Write the Damn Book Already

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Anna Dorn’s debut novel, Vagablonde , came out in May 2020, which was a spectacular moment to launch a book (hear the sarcasm). Her tour was obviously cancelled, which she was fine with since she prefers doing things online anyway. The paperback version came out October 6, 2026 from Simon & Schuster—six years later, which is not the...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Jane Bitomsky’s debut novel, Death by Misadventure , came out October 1, 2026 from Lake Union. It opens in the 1500s with a naked dead man found under a waterwheel, missing a certain piece of his anatomy, and a coroner who has to work out whether it was an accident or something considerably worse. Jane has a PhD in early modern English...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! I have a complicated relationship with 30 Under 30 lists. I'm genuinely happy for everyone on them, and I'm also in my fifties and have not done most of those things, so there's a part of me that reads those lists and feels like I missed the boat and the train.  Turns out, David Galef and Beth Weinhouse had the same react...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Anna Pitoniak spent years as a senior editor at Random House, wrote her first two novels in the hours before and after work, and has now published five books of her own. Her newest, The Swiss Agent, comes out December 1, 2026 from Simon & Schuster. It showed up on my doorstep and I got unreasonably excited, because I am fully in my...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! She's back! Cassie Miller joined me last spring to talk about her debut, Meet Me Under the Lights , and now she's here with book two, Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane , out October 6, 2026 from Penguin Teen. I somehow have three copies, one of which is the finished edition with glitter on the cover. Cassie, the actual author, has not...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! After writing 6 nonfiction books, I'm working on my first novel, which everyone who listens to this show is painfully aware of by now. So when Kim Purcell reached out about her new book, Write a Novel in 100 Days , the timing felt less like coincidence and more like the universe smacking me on the head.  Kim is the author of Traffi...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Katie Clapham didn't set out to build an author platform. (Anyone else tired of that word?) She had a week where she had nothing ready to publish, she was working her usual shift at the bookshop she runs with her mom, and she opened a draft and started writing down the day as it happened. She called it Receipt from the Bookshop, nu...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! I have been quietly fangirling over Allison Buehner's editing tips on Instagram for months. I have so many of them saved that at this point she deserves her own folder. So I finally asked her to come on the show, and then discovered we had already sort of met years ago, when she emailed me to suggest I talk to another editor she ad...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Laurie Notaro has hit the New York Times bestseller list more times than she can pin down. She's also written so many books she can't tell you the number without checking. And she drives a 2008 Mini Cooper, lives in a 1,500 square foot house, and has earned out on exactly one of those books. If you've ever wondered what a...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Joyce Maynard has been publishing books for fifty-three years. In Wonderland is her fourteenth novel, and it came out eight days before we recorded this. She still does not outline. She sits down knowing exactly who her characters are, what they want, what they're afraid of, what they can't stop thinking about, and then she le...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Eli McCann never planned to write a novel. He wrote one chapter kind of, maybe, to prove to himself he couldn't. But when he handed it to his husband, who both laughed and cried reading it, his curiosity and determination grew. That chapter became Stitched , his debut novel about competitive quilting, unlikely friendships, and foun...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Ten books in, Meg Mitchell Moore still doesn't know what her plot is going to be when she starts writing.   Meg Mitchell Moore has published ten novels. And she still starts most of them with no idea what's going to happen. No outline, no plot, sometimes not even a reason her characters are in the room together. She figures it...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! This episode quickly got personal because I'm elbow-deep in my first novel after six nonfiction books, and Angela Brown writes the kind of fiction that makes one feel quite seen.  Angela is the author of Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time , Some Other Time , and her newest, Ways to Find Yourself. And I will fully admit I read th...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! TV writer, screenwriter, and author Eric Garcia has published six books (so far). He sold three of them to Hollywood and somehow still managed to write his latest novel entirely by accident. He set out to write a short story. Then it got longer. Then it was a novella. Then it was 80,000 words and he had to admit he'd written a whol...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, I chat with children's book author and illustrator Erin Thorburn. (She also happens to be my best friend.) We wax not so poetic on book writing, publishing, marketing children's books (her lane, not mine), and navigating the creative industry with humor and properly set expectations.  CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Nadia Hashimi's newest novel (her seventh published book), City of Widows (William Morrow), releases in July 2026.  She's already published four books for adults: The Pearl that Broke Its Shell (which is an international bestseller), When the Moon in Low , A House Without Windows , and Sparks Like Stars , as well as two middle...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, Ann Garvin (who will release her 7th novel, Tell Two Friends , in September 2026 with Lake Union) discloses the often messy, unglamorous truth of how a story actually starts. For her, that's usually as some tiny thing Ann can't stop thinking about, long before it has a plot or even characters attached to it. ...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! The woman. The myth. The legend: Jordan Roter.  She's a TV writer, screenwriter, author, and one of the funniest and most genuine people I know. I truly could talk to her for days (and I'd like to, as it would preclude the need any sort of formal abdominal workout).  Her novel, Moms Like Us (2025, Little A), was recently optio...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this heartfelt interview, author Cinelle Barnes shares her journey through writing A Way Home (Little A, June 9, 2026), a heart-wrenching memoir about remembering and rebuilding a life after everything known disappears in a flash.  Her latest memoir takes us alone with her as she recovers from a sudden ruptured brain aneurysm. But he...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, Elizabeth Lyons and Liz Lawson discuss Liz's journey from YA to adult fiction ( It Happened One Murder, July 2026), the realities of book launches, and insights into the publishing industry. She shares personal experiences, misconceptions about launch days, and the evolving landscape of genre categories. TOPICS INC...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! In this episode, Joan F. Smith, author of Your Soulmail is Attached  (her debut adult novel), shares her journey through the publishing world, her writing process, and insights into navigating multiple editors, genres, and the realities of a writing career.  TOPICS COVERED Writing process and outlining techniques Navigating multiple edi...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Louise Marburg has spent years devoted to the short story form. So naturally, she accidentally wrote a novel. Her debut, Fancy Meeting You , features Laura Harrigan: a psychiatrist, mother of twin boys, and pathological liar who apparently had too much personality to stay confined to a short story. Louise and I talked about what it was...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! If you've ever thought "I could write a book about this" while watching a reality TV show at 10pm, you're going to love this episode!  Amy Mass spent years writing for TV (you might recognize "The Goldbergs" and "Last Man Standing" from her credits), and after relocating from LA to a charming smal...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Most authors don’t realize that publishing isn’t just about writing a book. Before long, it often becomes a full-on entrepreneurial rollercoaster.  In this episode, I talk with Allie Hill, author of the Girlfriend's Guide to Empty Nesting , about what really happens after you hit "publish." She reveals what surprised her,...

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions! Rachel Beanland has written three novels (her newest, The Half Life, releases on July 14, 2026 from Simon & Schuster), and she's still surprised by how much each book teaches her.  In this episode, we talk about what it actually looks like to challenge yourself as a writer—specifically, her decision to write her latest novel, T...