London Writers' Salon

Lulu PR Manager Sarah Gilbert on building a reader-first publicity plan, pitching the media as an indie author, and turning small grassroots wins into lasting momentum. You'll learn Why earned media carries more weight with readers than anything you pay for. The question every author should answer about their book before planning any publicity. How writing a press release can clarify what your boo...

Indie authors Joanna Penn, Orna Ross, and Eleanor Anstruther on going direct to readers and protecting your rights, the business and money side of self-publishing, and building an audience by serialising on Substack. You'll learn Why the writers you admire may not make their money the way you think. What separates an independent author from someone who simply self-publishes. When a traditional dea...

Sunday Times bestselling author Emma Gannon on healing burnout through play and joy, trusting your creative intuition over people-pleasing, and what she's learned from self-publishing alongside traditional publishing. You'll learn Why burnout might be healed through play and joy rather than by pushing harder. How some books arrive in a month while others take years, and why there's no single right...

Poet, publisher, and educator Anthony Anaxagorou on treating rejection as part of the job, pushing an idea to its edge without losing the reader, and ending a poem where it can keep travelling — a re-release of episode #012. You'll learn: Why walking away from writing for years doesn't necessarily mean you ever left it. How to treat rejection as part of the job rather than a verdict on your worth....

Bestselling novelist Marti Leimbach on the art of writing a novel, surviving early success and the long career that follows, and turning lived experience into fiction — a remastered version of episode #016. You'll learn Why your relationship to the page has to outrank every other voice in writing and publishing. How to tell apart the voice that says you're no good and the voice that says you're no...

Pellerin Books founders Laura Palmer and Jessie Sullivan on how readers discover books now, where to put your marketing money, and why the quality of the book still decides everything. You'll learn The rule that quietly decides which authors get a publisher’s time, budget and attention. Why the first question about marketing a book is never “how?” How to research your readers and your market witho...

Award-winning novelist Lily King on finding the emotional arc of a novel, writing the scene you keep avoiding, and making peace with ambition, self-criticism and the long road to a first book. You'll learn Why the scene you most want to avoid is usually the one your book needs. How a small change in the final pages of one section can rebuild an entire novel. What it means to think in emotional arc...

CAA literary agent Rachel Mann on what makes her say yes to a manuscript, how to navigate the submissions process without losing control of your career, and why cutting is the work that makes prose land. You'll learn Why the recognition an agent needs is physical rather than analytical. What to do when you're not sure your manuscript is ready to send out. How to buy more time after a full manuscri...

In this special episode we go behind the scenes with memoirist Deepa Paul, essayist, cookbook author Gina Beach, and novelist Daisy Buchanan and talk about the two things that keep them going: the passion behind the work, and the practice that makes the work possible. From an essay that no editor wanted to a Women's Prize-longlisted memoir, a personal research rabbit hole that became a four-year b...

Children’s fiction studio founder Jasmine Richards (Storymix), publisher Natalie Doherty (Puffin and HarperCollins Children’s Books), and bestselling author Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil) on shaping an idea commercial enough to sell, what makes a children’s book impossible to put down, and trusting the unconscious to write it.   You’ll learn Why the most commercial idea is the one t...

Poet Maya C. Popa on writing with wonder, the ruthless craft of revision, and building a sustainable life in poetry. You’ll learn Why wonder has more in common with the sublime — the beautiful and the terrible — than with simple delight. How a poem loses its charge the moment its ending is visible from the opening line. What “negative capability” asks of a writer stuck in the dark middle of a draf...

Author Casper ter Kuile on transforming everyday writing into a sacred ritual, drawing on rest and reflection to fuel creativity, and moving past self-doubt to write as a gift for others. You'll learn Why the point of the work week might be the rest, not the other way around. How to turn an ordinary daily habit into a ritual using three simple ingredients. What a weekly tech sabbath can unlock in...

Bestselling and award-winning writers Seth Godin (The Practice), Amie McNee (We Need Your Art) and Mason Currey (Daily Rituals) on choosing yourself before anyone else does, protecting the hour you actually have, and why the practice that works is the one that fits your life rather than someone else’s. You’ll learn Why "grow a thicker skin" is the wrong advice for a writer facing rejection. What s...

