Hembury Books Podcast

Andrea Barton is an award-winning author and fiction editor who writes the Jade Riley mystery series. Starting with The Godfather of Dance, A Killer Among Friends is book two. She runs Brightside Story Studio, a book editing business for fiction and memoir and is vice president of Mansfield Readers & Writers. Her other writing credits include The Winding Narrative blog, several short stories,...

Mark Whittaker is a Walkley Award winning journalist and author who has authored, co-authored and/or ghostwritten 14 books. His true crime titles include Granny Killer and Sins of the Brother: the Definitive Story of Ivan Milat and the Backpacker Murders and Love and Death in Kathmandu about the royal family massacre in Nepal. Mark has been a regular freelance contributor to Good Weekend magazine...

Amra Pajalić is an award-winning author, editor and teacher who draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for young people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture. Amra Pajalić won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma. The an...

Alex Adsett is a literary agent and publishing consultant with almost 30 years’ experience. She has worked at S&S UK, Penguin Australia and Wiley and launched Alex Adsett Literary in 2008. She represents over 40 authors and illustrators, including Melissa Lucashenko, Peter Greste, Jodi McAlister and Isobelle Carmody. She has also helped thousands of authors review and negotiate their publishin...

Casey Rae is the author of James and Elle: Part-memoir, Part-fiction which came out in February this year. She lives on the mid north coast of NSW with her husband and two wildflower children. She is passionate about good food, wellbeing and creating a better future for our young people. With fifteen years of experience working in education, she knows how important it is for people to have access...

Blake Atwood is a book coach, developmental editor, and ghostwriter based in Texas. He has partnered with nonfiction authors like James Clear of Atomic Habits, who thanked Blake in the acknowledgements section of his bestselling book "for transforming my ugly and insanely long first drafts into a tight, readable manuscript." More recently, Blake worked with the attorney and communications expert w...

Adam Courtenay is an author and business journalist who has written five non-fiction books including Amazon Men, published in the UK by Endeavour Press (2015), as well as The Ship that Never Was (2018) The Ghost and the Bounty Hunter (2020) and Three Sheets in the Wind (2022) for Harper Collins imprint, ABC Books. Adam had extensive experience working on manuscripts for private clients, which invo...

Jessica Friedmann is the author of a new book about tarot in contemporary culture called 22 Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana. It was published by Scribe in October. Her first book was published in 2017 and it is called Things That Helped and it is a memoir of essays describing her recovery from postpartum depression. Jessica is based in Melbourne and she is also a freelance editor for Hemb...

Will Yeoman is CEO of Writing WA, Western Australia's peak body for the writing sector. An experienced journalist, Will has been a contributor to The West Australian for nearly 20 years, as well as a music critic for Gramophone and Limelight magazines.   His short memoir Holy Family was recently published as part of Night Parrot Press' anthology Our Selves: 100 Micro Memoirs.   Will is also Artist...

Our guest is Anna Loethman-Wilkes, the founder of Australia's first indie-only online bookstore, House of Prose. Anna is also an experienced business professional and have spent her time launching, growing and scaling organisations. She owns and runs several businesses herself and is now helping other business owners through times of transformation. She talks to Hembury Books about her passion for...

Nicholas Coppel is the author of a new book called Myanmar’s Digital Coup: how the World Responded, which came out in July through Palgrave Macmillan. Nicholas was Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2015 to 2018 and he is currently the President of the Australian Myanmar Institute. Nicholas shares his insights on the current situation in Myanmar and his experiences of academic publishing. More...

Mark Berridge is a keynote speaker and the author of the award-winning memoir, A Fraction Stronger, which was published by Major Street Publishing in 2022. His book begins with how his life-changed in an instant when a biking accident left him with severe spinal cord damage and it explores inspiring stories of resilience. A Fraction Stronger has won an incredible number of awards – 16 in total. Ma...

