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36 episodes with zibby books
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2 episodes with zibby books
3 episodes with zibby books
2 episodes with zibby books
2 episodes with zibby books
Calling all my fellow recovering people pleasers - Amy Wilson, host of the What Fresh Hell podcast, is here this week to discuss her new book of essays from Zibby Books, which explores how women and mothers are conditioned to be "happy to help" and how we might try to do things a bit differently.
Today my guest is writer, author and actor, Amy Wilson. She is the author of the memoir, When Did I Get Like This?: The Screamer, the Worrier, the Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget-Buyer, and Other Mothers I Swore I'd Never Be, as well as the co-host of the popular parenting podcast WHAT FRESH HELL: LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF MOTHERHOOD. The author of the MOTHER LOAD, a one-woman show which toured to 16 cities after its hit off-Broadway run, she has appeared as an actor on Broadway and as a series regular on TV sitcoms. Her new book is Happy to Help, Adventures of A People Pleaser, just out from Zibby Books. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.
Send us a textIn today's episode, Tara and Alex chat with Megan Tady, author of award-winning SUPER BLOOM, published May 2023 via Zibby Books, and her most recent, BLUEBIRD DAY. She runs the freelance writing and editing company Word-Lift. Her writing has appeared in Woman's Day, Reader's Digest, The Huffington Post, and Ms. Magazine, among others. Listen as they discuss where the idea for Bluebird Day came from, how she achieves the precarious balance between humor and heart, the effect of competitive sports on kids, and how being an editor has both helped and hindered her writing. Due to character limitations, please find a full version of the show notes with applicable content warnings and links on our website at: https://www.tarakross.com/podcast-1→ Connect with Megan on her Instagram or visit her website → Buy BLUEBIRD DAY HEREThe Hope Prose Podcast's InstagramAlex's Instagram Tara's Instagram
In this episode we talk about Zibby's newest project On Being Jewish Now and sharing important and beautiful stories to create connection and community. Zibby highlights powerful narratives written by Jewish authors on what it means to be Jewish now, especially in light of Oct 7th. Erin shares an upsetting story about when she was kicked out of a bookstore in Maine during her book tour by asking why there were no books on Israel. Zibby shares how to juggles being a publishing house, mama of 4, substack writer and soon to be author of her 7th book. Zibby Owens is the author of Blank: A Novel, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, and children's book Princess Charming, and the editor of three anthologies: On Being Jewish Now, Moms Don't Have Time to Have Kids, and Moms Don't Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology. Her next novel Overheard is forthcoming.A frequent contributor to Good Morning America and Kate Couric Media, she has contributed to Vogue, Oprah Daily, and other outlets, and has appeared on CNN, CBS This Morning, and many others. Vulture called her “NYC's Most Powerful Book-fluencer” (Vulture). Zibby is the CEO and Founder of Zibby Media, dubbed “the Zibby-verse” by the L.A. Times, which includes the award-winning, daily podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, the boutique publishing house Zibby Books, Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA, Zibby's Book Club, and Zibby Retreats, events for book lovers. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens and Substack where she tells it like it is. Join Erin for a life expanding 5 day retreat in breathtaking Tuscany + online group coaching program to transform into your most joyful, fulfilled and authentic Self. Mention that you listened to this episode for $500 off. All details here. Get your copy of Erin's book, Nothing Can Stop You: Unleash Your Authentic Self https://www.erinracheldoppelt.com/NothingCanStopYou – Follow Erin on Instagram @erinrdoppelt – Erin's book tour, certification program, and more at https://www.erinracheldoppelt.com/
Zibby Books author alert! Amy Wilson returns to the podcast to discuss HAPPY TO HELP: Adventures of a People Pleaser, a hilarious, insightful, transformative, and incredibly relatable collection of essays about how women are conditioned to be “happy to help”—and what happens when things don't go that way. Amy reflects on her life as a people-pleaser, from her childhood as the eldest of six siblings to a career in acting to raising three children and managing health crises. She talks about how she, and so many women, have been conditioned to prioritize others' happiness and what it's been like to question that.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4201GAcShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today Megan Tady is back with us to discuss her new hilarious and heartwarming new novel from Zibby Books, Bluebird Day -about a mother-daughter celebrity skiing duo who must learn to manage the bumps in their own estranged relationship when an avalanche in a dreamy Swiss village forces them together.
Zibby Books author alert! Megan Tady returns to the podcast to discuss BLUEBIRD DAY, a delightfully heartwarming tale of an estranged mother-daughter Olympic skiing duo who finally face the bumps in their relationship when an avalanche in a Swiss village forces them together. Megan describes the real-life avalanche that inspired the story and then shares the pressures and joys of writing about competitive female athletes, complex family dynamics, and the themes of identity and ambition. She also reveals her personal connection to competitive sports and touches on mental health, toxic relationships, and the sacrifices of pursuing elite athletic careers.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4f0puXoShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions!Amy Wilson, the brilliant co-host of the "What Fresh Hell" podcast and author of Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser (Jan 2025, Zibby Books), joined me for a fabulous conversation about owning your story through writing.We dive right into the real stuff—like what it's actually like to share personal essays (and how to spill your truth without accidentally blowing up your family's group chat). Amy opens up about her journey from writing the hilarious chaotic When Did I Get Like This? on parenting to exploring deeper themes, like people-pleasing, that resonate with an audience far beyond parents.And for anyone out there staring down an editing deadline or wondering what in the world the publishing gods are up to—Amy shares some hard-earned wisdom. From her writing routines to her secret recipe for mixing humor with “let's get real” moments, she provides an inside look at what makes her stories connect with so many people.So, grab your favorite drink (and maybe one of your new notebooks--I know you have one), and get ready for some relatable insights, laughs, and just the right amount of “you've got this” inspiration. Let's get you published! PublishAProfitableBook.com/Publish (use code AUTHOR25 for 25% off!) MOCKUP SHOTS DEALI've used MockUp shots for years to create attention-grabbing images great for social media. It usually costs $207, but they're offering a 60% discount on lifetime access with lifetime updates. It's a great way to get an unheard-of price on a product that will make you money and that you will end up using all the time.Click Here for 60% off >>Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! InstagramWebsite Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
Zibby Books author alert! Zibby welcomes debut author Sarah Sawyer to discuss THE UNDERCURRENT, a stunning, achingly beautiful, and gripping suspense about an overwhelmed new mother who becomes obsessed with the unsolved disappearance of a young girl from her small Texas hometown—and unearths her own family's dark secret. Sarah shares how her own experiences, particularly watching her daughter struggle with a thyroid disorder, inspired her reflections on the transformations women experience. She also delves into her novel's themes of female relationships, different life paths, and the impact of motherhood on personal identity. Finally, she shares her best advice for aspiring writers.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3XWozAPShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby Owens — like Pippa Jones — wears a lot of hats. She is the award-winning podcast host of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books; founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the publishing house Zibby Books, a book club, retreats, classes, and events; and is the proud owner of Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica. Her previous books include Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, children's book Princess Charming, and two anthologies that she edited. A frequent contributor to Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and other outlets, she is – most of all! – the mother of four fabulous kids ages 9 to 16 — and wife to Kyle Owens, founder of Morning Moon Productions. Follow her on Instagram and Substack where she tells it like it is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zibby Books author alert! Zibby welcomes Ava Dellaira to discuss her powerful and provocative new novel, EXPOSURE. Ava delves into her protagonists, Noah, a Black high school senior, and Juliette, a white college freshman, who go home together after a night of drinking. Twelve years later, Juliette's best friend Annie accuses Noah of raping Juliette—and the story breaks into multiple viewpoints and timelines, exploring themes of race, artistic ambition, grief, and the co-existence of conflicting truths. Ava shares how the start of the #MeToo movement, her personal grief, and motherhood shaped this story. She also talks about her background in photography, the loss of her mother, and her writing journey (including her popular YA novels!). Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4ghH8b0Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process (Zibby Books, 2024), Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye. The stories--which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny--will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife's funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones's characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence. Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does―knocking us off our feet. Mary Jones's work has appeared in Electric Literature's Recommend Reading, Subtropics, EPOCH, and The Best American Essays, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The Goodbye Process is a national bestseller. Originally from Upstate New York, she lives in Los Angeles. Recommended Books: Miranda July, All Fours Taylor Koekkoek, Thrillville USA Ling Ma, Bliss Montage Claire Keagan, Small Things Like These Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process (Zibby Books, 2024), Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye. The stories--which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny--will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife's funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones's characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence. Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does―knocking us off our feet. Mary Jones's work has appeared in Electric Literature's Recommend Reading, Subtropics, EPOCH, and The Best American Essays, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The Goodbye Process is a national bestseller. Originally from Upstate New York, she lives in Los Angeles. Recommended Books: Miranda July, All Fours Taylor Koekkoek, Thrillville USA Ling Ma, Bliss Montage Claire Keagan, Small Things Like These Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process (Zibby Books, 2024), Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye. The stories--which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny--will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife's funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones's characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence. Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does―knocking us off our feet. Mary Jones's work has appeared in Electric Literature's Recommend Reading, Subtropics, EPOCH, and The Best American Essays, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The Goodbye Process is a national bestseller. Originally from Upstate New York, she lives in Los Angeles. Recommended Books: Miranda July, All Fours Taylor Koekkoek, Thrillville USA Ling Ma, Bliss Montage Claire Keagan, Small Things Like These Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Join Ocean House owner and author Deborah Goodrich Royce for a conversation with author, podcaster, and book influencer Zibby Owens about her newly published novel, Blank. About Zibby Owens: Zibby Owens is the author of Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature and the children's book Princess Charming and is the editor of two anthologies: Moms Don't Have Time to Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology and Moms Don't Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology. Creator and host of the award-winning daily podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, Zibby is the founder and CEO of Zibby Media, dubbed “the Zibby-verse” by the Los Angeles Times. It includes publishing house Zibby Books, online magazine Zibby Mag, Zibby's Book Club, retreats, classes, and events. She also owns Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California. A regular contributor to Good Morning America and other outlets, she loves recommending books as “NYC's Most Powerful Book-fluencer” (Vulture). A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Zibby currently lives in New York (with frequent visits to LA) with her husband, Kyle Owens of Morning Moon Productions, and her four children ages nine to sixteen. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens and on Substack, where she tells it like it is. About Blank: A wife, mother, and frustrated writer faces an impossible deadline for turning her life around in a hilarious debut novel about family, friendship, success, and exhilarating self-(re)discovery. Pippa Jones is a fortyish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. After the follow-up book she was almost done writing, Podlusters, had to be tossed (it ended up sharing a plot and title with superstar author Ella Rankin's summer blockbuster!), she couldn't write a thing. Months of staring at a blank page made her confidence vanish like a one-night stand. When she finds out that she has only five days left to finish (or rather, start) or repay an advance she's already spent, Pippa has a brilliantly original idea. Okay, fine, her twelve-year-old son came up with it as a joke, but Pippa and her teenage daughter approved. Pippa's not only going to make a bold statement, but she'll change the book world while she's at it! Can she pull it off? At this point, she doesn't have a choice. When Pippa's publisher gets intimately involved, it unlocks a series of plot twists she never saw coming. From the courtyards of posh Beverly Hills hotels and Malibu mega-mansions to Brentwood and Santa Monica bookstores, Pippa races against time—in her used Volvo—and discovers more about her career, marriage, family, friends, and herself than she ever could have dreamed up. For more information about bestselling author Zibby Owens, please visit www.zibbyowens.com. For information on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit www.deborahgoodrichroyce.com
Zibby Books author alert! Zibby speaks to debut author Mary Jones about THE GOODBYE PROCESS, an arresting, original, and beautifully rendered short story collection that examines loss and the painful ways we say goodbye—not just after the death of a loved one, but also after divorces, friendship breakups, and when aging, as we lose our younger selves. Mary shares her path to writing—which started after her father's death when she was just 15—and then touches on her love for the short story and her experiences teaching creative writing.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3yvQG10Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Send me your writing and publishing questions!Mary Jones' book, The Goodbye Process (July 30, 2024, Zibby Books), is, in four words, hard to put down. Her raw, vivid descriptions of characters and experiences alike quickly pierced my soul and extended my bedtime! In this episode, Mary and I discussed her love of the short story form, some (perhaps surprising truths about writing and organizing short stories/essays, thoughts on beta readers, the querying and submission process, and our mutual love of "Days of Our Lives."CONNECT WITH MARYBook: The Goodbye ProcessInstagram: @maryjoneswriterX: @maryfjjones Threads: @maryjoneswriterWebsite: www.maryjoneswriter.comWHAT MARY'S READINGAll Fours by Miranda JulyMENTIONSI Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout MOCKUP SHOTS DEALI've used MockUp shots for years to create attention-grabbing images great for social media. It usually costs $207, but they're offering a 60% discount on lifetime access with lifetime updates. It's a great way to get an unheard-of price on a product that will make you money and that you will end up using all the time.Click Here for 60% off >>Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! InstagramWebsite Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4cCbWkkShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Send me your writing and publishing questions!Ava Dellaira's adult debut novel, Exposure, comes out with Zibby Books on September 10th, 2024. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed young adult novels In Search of Us and Love Letters to the Dead, which was named Best Book of the Year by Apple, Google, BuzzFeed, the New York Public Library and the Chicago Public Library. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow, and the University of Chicago. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and now lives in Altadena, CA with her husband and their two young children.INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTSThe challenges of writing in identities that aren't your own (and the risks involved in writing outside your own point of view)Where Ava's story ideas originate, and what she aimed to tackle through writing ExposureAva's editing process preferences, including how she views the editing process and ensures she receives feedback most positivelyDifferent approaches for when to start one's next book CONNECT WITH AVAWebsite: https://avadellaira.comInstagram: @ava.dellairaExposure (Zibby Books, Sept 2024) Love Letters to the Dead (Square Fish, 2015)In Search of Us (Square Fish, 2020)WHAT AVA'S READINGAll Fours by Miranda July Victim by Andrew BorygaWHAT ELIZABETH'S READINGThe New Menopause by Marie Claire HaverELIZABETH'S BOOK REC OF THE WEEKCutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese MOCKUP SHOTS DEALI've used MockUp shots for years to create attention-grabbing images great for social media. It usually costs $207, but they're offering a 60% discount on lifetime access with lifetime updates. It's a great way to get an unheard-of price on a product that will make you money and that you will end up using all the time.Click Here for 60% off >>Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! InstagramWebsite Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4as6kYfShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Amy Lin's performance of her memoir is so staggeringly beautiful it will break your heart. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Michele Cobb discuss Lin's story of loss. Lin's husband Kurtis was running a virtual half-marathon when he dropped dead for no discoverable reason. He was 32 years old. She was left absolutely broken. She tells her memoir in vignettes of meeting and losing Kurtis, and her grief is so obviously raw and her memories of their life together so full of love that it's astonishing the author was physically and emotionally able to read the work aloud. Lin teaches us, or reminds us, that sitting with someone in their sadness is far more helpful than a futile attempt to distract someone from their grief. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Zibby Books. Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile's website. Support for AudioFile's Sound Reviews comes from Hachette Audio, and the audiobook edition of RELENTLESS by Luis A Miranda Jr, featuring a foreword read by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda. To find out more about this, and any other Hachette Audio productions, please visit www.hachetteaudio.com, or @HachetteAudio This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Leslie sits down with Zibby Owens -- publisher, author, and host of "Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books", an award-winning podcast. Zibby has been referred to as New York City's "most powerful 'bookfluencer." She just released her latest book, Blank: A Novel. She also has two other bestsellers, "Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature" and a children's book called "Princess Charming." On top of her own writing, she is the co-founder and CEO of Zibby Books publishing house, owns an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA., and runs what is referred to as "Zibby-Verse" -- a community of book lovers for which she offers retreats, classes, special events, and more. Leslie and Zibby discuss her inspirations and how this mom of four finds time the time to sleep all while creating an entire literary universe.If you enjoy The Interview with Leslie, please subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review. Follow us on Instagram @theinterviewwithleslie.
