have a mind's eye, which I always find fascinating, but for those of us with a mind's eye, you can now picture that and you will never forget it. The other thing, I guess, is that, having done a lot, over 40 books now, the inevitable thing is you cannot keep pushing all of those books back up to the surface. So when you do get the bug as such of writing, the most interesting thing for all of us is always the next book. It's always like, ooh, the next thing I'm doing, I'm very excited about. So you do have to pick your battles on marketing. So have you got the bug, do you think? Are you thinking of other books in general? Because as you said, you must be, I guess, in your 60s. John: I am. Jo: You could retire. John: I am. You were talking about that long career. I could. I mean, I really love doing it, and I would love to do more. I think one of the things that surprised me was just how many ideas came up while we were doing the book about tangents that one could take it. I have no desire to write a novel. I don't want to do that. I wouldn't be very good at that. I do think there are some interesting spaces around where there's a kind of intersection of creativity and learning, and how you can develop books that would help people who are trying to achieve different things in different sectors of publishing. So without getting too granular about it, this book doesn't really address brands who want to become publishers, and I think that is something that our business has developed into working with, not just individuals, but businesses and brands. I think there's definitely spin-offs of this book which are not about repeating what we've done so far. And this whole idea of what you've been doing for a long time, what we've been doing since 2011, 2012, it's evolving now at such a speed. I mean, who would have known what was going to come out of TikTok? As you talk about TikTok to Shopify, that whole kind of new ways of finding readers, of taking books to market. As you said, Kickstarter, crowdfunding. There's all sorts of things that I think will emerge, because in a funny sort of way traditional publishing at the moment feels quite conservative with a small c. I mean, the bestsellers. Dan Brown is number one in the bestseller list this week in the UK as I speak, who has been a bestseller forever. And obviously new writers come along the whole time, but the market feels a little bit as if it's waiting now for innovation. I think if that innovation's going to happen, it's probably going to happen in the indie space before it happens in mainstream publishing. So people are coming to us and thinking, does that represent a trend? Does that represent something which could be a way of looking at something a little bit deeper, doing some research around and creating something which is not a long book, not a massive thesis, but something which is indicative of something which could be useful for people. Jo: Just coming back on the Dan Brown is in the bestseller list. I think this is completely to do with the way that traditional publishing measures things. For many years, more than a decade, probably since the beginning of Kindle, certainly the beginning of Kindle Unlimited, there is a shadow economy, I call it, or a parallel economy. I would say that almost zero of my own personal sales are measured by any industry standards. Anyone who makes any money from Kindle Unlimited or Kickstarter or Shopify, or selling direct in any form, or selling books at conventions, none of this is measured by any traditional things. As you know, the New York Times list, for example, does not include Amazon sales in their bestseller list. So you've got indie authors in the UK who are incredibly successful who have to decide, say, someone like LJ Ross, for example, decides, “Okay, I'm going to set up a proper imprint with Gardners or whatever so that I can get in bookstores so that I can hit a Sunday Times list or something.” So I would say that seeing things like Dan Brown on a bestseller list has almost no meaning in the shadow indie economy. John: No, you're absolutely right. We're not even able to see audiobook sales. Jo: Yes, audio. Any kind of borrows, like Spotify. John: No, you're completely right. I suppose I was making a broader cultural point, that it doesn't feel like there's an enormous amount of innovation going on or risk taking within what I would call mainstream trade publishing. And there doesn't seem to be the need to be, because there will be more consolidation. Small companies will be bought by big companies, so there's growth through acquisition. There's still a hope that something will take off that is a surprise, and there's still an enormous reliance on established brands who, even through the traditional metrics of how you measure them, are probably selling less, but still at the top of the pile. I suppose that's what I was meaning. Jo: Yes, and I agree with what the industry looks at as signals. It's just, as we said, a lot of these signals are invisible. So coming onto innovation, at London Book Fair this year there were a lot of sessions on AI, and you mentioned AI briefly, and there is a chapter in Going Indie on generative AI. And of course there's a lot of negativity and drama and lawsuits and this, that and the other. But at the same time, at London Book Fair, a lot of traditional publishers talking about using it, and of course they always say, “Oh, we use AI only in marketing and business, not with the creative or editorial.” Everyone makes this distinction. What are your thoughts on what's happening and where's it going with AI? Is a lot of this stuff not happening in public and just going on behind closed doors? John: I think so. We do have a chapter in the book on AI. We've generated summaries of every chapter using AI, which we explicitly said in the book as well. We've got our Ten Commandments of what we think are useful guidelines. I think that there has to be an enormous amount being done, whether it's experimentation or speeding up for efficiency's sake, or things that slow you down, within mainstream publishing. There has to be more than just the guardrails around the creative process. And clearly when we're talking about metadata, book description, cover copy, presumably royalty calculations, presumably if you're trying to grow your newsletters. There has to be an enormous amount of activity going on. We're driven by the market, so we do not commission. Writers come to us and they either want to work with us and we want to work with them, or that doesn't happen. So we're in a sense seeing what the market is seeing, and that is a whole range of things. As I've said before, there's a lot of sweeping generalisations out there, which if you look back to that Kindle moment, we were talking a little while ago about what was going on in 2010/2011, about the enormous broad brush strokes that were being perceived as a result of Kindle. Kindle has affected some areas of publishing, it's affected some not at all. I think it will be absolutely fascinating when the sweeping generalisations stop and there becomes, I suppose, even more transparency. The thing that people are looking for, isn't it? A little bit less opaqueness as to what is really being done. Because everybody's being so careful about what they say they're doing and what they're not doing. I suppose ElevenLabs is the one where people are openly engaging on the audio side. I mean, everyone is being so careful and cautious. Jo: Me too. John: What do you think? We spoke a bit about AI within the book, and I'm interested to know what you think. Jo: Well, I've obviously been openly talking about it since 2016. I openly talk about using it, and I've got my Patreon community where we talk about how we're using it, and tips on how to use it. But then, because I have been writing and publishing since 2007, 2008, I'm very strong in my creative voice. I'm very strong in my understanding of what I consider to be my level of output, and what I publish under my own name is what I publish under my own name. John: Totally. Jo: So the problem is for people who are less confident, I think, in what they're doing creatively perhaps. I know some people feel like they're scared it will take over or something. When you're as strong-minded as me, it's not taking over anything. John: It's not going to take over anything. And the other side of the coin is how many people are finding Whitefox using ChatGPT. Jo: Mm. John: I'm thrilled that we are emerging, through very detailed briefing of AI, as something that is worth engaging with. Jo: Positive marketing. John: Yes, exactly. As you say, I think there's a lot of negativity, and I think it will settle down eventually. I think less hysteria. Jo: Yes, hopefully sooner rather than later. So as we come to an end, you've been in the publishing industry a long time and seen a lot of people who have disappeared, but also those who've lasted. I wondered if maybe you could comment on those who last, because I definitely feel like I'm in my 50s now, and I want to keep doing this. I'm pretty obsessed with— What are the hallmarks of people who have a long-term career? So reflections on that. John: Oh, that's such a good question. I think there's some common characteristics and themes. So I think authenticity, I think this idea of being continually curious. I think there are people who can't help but create, and this idea that once you've sort of expelled once, that's enough. I think there's people that just can't stop creating, whatever you do with it. But this idea that the more you do, the better you get, the more you evolve and keep an open mind. I think there's definitely entrepreneurial writers who love this idea of keeping their readers engaged, and how that conversation is something that evolves and that collaboration evolves, is fascinating. I think if you love that, and you listen, there's always an opportunity to keep building on what you do. I love the writers who we work with. I can think of a writer who we're working on his fourth novel at the moment, and he is a bundle of positivity. No matter the trials and tribulations, the things that have gone wrong, his expectations definitely not being met with his first book. He definitely has this idea that he wants to keep writing, he wants to get better, and he is getting better. It isn't a journey that has a beginning and an end. It's something that will continue for as long as he wants to write. Every single book that he has published, he has learned and gained confidence, gained a network of connections that he's utilised himself now to not make the first half a dozen mistakes he made on the first book. Who knows where it will end up? But certainly the satisfaction he's getting, and the sales he's getting, are growing as he becomes savvier and quicker to make the right choices and decisions. So I think that's my honest answer to that. I think there are definitely people who think, “Phew, I have really wanted to do this book. Now I can rest easy. I've done my book.” Then there are people who really, whatever their objective, whatever the definition of success is from the get-go, just can't help creating. I do love that and respect that. I don't think our book falls quite into that category, because I think it's a slightly different thing. I think there are people who are still making a success of what they do and redefining that as they go on, and who are really open to ideas and input from different people and are not closed off. I love working with those people. Jo: So where can people find Going Indie and everything you do online? John: Well, Going Indie is available online at all good bookshops. It's available at Amazon and anywhere you buy books online as ebook and POD. Our website is wearewhitefox.com, and you'll find information about not just our book there, but a lot of other things that we're doing on that site. Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, John. That was great. John: Thank you so much, Jo. It's been a pleasure. The post Going Indie, Publishing Innovation, And The Challenges Of Book Marketing With John Bond first appeared on The Creative Penn.

In ep 185 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Magnus Rook joins Sam and Mark to talk about how a cold read is sometimes impossible, because you need to know what's coming next in order to structure the delivery. We approach a charity script with some conversational levity, but without throwing away the main points, and discover that some people work in very different ways. We also ask is it ever worth breaking a script down line by line, and do you build a list, or give each item a slightly different flavour? Oh, then there's the whole debate about the abbreviation "i.e."!! Obsessions are to do with summer and the heat... and we hear a story of a double-decker nightmare!Our VO question this week is all about how doing other things apart from voice acting can really bring a boost to your VA career.Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1Did you know that everyone on the planet is just six social connections away from each other? Community-based volunteers are the social glue between individuals, groups and organisations. They boost community cohesion, bond people together and bridge differences. Within any community 20% of people are great at getting things done. Volunteers are ordinary people but they can achieve extraordinary things. Their super talents are simple: practical skills, local knowledge, common sense, familiarity with different situations, a myriad of contacts - and the ability to discover the stories and traditions that make a community special.Script 2The seminal example, of course, is using bow wow to mean a dog and not just to imitate a dog's barking, providing the impetus for the theory's moniker. In a somewhat similar vein, the pooh-pooh theory hypothesized that language evolved from the interjections (ah!) and emotional cries humans made, like the primordial grunt that still escapes when you painfully stub your toe. Müller's own idea was that sounds themselves carried intrinsic meaning, like a low-¬pitched sound giving off a sense of something big, i.e., as in a blob (low vowel) compared to the smaller sounding bleeb (high vowel).We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Magnus Rook is a German actor and voice actor based in London. 98% of his work is in German, but he's branching out more into the English language market these days. He's an audiobook narrator with the occasional commercial thrown in (best of both worlds!) When he's not in the booth, he's bouldering, reading, and appearing on stages every once in a while – most recently as Hamlet's dead father and as part of Fracassantes Collective at the Bush Theatre.Magnus's Website@magnusrook on Instagram Resources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!About your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

