Hear us Roar

Hear how KJ worked with Author Accelerator's founder, Jennie Nash, for a year before querying, how her previous platform as a well-known non-fiction writer paved the way to quickly finding an agent and a publisher, and how she researched independent bookstores to identify the best candidates to receive a sample copy. And what it's like when your editor calls you on a random Thursday evening during...

In this interview, you'll hear how an early family tragedy provided the inspiration for her story, how her research took her down rabbit holes filled with bugs, how she made a grumpy main character someone readers still want to spend time with, and how parting ways with her first agent led to a perfect fit with not only another agent but a brand-new imprint for women's fiction as well. Rachel Mans...

In this episode, Jaye and I discuss how finding her grandfather's WWI draft card paired with the time she spent living in New Orleans provided the seeds for this historical women's fiction, how the protagonist's name was taken from an old Constance Bennett film, and what it requires in terms of time and energy to publish your own work. JAYE BURKE is a southern historian, genealogist, and bestselli...

In this interview, Grace and I discuss the 25 "life lessons" her older characters imparted to her heroine, how Grace used her beta readers as developmental editors for her manuscript, her decision to use two publicists for different aspects of marketing, and how her absolute best decision was making a book trailer that conveyed not only the story line of her novel in less than two minutes but lent...

In this podcast Madeleine and I discuss how working how working with a developmental editor for three years was instrumental in teaching her what she didn't know about writing, how she researched the difficult subject matter including sexual abuse which occurs in her book, and how an early childhood experience resulted in her life-long interest in true crime. Madeleine Van Hecke writes dark storie...

In this interview we discuss how Paula returned to writing after a 20-year hiatus and switched from romance to women's fiction and why she signed up to go exclusive with Amazon's KDP program. If you've ever wondered about what it would be like to publish your own books, don't miss Paula's advice on finding fans through newsletter subscription programs, how you need to write and edit quickly to sat...

Angela Terry (Charming Falls Apart, Spark Press, August 2020)  talks about how her novel's protagonist was inspired by a woman Angela met casually at a bachelorette party, her decision to publish with a hybrid press rather than self-publish, and how she finds the late-night hours her best time to shut off the rest of the world and concentrate on her writing. Angela is an attorney who formerly prac...

During a wide-ranging talk about such diverse topics as the effect of language on how we view war to a discussion on finding mentors within books themselves to what it means to nurture your creative spirit and grow your talent, Katey reveals herself to be a disciplined, intelligent writer and teacher who thinks deeply about how language and the written word can shape our lives. Katey is the award-...

Sarah's lifelong obsession with Dartmouth as well as her fascination with the challenges that faced her mother's generation of women in the early '70's sparked the idea for this historical novel, which she wrote after spending seven years on a previous one that garnered her an agent but never sold.  We discuss how she reached out directly to bookstores once the pandemic hit, the long tail of book...

Mary Helen talks about the three things she was advised not to do in a debut novel (unfortunately she'd done all three), messaging her "Christmas list" one day before her pub date with specific, simple things they could do to help her, why she's given up on Pinterest, and why she's writing the rough draft of her next novel as pure dialogue. Mary Helen Sheriff is a co-founder of Bookish Road Trip....

In this interview,  Regina describes how she used her childhood experiences in the Catholic church to inform her protagonist's guilt and shame over a long-buried secret, how she changed her original title during the publication process, and her positive experience going with a hybrid press for her first novel. And be sure to listen to the end to find out what Regina has in common with the Queen of...

Quế Mai shares how she wanted to write a novel set during the Vietnam War from the missing perspective of the Vietnamese themselves, specifically the women, who she felt were often portrayed in literature as having no agency, when actually they were unbelievably strong and resilient. We discuss how she wove ger country's food, culture, proverbs and beliefs into a rich tapestry of a debut that made...