“Reading to me is like breathing,” notes Zibby Owens, the creator and host of the Webby Award- winning podcast “Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books,” who joins us on the podcast to discuss her lifelong love of reading and writing and her commitment to championing books and authors. Indeed, Zibby has built on the success of her podcast to become the publishing industry's “most powerful book-fluencer,” according to New York magazine. A frequent contributor to “Good Morning America” and other media outlets, she is the co-founder and CEO of Zibby Books, an independent book publisher, and the owner of Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California. Across her Zibby Media empire—which devoted followers have christened “the Zibby-verse”—she also offers retreats, classes, special events, a book club, a writing group, and other bookish opportunities. “Everything has unraveled one thing at a time,” she says, of her full-on embrace of the book world, and the community of book lovers she has helped to nourish. “It's like a carpet sort of unspooling in front of me.” Most recently, Zibby has added the title of novelist to her long list of credits. Her just-published first novel, Blank, the story of a frustrated writer who seeks to disrupt the publishing industry, was hailed as “a delightful gift to book lovers,” by New York Times best-selling author Carley Fortune. Join us for a fresh, candid conversation on what it means to celebrate the written word. Learn more about Zibby Owens: Website Zibby Media “Moms Don't Have Times to Read Books” Facebook Twitter Instagram Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
What if your everyday mom moments could fill the pages of a book? What if motherhood has taught you leadership skills unmatched by any book or top-tier business school? What if the only thing holding you back from sharing your message with the world was simply not recognizing and appreciating your own value and the support others can offer once you do? These personal topics, especially if you're a bookworm or entrepreneurial mom, are discussed in today's episode with Zibby Owens, bestselling author of "Blank". Zibby is also the award-winning podcast host of "Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books" and the founder and CEO of Zibby Media. With four children and a Harvard Business School graduate, Zibby's journey is nothing short of inspiring. Check out her full bio below. In the meantime, don't forget to say hi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissallarena/ to let me know who else you'd like me to have as a guest. I love guest and topic ideas. This episode is sponsored by my book, "Fertile Imagination," A Guide for Stretching Every Mom's Superpower for Maximum Impact. In this episode, I realized that Zibby Owens possesses a fertile imagination, the ability to conceive of something that a mom may not have done before. I mean, how many moms do you know who, after a decade of being a stay-at-home mom, decide to disrupt entire industries? That's precisely what Zibby is doing, and that's why I was so inspired to have her on Unimaginable Wellness. Through my podcast and the guests featured in my book, I aim to showcase individuals who harness their imagination for good, making an impact that can reshape opportunities for their children and future generations. Helping moms ignite their imagination to solve meaningful problems is what truly ignites my passion. As your host, Melissa, I urge you to consider: Do you know what truly ignites you as a mom, a human, a woman? If not, and if you're unsure how to rediscover your interests, then "Fertile Imagination" is here to guide you. As a mom of three young boys, I've experienced the Groundhog Day feeling and the endless cycle of sibling squabbles. That's why I wrote "Fertile Imagination," to help readers like you embark on a journey of activating your imagination, listening to its whispers, and integrating what excites you into your daily life. So, whether it's Zibby's story or your own journey of exploration, "Fertile Imagination" is your roadmap to unlocking your inner powerhouse and designing a life aligned with your passions. This is an amazing conversation for you to absolutely take notes and maybe even look some stuff up because if you want to be an entrepreneur, Zibby does drop some nuggets of wisdom in terms of some tools you might want to consider. But at the same time, it's important to appreciate that Zibby was able to create and is still in the process of building an empire. She's authored several books based on everyday life moments that many moms, myself included, often overlook as potential sources of inspiration and revenue as entrepreneurs. There's undeniable value in our daily experiences, even if we don't always recognize it. My book, "Fertile Imagination," guides you in harnessing these moments that ignite your passion and shows you how to share, sell, or leverage them to make your maximum impact on the world. Visit http://www.melissallarena.com/fertileideas or fertileideas.com to grab a free chapter of "Fertile Imagination." Now, let's delve into the official bio of Zibby Owens. Official Bio Zibby Owens — like Pippa Jones — wears a lot of hats. She is the award-winning podcast host of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books; founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the publishing house Zibby Books, a book club, retreats, classes, and events; and is the proud owner of Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica. Her previous books include Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, children's book Princess Charming, and two anthologies that she edited. A frequent contributor to Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and other outlets, she is – most of all! – the mother of four fabulous kids ages 9 to 16 — and wife to Kyle Owens, founder of Morning Moon Productions. Follow her on Instagram and Substack where she tells it like it is. Learn More · https://www.zibbyowens.com · https://www.instagram.com/zibbyowens/ TRANSCRIPT How are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. So I just got through your book, Blank, and oh my goodness, talk about like the turns and tosses and like the silliness. It was really entertaining. And as someone that reads nonfiction, for the most part, I was like, Oh, wait a minute, I'm missing out. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm so curious, Zibby. I mean, I asked my listeners kind of what was on their mind, right? What did they want to learn about Zibby? Mom of four, someone that is disrupting the entire publishing industry. I mean, you're making us feel like rock stars. Let me just say any author out there. But what is it about Zibby? You that makes you so like inventive and innovative in terms of the way that you approach business, mom, life, and this book tour right now with blank. What is it about you? Where did you get that spark? That is a good question. I don't know where it came from, but I will say I like to have fun with anything I'm doing. So I feel like, for example, the book tour, which I'm calling the Zippyverse tour and going to all these stops and I have tour t shirts and friendship bracelets and sunglasses. The point of that is to make it feel fun for the end user. to make authors, to make myself an example of how an author could be treated as a rock star. I'm just like doing it myself. But also, I think most things that I'm doing are in response to something else. So this tour is in response to my last tour where I had a few stops, well one stop in particular, where literally two people showed up to an event and I'm like, I cannot have that happen again. So instead of just blindly walking into places, I decided to be more in control of it and have my own tour website and then have people so I can be aware of which events are doing well and which aren't and monitor my own marketing. So I guess the tour is an example of how I do most things, which is get a lot of data, figure out what works and what doesn't work, try something new, do something different, have fun, and see if it works or not. And it might not work, and if not, then I switch gears and try something else. And as to where it came from, I don't totally know. I think it's just who I am. I love it. I love it. And I think it's, it's so interesting because we physically met at Mom 2. 0, and I was just like smitten beyond belief. I was like, oh my god, just like, it's like you're like Shakira for us at this point. Also on tour. By the way, like you guys should parallel share tour buses and such you're living parallel lives. Right. But I was so excited that you were there and I thought it was really, really interesting that you were sharing your perspective on the publishing industry. And you just mentioned data. And I will say as someone who is excited about building a community of moms that have this like Fertile imagination, like really like expansive thinking approach to problem solving in their lives. I was thinking to myself. Okay. So what shifts are coming up? What do you know? Is there some sort of like magic eight ball in terms of what's happening in publishing? Based on your right now real time experience on this Zibby tour Is there any are there any shifts in publishing? I'm sure like During other times in this industry, there are different genres that, for whatever reason, have been rising to the top. Right? Like, romanticy is huge right now, and I look at some of these festivals I'm going to, and the lines for the fantasy authors are wrapped around them. So, um. The buildings. I mean, it's crazy. Why does that happen? I don't know. Like, why is, why did the rom com market take off right now? Not sure. Did anyone predict it? No. So what's coming after this? It's hard to say. I think that, People are looking more and more for escapes than more hard stuff. I mean, I love a good hard memoir that'll make me cry, I really do. But I think for the most part, life is so heavy that people Need an outlet and books are becoming that obviously, as you well know, TikTok and Instagram have changed how books are consumed and found and all of that, which is really interesting. So I'm definitely watching all of that really closely and I find it very interesting and always wondering like, what else can I be doing? Definitely have not mastered TikTok, so open to any. Anything, any suggestions, but the way that other people have adopted it and promoted books and have books and industries take off just points to the fact that sometimes you don't know where the next thing is going to come from, but the point is to be aware as it's coming. Everybody bemoans the state of the industry and will people stop reading and I find it incredibly encouraging that so many younger readers are just totally into these things and I, these types of books and it speaks overall to the need for community around books and connection and that's what books provide and having people um, It doesn't have to be books that are on the bestseller list. It can be books that are taking off on TikTok or that somebody you really respect likes or something like that. But there will always be that as a way to connect, which I think is great. And I think in terms of that idea of community, that is something that I secretly have always wanted to ask you, because I sense that the reason, or one of the reasons why Blank is doing so well right now, I mean, bestseller, is that because of the support that the community has been giving you, but then you've been nourishing this community too. And so I'm just curious, like any stories of like meeting people in person who are part of your community and how we can continue to help this book, like keep skyrocketing. Oh, that's so sweet. And yes, I think you're right in, in part. I mean, I have been doing the podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, since 2018. And there are a lot of people who have sort of been on this crazy ride with me. I mean, in 2017, I went on social media for the first time. Like, I didn't even have an account. And I had been at home with my kids for 11 years, and I had been out of, I've just been out of it, even though prior to that I had been working in different things, marketing and writing, and I had ghostwritten a book and things like that. But. I had been out of it for a while, and as I've gotten back into it, I've done what I always do, which is sort of share from the heart and share the backstory and share my deepest feelings, which I've been doing since I was 14 and started writing for Seventeen magazine about like how I felt about my body and gaining weight and all of that. So I've been really open about like how excited I am when good things happen, how dejected I feel when like, years ago when I first lost the Webby Award. So now here I am like six years later and this year I won the Webby Award. So like there have been people who have been along the way. So for me, it's more a symbol of things than the