How can content marketing in a tight niche build the audience that launches your book? And how do you decide whether to hand your self-published bestseller to a traditional publisher. Suzanne Smith shares what she learned in four years of going from blog to book deal. In the intro, how to stand out as a writer in the age of AI [Nathan Barry Show; Interview with Nathan Barry]; thoughts on asset maintenance; Goodreads giveaway on Bones of the Deep (Aug 5-20, 2026) This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Suzanne Smith is the founder of The Independent Landlord, and the bestselling author of The Good Landlord Handbook. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How a free blog in a tight niche built the audience for the book Rewriting the book from scratch when the law changed Why speed made self-publishing the only option Building a paid membership after one audience member asked for it Negotiating a Penguin Random House deal with no agent Using AI as a business sidekick, with a control room and an engine room You can find Suzanne at TheIndependentLandlord.com. Transcript of the interview with Suzanne Smith Jo: Suzanne Smith is the founder of The Independent Landlord, and the bestselling author of The Good Landlord Handbook. So welcome to the show, Suzanne. Suzanne: Thank you. Jo: Oh, there's so much to talk about today. But first up— Tell us a bit more about you and your background, and how you got into property and writing after a legal career. Suzanne: Well, I've always loved reading books. In fact, I recently did a French literature degree as a mature student. Being an author was never in the game plan at all. It's not something that I even thought about. I was brought up in New Zealand, so shout out to all the Kiwis and those across the pond in Australia. The thing about it is, Jo, you've lived there yourself. Kiwis are independent, self-reliant and have this great sense of fair play. So that was a very formative experience for me. We moved back to England when I was 16, and I have become thoroughly anglicised since then, but a Kiwi at heart. I always wanted to become a lawyer. New Zealand in some ways on television is quite American, and there was this American programme called The Paper Chase. It was about all of these students at Harvard studying law, and the professor said, “You come here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a lawyer.” I thought, “Oh, I like the sound of that.” I didn't really know what a lawyer was, but everyone seemed to be very happy that I wanted to become one, and then that was it. Jo: So you went into law, and then how did you get into property? Suzanne: So I worked for 25 years as a solicitor. That's like an attorney if you're American. Started off in a law firm, and then I went into pharmaceuticals and I worked for big companies like what is now GSK, GlaxoSmithKline, and small companies as well. When I started out, it was before the internet, before Google. When you're in house, you're very much a generalist. You do a bit of everything. So you help companies grow their business. You're not business prevention, but you're still bound by the code of conduct for solicitors. You've got this role of keeping the company on the right side of the law. Then I had twins, who were born about five years after I became a lawyer, and I decided to work part-time for a while and did an MBA when they were little, part-time through the Open University. I know Jonathan is doing one at the moment. Jo: Yes. He's finished, so that's exciting. Suzanne: That was transformational for me, because I had probably been thinking a bit too much as a lawyer, and it helped me to broaden my view of the world and understand all sorts of things. Sso I continued going up the greasy pole, and then for my last job, in 2015, I joined a biotech company in Cambridge, England, as general counsel and company secretary. It was a long way from home, about two, three hours' drive from home. So I decided to buy a flat, an apartment, and to stay there in the week. I thought to myself, “Well, when I leave this company, I can let it out as a buy-to-let,” but actually as a landlord. So I stayed there for five years, and then when I left, I let out the property. The reason why I decided to leave law after 25 years, I had what I call a sliding doors moment, like in the film. I was 50. I was on holiday with my husband, and we'd probably had one too many rum cocktails. And he said to me, “Well, what do you want to be doing with your life? What would you do if you could do anything?” I was thinking, “Well, I've done law. I want to do something else now.” I didn't really know what that was, and I'd always been thinking about studying French properly, and that's when I left. So I decided, 18 months later, I left to do a French degree at King's College London, full-time. I was the only old person there with lots of 18-year-olds. When I did that, I was able to cash in my share options because I was a good leaver. I retired, and so I started buying properties to let out and became a landlord, without really thinking too much about it, and I used letting agents. They were fine to begin with, but I didn't really have a game plan or anything like that. What I realised is that when I tried to research things online, I couldn't really find anything that was terribly helpful. It was either quite general or it was very legal. So after a while… I became a landlord in 2019. I had the idea, why don't I set up a blog? And this is August 2022, so just four years ago. My husband came up with the idea of the name, The Independent Landlord, because it's that Kiwi spirit, being very independent. I thought, “Right, I'm not going to charge anyone for it. It's a hobby. It's not a business. I'm going to pay it forward and help, use my legal training, practical legal approach, and practical common sense, by doing this blog.” Almost exactly four years ago, I sent my first newsletter to 13 people. Jo: Woo-hoo. Suzanne: And I sent one last week to over 18,000. So it's been quite a journey. Jo: Wow, this is so great. I love this. There's so much in there. The turning 50 and then doing a degree. My master's in death is a little different to your French literature, but I like it. So I love this, and buying properties, starting it on the side, not a business at first, and growing the audience, and obviously you've put so much work in. Then you decide to write a book. So talk about that, because an online blog, although I'm sure your articles and everything were super useful, it's very different to write a blog than a book. So talk about your challenges in writing. Why did you decide to do a book in the first place? Suzanne: Again, I was an accidental landlord, is what they call it when you let a property when you didn't intend to buy it as a buy-to-let, which I did with my Cambridge flat. And I became, in many respects, an accidental author. So I was having a conversation with my husband again and I was saying I'd done this lead magnet to get people to sign up to my newsletter, and a big new law was going through Parliament at the time, called the Renters Reform Bill, that was going to completely transform the way landlords operate. I was saying to my husband, “Oh, I need to update my lead magnet, a little ebook, to explain the new law.” He looked at me and said, “Well, why don't you do a proper book? Write a book.” This was on the 29th of September, 2023. The reason why I mention that is that I thought, “Wow, what a great idea,” and my head was bursting. I went onto Google, and guess what I downloaded on the 1st of October? Jo: My blueprint? Suzanne: Exactly. I found you immediately, the Author Blueprint, and I downloaded it. I checked: on the 1st of October, 2023. Then I listened to almost… well, I think I went back several years on your podcast, just trying to understand. I'm like that. When I try and do something, I just try and learn everything that there is to know about it. So I started writing the book, and I guess the first challenge was I write quickly, and I'm used to writing for people who aren't lawyers, being in-house. So I thought I needed to have a structure. The structure was easy in many respects because, a bit of business at the end, and then you can go through a tenancy. I thought it was important to have a narrative thread all the way through it, just to bring it together. This is the literature degree coming in here. I thought that the mission for everything I do, the reason why I started doing this, is to help landlords, but also to help the experience of renting that people have in England. It's very specific for English law. And to help improve the private rented sector. So that's why I originally set up my blog for free, and I wanted, when people went onto Google, they could find something sensible and very detailed from me. My blog posts were… Well, I've now got over 400,000 words on my blog, so it's a substantial piece of work that is out there free of charge. So what I decided to do was to bring this narrative thread, I call it the good landlord ethos, to the book. Then I wrote very quickly, and I had a pretty good draft by April 2024, because we were all thinking that the law was going to change very soon. But then there was an election, and in the end the government changed and the legislation changed completely, so I had to rewrite the book and start again. So I think that my biggest challenge was that my subject matter, the new law, changed. Because I wanted to publish this book that explained to people practically what they have to do, and make it really straightforward, keeping out of politics, because it is a very politically charged area. I wanted to write it so it's a manual, somebody could literally follow it. So I used an editor, and I did write the book twice. I had a beta reader who is another lawyer, and a landlord as well. Then I got to the get-the-damn-thing-done stage. The really tedious bit of all the typos at the end. Jo: Yes, the finishing energy to get it out there. So at that point, obviously you'd found my blueprint, so you were learning about the indie way of doing things. Did you always decide to self-publish? How did you think about publishing? What were your challenges in publishing? Suzanne: It never occurred to me not to self-publish, because the new law came into effect on the 1st of May, 2026. The law and the details that I needed for the book were finalised in January, and I published on Amazon on the 5th of March, so I had to go so quickly. Even though I'd got a lot of it written, the last bit came in January, and so I needed speed. I knew that for landlords to be able to have something that they can use straightaway to help get them ready for it, and then use as a manual afterwards, I had to be first. Jo: Sorry, just on the year. Was it '24? You said '26. You meant May— Suzanne: 2024? No, no, because I actually published it this year. What happened in 2024, I had the first draft ready, but then I had to do another draft because the law changed when the Labour government came in. Jo: Right. Suzanne: The Renters Reform Bill turned into the Renters' Rights Bill. So I had to rewrite the book. So I finished however many drafts at the end of January 2026. Then it went to an editor, et cetera, et cetera, and I managed to get the book ready for a proof, to get the proof printed, towards the end of February. So it was really quick to go from the law being sufficiently finalised for me to write a book in January, and then having it ready in just over a month. There is no way that I could have done that if I'd gone to a traditional publisher. It didn't even occur to me to go, because I didn't want to be going touting around my book and, “Please publish me,” et cetera. It's just not me. I'm the independent landlord, and that moved very easily to being the independent publisher. So I learnt how to do all the publishing. And a huge thanks: I joined your Patreon and I was a very good student. I went through everything systematically and followed your playbook, and used Vellum and BookFunnel and all the other tools. So I decided to go on Amazon as well as have my own Shopify store, which just about killed me. Jo: I was going to say, you are an excellent student. You really like learning, but you also put this into practice, which is why I also wanted to talk to you. You haven't just talked about all this. You've literally done everything. Suzanne: Sometimes it was like my head was going to burst. Luckily, Claude upped his game earlier this year when we got the Opus 4.5. I didn't use AI really until this year. I decided I need to do exercise all the time, and have that as a have-to-do, because my head was spinning all the time with all these different things. So I would go to the gym, go to a spin class, and then I would walk out with my phone on, with the Claude app, and dictate a stream of consciousness into it. “Oh, I need to do this, or what about that? Oh, I just remembered about this. Oh, I've had this idea, blah.” And then said, “Make sense of it for me, Claude.” So it was very much as a thinking partner, because when you're writing your first book, it's bad enough, but when you're learning how to publish… Even, like, when I got the first proof of the book back from BookVault, I realised that all the footnotes—I have 114 footnotes in my book, and that, again, is the recent degree there—and the formatting had gone skew-whiff. Apparently it was an issue with Vellum, and they were really lovely and they sorted it straight out for me. So it shows: always get a proof of the book. They were able to sort that out very quickly, and BookVault were very quick in getting me another proof, because you can shortcut it and just pay to get a very quick delivery. Amazon, on the other hand, was really slow. It took a week. So I actually published earlier on my Shopify store for my members, of my membership, and I gave them a discount. Then I finally got it onto Amazon on the 5th of March. There are all these different skills you're having to learn. The Shopify store I found very hard, and there was all the tax, because I'm VAT registered. So I think I'm still recovering. Jo: You're still recovering. I wouldn't normally recommend a Shopify store for someone with their first book, doing first of everything. But, as you say, you're someone who learns a lot, puts it into practice, and— I think you were pretty determined to do that because