A child raised in both Mormon and Muslim religious traditions, Ehsaneh worked in Iran for several years and her experiences there form the backdrop to her novel about  three people whose lives are upended by the 2009 Green Wave protests in that country. We discuss how the 2020 US election echoed many of the themes she explored in her book, how she found her perfect agent, going on sub but not sell...

We discuss Valerie's transition from a corporate writer to writing fiction after her retirement. She's a fan of  book clubs and built her author platform partly through becoming a regular book reviewer for the national marketing firm Book Trib. In addition to her fans in the US, she's made recent inroads into the library market in such far-off places as Singapore and Australia. Valerie grew up in...

Mining her personal knowledge of the Balkans from a long-ago adventure, Michele's debut braids historical events with a young woman's personal journey to find her roots, a journey which rang to the author personally because of her own explorations into her own Jewish cultural heritage. Praised for its lyrical beauty, her manuscript nevertheless was deemed "hard to market" before finding a home wit...

Anita, an Ottawa resident, describes the difference between Canadian writers and those in the US, how she channeled her own grief experience into her main character, how she believes writing is rewriting, and how embracing bookstagrammers was her single best marketing decision.   Kushwaha's road to publication included a fulfilling career in academia, where she studied human geography at Carleton...

).  Barbara describes how her age influenced her decision to go with a small press, how her year-long engagement with reader Facebook groups proved invaluable to her book launch, and the story behind how she landed a spot on the USA Today best-seller list four months after her book release. And as a final tidbit, how a random remark she made on Twitter led to a top-drawer blurb. For many years, Ba...

J.L. is new to writing but she's determined to build a career, so if you're a younger writer, or have a teenager interested in what it takes, she'll inspire you to start right now learning your craft and putting your story down on paper. Plus when was the last time you heard a writer say they actually liked the querying process? Jenna Hanger writing as J.L. Cole resides on an ranch in Alberta, CA...

If you're a pantser, this interview is for you!  Susan is squarely in the camp of letting your characters tell you their story and she's got the books to prove it.  She's a prolific romance novelist who is now venturing into women's fiction, specifically historical tales from late 1800's America.  Her best advice? Stay true to your unique vision.  Every trope started with a writer who said "but wh...

Learn how the convergence of knowing someone in a women's prison, the popularity of Orange is the New Black, and overheard conversations at her law firm about whistleblower monetary rewards came together to inspire this best-selling novel which her agent sold in less than three weeks.   A.H. Kim is an immigrant, practicing attorney, cancer survivor, community volunteer, and proud mother of two son...

In this podcast, Tricia and I discuss how a question her daughter posed was the "what if" inspiration behind her debut, how her background in screenwriting both helped and provided challenges when she turned to novel-writing and how, despite the fact she'd landed a top agent, she eventually decided to self-publish.   Tricia's writing career started in 1992 after the tragic loss of her brother to A...

In my interview with Amanda Brainerd, we discuss how her debut novel started out as an oral history before morphing into a fictional examination of her years at an elite boarding school and then NYC in the mid '80's, how Fran Leibowitz was an early fan, and a fascinating story of the evolution of her book cover design. Amanda lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her husband and three chi...

In our interview with Lindsey Rogers Cook, we discuss  how she decided after a year to leave her first agent because they clashed over editorial changes, how her training as a journalist for first US News & World Report and now The New York Times, informs her fiction writing, and how she was able to take two months off from her day job on "Book Leave" to finish her second novel which releases next...

Desperate Housewives meet Mean Girls in Dr. Stephanie Newman's debut novel, which examines mother-daughter relations, the pervasive nature of social media in kid's lives and school bullying.  Stephanie, a successful psychotherapist, discusses how she had to learn the difference between writing therapy notes and writing fiction, what it's like to debut on a social media black-out day, and using blo...

During her career as a high school English teacher, Pamela always enjoyed the units on writing more than those on literature so when she retired, she put her skills to use to pen her debut novel. It's the story of a woman hoping to build bridges between the tourist population and the long-time residents of a small island off the coast of Florida and in the process, discovering it's impossible to e...