award itself, although I'm very excited, but it's like My kids helped me that first year try to campaign and get their friends to vote and all that stuff and then they were there when I didn't win like comforting me and now this year I could tell them that like we won and they could all like hug me and now they're older and so anyway people I think are rooting for me because I've been really open and yes I help lots of other people but I love that I mean it helps me just as much but I love getting to know authors and talking to people and and and you Just because other people have helped me so much by sharing in their memoirs or their essays or whatever, I give back by doing the same thing and hope that it, you know, I'm paying it forward and that it helps other people. And I'm, I, I do think that my community has turned out to read blank and that makes me really, really happy. I think it's also a quick read. I think people are enjoying it and it's more, it's more fun. I think, I just think people are looking forward to it. Now for something like that, that's just a little more fun, and I totally agree with you in the sense that a lot of the moms around me, like I've noticed, there's like this like book club mentality. Either you're in a book club to like escape family life, and it's just like chit chat with girlfriends about like really random things. Or like a book club and you're an aspiring author. And like, you want to get in the minds of perspective readers. And so the escape society, I'm just going to like name them that. I wonder like, okay, like fact and fiction are so blurry right now. And I was reading blank and I couldn't help but think like. Does Zibby have like a secret Instagram where she's like going to open houses? So what's the secret there? What's fact? What's fiction? And, and I loved the book. It was very unexpected. Thank you. Yeah. I love going to open houses. I have gone to 8 million open houses. I always like pull the car over and pop in. It's something like the kids are like, I'll be like, open house. They'll be like, no. So I just love doing that. I love seeing, I love design. I love just seeing how people live their lives too. Like I, I don't know the fact that like people just open up their homes. It's amazing. So I do not have a secret Instagram account, but, but I do love open houses. So that part is absolutely true. That part. And then there were So many other moments in the book, and I'm not going to give any spoilers away, but there were so many moments that I was like, yep, that visual. I know it. I've seen it. Like, let's just talk about, for example, one, like the Benihana Onion Volcano, like it. Yeah. When you said that, or when I heard it in the book, because I have the audio version, I was like, yep, I know what that looks like. I know those volcanoes. And it's like one of those mom moments, like, should we get like a fire extinguisher kind of a thing? But where did you pull out these different sort of like visuals that were like, so quote unquote, gettable? I mean, that's my life as a mom, like, I, I mean, I, I am doing all these things, I am in it, like, I have four kids, like, this is my life, and it has been for a very long time, so, I'm just putting in all the things, they just come out, like, I'm, I wasn't like, oh, I need to be sure to put the Benny Hanna image in, in fact, I barely even remember where that is, but, It's, it's just like, I've been, I've seen that so many times, and I have, I could fill endless books with just the kid stuff, so I think that I've noticed as I write fiction, which is new for me, I mean, this type of process, I, I, things are coming out that I don't even know. I mean, I'm writing my next book now, and I have this huge outline, so I really just have to like, put the words in, like I've already figured out the whole story, and it's, I actually made it kind of a little less fun for myself, I think, because I already know everything, and now I just have to, like, write it and make it fun, but. Anyway, I started writing it with this detailed outline and like, I wrote 10, 000 words about something totally not even in the outline. Like where is this going? But it's like I had to, I invented this whole backstory. Point is like my subconscious kind of takes over, I think, or whatever happens. But fiction is something I don't totally understand how I'm doing it. But I know that it's like a mishmash of all these things that are in my brain, like a. Okay. The endless trips to Benihana and like the fact that my daughter's hydroflask like never fits in the car and like they pushed me out of the way to like get to the radio thing and I'm like always about to get crash my car like all those things are just my life that's just my day to day life so and I know I don't always post that stuff like on social media and in my newsletters like I'm very intentional about not including my kids and things that are too specific to them. Um, But that is my life. I mean, I post the glamorous parts and I post, I mean, I hope to, I hope, I hope I post like enough real stuff that people know, but I don't want to reveal personal things about the kids. So anyway, all to say, yes, I've been there many times. You have like best customer out of Benihana, right? So it's, yeah, totally like, okay, it was just hilarious to me. Like when that mention happened, cause I was just like, taken there immediately and then wanting teriyaki chicken. But anyway, that withstanding, you're actually making me hungry right now. I know it's, it's early, but like I could, I could have a turkey right now. So this, this, so this is something that I find really common with so many women that Have been either out of the workplace or they're like starting brand new. Like you just mentioned these tiny, regular, banal moments of motherhood. And what you managed to do, my interpretation of it is make it into a story, make it into something that matters to a reader and like engage the reader. Like, why is it that. In, in your situation, I assume like that that's enough for a story, enough to engage a reader. And I found so many other moms are like, but I have nothing to write about. And you can write a whole like 10, 000 word thing about that. Well, I think it's how much we value those stories. I think a lot of moms don't put worth into what they're learning, but we're learning lots of things every day as parents. I mean, I learned more from being a mom than through all my education and I've gone to lots of schools and da da da, but it's an on the job, constant learning, constant changing, like full body experience and no one can tell you how to do it and you can't study for it In that way, it's like a nightmare, right? You have to just, it's the most important thing in the world. And, you know, for people who like to prepare, there's not that much you can do that will actually help, right? Until you get to know what you have, what you're dealing with, the sleep books. Do they work? I don't know. I mean, I've read a lot of them. Did they help me? Not so much. So I think that as we are dealing with our kids, and learning and ingesting information. It's, it's information that others are ingesting in an equally unsure point of their lives. And by reflecting it back, I think we're reminding each other that none of us are in it alone, even though it can feel very isolating. I mean, a night at home, my kids are older now, like my youngest is now nine, but Like the the tantrum not ending at home at bedtime. I mean, I have felt like well, is this ever gonna end? Will this kid ever stop crying or will this child ever fall asleep or how am I ever going to get out of the situation? And There's nobody to call, like, it doesn't matter, you can't, so, anyway, it can feel very lonely and isolating and terrifying, but really we're, so many of us are going through similar things, so as long as we share it, it makes it, and add some humor to it, I think it will help get through those day to day moments that can feel really difficult. I agree. And I also think about my kids almost like imagination experts in residence. It's like, they help me imagine how a situation can be more fun. They help me imagine how I can like, lighten up. Mom, I've heard that before. Like they, they really do help me navigate the, the, the stuff that is impossible to just kind of navigate with just my thinking, rational brain. Right. Cause things don't always make sense. And, and what you mentioned right now, as far as motherhood and loneliness and just like solitude, that's how I felt when I was writing my book. And when I was reading your book, I was like, wait a minute, like, how is it like, I almost feel like we all need an outlet, like if we do embark on writing a book, right? And so maybe I haven't found one yet. And like, I need to go get one. But at this point, it's It's going on artist dates for me, so I'm all about like Julia Cameron's like idea of like going and doing fun things. So as you're on this Zibby tour, I'm just wondering like, do you have an outlet? Maybe one where you just kind of step it up in your enthusiasm and feel energized and things like that. Hmm. Outlets for me. I really enjoy design, like graphic design and all that and like Canva and creating things and I'm not good enough at it. Like it's very frustrating to me. I want to be and I keep trying, but I seem to, I know what looks good, but sometimes I don't know quite how to get there. So I have a lot of fun. Doing that and trying always to improve and also teaching myself new things like this morning for instance Like I had a bunch of files on Dropbox that I'm like, I need to get these files onto YouTube There must be a better way So like next thing, you know I'm like learning how to use Zapier and like trying to schedule zaps and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm doing I'm probably about to make a huge mistake. It ended up not totally working now I have to go back and figure it out But like Okay, that's fun for me. I, I, I just enjoy a challenge. And even if it's something as simple as that, so I realize that's not as lofty as Julia Cameron, but also I have so many things that I do. I mean, I have my podcast, which I have been doing daily for four plus years, and I still have tons of episodes each week because even though I've gone to three times a week, I had booked so many that, uh, the ones I'm doing now are coming out so late, which is ridiculous. Like, I really have to, now I might have to change it all again. But anyway, I have all these different things that I am constantly kind of multitasking. Doing the podcast or having a meeting about, like, the marketing of a particular book or helping another author or writing an essay or maybe I should do a gift guide for Mother's Day or like, I mean, like, I, I am always like that. So I feel like my life is one procrastination from something else all the time. But it sounds like productive procrastination, which I want to make a thing, like, I think, I think we need to celebrate productive procrastination, because if you have so many ideas in your mind, it's kind of like, all right, follow this thread and then go follow this other thread and something's going to work for sure. And. And I'm wondering, like, when it came to your own business and when it came to, I'm not sure if it was like a clean transition from podcasting to publishing, but when it came to your own business, how did you like follow the thread in terms of like brick by brick building out this Zibby verse, which is like, wow. I mean, I didn't try to start a Zibby verse. Like, I'm literally wearing a sweater today that says Evyverse, that these two amazing women, Susie and Andrea, who live in Minneapolis, who I've gotten to know, and I went, and they offered then when Blank came out, to your point, to like host me in their town and introduce me to all their friends. And I was like, I'll go to Minneapolis. So I went, and they gave me this fabulous event, and then they gave me this sweater as a gift that like a friend of theirs like sewed on. I mean, it's so nice. I, that was not the plan. Like, I really started out, to be perfectly honest, just trying to sell a book. I didn't have a platform. I wanted to write a book forever. I'd written, I'd ghost written a book. I'd had a novel rejected in my 20s and I wanted to get back to it. And I had a bunch of parenting essays I'd been writing. That I wanted to turn into a book and so I started a podcast and I just, I think I'm just good at taking something and growing it and turning it into something else or just seeing opportunities of what comes next or if somebody else suggests something like testing it out or trying it or like mulling it over and figuring out how I would do it and just trying. I mean, it was so frustrating at the beginning. I was like, okay, no one is ever going to download this podcast. I'm going to be stuck at 86 downloads an episode forever. And I was like, but you know what? I still love what I'm doing. So even if I only get 