you had a community as well, right? Suzanne: Exactly, yes. The big subscriber list. I think that's why the book did so well. So in the first week, because I met you at the Indie Author Lab put on by— Jo: Yes, London Book Fair, yes. Suzanne: Yes, the Alliance of Independent Authors. I met you there, and it was just my first week, and I had 1,000 sales in the first week. That was because of my audience. I'd been going on about the fact that I'm writing this book for two and a half years, because that's how long it took me to do. So I had a wait list for it, and I had a thing on my website, a landing page on my website, saying how good the book was and why it's the best thing for the Renters' Rights Act. Then I went onto Google, and I think I sent you a screenshot of this at the time. I put into Google, “What's the best book for the Renters' Rights Act for landlords in England?” And it came up with me as a featured snippet, and I hadn't even published it at that time. It was just about there. So the blog really helped, because I'd become an authority on the Renters' Rights Act. Even though I'm not a practising solicitor any more, I spent all my time reading the damn thing, and it is a very complicated bit of legislation. Funnily enough, I have ruffled a lot of feathers. People have even said about me behind my back, “What does she know? She's only got four properties.” But I just took no notice. I thought, “I'm going to try and use my legal brain and my understanding of what it's like being a landlord, there with the rubber gloves cleaning an oven when people have moved out, and try and write something that's not trying to sell anything else, and to help people.” And then it got picked up. Jo: Yes. Wait, let's just slow down. Slow down, because we will get onto that in a minute. But let's just come back to that launch. So as we talked about, you've had a blog for five years— Suzanne: It was three and a half by then. Jo: Three and a half years you've been blogging, but hundreds of thousands of words of useful information. So you've essentially done content marketing. You've attracted people. You had a lead magnet. You got them on your email list. You told them that you were writing a book. You got a sort of pre-sales list up. So that's an email list. You've got a blog. Did you do anything else in terms of marketing? Suzanne: I had YouTube, a big YouTube channel. I'd only set it up at the end of 2024, and I'd had half a million views. And again, just very straightforward advice, and without all the scaremongering and politics. I deliberately keep out of it all. A lot of people joined my newsletter as a result of that. Also a year ago, exactly today, I was running a Facebook group, which was a lot of hard work. There were a few thousand people in it, but there are often a lot of people going in there trying to sell things: insurance, eviction specialists and things. And there was also a lot of people just being unpleasant to other people. I was getting fed up with it. It was taking me a lot of time, and I was doing a lot of speaking events and trying to explain what this new law was doing, and wearing myself out. I'm an extrovert, but even I find speaking events absolutely exhausting, because it's like everything gets sucked out of you. It's strange. Then somebody came up to me in July last year and said, “Suzanne, can you set up a membership?” I said, “Well, landlords aren't going to pay for that.” And they said, “Yes, they will. You build it and they will come.” I asked ChatGPT and thought about it. I asked ChatGPT, who I was dating at the time, now exclusively with Claude, but I know Claude has other people in his life. But I'm very much set with Claude Fable at the moment. So I asked ChatGPT, how can I go about setting up a membership? And I mentioned your one and said, “Should I do it on Patreon?” And then he came back with: go for Circle. So I set up a membership on Circle, exactly a year ago. In fact, it's the anniversary of my first member yesterday. hTe rules I had were, no selling. So I don't sell, no affiliate links, no one else can sell anything, and we have to be supportive. No negativity, no politics. So what it's become, it's like the senior common room of the private rented sector, with landlords, lawyers, letting agents. There's a fantastic forum in there. It's not me doing it, it's peer-to-peer. I have twice-monthly live streams where people can ask me questions. I wonder where I got that from. No, I very much modelled it on your Patreon, but on a different platform. I have courses in there as well. So that has really grown. I launched it in July, and by September, October, I'd gone past the VAT threshold, which has complicated everything, but it means my business now is this membership. I really enjoy doing it, and there hasn't been all the negativity that you have in a Facebook group. So I had them as… talk about your thousand fans. There are about 1,500 in the membership, and their support really helped the launch of my book, as well as the wider people who get my free newsletter. Jo: Yes. Suzanne: So it's all different types of content marketing. Jo: Y, but I do love this. And of course, if people are wondering, I joined Patreon back in 2014, I think it might have even been before that, and there weren't too many places back then to run communities. It wasn't even really a community at the time, it was a sort of, almost a “give me a bit of support for the podcast.” So things have changed a lot in terms of communities, and obviously you went with Circle, which is great. Patreon is slightly different now, and some people are using Substack for something similar. So that's just on the platform, but on the business: early on in our conversation you said, “I wasn't going to have a business. It wasn't a business. It was just putting stuff out there, helping other people,” and then your audience asked for this membership. And so now it is a business, right? Suzanne: Yes, it is. Jo: And you've got a book and all of this. So are you happy with the change to a business? Because obviously you have to treat it quite differently. Suzanne: Yes, I am, because I think to begin with, I was just doing it one or two days a week. I was actually studying a master's in French literature part-time, and I then found that I was enjoying the blog more than the master's, so I dumped the master's after the first year. But after getting 88% for one of my dissertations, which interestingly was on the translation of a Simone de Beauvoir book into English, and the publisher who's got that now is Random House, but that's another thing. Anyway, so I decided to give up my master's and double down and work full-time on the blog. People were paying to help me with all the big fees and things, the big tech stack, Buy Me a Coffee. I was doing a little bit of consulting and things. I was working six, seven days a week. I was treating it like a business in terms of quality and my effort, but it wasn't a business in terms of revenue. Then it just all came together, and this person said, “Set up a membership,” and I thought, “That's what I'm going to do. I'm now going to put it on a business setting.” I've got an MBA, I know how to do it, and people thought I planned it, but I didn't. It just happened. So now I do very much treat it as a business, but I still don't advertise. I don't allow people to advertise with me, because I want to be independent. If I recommend something, I want people to believe it's me recommending it, not just because someone's paying me, which can be a big issue in the landlord area. Jo: Oh, in any industry. I get pitched every day with loads of random things that people are like, “Oh, a dollar a click or whatever, if you send this to your list.” And it's like, seriously? Just stop it already. I did just want to add there: somebody asked you, they said, “You should have a community,” and that sparked that idea. I just wanted to acknowledge that my Patreon came from Jim Kukral. Some of you will remember, who've been around a long time. Jim Kukral came on my blog around sort of 2013. Amanda Palmer had just put out a book called The Art of Asking, and I was doing a lot of unpaid work on the podcast at the time, and I was either going to give it up or I had to fund it somehow. Jim said, “You should do a Patreon.” And I was like, “Oh, no, I hate asking for money.” So at the time I just felt, oh, weird. Then I was like, “No, I do all this work,” as you were saying. Now the Patreon has changed so much in terms of what it is, but it is the backbone of my business, too. So I love that you listened to one of your fans who said what they wanted, and I love that I've listened as well. Sometimes we just have to listen to those urges, don't we, to take things on? Suzanne: Yes, absolutely. In some ways I didn't really back myself before. I thought, “No one's going to pay for this.” Then the more you give, the more they want. Jo: Yes. Suzanne: What I've been really working on now is having boundaries, because there were two big kind of mottos that I picked up when I was working in pharmaceuticals. One was from a head of the business. He was Canadian, and he was always saying, “You've got to skate to where the puck is heading.” Jo: That's Wayne Gretzky, is it? Suzanne: Exactly. Yes. He would always say it, and so that's what I've done with my blog and my book. When I write things, I don't pay for any tools. I don't do keyword searches and all that. I just think, I do one blog post per topic, and I'm going to guess what people are going to be searching for soon, and I build up all this content around it. That's why most of my blog pages are top five. I've had no advertising. I haven't asked for any backlinks. I don't do it. People backlink to it because it's useful. So that was the first thing, is skate to where the puck is heading, and that was my approach with the book. I knew people would need this book from around May, and they'll need it forever, because it is so complicated and regulated, the rules for being a landlord in England. So that was the first one. The second thing was: when you take something on, you've got to let something go. One in, one out. I found that I was taking on so many different things, and I've just been cutting back, because I can't be doing all the speaking, I can't be answering people's emails. So I now don't do emails. If people want my advice on something, they ask me in the hub, at the twice-monthly live streams. Sometimes I answer in the forums, but I don't have time. When there are 2.4 million landlords in the UK, and even with our 18,000 on my newsletter, I could spend, and I did, I used to spend all my time replying to emails. So anyway, there are the things. Oh, and there was a third one, which is: attract, don't chase. One of my friends gave me that advice and that's exactly what my approach has been. I just don't chase for anything. I just put the stuff there and then build it and they will come. Jo: Yes, and I think another thing is the power of the niche. It's so clear that what you write about, the people you are aiming at, you have an extremely tight target market. That is both a strength and obviously a weakness, because they're the only people. But as you say, there's more than enough of those people for a community, for the book you have. From my own perspective, that's the same for me, the power of the niche. That's how I have a successful podcast, for example, because of that reason. I think you're like a poster child of what a non-fiction author should do. What I like is that you didn't go, “Oh, where's a niche where I could make money?” and then jump in. You've gone about this in a kind of slightly accidental way, but now you're leaning in and this uses all your skills. So this really is a great example of the power of the niche and then making the most of it. But let's move on to what then happened, and— What happened with the book deal? Suzanne: Wow. So you and I met each other on whatever day that was in March at the Indie Author Lab, and the following day I got an email, via my website on a contact form, from Penguin Random House saying, “We love the book. We love the mission, its values,” all this kind of thing. And I was thinking, “Oh, it's another one of those. Must be an—” Jo: AI spam bot, right? Suzanne: Yes, and I remember I sent you a screenshot of it, and then I checked her out on LinkedIn and thought, “Okay, there is somebody with that name there.” You're always saying, and Orna Ross and everyone are always saying, “Watch out for scams.” And in fact, Penguin Random House even this weekend on Instagram put out something saying, “There are lots of people impersonating us.” So I didn't take it too seriously, and it was something like, “Oh, would you be interested in us publishing your book?” And I thought, and I laughed. It was like, no, this is too good to be true. So I replied and said… Oh, I said, “Well, thank you so much. The Renters' Rights Act…” And so this is like the second week in March. “The Renters' Rights Act comes into effect on the 1st of May. If you want to publish it, you're going to need to get your skates on.” I literally did say that. Then she arranged a meeting with me the next day, on the Friday. I still was very dubious about it, and I had a think about it. What helped me, and I have the little booklet here: at the Author Lab, we did some work at the beginning, and Orna said, “Put your phones away.” And it was like, “What? Put my phone away?” Then we had to do this definition of success, and our passion, and our mission, and our purpose. I wrote down things like, I want to help landlords, and in so doing, help improve the private rented sector. I get pleasure from helping people. I want to improve standards and use my legal and practical skills, et cetera. So I thought, “Okay, what is my purpose of doing this book?” It isn't really to make money, because going with Penguin, you wouldn't do that for financial reasons, because you'd make very little money. So I thought, what is my why? My why is I want as many people to read this book as possible. And I've managed to sell a few thousand copies, but there are 2.4 million landlords, and they all need to understand this book, and the only way that I can get it out there, apart from doing ads, is to get it out in bookstores. So I thought about it, and then said, “Yes, I will do it, because I want to get the book out there.” So it's