Write the Damn Book Already

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Episode 150 provides the reset many authors quietly crave as Jenn Hanson-dePaula returns to help us modify (if not outright rebuild) our expectations, systems, and perspectives when it comes to book sales. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: • How to implement a "2 sales a day" strategy. • Becoming "profitable, not popular." (Hint:...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, I share 8 books that reshaped how I parent, relax, and think about storytelling in 2025. Books: Just Do Nothing (for Parents) by Joanna Hardis The Summer We Ran by Audrey Ingram What Happened to Lucy Vale by Lauren Oliver Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Small Victories by Anne Lamott Mo...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, we walk through 5 mistakes that quietly undermine first-time self-publishers and show how to fix each one with practical, doable steps. We start by tightening your audience with a one-sentence framework that keeps every chapter aligned to a clear promise.  From there, we map a real editing workflow: self-edit, gather ta...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! If you’re writing a nonfiction book or memoir and your draft feels messy, scattered, or “not quite ready,” this episode will help you clean it up fast. I’m sharing 5 editing rules that instantly improve any nonfiction manuscript — the same rules I use to help guide the authors whose manuscripts I edit.  These are the patterns I’ve seen...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Wanting life to be wonderful and wanting to be wonderful aren’t the same thing, and that gap is where today’s conversation lives. Israeli journalist and author Lihi Lapid joins me to talk about motherhood’s messy truths, the pressure to be “more” than "good enough," and the writing choices that make a story feel honest. From b...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Today I'm sharing 5 quick wins that make self-publishing feel simple, not scary, and show how small moves can build sustainable momentum. By the end of these 5 steps, you will have: • locked in a clear (and easy to pronounce over and over again) working title • chosen a credible publishing company name • and understanding of ISBNs...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Ever felt like everyone else has the secret playbook for publishing while you’re just winging it? Same. In this episode, I spill everything I'd tell you as the author of six books (and having published 50+ for others) if I wasn't afraid you'd unfollow or outright block me.  I'll get real about the financial side of a...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! A single question on a cold Hudson Valley walk: What if there’s a body in that hunter’s tent? sparked the debut thriller The Gallagher Place by Julie Doar.  In this episode, we chat about how she wrote the first draft by instinct, then shifted gears into precision: charting dates, timelines, and cause-and-effect until every twist landed...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! What happens when a traditionally published debut novel suddenly appears on Kindle Unlimited while still showing wide? That unexpected twist opens into a bigger conversation about publishing decisions (and what’s actually within an author’s control). In this episode, Turner Gable Kahn, author of The Dirty Version (Harper Perennial), sha...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Maid meets Under the Tuscan Sun ! Betsy Cornwell built her career writing young adult fantasy, but her newest book tells an entirely different story. In this episode, Betsy opens up about her memoir, Ring of Salt , which chronicles her escape from an abusive marriage and her creation of a sanctuary for single-parent artists. At the cent...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Most authors have as big a stack (if not bigger) of abandoned drafts as they do books that actually make it into the world. Jane Hamilton—bestselling author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World and two-time Oprah Book Club pick—is refreshingly open about that reality. Her newest novel, The Phoebe Variations , took nearly a decade...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Copyright. Piracy. LibGen. AI scraping. If just reading that list makes you want to hide under your desk with a bottle of...something...you’re not alone. Indie authors are being forced to navigate a landscape that feels murkier by the day, and most of us didn’t exactly sign up to become copyright attorneys. Unfortunately, the “poor man’...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! There are more than 42 million books on Amazon right now. So how in the world do you help your book stand out? One word: keywords. Think of keywords as Amazon’s GPS. They tell the algorithm exactly where your book belongs and who should see it. However, Amazon only gives you seven keyword boxes to work with. Seven! Which means every slo...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Amazon ads don’t have to be complicated (or eat up your entire marketing budget) to actually sell books. In this episode, I’m sharing my approach to making Amazon ads simple(r) without endless spreadsheets, confusing dashboards, or the kind of budget that makes you wonder if you should’ve stuck with free bookmarks. Common Questions Tack...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Writers dream of the day they’ll hold their finished book, but few warn you about how intense the editing phase can be. In this episode, debut novelist Jill Beissel gets real about the messy, magical process of turning a rough draft into a polished novel readers will love. Jill’s upcoming book, Glitter and Gold (out October 7!), went th...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Ever feel like everyone has some secret book marketing hack? Most of those “shortcuts” are just expensive detours. In this episode, I’m calling out three distractions that keep indie authors spinning their wheels. First up: Kirkus Reviews. Are they legit? Yes. Are they worth the price for most self-published authors? Maybe. But if you&a...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! If you’re the kind of person who devours psychological thrillers but also wants to be emotionally sucker-punched (in the best way), Lauren Oliver’s What Happened to Lucy Vale needs to be on your radar.  In this episode, Lauren takes us behind the scenes of what might be her most structurally daring novel to date. Set in a small Indiana...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, I sit down with Tiffany Graham Charkosky to talk about her forthcoming memoir, Living Proof (October 21, Little A), a book written and shaped over years of writing and rewriting. At just 11 years old, Tiffany lost her mother. For decades, she believed it was an unexplainable tragedy, until a DNA test unearthed informati...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! If you’ve been chasing the magical marketing strategy that will finally make your book “take off,” welcome to the club. In this episode, I’m addressing the question nearly every author eventually asks: What does it actually take to make a book successful? Spoiler: there’s no guaranteed formula. Even authors with six-figure advances, NYT...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Miranda Cowley Heller's father was a book editor; her grandfather edited Jack Kerouac and was friends with Hemingway. That legacy, while inspiring, left her frozen when it came to pursuing her own writing.  Instead, she built a thriving career in publishing and TV, eventually heading up drama series at HBO. Then, in her 50s, she wr...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Author Lori Gold is pulling back the curtain on publishing, in both this interview and her newest novel, Romantic Friction.   INSIDE THE EPISODE • Yet another reason bestseller lists aren’t what you think (I didn't know this until I read her book!) • A great tip for handing reviews without spiraling (or swearing off Goodreads forev...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! What started as sharing her story online about living with chronic illness turned into a book deal with Penguin Random House. In this episode, Gigi Robinson shares how she leveraged consistency, relationships, and a clear vision to go from content creator to published author. Here’s what we get into: Why she chose to write A Kid’s Book...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! This week, I’m joined by publicist Emily Florence, and we’re talking about how to set publicity goals before you start chasing them, why a Today Show appearance might not sell nearly as many books as you think, and how to make your marketing feel less like shouting into the void and more like having conversations that matter. Here’s wha...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz has published nearly 80 books (yes, 80), and in this episode, she shares what it really takes to build and sustain a long-term writing career. From surviving the shifting tides of publishing to protecting what gets you "in the mood" to write, she shares the kind of wisdom every author love...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Thriller author N.L. Blandford isn't afraid to go dark—like, murder scene dark—and she absolutely loves it. In this episode, she talks about writing gritty thrillers with complex villains you’ll root for and recoil from. Natasha never planned to become an author. She just wanted to cross “write a book” off her bucket list. Now she’...