86 downloads an episode, I'm not going to stop. And even if I have like five different books rejected, I'm not going to stop. Like, this is what I want to do. I, I, I'm very persistent when it comes to things that I enjoy and that I feel like I'm on the right path, even if it's not being validated to me externally, so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and see and that's how I've gotten here and The publishing, obviously, was a different level because it took a lot of investment and hiring and all of that. So I did a ton of research. It took me a couple years to decide to do it. Like, I thought about it for a while before I did it. I had lots of calls. I had, there, there is some method to the madness. But in the end, I just thought, what's the worst that happens? I try to start a publishing company to help authors and it fails. Still, still cool. So, that's sort of my attitude. What's the worst that's going to happen? Yeah, and I think, I think a lot of times we just like assume like the worst is like total demise, the end of, of all our finances and just like, it's very catastrophic, I think, or maybe it's just my anxiety or something, but I, I see that, I see that, and so right now, just to kind of like put it out there, as I think about it. Cool. My book, and I think about, okay, how can I bring together a community of moms who want to think expansively about what's possible for themselves, who want to use their skills in ways that have never been used by other moms around them before, like What would you suggest would be, like, my first step? Okay, so, developing a community. Well, you already are doing a community. You have a podcast. You wrote a book. I mean, you don't need You don't need my help. I should be asking you, like, what has worked for you? Seriously, you know, for me, what worked for me is really taking like activating my chutzpah, honestly, that is what has worked for me so far, like talking to people who I know the book will help feel empowered, like one of the people that read my book, for example, she's like, I felt like I was back in fourth grade when I read it. Fertile imagination, like that teacher who's like, you can do it. And a little bit like Navy seal ish too, but you know, more like the teacher that's kind and generous. And like, that is what I was going for. So I wanted to just like, put myself out there intentionally to your point. Right. So it was kind of like, okay, like, where are these moms who need this information and who are super educated too? And I think. That's like a tiny little nuance, but it's like, I don't know about you. I know you went to HBS, I went to Tuck. We have our MBAs and I can't say that doing a ZAP on Zapier was something we learned in our relative business schools. I'm just saying. Right. Do you know how to do zap since Zap, zap year? I know. I'm a zapper. Yeah. I zap. Yeah. Oh yeah. We zap. We zap. We zap a lot. I get my emails with all my little zaps and this is how Zapier saved me time, right? So yeah, I'm happy to go in there and like help you zap stuff. Yeah, I might need that after this call. For sure. For sure. But like, this is not what we were taught like in business school. It was more about like how to plug into an organization and how to lead and how to like look at P& Ls and stuff. And granted, of course, we have our respective PNLs, but I'm just wondering, like, what would you say is the most valuable thing that you've learned as an entrepreneur, like doing it here in your space that you think should be taught in a business school? That's a great question. Because yes, I did take these things in business school and they, did they help me? Right, exactly. Like, I mean, honestly, I think they should teach you that You can watch a quick YouTube tutorial about literally anything and teach yourself how to do it. That is how I started a podcast. I was like, Google, how to start a podcast. You know, how do I? I watch videos all the time. Like we got locked out of the car the other day and everyone's like, what should we do? And I was like, I'm sure there's a YouTube video about this. And like, there was. So, I think it's, it's knowing that like, there are so many experts in so many things that anything you want to do, there is a guide. And now it's easier than ever to take people's advice and have them teach you. I think being open to learning and innovating, and this is something we learned is, The ability to sort of shift gears and be, pay attention to market trends and da, da, da. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like we learned that, but you know, I feel like my cases in business school were like operational challenges and, you know, the cranberry manufacturing and like, I was like, what? And like, then in like our one conversation or one class, it was called leadership about like all the ways that people led wrong. And, and so I think about that, but I'm also like, I don't want to ever lead as the professional only version of myself. Like, I've decided that the best way to lead is just to use myself, even if it's my mom's skills. in the workplace. Like, I feel like I lead as a mom and I feel like it has only made me a better leader and they don't talk about that at business school at all. There is something about like taking care of people and gathering people and the softer skills or moments. Like with my company, I decided like three days a week, we all, Like take a break and go and have a nice lunch together every week. That's what we do. It's part of our culture. It's just like what we do. And I have them to my home and we sit around my dining room table and have lunch. And it's so nice. And it's like, I want to take care of them. I want to my teammates, like my most important dinner guests, because that's what they are. They are so important. And why would you treat an employee any differently than that? Like, if you don't want to have them. If you don't feel like they deserve that, they probably then should not be working for you. Do you know what I mean? So, and, and leaving, like I leave every day at 2. 30 and go pick up my kids. And I get it all done the rest of the day, but like, do I need to be in the office? So I just think there are so many things we could have learned about there are ways to make it work and finding flexible environments and leading by example and Making it work. And, and then I guess just always, like, I think that businesses, leading a business is like raising a kid in that as soon as you feel like you have it down, everything changes. Right? I got it. And now, suddenly, they're a year older and I don't know what I'm doing again. And none of the clothes fit. Like, I have to start again? Are you kidding me? And that's what it's like in business. Like, things are constantly changing. Oh, okay, maybe it's an external change that's impacting the organization. Maybe it's an internal growth change. But we have to be ready to, like, run to the gap and get new clothes. It's so funny. I was just telling a client yesterday that using your imagination is like the perfect change management tool. Like, I mean, so many people that have businesses are able to just go from one thing to another quite quickly, just really edit, change, refocus, and then, and then not feel like, kind of like, I don't know, maybe it's just me. Like for me, I would kind of feel like men. I did it wrong. Embarrassed. Like I was going this way and now I'm like, no longer doing this thing. What people are going to think. And so I think that's something else that stops you. And the same could be said when you're at a target and your kids have a meltdown and you have a choice, be the mom that you intended to be in front of other people or care what they think. And then be that another kind of mom. It's. The parallels are striking between motherhood and entrepreneurship for sure. So on that point, I'm just curious, like, can we name the superpower that you got from being a mom that you apply in business? What, what would you name that superpower? Being humble. 100%. The superpower is the ability to constantly learn and change. Honestly, I mean, you have to constantly adapt to changing conditions as a mom. So adaptability. Yeah, I think constantly being able to adaptability. Yeah. Regroup to do lots of things at once and to deal with things that are ultimately out of your control even when you care Yeah, and that's when it's like the hardest, right? It's like when it's your heart when it's your name when it's the Zibby verse, right? It's different than if it were this third party entity and I think I think we can, we can close the conversation there because I think right now a lot of listeners are probably wondering to themselves like, holy cow, maybe there is value in my like super regular mom life moments. Maybe I could write a story, right? Much value, so much value, so much value. And I think now the onus might be on people that have these like MBAs and things to put that value in like an income statement, like goodwill, at least, right? Like just like find a place. To, to demonstrate that we, if we use the success markers of the world, like finances and money and all that, like, how, how can we translate that to like real income financial security for moms? I mean, I think, I think the value is huge. And so my hope, my intention is through your story, Zibby, through this conversation that anyone listening feels like, what? Heck yeah, I matter. I matter. And I think that's so true. Thank you so, so much, Zibby. This was amazing. Where can people buy your book? Blank. Yes. Please buy blank. You can buy it literally anywhere. Go to your local independent bookstore, order it online. My website is zibbyowens. com. You can, there are links to lots of places to buy it there. You can get a signed copy at Zibby's bookshop through my website. You can. Get it, I don't know, wherever you get books or you can listen or you can read it on Kindle or whatever and you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens or and or my sub stack zibbyowens. substack. com and you know, I tell it like it is. Absolutely. Thank you again, Zibby. Thank you. Here are the three things that I would love for you to just really reflect upon after this wonderful conversation with Zibby Owens. Point number one, if you are a mom, even if you have not, I don't even know, use social media for the last decade, I want you to realize that it doesn't matter. Everything that you want to know about launching a business, you can just Google it, you could even use AI. to help you get started. There is no reason not to explore your entrepreneurial muscles. Absolutely zero reason. So Google it. If you want to build an empire, launch a community or write your own book. Point number two, We underappreciate ourselves. Let's just imagine what it takes in order to run a house. Imagine what it takes to raise a wonderful human who is going to contribute to society after we leave this planet. There's so much value in what a mom does and no, we do not need to see that value demonstrated in the bank account in order to appreciate it. You have value that I promise you can absolutely change the world, but we need bravery. That might be what's missing. Bravery. Just be brave to demonstrate to the world that you can do A, B, or C. Be brave to actually start taking the steps and figuring out how you want to express your skills and talents with the world. And realize that whatever it is that you're doing at home, someone else is paying someone to do that too. Please be aware. So. Underappreciating what you're doing at home, even if it feels like it's, you know, what every mom would do, of course, is, is something that needs to be re evaluated because you have so much value, and I think it's very obvious in the conversation we had here between myself and Zibby. Point number three. So here's a very big call to action. If you went to a business school anywhere in the world, right, I would invite you to actually speak to a dean and ask that person, whoever they are, if they're open to having you teach a class, maybe on how to be a humble leader, maybe on how to be Empathetic as a leader, maybe on how to really, um, be a more nurturing leader. These are the skills that you already have built in, in terms of being a mom. And these are skills that you can a hundred percent teach at a business school, and I would invite you to have that conversation with a Dean. As a matter of fact, I plan to do that myself. And so there you go. That is my action item. Other than that, be sure to buy Zibby's book, Blank. It is available everywhere that you would ordinarily shop for books. Also buy my book, Fertile Imagination. Imagine double fisting two books by moms who might not have time to read a lot of books, but made the time to write books. And I would encourage you to think about your own life experience as worthy of filling the pages of any book. Thank you again. Next episode drops on Tuesday. Make sure that you follow Unimaginable Wellness.