distribution. It's going to be published on the 6th of August, which is really quick, bearing in mind they contacted me in the middle of March. It's exactly the same book, it's just got different copyright wording and different blurb, different paper. Same cover, because I managed to find a fantastic cover person to do it. So they've kept everything the same. So we negotiated that book. I have no agent. They came to me. It's the attract, don't chase. I just put my lawyer hat on, and because one licence is very much like another one… I did turn down their first offer. Jo: Well done. Good negotiation. Suzanne: My daughter said to me, who's an adult daughter, she said, “But it's Penguin.” And I said, “Well, no, but it doesn't work for me.” So I had a call with them, and then they came up with something that worked for me a bit more. I did have to concede on a few things, like I can't sell it in my Shopify store. But in some ways, that was a blessing in disguise, because it means I don't get any more “Where's my book?” emails. Jo: Yes, exactly. Pros and cons of everything, basically. Suzanne: I have very clear rights to get it back. If I want it back, I can get it back and I don't have to give a reason. They're lovely. They have been really very wonderful. When I went up there a month or so ago, they gave me this book bag, and it's got on it, “I'm published by Penguin,” and I burst into tears. Jo: Aw. That's nice. Suzanne: I don't know, it just seemed like such a big deal. Because up until then I was just being all very lawyerly and task-orientated. Then I thought, “Oh my goodness,” and then it dawned on me. So I'm now in this interim period where I've taken it off Amazon and off my Shopify store, and I feel very maternalistic towards the book because, you know, it took me two and a half years, which is longer than a pregnancy. Obviously it's not a child, but it's like my book child. I've sent it off with a backpack and a drink and some snacks, and I hope that they look after him, my book. The day I took it off Amazon it was still number one. And a big shout-out to Publisher Rocket, by the way. Jo: Yes. Very, very useful for niche publishing. Suzanne: Very. It helped me choose the right niche categories. So it was number one on at least one category, often six, all the way through. I thought, “Well, it's over to them now.” They're very lovely people. They've given me some marketing assets, as they call it, some swanky graphics and things to use. We'll have to see what we do in terms of marketing. I don't mind doing marketing. I'm on LinkedIn quite a bit, and my whole blog is marketing. What I've been doing is updating my blog to include one of these graphics and to mention the book, and I got Claude to help me draft the code so it looked right. So I've been going through all of my blog posts and sending people to Amazon rather than to my Shopify store. It is mixed feelings, because I care about my book. I put a lot of effort, a lot of love, a lot of tears. No, not tears, but I put a lot of effort into it, and it's out of my control now. Jo: Yes, you said it's over to them, but obviously you will still be creating content around this topic, so you'll probably still be the biggest driver of book sales. Suzanne: Yes. Jo: Are they also suggesting, for example, a podcast tour, like pitching for podcasts? Are they going to assign you some PR? Because, also if people don't know, as we are recording this, we have a new prime minister who wants to do various things. You said no politics, but this is obviously a political thing. So you have the potential to go on a lot of different podcasts, media, talking about this, becoming almost a talking head in this kind of area. So are you angling for all that, and is that in your contract, or is it literally just going to be whatever you want to do? Suzanne: That's not in the contract. What's in the contract is very minimal. I think I've already done what I'm supposed to do. They are pitching for me to go on podcasts and things. I'll tell you a really funny coincidence. So we now have a new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester, he set up something called the Good Landlord Charter. I actually talk about it in the book, and I quote him in my book saying that good landlords mean people trying to do the right thing, or something like that. And I coincidentally came up with the same name, The Good Landlord Handbook. I'd already had the book title for a long time. So this idea of good and landlord coming together, the adjective good as opposed to criminal or rogue, and the cover being green. I'm wanting to change the narrative so it's the norm to have a good landlord, and to help people become good landlords. Or if they're good landlords, help them to understand the new rules, because the new rules are very complicated. So what I don't get involved in is this right or wrong. Is it right that landlords can't do this or have to do this? Because as an in-house lawyer, it doesn't really matter what I think about the law. GDPR, goodness me. Jo: Oh, dear. Let's not start on GDPR. Suzanne: No, exactly. Because we've just got to suck it up. I liken it to the grief cycle, that people have been going through so much change and you have the anger, the depression— Jo: Denial. Suzanne: Bargaining, the denial, and then you get to acceptance. For some people, the acceptance means they want to stop doing it. If you want to accept it and stay, you need to understand the rules. So I've deliberately just kept very practical and have kept out of all the politics of it. I have, funnily enough, become involved because I'm now seen as an expert on the Renters' Rights Act. I've worked behind the scenes with the government to help, and give comment on government guidance for landlords. I was even invited to a reception to mark the passing of the Renters' Rights Act at Downing Street with the previous prime minister, all whilst staying apolitical. I won't let anyone make me be a mouthpiece for their political view. It's more, we just have to do this if we want to continue doing it. I've been very clear on that. Jo: It's interesting you mention the grief cycle there, and you've also mentioned Claude and ChatGPT. I wonder if you might also just comment on use of AI for authors and for marketing and all this. Also with legal stuff, because for me now, if I'm looking at a particular legal thing, I tend to ask Claude. I'm like, “Can you just explain this?” or upload a contract or whatever. Although it is not legal advice, it can be quite useful. So give us your thoughts on using AI as a sidekick in your author business and also for wider life. Suzanne: I now struggle to think what life would be like without Claude. I don't use Claude to write, at all, because I have a very particular voice and a turn of phrase, and if ever Claude writes something for me, it doesn't sound like me. It flattens me, and it makes me sound a bit American. So I don't do that. I've used it in the back end of the business. For instance, my blog was down, and there was something called a recursive bot, which I don't even know what it was, and Claude helped me fix it for free. I went through, I did screenshots. When I did an ElevenLabs audiobook and did it all myself, I was literally, for every screenshot, showing it to Claude. Claude said, “Do this, press this, press that.” So I have all these different projects set up. One is the control room, where it's for my strategic thinking. If I have an idea, I want to think about something, I put it in there. I have the engine room, which is for everything techy. Like when I had the recursive bot, or if I'm wanting to have some code on the website to make it look a particular way. Then I have other things for different subjects, and I put all the resources in there, and I use it a lot as a thinking partner. I've noticed that Fable doesn't hallucinate as much, but the Opus used to. There's something called rental discrimination, and it was proofreading and said, “No, it's not rental discrimination, it's rental income discrimination,” and that was just a load of rubbish. So I would never let it go and change things without me looking at it. I went on one of your webinars a month or so ago about MCPs and all the connectors, which is fantastic. It can go into my community and pull out all the questions for one of my live streams and put it into a document in order, by theme, for instance. It can look at my MailerLite, because that's where my newsletter is with, and analyse the different open rates and click rates and things. It's so good for analysing everything, all the book sales. It helped me with my negotiation with Penguin, and it is pretty good on law. It has sometimes hallucinated things, but not so much now. I think with anything, you've always got to go back to the primary source, and this is what we learn in academia: you have to check the primary source yourself. I have a bit of a magpie brain. I'm very much a discovery writer, like you, and things occur to me as I'm doing it. I think that Claude, at the moment, is incredible. I've been quite open about it on social media that I have Claude as a business partner. I'm a solopreneur, or whatever the word is. I have quite a big business now, and lots of different things, and it's just me doing it, because I can ask Claude how to do this, and how to do that. Claude can go and check my emails and tell me, is there somebody I've not replied to, which helps a lot. Jo: Yes. I think it's empowering as a solopreneur as such. You talk there about the fixing the tech stuff. I have my web host come to me and say, “Look, you're getting so much traffic and bot stuff, and we need to put this thing in, and it's going to be $120 extra a month.” I was like, “Can you just give me an hour? I'll get back to you.” And then I just had Claude code up, and I was like, “Analyse this and tell me what we can do.” It was like, “No, you just need to flip this switch and do that.” And I'm like, “Okay, fair enough.” Then the guy said, “Oh, no, okay, actually you don't need it.” Just stuff like that. As a solopreneur, you're either going to pay somebody technically quite a lot of money, or you can get Claude or ChatGPT. We should say, the ChatGPT Sol is very good, like the Claude Fable, for example. So, yes, using it as a sidekick. I love your control room and your engine room projects as well. That's a great way of doing it. Suzanne: I wouldn't be without it now, and I would have published the book a lot later without Claude, because Claude was helping me with the Shopify store and all the many steps of things. It saved me real time. It is just fantastic. I think, like now when I'm updating my blog, I have a connection between Claude and my blog. Claude can go in, I can give it my Google Search Console results for the page: what should I change, are the headings right? All this kind of thing. And it will give me a view on every single page, which is incredible. Jo: And YouTube, and just everything. Just super useful for that business sidekick. That's what I want authors to think. I feel like authors get so obsessed with the creative side with AI, whereas actually, people like you and me, we're using it as that engine room for the solo business, which is what I love. So we're out of time. I did want to ask one more thing, which is, one of the biggest issues with a specific book like yours is when they change the law again. So do you have a plan in place for if, say, a new government changes the law again? Will you just be updating the book over time? Suzanne: I think that there'll need to be a new edition of the book in three years' time, and I've spoken to Penguin about it. Not all of this new law has been implemented, and there's going to be case law and things. So I expect that I will update the book every few years. I have some other ideas for books as well, but for the moment, I'm just taking a bit of a break. You always say we've got to refill our creative well. I really feel like that at the moment. Recently I've just got myself a personal mobile phone so that I can turn off my work one when I'm on holiday and actually take time off. Because for all the time that I was doing the book, basically from Christmas until May, I didn't have one day off. That is not good. So I'm just trying to be a bit more balanced. I had an idea to write another book for summer, but I've just decided not to, and I'm going to leave it until I feel the urge again. Jo: Oh, well done. Suzanne: Which will come. Jo: Yes, well done. Suzanne: I think there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to think what's right for us. I'm 58. So I want to be able to have time to enjoy things and not be working all the time. Jo: No, that's great. It's a sustainable business. So where can people find you and the book and your community online? Suzanne: The easiest way to find me is theindependentlandlord.com. Or if you put Suzanne Smith and landlord into Google, you'll find me as well, and there's a link on there to the book, The Good Landlord Handbook. In the community, there's a link to that on my website as well. Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Suzanne. That was great. Suzanne: Thank you.The post From Blog To Community To Book: A Non-Fiction Author's Journey With Suzanne Smith first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Jarrett Walker's career has been dedicated to improving the quality of public transit in the United States and beyond. A specialist in bus network design, he has led transit planning projects around North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand for decades. He is also the author of the book Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. It's a classic in the field, and a revised edition came out from Island Press last year. We talked with him about why buses should get more love and how transit advocates can fight for their systems in a hostile funding environment. Plus, should we even be thinking about making buses free? Or is making them fast and frequent more important? Find out more about Jarrett Walker and his work. Buy his book, Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, at our official Bookshop.org page. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Use code DOGDAYS now through the end of August to get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. Get 20% off a FEND foldable bike helmet by using this link. TheWarOnCars.org  