Brendan Shine is the author of ‘High in the Himalaya: Conquering mountains in the mind, journeying in the Himalaya and returning from oblivion.’ His 2023 memoir follows his exploits as he rock 'n' rolls with hedonistic excess through the drug fuelled 90's, journeying through India, the Middle east, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean, in and out of psychiatric hospitals and living to...

Kirsty Nancarrow is the author of Himalayan Dreams: The Story of Som Tamang, which was published in February. She wrote the book after a life-changing visit to Nepal following the 2015 earthquakes. She shares how she undertook the many intertviews for the book, obtained permissions and checked through her chapters with the subject. This is essential listening if you are planning a biography about...

Our guest this week is Commodore Peter Scott, who is the author of Running Deep: an Australian Submarine Life. Over a decorated 34-year career, Commodore Scott served in 10 submarines, passed the most demanding military command course in the world and served as the Head of Profession of the Submarine Arm of the Royal Australian Navy. During that time his character was forged by the challenges of n...

Anne Gately is the author of 'Sunburnt: A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer,' which was published in April. As a Stage IV melanoma survivor who was given a prognosis of 12 to 24 months, Anne has real-life experience of the devastating effects that sun exposure can have and is passionate about reducing the incidence of skin cancer in Australia. She wrote her book to increase her reach as...

A book is just a collection of chapters. Once you get your head around how to write a chapter, writing a book becomes so much easier. Here's a collection of tips and tricks that work for me. These include: * The person you are at the start of your book is not the same as the person at the end - each chapters layers in growth * Begin each chapter with a problem or challenge * Vary the pace and...

Holly Deane-Johns is the author of Holly's Hell - Seven Years in a Thai Prison. She talks to Hembury Books founder Jessica Mudditt about her years of incarceration in Australia and Thailand, how she overcame her addiction to heroin, and her journey to becoming an author.

Anna Featherstone is the author of 'Look - It's Your Book!' which is a self-publishing guide for nononfiction Australian authors. She is also a judge of the Australian Business Book Awards and Non-Fiction Advisor and Australian Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). She weighs up the pros and cons of going indie over traditional, including the comparative royalties,...

Andrew Griffiths is the author of 14 bestselling business books, which have been published by the likes of Allen and Unwin and othors he has self-published. His most recent book is called Someone Has to be the Most Expensive – Why Not Make It You? Andrew has coached hundreds of authors and he also runs Author Academy retreats, with the next one coming up in Hobart in July 2024. Andrew answers all...

After being offered a book deal by a publisher in 2011, Eagranie Yuh flew to San Francisco for a marketing meeting. The publishing director pulled her aside and said, “We think it’s going to be one of our big hits this season.” Eight thousand copies were printed, but only a quarter of those sold. Eagranie describes how the experience affected her confidence as an author and what she learned about...

Podcast host Jessica Mudditt reflects on whether writing her second book was easier than her first, and anything she did differently a second time around. She also breaks down her costs for creating and promoting her new book, Once Around the Sun.

Kelly Irving is a best-selling book coach, editor, and creator of the  Expert Author Community  – a global coaching platform and community that has launched hundreds of award-winning authors into the world.   Kelly’s unique Write Book Method helps connect dots and solve complex business messaging problems by empowering original, creative and renaissance spirits to produce work that enriches their...

Danielle Colley is the author of The Chocolate Bar Life: Creating a Delicious Balance Between Work, Rest and Play. Danielle's book is a hybrid of memoir and self-help, which a growing number of books are nowadays. We naturally build on our own experiences to help others. Danielle is no stranger to Burnout Town, but she's developed ways to avoid going back there. https://daniellecolley.com....

Jon Manning is the author of "Overcoming Floccinaucinihilipilification: Valuing and Monetizing Products and Services", which he describes as the “most ridiculously titled pricing book that guides start-ups, entrepreneurs and side hustlers through value-based pricing.” He has used the longest F word in the English language - it is 29 letters long! I spoke to Jon about having the courage t...