Renowned grief therapist (and future Zibby Books author!) Claire Bidwell Smith comes back on the podcast, this time to discuss CONSCIOUS GRIEVING: A Transformative Approach to Healing from Loss. As she and Zibby delve into the book's core themes, Claire shares her personal journey of loss—having lost both her parents at a young age—and how it led to a career in grief counseling. She also shares insights on the grieving process, touches on its misconceptions, and offers practical advice and encouragement for those facing it. Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4cd5EYLShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby Owens — like Pippa Jones — wears a lot of hats. She is the award-winning podcast host of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books; founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the publishing house Zibby Books, an online magazine, a book club, retreats, classes, and events; and is the proud owner of Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica.Her previous books include Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, children's book Princess Charming, and two anthologies that she edited. A frequent contributor to Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and other outlets, she is – most of all! – the mother of four fabulous kids ages 9 to 16 — and wife to Kyle Owens, founder of Morning Moon Productions. Join Jill and Zibby as they talk all things books! And follow Zibby on Instagram and Substack where she tells it like it is. ______________Did you know there's a She's Got Issues magazine? Check it out! Follow us on Instagram: Jill • She's Got IssuesFor more information contact info@shesgotissues.comShe's Got Issues is produced by Play Audio Agency, Mikki Caplan-Zaple, Keira Shein & Jill Smokler© 2023 She's Got Issues visit www.shesgotissues.com or contact info@shesgotissues.com
✨Have you ever had a life-long dream? Maybe you've gotten close, maybe you've worked adjacent to the dream, but you've never quite reached it. You've kept it through every rejection, every wrong turn, every almost—through it all the dream always burned on. Now imagine that one day, after years of preparation and imagining, that dream finally came true. Today's guest has a story of just that and will teach you the beauty of a longer creative journey! Today's guest is Zibby Owens! More info below :) From this conversation you'll learn: -How to keep your belief in yourself through rejection -The benefits of a longer creative journey-Why a creative block can actually provide unexpected creativity down-the-line -Tools for what to do AFTER your greatest creative dream comes true -Why all good creativity starts with a questionGuest Bio: Zibby Owens is an author, award-winning podcast host of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the publishing house, Zibby Books, online content site, Zibby Mag, Zibby's Book Club, which includes retreats, classes, events, and podcasts; and owner of Zibby's Bookshop which is an independent bookstore in Santa Monica. Her previous books include Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, Princess Charming, and two anthologies that she edited.-Remember to subscribe/follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. Please leave us a rating and review- it helps SO much in getting the show out there. And tell a friend about the show- podcasts are very personal and tend to be spread person to person. If this show helped you or made you smile, share the love :) Follow the show @unleashyourinnercreative Follow me @LaurenLoGrasso
In this special episode (a live event at Zibby's Bookshop in Santa Monica!), New York Times bestselling author, writing instructor, and grief and loss coach Hope Edelman chats with renowned psychotherapist and Zibby Books author Meghan Riordan Jarvis about END OF THE HOUR, Meghan's poignant and beautifully written memoir. Meghan delves into the origins of the book—writing was a therapeutic tool during her own treatment for trauma, which she experienced after the deaths of her parents. She and Hope explore the concept of trauma, the process of writing about traumatic experiences, therapeutic techniques, self-care, and healing.Purchase on Bookshop:End of the Hour: bit.ly/3QXNouaThe AfterGrief: https://bit.ly/4bKgzsSShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Elle Evans is an anesthesiologist and a novelist whose debut novel, Wedding Issues, comes out April 2, 2024 with Zibby Books. And was this ever a fascinating conversation!EPISODE HIGHLIGHTSThe first book Elle wrote (that was never officially published, even with the best title ever) Elle's writing process, including how she sets goals and deadlines The probable stop on the publishing journey she specifically advises writers to “buckle up” for How her first two novels ended up "dead on submission" (and what she's planning for them now!)How she's coordinating book launch activities with her operating room schedule Her process for letting go of one book's characters in order to start fresh on anotherHer unique perspective when it comes to title/cover changes by a publisherABOUT ELLEA Boston native, Elle Evans spent five years in Nashville soaking up sweet Southern hospitality and even sweet iced tea. She now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and rescue dog Calypso, the first of many pets named from Greek mythology characters. Elle enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and attempting ambitious cocktail recipes. She writes under a not-so-secret pseudonym to maintain separation from her academic research papers and professional life. CONNECT WITH ELLEInstagram: @elle.evans.books Website: ElleEvansBooks.comWedding Issues: A Novel -- Buy at Bookshop.org to support indie bookstoresWHAT ELLE'S READING NOWLast Call At The Local by Sarah Grunder RuizEveryone But Myself by Julie ChavezHouse of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiWrite the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! InstagramWebsite Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
In the latest episode of Write the Damn Book Already, I spoke with Julie Chavez, author of the incredibly well-received memoir, Everyone But Myself (January 2024, Zibby Books).After Julie's life experience turned into a book idea, she wrote 30,000 words and thought that surely it was a complete, publishable book. Newsflash: It wasn't. But she stuck with it, and within a few weeks of launch, it became a USA Today Bestseller.INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTSWhy being naive is the greatest gift for authors sharing vulnerable stories Thoughts on why aspiring authors don't understand the challenges involved in book writing (it's one of the things this podcast hopes to rectify!)Metrics authors use to determine “success” (including Julie's) + an exploration of the “machine” side versus the human side of writingHow to trust when you've healed "enough” to write about challengesThe lesser-known benefits of having an agent (beyond getting a book deal)ABOUT JULIEJulie Chavez is an elementary school librarian in Northern California. Her writing has been featured in Real Simple, the New York Post, and Zibby Mag, and she is the author of the USA TODAY bestselling memoir, Everyone But Myself. Julie lives with her husband and two tall teenagers in a house where she arranges her books by color.CONNECT WITH JULIEWebsite: juliewriteswords.comInstagram: @juliewriteswordsBuy Everyone But Myself while supporting indie bookstores! WHAT JULIE'S READING NOWThe Sicilian Inheritance by Jo PiazzaHappiness Falls by Angie KimMrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia FordDarling Girls by Sally HepworthYou'd Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna WallaceRESOURCES MENTIONEDPodcast episode with Kristen McGuinessLemme Focus Concentration GummiesJulie's episode on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcastWrite the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! Instagram TikTokEmail the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written, published, and launched, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
Transitioning between genres can feel like learning a new dance with the same set of feet. In this episode of Write the Damn Book Already, Zibby Owens shares her experience shifting from memoir (Bookends, July 1, 2022, Little a) to fiction (Blank, March 1, 2024, Little a). We discuss what it takes to draft a compelling "base layer" for a story. Meanwhile, as the current Goodreads controversy continues to unfold, we chat about the harsh realities of online ratings and the significance of author advocacy in the digital age. Learn how to navigate the murky waters of social media hijacking, and why fortifying a diverse online presence is more important than ever. ABOUT ZIBBY OWENSZibby Owens is the creator and host of the award-winning, daily podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Zibby is also the founder and CEO of Zibby Media, dubbed “the Zibby-verse” (L.A. Times). It includes publishing house Zibby Books, online magazine Zibby Mag, Zibby's Book Club, retreats, classes, and events. She owns Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA. A regular contributor to “Good Morning America” and other outlets, she loves recommending books as “NYC's Most Powerful Book-fluencer” (Vulture). Zibby is the author of Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature and children's book Princess Charming, and editor of two anthologies, Moms Don't Have Time to Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology and Moms Don't Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology.A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Zibby currently lives in New York (with frequent visits to L.A.) with her husband, Kyle Owens of Morning Moon Productions, and her four children ages 9 to 16. CONNECT WITH ZIBBYInstagram @zibbyowens Substack newsletter Website: ZibbyOwens.comBlank: A NovelBookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss and LiteratureWrite the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! Instagram TikTokEmail the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written, published, and launched, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