Gigi Robinson is a keynote speaker, bestselling author, creator economy strategist, and chronic illness advocate. She has delivered 100+ talks at global conferences, universities, and corporate events, including CES, VidCon, and Penn State. Featured in Forbes, NBC, The TODAY Show, and Sports Illustrated, she is also the author of A Kids Book About Chronic Illness, relaunching with Penguin Random House in 2025.Her keynotes blend personal storytelling with actionable strategy, leaving audiences of all kinds motivated, empowered, and ready to make lasting change.

Karen reviews Sex Diaries, the new collection of erotic anonymous week-long diaries focusing on nonmonogamous adventures, based on the popular New York Magazine column.In this episode:Sex Diaries, edited by Alyssa Shelasky Host, sex educator, and writer Karen Yates Get Say It Better in Bed, Karen's free guide to upping your intimacy pleasure. Download here!Show your love for Wild & Sublime: Leave a tip!The Afterglow, our Patreon membership group, brings you regular bonus content, early alerts, and discounts to live shows! Be Wild & Sublime out in the world!  Check out our tees and accessories for maximum visibility. Support the showFollow Wild & Sublime on Instagram and Facebook!

Today, we're very excited to Welcome Alexandera Houchin to the Native Lights podcast. Alexandera is a citizen of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). She resides in her reservation community in northern Minnesota. She's an ultra racer, bike packer, mountain biker, outdoor adventurer, storyteller, and writer. And she is currently working on her memoir for Penguin Random House and is the subject of a documentary. Alexandera shares her story of growing up apart from her Ojibwe roots. Her mother had been adopted and spent the first 19 years of Alexandera's life trying to track down her Native birth family.  As an adult, Alexandera got her first bike to replace a car that no longer worked. But soon, she was sucked into the exciting world of bike tours and ultra endurance events, multi-day races over hundreds of miles. She tells us how the long stretches of open road helped her cultivate healing and a place for ceremony. She also opens up about how her racing career led her to become a writer and how following her passion—along with setting records in some intense, grueling races—led to a documentary project and an unexpected invitation to write a book.-----Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo Editor: Britt Aamodt Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood -----For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. instagram.com/ampersradioinstagram.com/mnnativenewsfacebook.com/MNNativeNewsNever miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

In ep 184 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Brigid Lohrey joins Sam and Mark to talk about approaching an Apple News script in a very specific way - bringing it to full conversational, but not too rounded. We explore performances where you're left feeling, "Surely you want more than this?" Are we being told to make everything blander?? We talk about how directors can be really helpful in setting the scene for us, and how nothing moves fast underwater! Plus is it a help or a hinderance if a script is labelled as "corporate"? Our obsessions are West End theatre and summer night attire!Our VO question this week is all about whether you should be upfront about your natural accent if you come from more than one place!Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1Compared to the bustle of spring, it's quiet in the autumn forest; I miss the hoards of gently pulsating sea jellies that cloud the water all summer long and lament the absence of spider crabs that have migrated back to deeper water. Territorial by nature, ballan wrasse remain in residence, patrolling their patch among the kelp. I spot a chunky male, coloured amber to match the scene and greet him with a broad smile that lets a trickle of cold water into my dive mask.Script 2Murder in Paradise: The Unsolved Killings on Australia's East Coast. The NSW north coast has a disturbing history of unsolved murders and disappearances. Have its beaches, roads and rainforests been a killing ground for one or more serial killers? Written for Australian Women's Weekly. A young woman is standing on a road leading to the Pacific Highway, her thumb out, hitching. With her long hair and cut-off jeans she doesn't wait long to be picked up. She is never seen again. This scenario has happened again and again on the north coast of NSW.We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Brigid Lohrey is a Tasmanian actress, who trained in London, and has been acting on stage and screen for over 20 years. She 's in the BBC's Hope Street and HBO's Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon. On stage she's played Panto villains and Shakespearean leads up and down the country. As a Voice Actor she started 15 years ago with Audio Drama for Dr Who and the Dark Shadows series, then with audiobooks for the RNIB. Since then she has voiced 80 audiobooks, and has branched into commercials and gaming. She has done radio presenting and commentates medieval jousting and fun dog shows.Resources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!About your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

Enough by Dawn French, published by Penguin Random House.

Michael Angelo Zervos is a Guinness World Record holder — he visited all 195 UN-recognized countries in 499 days. Along the way he interviewed people in every country about the happiest moment of their life. That project became a book, published by Penguin Random House, out February 23rd. We talked about: how the record works and what actually counts as "visiting" a country; a year and a half of planning vs. the Brazilian who claimed he did it by accident; getting jailed overnight in Liberia for taking a photo of a building; being deported from Nicaragua because they thought he was a journalist; how he got into North Korea during a two-week window that's since closed permanently; what North Korea is actually like (his answer: Plato's allegory of the cave, in real life); Cuba on the ground vs. what the left says about it; traveling through Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, and Sudan; asking people about happiness in active conflict zones; and what his grandfather being forced to fight for communist guerrillas in the Greek Civil War has to do with any of it. Get the book → The Happiest Moment of Your Life: True Stories from a Journey to Every Country in the World https://amzn.to/4pHdYav Follow Michael on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/theprojectkosmos/ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Michael Angelo Zervos? 0:34 — Greeks in America — diners, Coney Islands, and the varsity jacket problem 5:05 — Christopher Nolan's Odyssey — not a single Greek in the cast 6:25 — 195 countries in 499 days — how the Guinness World Record works 8:04 — A year and a half of planning — and the Brazilian who claimed he did it by accident 9:33 — What counts as "visiting" a country? The Guinness rules 11:08 — Project Cosmos — interviewing people about the happiest moment of their life 13:13 — Brand deals, sponsorships, and the reality of Guinness World Record celebrity 14:35 — Traveling as a man vs. a woman — the real differences 16:37 — Married with two kids — how he pulled this off 20:24 — The happiest moment of the trip — waking up in Ghana 21:33 — The Swiss man who came out as bisexual at a phone-free party in Zurich 23:45 — The worst moments: jailed in Liberia for photographing a building 26:57 — Deported from Nicaragua — they thought he was a journalist 27:41 — Left-wing dictatorships and the memory hole 29:50 — North Korea — getting in through a two-week window that's now closed 32:14 — North Korea as Plato's cave — the allegory of the cave in real life 33:44 — His grandfather forced to fight for communist guerrillas in the Greek Civil War 35:29 — Dennis Rodman's translator was a libertarian 36:44 — Cuba — what it's actually like on the ground 38:40 — Poverty porn, romanticizing socialism, and what Cubans actually think 43:42 — The Facebook argument: "Oh no, Starbucks is going to ruin Cuba" 45:38 — What's actually lost when wealth is generated — community and dependency 47:27 — Traveling through conflict zones: Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Sudan 49:37 — Asking people about happiness in a war zone 50:27 — The book: published by Penguin Random House, out February 23rd 52:23 — Chicken soup for the soul meets Anthony Bourdain — what the book actually is 54:14 — Outro — follow Michael and get the book Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU  Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697  Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r  TheLouPerez.com |  info@thelouperez.com  Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In ep 183 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Kelly Hicks joins Sam and Mark to talk about a script with four different insults, aimed at four different people, from a character thats a bully! We remember mean scenes in Rugrats, and one particular cartoon bully! Gone are the fun facts and in come the obsessions of the week, which include Harry Potter, cooling towels and office furniture!! There's an audiobook ghostly story which is not bright, but not funereal... so we explore the depths in between.Our VO question this week is all about which animated role we'd love to play!Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1At the end of a week, however, Mary met with a serious accident. She was running across the croquet lawn to speak to her sister-in-law, when she tripped over a hoop that had been accidentally left there, and, in falling, ran a hatpin into her head. Blood poisoning ensued, and within a fortnight she was dead. Martha was the only one in the house who associated Mary's accident and death with the Piper; and she could not but suspect that, in some way or another, he had brought about the catastrophe.Script 2When your grandma picked out that shirt, did she tell you she hated you or could you guess?If you're wondering why your friends are running faster, get a mirror! It's you not me!Shoes no good? Maybe if you didn't dig them out of the trash…!I knew I smelled something sickly sweet around here. But a Dreamer and her imaginary friend? Keek kkke kkeee! I couldn't ask for better kindling!We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: It all started for Kelly Hicks when she watched a film about the making of the Disney “Alice in Wonderland” animation when she was a tiny child and thought how cool it was to see the people behind the voices, especially Alice. That stuck with her and her dream job was always working in a voice acting studio. Of course she then spent over 20 years as a pharmacy technician, mostly in a hospital or oncology setting… which, to be fair, opened the door to working in e-learning and corporate. But animation and gaming is really where she wants to be.Kelly's Website@kellysaidthat on InstagramKelly's Facebook page Resources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!About your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

Michael Angelo Zervos is a Guinness World Record holder — he visited all 195 UN-recognized countries in 499 days. Along the way he interviewed people in every country about the happiest moment of their life. That project became a book, published by Penguin Random House, out February 23rd. We talked about: how the record works and what actually counts as "visiting" a country; a year and a half of planning vs. the Brazilian who claimed he did it by accident; getting jailed overnight in Liberia for taking a photo of a building; being deported from Nicaragua because they thought he was a journalist; how he got into North Korea during a two-week window that's since closed permanently; what North Korea is actually like (his answer: Plato's allegory of the cave, in real life); Cuba on the ground vs. what the left says about it; traveling through Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, and Sudan; asking people about happiness in active conflict zones; and what his grandfather being forced to fight for communist guerrillas in the Greek Civil War has to do with any of it. Get the book → The Happiest Moment of Your Life: True Stories from a Journey to Every Country in the World https://amzn.to/4pHdYav Follow Michael on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/theprojectkosmos/ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Michael Angelo Zervos? 0:34 — Greeks in America — diners, Coney Islands, and the varsity jacket problem 5:05 — Christopher Nolan's Odyssey — not a single Greek in the cast 6:25 — 195 countries in 499 days — how the Guinness World Record works 8:04 — A year and a half of planning — and the Brazilian who claimed he did it by accident 9:33 — What counts as "visiting" a country? The Guinness rules 11:08 — Project Cosmos — interviewing people about the happiest moment of their life 13:13 — Brand deals, sponsorships, and the reality of Guinness World Record celebrity 14:35 — Traveling as a man vs. a woman — the real differences 16:37 — Married with two kids — how he pulled this off 20:24 — The happiest moment of the trip — waking up in Ghana 21:33 — The Swiss man who came out as bisexual at a phone-free party in Zurich 23:45 — The worst moments: jailed in Liberia for photographing a building 26:57 — Deported from Nicaragua — they thought he was a journalist 27:41 — Left-wing dictatorships and the memory hole 29:50 — North Korea — getting in through a two-week window that's now closed 32:14 — North Korea as Plato's cave — the allegory of the cave in real life 33:44 — His grandfather forced to fight for communist guerrillas in the Greek Civil War 35:29 — Dennis Rodman's translator was a libertarian 36:44 — Cuba — what it's actually like on the ground 38:40 — Poverty porn, romanticizing socialism, and what Cubans actually think 43:42 — The Facebook argument: "Oh no, Starbucks is going to ruin Cuba" 45:38 — What's actually lost when wealth is generated — community and dependency 47:27 — Traveling through conflict zones: Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Sudan 49:37 — Asking people about happiness in a war zone 50:27 — The book: published by Penguin Random House, out February 23rd 52:23 — Chicken soup for the soul meets Anthony Bourdain — what the book actually is 54:14 — Outro — follow Michael and get the book Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU  Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697  Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r  TheLouPerez.com |  info@thelouperez.com  Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our final Life After Cars book tour roundup episode is here, with our reports from Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago, Montréal, Orlando, Portland, Maine, and many, many more great North American cities! We get into the good, the bad, and the ugly of everything we saw out there on the road. Plus a discussion of…Reverse Copenhagen Syndrome? Become a Patreon supporter for access to ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org  

Cynthia Morahan reviews The Courage to be Ordinary by Ichiro Kishimi, published by Penguin Random House.

Today on Two Mikes we hosted Mr. John Perkins, the author of the famous book called the Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, joined us for a discussion of the of that book which is a study of how to use the U.S. and other governments use propaganda and international lending organizations – like the World Bank and its sister organizations -- to create new international organizations that are backed by – at least -- the U.S. military and U.S. government and so are, in essence, the creatures of the United States and its economic goals. Mr. Perkins notes that all of this activity can be done with the legal framework and corruption laws which are in force at the time of the activity, and that it is meant to make large American companies richer and more powerful and also to create international companies that will grow rich and become an extension of America's worldwide economic and political power. Mr. Perkins book Economic Hit Man was an extraordinary international best seller, going through multiple reprints and editions and remaining on many best-seller lists around the world for 70 weeks. In a short time – on 8 September 2026 -- Mr. Perkins will be publishing a new book, which will be called The Art of the Steal: Trump and the Economic Hitman Presidency. It will be published by Penguin Random House. Mr. Perkins now works as the Chief Economist at a major international company. That being so, he has been well positioned to follow U.S. national and international economic activities as they unfold in Trump's second term. He has found that the way things work remains much the same as they were when his first book was published, but with the exception that much more money is being made and much more economic power accumulated. And that matches the goals of the program that Trump now stands in control of internationally; namely, to help the rich – which includes his family and friends -- and powerful to become more wealthy and more powerful. All told, Mr. Perkins gave the Two Mikes a riveting presentation. We we have asked him back for another program once his new book is published.