Irish writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa on turning archival fragments into living narrative, writing across the borders of genre, and giving voice to the forgotten lives of women committed to a Victorian asylum. You’ll learn Why the greatest gatekeeper between a writer and the page is often the writer themselves. How a single word buried in clinical notes can become a bridge to a silenced voice. What poe...

Debut novelist Tara Menon on writing friendship as a life-shaping bond, the emotional architecture of grief, and researching the natural world for her novel Under Water. You’ll learn Why a platonic friendship can shape a life as profoundly as any romance How to build tension in a story when the reader already knows what’s coming. What an unexpected sea creature reveals about writing the bonds betw...

Bestselling fantasy authors Holly Black and Samantha Shannon on building believable magic systems, researching and constructing immersive worlds, and why the right book often only emerges once you’ve written the wrong one.   You’ll learn Why the most convincing magic on the page often starts with something you once half-believed was real. How writing the wrong version of a book can be the only rou...

Award-winning novelist and founder of The Novelry Louise Dean on what separates storytelling from beautiful prose, planning a novel without killing the joy, and how to edit your own first draft. You'll learn Why learning to craft perfect sentences can quietly delay your path to publication. How a single shift from style to storytelling turns a promising writer into a published one. What treating e...

Writer Katie da Cunha Lewin on how physical spaces shape creative work, why the perfect writing room is a myth, and the rituals and routines that sustain a writing life. You'll learn Why the perfect writing space is largely a myth (and why that can set you free). How physical environments quietly shape creative practice and identity. What our fascination with visiting writers' houses reveals. The...

YA masters Krystal Sutherland (The Invocations), Joanna Nadin (author of 90+ books for children and adults) and Moira Buffini (Songlight) on hooking teen readers from the very first page, plotting methods that tame a whole novel, and why stories matter so much to young people. You'll learn What sparks the magic system of a supernatural thriller. What it means to find your writing home, and how to...

Edgar Award–winning novelist Chris Pavone on creating tension that never lets up, editing a book to make it bigger rather than just better, and turning a single apartment building into a portrait of a whole city. You'll learn Why every book has to be one clear thing before it can be anything else. How two decades of editing other people’s books prepares you to write your own. The offhand note from...

Award-winning novelist Missouri Williams on writing strange and ambitious fiction, treating doubt as a generative force, and why idleness is essential to creative work. You'll learn How a destabilising illness and a new language can reshape a writer’s whole relationship to words. Why style isn’t something you construct so much as a way of seeing you’re partly stuck with. The case for drafting with...

Bestselling novelist Holly Ringland on writing from joy instead of fear, the toolkit she built to meet the inner critic with self-compassion, and finding the first true sentence of her debut after decades of silence.   You'll learn Why the pain of not writing eventually outweighs the pain of writing. What grief and loss can crack open in a writer that nothing else can. How the first true line of a...

Attention researcher Dr Gloria Mark (Attention Span), bestselling author Oliver Burkeman (Meditations for Mortals) and book strategist Charlie Hoehn (Play It Away) on designing your day around peak focus, embracing imperfection in creative work and bringing play back to the page. You'll learn The four states of attention every writer should know. Two daily peak focus windows, and a simple method t...

Debut novelist Rebecca Fallon on ambition, motherhood, crafting dual timelines, and writing a novel built around the person who isn't there. We discuss Why quitting a stable job to write a novel can be framed as a calculated bet rather than a leap of faith. How to prototype the writer's life before fully committing to it. What genre fiction can teach a literary novelist about plotting and structur...

Bestselling author Steven Pressfield on what it means to have a creative calling, battling resistance, the role of faith in writing, and his memoir Govt Cheese. A remastered version of episode #058. You'll learn: Why a typewriter sat untouched in the back of a van for seven years before becoming a career. How self-sabotage shows up at the finish line, not just at the start. A rule of thumb for tel...