Zibby Books author alert!! Zibby interviews award-winning author and repeat MDHTTRB guest Donna Hemans about THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH, a lush, evocative story about a fractured Jamaican family, a tapestry of family secrets that has been buried for decades, and a daughter determined to reclaim her home. Donna shares the personal history that inspired her novel—it involves her own family's migration from Jamaica to Cuba and eventually to the United States. She also delves into her book's themes of home, family, memory, identity, and the quest for belonging across generations and continents. Finally, she shares insights into her writing process, the journey of self-discovery through storytelling, and her current reading interests! Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/486Uj9LShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of My Simplified Life, host Michelle Glogovac interviews Donna Hemans, the author of The House of Plain Truth. Michelle and Donna discuss Donna's journey from being a journalist to becoming an author. They delve into the inspiration behind Donna's latest book, her writing process, and how she incorporates aspects of her Jamaican heritage into her stories. Donna also shares her unique hobby of ceramics, particularly making teapots. What we're talking about Donna's writing process involves a non-linear approach, moving around different parts of her story until it all comes together. Family history and personal experiences can significantly influence an author's writing. Beyond writing, hobbies like ceramics can provide a creative outlet and contribute to an author's overall creativity. Donna's Writing Process Donna shares that her writing process does not follow a linear path. Instead, she moves around within her story, writing different sections as they come to her. She prefers the surprise element of letting the story unfold as she writes rather than outlining it beforehand. This approach provides a unique perspective on creative writing and shows that there isn't a 'one-size-fits-all' method. Influence of Family History and Personal Experiences Donna's Jamaican heritage and family history significantly impact her writing. She pulls from her life and community when writing her stories, adding authenticity and relatability to her work. Her latest book, The House of Plain Truth, was inspired by her grandparents' story, demonstrating the power of personal history in storytelling. Hobbies Beyond Writing Ceramics, specifically making teapots, is a hobby that Donna picked up, which provides her with a creative outlet outside of writing. It's interesting to see how writers can have passions outside their main profession that still enhance their creativity and can even influence their work. LINKS MENTIONED Donna Hemans' Website https://www.donnahemans.com/ The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-house-of-plain-truth-donna-hemans/19712258?ean=9798986241814 Zibby Books https://www.zibbyowens.com/zibby-books
In this interview, I chat with Julie Chavez about Everyone But Myself, her publishing journey including working with Zibby Books, what surprised her the most about writing a memoir, how involved the editing process can be, her title and cover, and much more. Julie's recommended reads are: The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza Shark Heart by Emily Habeck The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans Want to know which new titles are publishing in January - May of 2024? Check out the new Literary Lookbook which contains a comprehensive but not exhaustive list all in one place so you can plan ahead. Join my Patreon group to support the podcast. Other ways to support the podcast can be found here. Everyone But Myself can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Threads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zibby Books author alert!! Zibby interviews debut author Julie Chavez about EVERYONE BUT MYSELF, a fresh, tender-hearted, and bitingly funny memoir about a mother who is spread thin by the demands of modern family… and then, little by little, learns to put herself first. Julie describes her exciting journey to becoming a Zibby Books author and then shares her experiences navigating severe anxiety and depression, revealing how the pressure to be a good mother, wife, and professional made her neglect her own well-being. She also touches on her writing process, particularly how she infused humor and wit into her book, and highlights the importance of self-compassion and creating a support network during difficult times.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3RN9637Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Abigail sits down with Megan Tady (Super Bloom, May 2023) to discuss her debut and path to publishing. Humble and resilient, Megan shares her experience and knowledge about a wide range of writing tips from the importance of accountability partners and writing strategies to game-changing mindset tips and what to expect as a published author. Some of Abigail's favorite takeaways include: How Megan became a story of resiliency Ways to turn fear and a scarcity mindset into confidence Why querying is a humbling experience and how to crack a query letter The publishing gauntlet and what to expect after you publish Zibby Books and their creative and supportive approach to publishing Super Boom! (And Megan's next book) More! What are your favorite takeaways from Megan's interview? P.S. Buy SUPER BLOOM here >> Follow Abigail and Megan: Website: www.abigailkperry.com | https://www.megantady.com/ IG: @abigailkperry | @megtady
Zibby Owens has so many cool jobs that all started from her love of connecting people to books. She's an author, podcaster, publisher, indie bookstore owner, CEO, and mother of four. She was a stay at home mom for 11 years before starting the podcast “Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books” in 2018. Since then, she's gone on to create a book-filled empire, including becoming a(n): Publisher at Zibby Books - 12 books a year in fiction and memoirAuthor of the novel Blank, that comes out March 1, 2024, and several other books, including a memoir and a children's bookOwner of Zibby's Book Shop in Santa Monica, CACEO of Zibby Media Contact Info:Zibby Owens - GuestZibby's Instagram accountZibby's websiteJulie Berman - Hostwww.womenwithcooljobs.com@womencooljobs (Instagram)Julie Berman's LinkedIn Profile ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wishing you had your own cool job?? Not sure what you want to be when you grow up? In a time of transition or reinvention? Are you so busy that you've put yourself on the backburner for awhile? Get Sparked! Understand yourself better and learn what feels exciting and fulfilling for you. Not sure where to start? Julie can help you figure out what lights you up and fulfills you, so you can do a cool job, too! Schedule HERE to do a free, quick debrief to see how you can add more of what sparks you to life and work. Julie Berman is a Sparkologist in addition to being the Podcast Host & Producer of "Women with Cool Jobs".
Zibby Books author alert!!!! Emma Grey joins Zibby to discuss THE LAST LOVE NOTE, a gorgeous, charming, heartrending novel that is also a Book of the Month pick!! After the sudden loss of her husband in 2016, Emma found solace in writing. The novel, set in Australia, intertwines romance and humor with the complexities of navigating life after the death of a loved one. Emma emphasizes the importance of balancing grief with your everyday responsibilities, drawing from her experience of managing her grief while raising her young children. The two also discuss the significance of community support in times of loss, the therapeutic nature of humor in storytelling, and the evolution of her writing career. Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3sYiAzZShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Writers, if you're paying attention at all, you've heard from Zibby Owens in the past 2 years. She's the host of the Moms Don't Have Time to Read Podcast and the creator of Zibby Media, which at this point includes a magazine, a publishing house that's having a great month with, among other books, The Last Love Note, which KJ highly recommends and an LA-based bookstore. In 2022, Jess talked with Zibby about how she launched her literary life--and as that life gets bigger and bigger, we thought it was time to share her story again. Ever want to know “how she did it”? This episode is our little version of How I Built This, in which we ask Zibby Owens—whose name you surely know by now—about how she turned a desire to be part of the world of books into a one-woman mini book empire.Zibby Owens is the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Read, a daily podcast featuring interviews with authors that has over 900 episodes. She's also a Bookstagrammer with 16K followers, the host of a second podcast—Moms Don't Have Time to Have Sex—the editor of two anthologies, Moms Don't Have Time To and Moms Don't Have Time to Have Kids—KJ contributed to that last one—and now the CEO of Zibby Books, a new publishing home for fiction and memoir. She's a regular contributor to Good Morning America, she's been called “America's Top Bookfluencer” and she has two books coming soon: Princess Charming, a picture book, and Booked, a memoir. She's also got four kids, and they're kids—elementary and middle school age, not a bunch of independent high schoolers wandering aroundBut.Five years ago Zibby was none of those things (except a mother of four). And that's what I want to talk about. She's built a massive literary life, a community, a reputation in just a few years, and—after totally owning the fact that she has help with her kids (heck, not just help, they're completely gone every other weekend because, divorce sometimes works like that) and also that this isn't how Zibby earns a living— we go back to the beginning and talk about what it took to get there.Because no matter who you are, you can't wake up and say, I think I'd like to be America's Biggest Bookfluencer, and whip out your Amex card and make it happen. You can't even take your Kardashian self and decide this is what you want and ask your assistant to set it up. This takes work and desire and passion, and we dig into how Zibby started, and how she made things take off.Links from the pod:Lee Carpenter: Red, White, Blue and ElevenAndre Agassi: OpenZibby BooksZibby Books Ambassadors (at bottom of Zibby Books page)#AmReadingZibby: Going There by Katie CouricHungry Hill by Eileen Patricia CurranThe Husbands by Chandler BakerThe Last Season by Jenny Judson & Danielle MahfoodKJ: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. HarrowJess: Speaking of Race by Celeste HeadleeIt's that time again! Every year Jennie Nash and the Author Accelerator team put together a holiday bundle worth hundreds of dollars for folks who enroll in the Book Coach Certification Program ahead of the new year. Enroll this month to receive a $150 gift card to Better World Books, access to their $99 course the One-Page Book Coaching Business Plan Challenge, a copy of Jennie's Blueprint book in your genre, and MORE.And did we mention you can now pre-enroll in Author Accelerator's Memoir Certification Program? The course opens in March 2024, but if you enroll this month, you'll get $600 off the cost of enrollment – which is certainly something to be jolly for!When you enroll in the Book Coach Certification program, you'll gain access to a thriving community of friends and colleagues, more than 100 hours of training, videos, case studies, and worksheets to teach you the key editorial skills, client-management strategies, and the tools needed to help writers reach their goals and to help you start a thriving book coaching business. So, whether you're looking to expand your writing skills or start your new year with a new career, there is no better time to start your journey. Visit bookcoaches.com/podcast to get your special offer. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com