How do you make sense of the present? Nate DiMeo might suggest you look at the past. Nate is the host of the podcast and book, The Memory Palace. Nate joins Chris to discuss how the past can teach us to live life in a new, rich, and complex way. Nate shares how to exercise the muscle of curiosity, how to tap into your sense of wonder to escape algorithmic filters, and urges you to seek moments of meaning in between life's biggest plot points.This is an episode of TED's How to Be a Better Human podcast. Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://tedtalks.social/4gmAZt3 For the full text transcript, visit https://go.ted.com/BHTranscripts Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from THE MEMORY PALACE by Nate DiMeo; excerpt read by Nate DiMeo. © 2024 Nate DiMeo ℗ 2024 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.This episode originally aired in 2025.For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In ep 182 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Charlie Keeffe joins Sam and Mark to talk about maintaining a sense of engagement without going too flat in an audiobook... finding the line of entertaining - but not too entertaining! We explore how to fit into a younger mindset, and how to differentiate between a CBBC audience and a CBeebies audience. We look at working a little harder when the script is dry, and how to create a cliffhanger without over-emphasising it. Our fun facts are about sports and fingers and our wildcards embrace scarecrows, politicians and superfans!Our VO question this week is all about how new voice actors make the mindset shift to promoting themselves.Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1To transform his invention into a commercial enterprise, Gutenberg needed something every great innovator eventually requires: money.He turned to a wealthy local financier Johann Fust, borrowing heavily to fund the production of his printing press and expand operations. By 1455, Gutenberg's press had already produced a series of printed documents and, most remarkably, a magnificent Latin Bible—an achievement that would forever change the spread of knowledge.But just as Gutenberg stood on the brink of success, disaster struck.Script 2By the time he got to his desk the following morning, Stirling's abdomen still felt like he'd done a hundred crunches, and he groaned at the pain as he sat down. He didn't intend to get up soon and feel that again. He spent half an hour going through the paperwork in his desk, signing off on things and putting papers in their proper piles for filing. Each time he bent his stomach even a little, it reminded him of the cramped muscles there. He picked up the phone and started looking through his notebook for his doctor's number. Perhaps the time had come to cave in on this one.We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Charlie Keeffe is a UK based Voice Actor who lives on the south coast. He's been a full-time voice for 5 years and works right across the industry - from audiobooks to commercials, E-Learning, video games and animation.Charlie's Website@cksaysthings on InstagramResources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!About your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

*Content Warning:  neglect, rejection, friendship betrayal, betrayal, and infidelity.Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources   SWW Sticker Shop!: https://brokencyclemedia.com/sticker-shop SWW S26 Theme Song & Artwork: The S26 cover art is by the Amazing Sara Stewart instagram.com/okaynotgreat/  Follow Something Was Wrong: Website: somethingwaswrong.com  IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast  Follow Tiffany Reese: Website: tiffanyreese.me  IG: instagram.com/lookieboo Follow Dr. Marisa G. Franco: Website - https://www.drmarisagfranco.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drmarisagfranco Platonic, How The Science of Attachment Can Help You Make - and Keep - Friends - https://drmarisagfranco.com/platonic-the-book/ Worth, The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment: https://drmarisagfranco.com/worth-the-book/ *Sources:  Almaatouq, Abdullah, et al. "Are You Your Friends' Friend? Poor Perception of Friendship Ties Limits the Ability to Promote Behavioral Change." PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 3, 2016, article e0151588, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151588 Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. When Losses of Loved Ones Are Not Acknowledged: Understanding Disenfranchised Grief. Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University, n.d., https://www.cstsonline.org/assets/media/documents/CSTS_FS_When_Losses_of_Loved_Ones_Are_Not_Acknowledged_Understanding_Disenfranchised_Grief.pdf Dodson, William W., et al. "Rejection sensitivity dysphoria in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A case series." Neurology 7 (2024): 23-30.  Franco, Marisa G. Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends. Penguin Random House, 6 Sept. 2022 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676695/platonic-by-marisa-g-franco-phd/ Franco, Marisa G. Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 15 Sept. 2026, Penguin Random House,https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/784327/worth-by-marisa-g-franco-phd/ Gobin, Robyn L., and Jennifer J. Freyd. "The impact of betrayal trauma on the tendency to trust." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy 6.5 (2014): 505. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-24397-001 Guy-Evans, Olivia. “Self-Verification Theory.” Simply Psychology, 11 May 2026, https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-verification-theory.html Here & Now Newsroom. “Research Shows We Replace Half Our Friends Every 7 Years. Here's How to Make New Ones.” NPR Illinois, 23 June 2025, https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-06-23/research-shows-we-replace-half-our-friends-every-7-years-heres-how-to-make-new-ones Hillman, James. "Betrayal." Loose Ends: Primary Papers in Archetypal Psychology, Spring Publications, 1975, pp. 63–79. Jarrett, Christian. "The Liking Gap: We Usually Think People Like Us Less Than They Actually Do." Research Digest, British Psychological Society, 13 Sept. 2018, https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/liking-gap Kenny, Serafina. "Having Friends Is as Important as Diet and Exercise for Living Longer, a Longevity Expert Says." Business Insider, 22 Sept. 2023, https://www.businessinsider.com/longevity-antiaging-friendship-social-interaction-relationships-2023-9 Nader, Karim. “Reconsolidation and the Dynamic Nature of Memory.” Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology vol. 7,10 a021782. 9 Sep. 2015, doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a021782, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26354895/ Nussbaum, Ben. "FRIENDSHIP FLATTENS HILLS: It's time to put connections at the center of wellbeing, says relationship expert Marisa Franco." Spirituality & Health Magazine, vol. 25, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2022, pp. 46+. Gale Academic OneFile link.gale.com/apps/doc/A763799199/AONE?u=anon~858b38f4&sid=googleScholar&xid=6b08179d One Another. Directed by Amber Love, produced by Andrea Raby, Joycie Films, 2026. World premiere, SXSW Film & TV Festival, Austin, TX, 12 Mar. 2026. https://schedule.sxsw.com/2026/films/2249924 Romm, Cari. "Half of Your Friends Probably Don't Think of You as a Friend." The Cut, 9 May 2016, https://www.thecut.com/2016/05/half-of-your-friends-probably-dont-think-of-you-as-a-friend.html Thompson, Sophia, Kaitlyn Deaner, and Marisa G. Franco. "How to Help Clients Make Friends." Journal of Health Service Psychology 49.2 (2023): 77-85 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42843-023-00085-w Wallace, Anna Kodé. "Why Friendship Betrayal Feels Impossible to Get Over." The Cut, 22 Apr. 2026, https://www.thecut.com/article/friendship-betrayal-explained-psychology-summer-house.html

Fairytale expert, Kate Forsyth travels back in time to the stories of her youth, to a dark, fantastical and eerie world where cruelty and mischief abound.As a young girl, Kate was sent to stay with her great aunts in Newcastle and there was introduced to the darkness, magic and mystery of Scottish folklore.These stories lit Kate's imagination on fire, and let to a lifetime of study into these powerful stories and the messages behind them.One true story from this period that stayed with Kate was the treacherous and dramatic life story of Mary, Queen of Scots, who, in the telling, was only a few years older than the teenaged Kate.Intertwined with the true Scottish history were dark, fantastical and eerie accounts about cruel and mischievous fairies who would leave their young in place of human babies, as ‘changelings'. This world abounded with magic - hazelnuts that give the power of invisibility and curses that cause boys to dance to their death.These legends also feature brave and ingenious girls who figure out how to rescue the sick and cursed through their own wits and knowledge of the natural world.Further informationThe Changeling is published by Penguin Random House.This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer of Conversations is Nicola Harrison.You can listen to Kate's previous Conversations interviews on the tangled roots of fairytales, the dark and violent origins of beloved fairytales, the Russian tale of Vasilisa the Wise and her nemesis, the witch Baba Yaga, the story of a blood red rose, The intrepid and curious Charlotte Waring Atkinson, Psyche, the curious and brave goddess of the soul.This episode touches on witch trials, burning of witches, neolithic stones, storytelling, violence against women, cunning folk, ken, kenning, runes, being in touch with the seasons, old women, prayers, spells, rowan tree, faeries, fairies, fairy queen, changeling, autism, neurodivergent, neurodiverse, dauphin, King James, King James Bible, To binge even more great episodes of the 'Conversations podcast' with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

All links mentioned in the post can be found here: https://simplysquaredaway.com/177 What if the reason you feel stuck isn't that you're lazy, unmotivated, or doing something wrong? What if you're simply out of flow? This episode feels especially meaningful to me because Laurie Smith was last on the podcast back in Episode 105, when she was in the middle of writing the book we're talking about today. We worked together while she was writing, organizing her ideas, and creating space for this project to come to life. And now? She's back with her finished book, The Flow Habit. Laurie has spent years studying, teaching, and experimenting with flow through her coaching, research, and her popular 28-Day Flow Challenges. In this conversation, we explore what flow actually is, why so many of us feel disconnected from it, and how finding your unique "flow formula" can help you experience more focus, creativity, joy, and momentum in your business and life. We also dive into something I found fascinating: how understanding your own flow can actually help you get organized, stay motivated, and make even the tasks you normally avoid feel more manageable. If you've ever thought, "That sounds great, but I'm just not someone who experiences flow," this episode might change your mind. What You'll Learn: What "flow" really means and why it's about much more than "going with the flow" How to identify your own unique formula for experiencing flow Why childhood memories can provide clues to your natural strengths and purpose The surprising connection between flow and organization How to use "flow motivators" to tackle tasks you normally avoid The four-step FEEL framework Laurie teaches to help create more flow in everyday life Why trying too hard to get into flow often prevents it How tiny moments of joy can create powerful shifts in your business and personal life Practical ways to make organizing feel easier, more meaningful, and even fun Why reconnecting with your own joy may be one of the most productive things you can do Connect with Laurie Smith Laurie Smith is an inspirational author, professional speaker, podcast host, and coach, and has worked in the fields of creativity and personal growth for more than 20 years. She is on a mission to spread the word about the transformational power of everyday flow, those experiences we have when we are so absorbed by what we are doing that we lose track of time. Laurie is the author of several books, including The Flow Habit, which was recently published by Hay House, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Since 2020, hundreds of people around the world have participated in Laurie's free 28-Day Flow Challenge. Laurie is passionate about how flow can help us access our creative spark, uplift others, and help us make our dreams come true. Website  |  Instagram  | LinkedIn  |  The Flow Habit Book  |  Podcast  |

15 years after her MFA, and 4 years after scrapping a book that just wasn't working, Meghan Perry's debut novel WATER FINDS A WAY is receiving strong positive reviews, including a coveted Kirkus star. She joins Jared to talk about the realities of post-grad writing, going “scorched earth” on revision, and the process of turning short stories into a full-length novel. Plus, she talks about grounding her work in a remote Maine fishing village, overlooked American cultures, and the hardships—and community—her characters face.Meghan Perry graduated with an MFA from Emerson College in 2009 and currently directs the Writing Center at St. John's Preparatory School in the Boston area. She has published stories in Cold Mountain Review, Sycamore Review, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, WATER FINDS A WAY, was published in November 2024 by Delphinium Books with an audiobook by Penguin Random House. The novel has received a Kirkus star and been featured in Newsday and Condé Nast as one of the top books of this fall. Find her at meghanperry.com.MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack, Hanamori Skoblow, and Brié Goumaz. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.BE PART OF THE SHOWDonate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.STAY CONNECTEDTwitter: @MFAwriterspodInstagram: @MFAwriterspodcastFacebook: MFA WritersEmail: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Karma takes all of our friends to the summit! In this week's episode we're joined by Courtney, who makes her return just in time for our first conversation since the event of our lifetimes, Taylor Swift's wedding! Listen in for all of our thoughts about this monumental moment. Plus, we chat about Gracie Abrams and her upcoming album, along with her questionable tour dates. Featured in this episode is a brilliant new book, 13 Little Love Stories: An Anthology Inspired by Taylor Swift Songs. Listen in for a review of the book (spoiler alert: it's a dazzling hit), and check it out at your favorite bookstore! Thank you to our friends at Penguin Random House for sending us a copy to review. This summer we're dedicating this space to a celebration of fandom and the connections it brings into our lives. If you want to join us for a chat during our summer of friendship, send us an email or social media message!Make sure you give us a follow on Instagram @diaryofaswiftiepodcast.Thank you to Courtney for joining us at The Summit!

In this episode Derek Champagne talks with Larry Kasanoff. Larry Kasanoff, Chairman/CEO of Threshold Entertainment, as a studio head or producer, makes movies, animated movies and location based entertainment/theme park attractions.He is the Producer or Executive Producer of MORTAL KOMBAT, including three Number One films, a television series, an animated series, platinum selling soundtracks, direct to dvd, and a live tour, with a new Mortal Kombat movie coming Summer '26.Larry is Executive Producer of the box-office smash film, TRUE LIES, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by James Cameron.As president and co-founder of Lightstorm Entertainment, Larry supervised production, marketing, publicity and merchandising for the four-time Academy Award winning hit, TERMINATOR 2 JUDGMENT DAY, directed by James Cameron.He is Executive Producer of movies, STRANGE DAYS and BLUE STEEL, with Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow.Larry - as a producer or studio head - has made over 200 feature films, including the biggest selling multi artist sound track in history, DIRTY DANCING, and Academy Award Winning Best Picture PLATOON. He has raised well over a billion dollars in the film business.He makes animated movies:  LEGO STAR WARS THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT; and BOBBLEHEADS THE MOVIE starring Cher.Larry also makes location based entertainment, or theme park, attractions, includingSTAR TREK THE BORG EXPERIENCE; MARVEL SUPERHEROES 4D; and THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF SPIDERMAN.In the music world, Larry has packaged or produced video projects with several of the world's biggest talents, including Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones and Elton John. For Terminator 2, he produced MTV's top video of the year, “You Could Be Mine” with Gun's ‘N Roses.He produced and directed the feature documentary, MINDFULNESS: BE HAPPY NOW, starring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and Deepak Chopra. It is available on Amazon.Larry is the author of  A TOUCH OF THE MADNESS - How To Be More Innovative by Being a Little Crazy (Ben Bella Books via Penguin Random House).Larry holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania  and a BA from Cornell University.Order A TOUCH OF THE MADNESS HEREBusiness Leadership Series Intro and Outro music provided by Just Off Turner: https://music.apple.com/za/album/the-long-walk-back/268386576

Matt Oesterle built his first company, Callisto Media, from zero to $85 million in revenue by using data to disrupt the book publishing industry. Then he sold it to Penguin Random House and asked himself: what's the next industry that hasn't been forced to evolve? The answer was camping — an industry whose biggest brands were founded in the 1960s and haven't changed much since. In this conversation, Matt walks through the framework he uses to pick businesses, how he designed the Ramble campground experience from scratch, and what it takes to build a hospitality brand that maintains a 4.98-star review score while scaling to 100+ locations. He also gets into the role of data versus instinct in entrepreneurship, why type two fun is a hiring requirement for his team, and why you don't have to be a sociopath to build something great. If you've ever looked at an industry and thought "someone should fix this" — this is the episode for you. Show Notes: Popfly for Brands: https://popf.ly/secondnaturebrands Popfly for Athletes: https://popf.ly/secondnaturecreators Matt Oesterle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oesterle/ Ramble Campgrounds: https://ramble.camp/ Next Ventures: https://www.nextventures.com/ Mel Strong on Second Nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlcjUzrM3Jg Callisto Media: https://www.sourcebooks.com/callisto HipCamp: https://www.hipcamp.com/ Net Promoter Score (Term): https://www.qualtrics.com/articles/customer-experience/net-promoter-score/ Solo Stove: https://www.solostove.com/ Zendesk: https://www.zendesk.com/ The Everything Store (Book): https://amzn.to/4vpM8kx BPC - Brand, Product, Content: RAB: https://rab.equipment/ The Algorithm (Book): https://amzn.to/4aOzKTJ MFM Pod - The Algorithm Author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG4TwQEYdBY New Yorker Profile - Sam Altman: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted *** Join us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/second-nature-media Meet us on Slack: https://www.launchpass.com/second-nature Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondnature.media Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.secondnature.media Subscribe to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@secondnaturemedia

In ep 181 of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Karim Kronfli joins Sam and Mark to talk about getting to grips with a summer advertorial that's full of alliteration, with no time constraint. We have to be playful without going over the top. It's all about a script being "knowing" and as a voice actor having to give a nod and a wink to your audience. We also have an amazing dramatic piece between a man who's been in jail and his estranged daughter. Our fun facts are about reality TV, big West End shows and a tease of an NDA!Our VO question this week is all about what aspects of performance you take from stage work to the mic.Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1And right now, as the world slows for the summer and the sun sets a little later… there's no better time to slip away with a story of secrets, lies and that final, fatal twist.Our Holiday Crime Collection brings together 100 years of murderous mischief — from breezy beachside killings to snowbound scandals in country hotels.Whether you prefer your detectives with deerstalkers or dark pasts, there's something in our summer stack to keep your suitcase suspiciously heavy.Script 2We are responsible for our own actions. No one else.Like the no one else sitting across from me who got themselves thrown out on the street. Or the no one else took a dead-end job at a petrol station instead of going to vocational school and learning something useful. Or the no one else what got themselves involved with drugs and spent two episodes in rehab.You spent way too much time feeling sorry for yourself.We'd love your feedback - and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, hit the follow button today!**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Karim Kronfli has been a professional performer for over 30 years originally working as a juggler and firebreather. He trained as a Director and Voice Actor at City Lit in London, and started doing voice work in 2010. Specialising in audio drama, he has appeared in over 150 productions including Re: Dracula, The Magnus Archives, London After Midnight, SCP Archives, Dr Who: Redacted and many more.Karim's Website@karim.kronfli on InstagramKarim's Facebook pageResources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!The specific episode of “Theatrical Shenanigans” that has Karim's script from “Buried Treasure” by George Sapio is here: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-nkev8-189d638 (listen to 6 mins 42 secs)The Audio Drama Hub Facebook group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/AudioDramaHubAbout your hosts:With over 40 years representing major international clients such as Google, Emirates and HSBC; Mark Ryes has been trusted to be the voice for some of the world's biggest brands. If your business needs a fresh voice to represent you, then make it Mark's British voice. As a voiceover, TV presenter, podcaster or product demonstrator - Mark makes your brand truly sparkle!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkElegantly British with an intelligent, warm and seductive voice, Samantha Boffin helps creatives and production companies create great audio that really connects with their audience. BBC-trained and with over 20 years of broadcast experience on both sides of the mic, she's created award-winning promos, narration and commercials for companies all around the globe, including the BBC, Sky, Games Workshop, John Lewis, Audible and Penguin Random House.Samantha's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin

Big news for the parents out there! On this episode of Geek Freaks Headlines, Frank breaks down the announcement of the first ever Bluey audiobook collection, Bluey: The Beach and Other Stories, coming September 1. Narrated by Miranda Tapsell, the voice of Dougie's mum on the show, the collection bundles eight fan-favorite stories including Baby Race, Barky Boats, The Beach, Charades, Daddy Robot, Magic Xylophone, The Pool, and Typewriter. Frank shares why this is a perfect fit for car rides and bedtime routines, and why he plans to be the cool uncle with these ready to go.00:00 Bluey audiobook announcement and the full story lineup00:18 Why this is a smart move and Frank's cool uncle plansBluey is getting its first audiobook collection, titled Bluey: The Beach and Other Stories, releasing September 1Miranda Tapsell, who voices Dougie's mum in the series, narrates the collectionThe set includes eight stories: Baby Race, Barky Boats, The Beach, Charades, Daddy Robot, Magic Xylophone, The Pool, and TypewriterPerfect screen-free option for car rides and winding down at bedtimeFrank hopes this is the first of many Bluey audio releases"You're driving around the kids, maybe something to listen to when they're going to bed. This is so smart. They should do a lot more of these.""I'm going to be the cool uncle, and I'm going to have all these ready to go."If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Geek Freaks Headlines so you never miss a story, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, and share this episode with a Bluey fan in your life using #GeekFreaksHeadlines.For all the latest geek news, head to our source: https://geekfreakspodcast.com/Follow us:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegeekfreakspodcastThreads: https://www.threads.net/@geekfreakspodcastPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/GeekFreakspodcastFrank: @franklourence79Got a question or a story you want us to cover? Send it our way at thegeekfreakspodcast@gmail.com and we might feature it on a future episode.Bluey, Bluey audiobook, Bluey The Beach and Other Stories, Miranda Tapsell, Bluey news, BBC Studios, Penguin Random House, kids audiobooks, Bluey episodes, Baby Race, Daddy Robot, Magic Xylophone, family podcast, geek news, Geek Freaks Headlines, Geek Freaks Podcast, pop culture news, parenting, kids TV, audiobooks for kidsTimestampsKey TakeawaysMemorable QuotesCall to ActionStay ConnectedListener QuestionsTags

As the number of adults who report reading books has declined, Rose Horowitch, staff writer for The Atlantic, argues that we're living in a "post-literate world" and talks about what that means for society. Photo: 28 April 2023, Saxony, Leipzig: Visitors to the Leipzig Book Fair get an overview of the book offerings at the Penguin Random House publishing group's booth. At the spring meeting of the book industry, some 2,000 exhibitors from 40 countries present their new book products. Austria will be the book fair's guest country. Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa (Photo by Hendrik Schmidt/picture alliance via Getty Images)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is author, writing coach, and sobriety expert Tawny Lara, the author of Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze.In this episode, Tawny pulls back the curtain on her publishing journey—from blogging and viral essays to finding an agent, switching from memoir to more journalistic nonfiction, completely rewriting her proposal, and ultimately selling her book. We get into querying, indie publishing vs. the Big Five, advances, audiobooks, and DIY book publicity. She also shares why every writer needs a newsletter, how she built an effective Substack strategy, the publicity tactics that landed her major media coverage, and why tapping into your existing network is often more powerful than chasing social media algorithms.Plus, Tawny explains how she sold a sobriety card deck to Penguin Random House, why rejection is an essential part of every publishing career, and the simple writing advice that transformed her creative practice.Subscribe to Tawny's Substack Beyond Liquid Courage. Follow her on Instagram @tawnymlara, and buy your copy of Dry Humping on Bookshop.org, Amazon, or wherever books are sold!Get your copy of Courtney's debut memoir Girl Gone Wild from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming classes you might be interested in:Midsummer Pitch Party: https://www.courtneykocak.com/store/midsummerpitchpartySo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocakEdit & Elevate: Revision Intensive: https://writingworkshops.com/products/edit-elevate-revision-intensive-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakThe Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocak12 Months to a Full Memoir in Essays Incubator: Write Your Memoir in a Year: https://writingworkshops.com/products/memoir-in-essays-incubator-nonfiction-writing-workshop-online-june-2026How to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminarLand Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminar

In most parts of the United States and elsewhere, sidewalks exist in a legal grey area. They are public spaces that, at least when it comes to things such as maintenance and snow removal, are largely the responsibility of private property owners. They are subject to all manner of laws that govern what kinds of activities can take place on them, laws that change not just from city to city, but sometimes from neighborhood to neighborhood, block to block, and address to address. They are also an important part of the transportation network and a key component in the effort to keep pedestrians safe, although certainly not a panacea, even in rural areas. Michael Pollack, the author of an excellent new book, Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resource, thinks that sidewalks need a whole lot more consideration in legal and governing circles, and even goes so far as to advocate for the creation of a Department of Sidewalks that can cut through the rather opaque rules that govern these narrow strips of concrete. (Or other materials, given that many sidwalks are often governmed by historic preservation laws.) ***For an extended, ad-free version of this episode featuring a bonus conversation about sidewalk delivery robots, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** SHOW NOTES: Buy Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resourc and support independent booksellers at our official Bookshop.org page. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