Zibby Books author alert! Zibby interviews esteemed trauma therapist Meghan Riordan Jarvis about her poignant and vulnerable new memoir, END OF THE HOUR. The two discuss their shared experiences with loss and the supportive community they found through a book club. Meghan's book stems from her own profound grief after losing her father to cancer and her mother unexpectedly two years later. The conversation also touches on Meghan's professional perspective on grief, and she reveals how writing this memoir became a therapeutic process for her.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3QXNouaShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
When The Last Love Note by Emma Grey showed up on my doorstep, I knew we had a problem. A book with a cover that good had to have a story even better within its pages. And I wasn't wrong! I could've talked to Emma for hours (if not days), and in the latest episode of the Write the Damn Book Already podcast, we discussed: ⭐️ The backstory behind the book and how it came to be, a bit unexpectedly.⭐️ How long it took Emma to write while “wrangling grief.” ⭐️ Where Emma started writing her book and how that moment it came full circle when Zibby Books offered to be her US publisher⭐️ Emma's writing process, including how long it took to get her skeleton draft (65K words) and how many drafts she went through before sending it to first publisher in Australia. ⭐️ Knowing when chapters don't propel the story forward (and how to handle it when you're advised to cut 30K words)⭐️ Her agent's advice on how quickly to write the first draft ⭐️ Emma's perspective on alpha readers, beta readers, prologues, and chasing 100 rejections**WARNING: The revelation at the 41:40 mark about what happened with the acquisition of her book will shock you!ABOUT EMMAEmma Grey is a novelist, feature writer, photographer, professional speaker and accountability coach.She has been writing fiction since she first fell for Anne of Green Gables at fourteen and is the author of the YA novels Unrequited: Boy band meets girl, Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess, the non-fiction title, I Don't Have Time (co-authored with Audrey Thomas), and the parenting memoir Wits' End Before Breakfast! Confessions of a Working Mum.Along with her schoolfriend, dual ARIA-winning composer, Sally Whitwell, Emma co-wrote two musicals, Deadpan Anti-Fan and Fairytale Derail, based on her teen novels.She wrote her first adult novel, The Last Love Note, in the wake of her husband's death. It's a fictional tribute to their love, an attempt to articulate the magnitude of her loss and a life-affirming commitment to hope.Emma lives just outside Canberra, where her world centres on her two adult daughters, young son, loved step-children and step-grandchildren, writing, photography and endlessly chasing the Aurora Australis.CONNECT WITH EMMAWebsite: emmagrey.com.auInstagram: instagram.com/emmagreyauthorFacebook: www.facebook.com/emmagreyauthorBook: The Last Love NoteWHAT EMMA'S READINGLenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn MayneDarling Girls by Sally HepworthWAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER ON YOUR BOOKTo see all the ways we can work together as well as explore my self-paced online programs and free downloads, visit PublishAProfitableBook.com/work-with-elizabeThanks so much for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written, published, and launched, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth
Zibby Books author alert! Zibby interviews debut author Brittany Means about Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways, a breathtaking, harrowing, soulful memoir about the homelessness, abuse, and instability that enveloped her childhood and the inspiring resilience that got her through it. Brittany describes her writing journey, from elementary school poems to Iowa MFA, and then explains how writing this memoir involved a cathartic weaving of painful memories and present-day reflections. She also talks about her beloved chickens, her literary mentors, her relationship with her mother, and her next project!Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3PZVd1NShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby (and Zibby Books author Alisha Fernandez Miranda) interview New York Times bestselling author and beloved Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby about XOXO, Cody: An Opinionated Homosexual's Guide to Self-Love, Relationships, and Tactful Pettiness, an inspiring memoir that chronicles his journey from a childhood of poverty in the South to fitness stardom in New York City. Cody talks about being his mother's caregiver at a young age, losing his best friend to addiction, practicing self-love and honesty in his life (and in this book), and what success means to him. (The episode ends with a hilarious game of literary smash or pass.)Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/46Lk535Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Read the full transcript here. What is Munchausen syndrome? How does Munchausen syndrome differ from malingering? Does Munchausen usually correlate with lying or exaggerating in other contexts (i.e., pathological lying)? What is "Munchausen by Proxy" (AKA "factitious disorder imposed on another", or FDIA)? Why are women the offenders in the overwhelming majority of cases? What are some consistent patterns of behavior exhibited by people with MBP? What is a "reality distortion field"? How do people with MBP tend to deflect requests for facts? Do such people believe their own stories? How does MBP relate to sociopathy or psychopathy? How common is MBP?Andrea Dunlop is an author and podcaster based out of Seattle, WA with two decades of experience in book publishing. She is the author of four novels: Losing the Light (February 2016; Atria), She Regrets Nothing (February 2018; Atria), We Came Here to Forget (July 2019; Atria), and Women Are the Fiercest Creatures (March 2023; Zibby Books). Andrea is host and creator of the popular true crime investigative podcast about Munchausen by Proxy called Nobody Should Believe Me, which was a New & Noteworthy pick for Apple's Dark Side collection. Her non-fiction book on the same topic is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press. She is a member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children's Munchausen by Proxy Committee and is the founder of Munchausen Support, which is dedicated to providing resources for frontline professionals, families, and survivors dealing with MBP. Learn more about her on her website, andreadunlop.net. [Read more]
Zibby Books author alert!!! Zibby interviews debut author Patty Lin about End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood, a funny, fresh, and eye-opening memoir about her ten-year TV writing career–which was not what she had dreamed it to be. Patty shares what it was like to endure such a crushing work culture, manage her immigrant parents' expectations, date a workaholic, and ultimately, walk away from the industry. She also shares what life has been like since breaking up with Hollywood (it involves sewing, supporting the writers' strike, and writing this exceptional book). Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3YTW0UQShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby Books author alert!!! Zibby interviews author Michelle Wildgen about Wine People, an intoxicating escape into the cutthroat world of wine and the complicated terrain of women's friendship. Michelle describes her journey to food writing (she started as a back waiter!) and shares the secrets to doing it well! She also discusses her two fascinating female protagonists (and the real-life women who inspired them), her food writing role models, her previous novels, her love of The Bear on Hulu, and the bottle of wine she is saving for the right moment. Finally, she shares her best advice for aspiring authors. Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3DCgW8YShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby Books author alert!!! Zibby is joined by author Sandra A. Miller to discuss Wednesdays at One, an intriguing, atmospheric, and masterfully written literary suspense about family, friendship, and the price we pay when our mistakes come back to haunt us. Sandra describes the terrifying, real-life stalking experience that inspired this novel – her psychologist husband's client became obsessed with him and tormented their family for years. She also talks about the case of vertigo that kept her from writing for months and what it was like to grow up in a dysfunctional, violent family that did not let her express her creativity. You can read all about it in her beautiful memoir Trove.Purchase on Zibby's Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3PJezbQPurchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3rhIb5PSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby interviews debut author Taylor Koekkoek (along with his wife and upcoming Zibby Books author Joselyn Takacs!) about Thrillville, USA, a raw and remarkable story collection about Americans living on the margins of society, seeking solace in drugs, booze, and self-destructive relationships. Taylor describes his sources of inspiration (like dangerous, ramshackle amusement parks and his friends' unfortunate life experiences) and reveals his ultimate goal: writing about people who are struggling with the utmost generosity. Then, he shares how he met Joselyn and how he became a writer–the stories go hand in hand. Finally, Joselyn gives us a sneak peek of her own novel Pearce Oysters (Zibby Books, 2024). Purchase on Zibby's Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3O63D6MPurchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/44imAZySubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this special weekend re-release, Zibby interviews New York Times bestselling author Pamela Redmond about Older, the hotly anticipated sequel to the beloved Younger (which became a hit seven-season TV series starring Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff!). Pamela's next three books will be published by Zibby Books!"I loved every bit of this novel and finished it with a giant smile on my face!"—Jodi PicoultPurchase on Zibby's Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3r35FLOPurchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3CLSfXaSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zibby Books author alert!!! Zibby interviews Jane Delury about Hedge, an emotionally charged, richly observed novel about a devoted mom and talented garden historian balancing the demands of motherhood and marriage with her own needs. Jane describes the period she lived in France (where she started writing and met her first husband), her twenty-year teaching career, and finding refuge in writing and gardening after her divorce. She also talks about finding love again (at a writer's conference!) and what it has been like to have a writer husband (and wonderful “stepdude” for her daughters). Purchase on Zibby's Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3WRAkYhPurchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/45JKkHgSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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