Alissa recently shared a post that said "please be too much," and it went viral, reaching over 2 million people after nearly two years of feeling like her work wasn't getting seen. But this episode isn't really about going viral. It's about what happened in those two quiet years before it, and why the willingness to show up anyway, even when you feel embarrassed, judged, or invisible, is what actually builds confidence and self-trust.For sensitive people, the fear of being seen trying runs deep. Alissa offers two words that changed her life: so what?She shares the stories behind it, from being mocked by people she went to high school with, to an email that hit her most painful insecurity square in the chest, to the six years of unseen work that led to her book deal with Penguin Random House. You don't wait until you feel healed and confident to start. You start, and that's what makes you confident.In this episode, you'll learn:Why "so what?" are two of the most freeing words when you're afraid of being judgedWhat showing up without applause does for your identity and self-trust over timeWhy waiting until you feel fully healed to take action is actually fear and control in disguiseHow saying you want something but never acting on it quietly erodes your trust in yourselfWhat it looks like to treat triggers as stepping stones instead of stop signsThe difference between responding from your sensitive shadow archetype and your sensitive strength archetypeUncover your sneaky internal belief that's stopping you from being your most confident self TAKE The FREE Shadow Archetype Quiz NOWLearn my 6-step process for managing & neutralizing your triggers as an HSP in our FREE UN-Botherable Workshop!Join the Not Too Sensitive Club

** Grab tickets for The Energy Game Melbourne launch (29 July, 6:30pm) here and pre-order The Energy Game book here.** Writing a book is hard. But getting a publisher to say yes to your book? That is an entirely different challenge, and one that most aspiring authors know almost nothing about. What actually happens when a proposal lands on a publisher's desk? Who else needs to sign off before an offer is made? And in a world where anyone can ask AI to explain any topic, why has "great content" stopped being enough on its own? This one is a little different from my usual episodes. It's a recording from a live webinar I did with Izzy Yates, head of Penguin Publishing Lab at Penguin Random House Australia, who has published my last three books, including my newest one, The Energy Game. We unpack the full journey of a book, from proposal to bookshelf, including how Penguin's internal acquisitions process works, why pre-orders matter far more than most people realise, what actually gets retailers excited, and whether you can land a deal without a big platform. If you have ever thought about writing a book, or you are in the middle of writing one right now, this is the conversation I wish I had heard before I started. Izzy and I discuss: What made my first book proposal stand out, and the key ingredients Izzy looks for in every strong proposal The formula publishers use to evaluate a book: the quality of the idea multiplied by the size of the author's platform, and why it's more nuanced than it sounds Why authors who weave personal story into their content are having more success than those who rely on expertise alone How Penguin's two-stage internal process works, from publishing meeting to acquisitions meeting, before any offer is made The full editorial journey from first draft to printed book: structural edit, copy edit, and proofread How titles and covers are developed collaboratively, and what the team considers when landing on a final design Why pre-orders matter so much and how they create a virtuous cycle with retailers and chart placement Whether you can get a book deal without an existing audience or platform What topics and themes Izzy sees as most resonant right now, particularly in the health and personal development crossover space Pre-order The Energy Game: https://amzn.to/48ID29M and book your ticket to the Melbourne book launch at the Malthouse Theatre on July 29 with Lisa Leong here. Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore reviews A Real Piece of Work by Freya Bromley, published by Penguin Random House.

***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** The musical artist known as Pondless, who as a civilian goes by the name of Aaron Oliver, writes and performs pop songs about urban planning. If that sounds kind of out there, well, so is he, in the best way possible. We talked with him about why this country is divided into Houstons and New York Cities, why Boston does not exist, and how he came to write a love song to Robert Moses.  Pondless is @itspondless on Instagram and TikTok.  Our bestselling new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, published by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is available wherever books are sold. www.thewaroncars.org  

New York Times bestselling author and Knopf Executive Editor, Jenny Jackson, spoke with us about balancing life as an #authormom, editing bestsellers, finding standalone books, and her anticipated second novel, THE SHAMPOO EFFECT. Jenny Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street, a graduate of Williams College and the Columbia Publishing Course, and a Vice President and Editorial Director of Fiction at Alfred A. Knopf. Her second novel, The Shampoo Effect (Pamela Dorman Books; June 30), was named a most anticipated book of 2026 by the New York Times, described as “a frothy novel of love, money, sex, and friendship,” [about] “an ambitious young woman [who] insinuates herself into a tight-knit social set, shaking up friendships and marriages in a small seaside town.” New York Times bestselling author Coco Mellors said, “Jackson has a rare knack for capturing the intensity of old friendships and the way love, jealousy, money, and history combust until everyone is behaving (deliciously) badly.” Jenny Jackson is a prominent figure in the publishing world, having edited numerous high-profile works, including Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and Cormac McCarthy's final books, among others. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Jenny Jackson, Milena, and I discussed: Why she has the "shortest resume in all of publishing" What 23 years at Penguin Random House have taught her How John Updike inspired her latest The number of pages it takes her to know if your voice works Why you need to reject “rise and grind”  culture and write whenever you can And a lot more! Show Notes: https://www.jennyjacksonbooks.com/ The Shampoo Effect: A Novel by Jenny Jackson (Author) Jenny Jackson Amazon Author Page Jenny Jackson on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What should happen to drivers who kill or injure someone with their car? Does a focus on punishment for "reckless" or "dangerous" drivers let everyone else off the hook and never force them to look at the larger harms of a transportation system based around personal car ownership? Those are the questions asked by Ian Loader, a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, who argues that the law's focus on "motonormative punishment" is just another way of masking the larger problems caused by a car-dominant society. In a new study, Professor Loader proposes a vastly different way of thinking about criminal punishment organized around five harm reduction principles. Plus, is it really wrong for news outlets to write headlines like "Pedestrian Hit By Car," or is there more to it than advocates are willing to admit?  ***Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to exclusive ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!*** SHOW NOTES: Read Professor Ian Loader's study, "Beyond Motonormative Punishment: On Road Safety as Environmental Regulation." Curious about motonormativity? Listen to our episode with Dr. Ian Walker, who coined the term. Learn more about the concept in our episode with Dr. Tara Goddard and our episode with Marco te Brömmelstroet. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway and save $100 off any purchase of $800 or more with code TWOC100. Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org  

Today Justin talks with Josh Ireland. Josh has a master's degree in history from the University of York. After graduating, he worked as an editor at Headline and Quercus, two of Great Britain's leading publishing companies. Josh has ghostwritten numerous books for A-list celebrities, sports stars, politicians, oligarchs, and adventurers, including five Sunday Times bestsellers. He's also the author of two previous nonfiction titles under his own name. Josh is here todY to discuss his third and newest book,The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy which is available now from Penguin Random House. Connect with Josh: joshireland.co.uk Twitter/X: @JoshJohnIreland Check out the book, The Death of Trotsky, here. https://a.co/d/08n7PeB3 Connect with Spycraft 101: Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here. spycraft101.com IG: @spycraft101 Shop: shop.spycraft101.com Substack: spycraft101.substack.com Patreon: Spycraft 101 Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here. Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here. Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here. Kruschiki The best surplus military goods delivered right to your door. Use code SPYCRAFT101 for 10% off! https://kruschiki.com/ Clandestine Laboratories Your new favorite fragrance is here. I'm partial to Novochoc. https://www.clandestinelaboratories.com/fragrances Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does it take to make a street safer for everyone? In the US, it typically requires a combination of tragedy, grassroots organizing, and political leadership. Even when these ingredients come together, success is never guaranteed, as so many projects become battles about more than just bike lanes. Changing Lanes, a new documentary from director Ben Wolf, covers the fight to make McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, safer following the tragic death of a beloved teacher at the hands of a hit-and-run driver. Featuring interviews with such notable figures as Janette Sadik-Khan and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, Changing Lanes moves beyond bike lanes to tell a story that's very much made for this political and cultural moment. Wolf joins us along with advocates Bronwyn Breitner and Kevin LaCherra, as well as New York State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, to talk about how they fought to make McGuinness safe and the broader lessons they learned along the way. ***Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content,  invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!*** SHOW NOTES: Stream Changing Lanes on Amazon or Kanopy. Watch the film's trailer. Learn more about the film and request a screening at ChangingLanesDoc.com. Read more about the Make McGuinness Safe campaign and learn about where the project stands today.  Catch up on the corruption that led to a powerful family's downfall and the indictment of a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams, via Streetsblog. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway and save $100 off any purchase of $800 or more with code TWOC100. Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

In this episode, I sat down with Camille Joy, founder of the Moments of Joy Podcast and author of Moments of Joy: 90 Days of Encouragement, published by Penguin Random House. Camille is a trafficking survivor who escaped an abusive situation at 21, became a high school dropout turned executive chef, and fought her way into a six-figure salary by going directly to the CEO. When her youngest son Mason was diagnosed with autism, everything shifted again, and a raw, tear-filled video she recorded in her car after a difficult doctor visit went viral with over six million views in 2022.Today Camille runs two businesses: Moments of Joy, her for-profit media brand built on brand deals, speaking, and her book, and Awesomely Different, her nonprofit that provides swimming lesson grants for children with autism. She also shares how she and her filmmaker husband manage it all without a village, and what it really took to land Holly Robinson Peete as a podcast guest after five attempts over several years.Main TakeawaysYour test is your testimony: Camille's openness about trafficking, autism, and grief is what built her audience and her business.Tackle the shame first: Before you can turn your story into impact, you have to get comfortable sharing what you have been through.Serve before you ask: Camille landed Holly Robinson Peete as a guest by consistently showing up in her community, buying her book, attending her events, and reaching out five times before getting a yes.Caregiving and entrepreneurship can coexist: Camille and her husband run two businesses while raising Mason by communicating constantly, sharing schedules, and giving each other permission to pursue their goals.Highlights Include00:46 - Camille shares what life looked like before the Moments of Joy Podcast existed01:45 - Mason's birth story and three heart surgeries in 18 months02:42 - Receiving Mason's autism diagnosis and how it changed everything04:40 - Camille reveals she is a trafficking survivor and how she escaped at 2106:06 - How a stranger saying her name out loud was the sign she needed to go to culinary school09:14 - Fighting for the executive chef title at ConAir Corporation by CC'ing the CEO11:13 - Going to the CEO directly to demand her six-figure salary and getting it on the spot23:22 - The viral reel that changed everything: 6 to 7 million views after a tearful moment in the car27:06 - Launching Awesomely Different, her nonprofit that teaches children with autism to swim31:52 - Signing with Penguin Random House and the reality of first-round edits38:45 - How Camille and her husband manage two businesses and Mason's care without a traditional village46:01 - Why tackling shame is the first step to turning your test into a testimony52:03 - The strategy behind landing Holly Robinson Peete and why she reached out five times56:17 - Lightning round: resources, role models, daily non-negotiables, and parting adviceLinks Mentioned in This EpisodePodcorn (early podcast sponsorship platform): https://podcorn.comMoments of Joy Podcast: https://www.mojpodcast.com/ Watch & ListenSide Hustle Pro Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/13qDj08lBR4ymzGhXIKy8tSide Hustle Pro Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/side-hustle-pro/id1126021323Social MediaInstagram: @momentsofjoypodcastTikTok: @momentsofjoypodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.