Hembury Books Podcast

Our guest this week is Sarah Martin, an experienced theatre nurse and the author of Dear Psychosis, which was published in 2023. Her memoir is co-written with her son Jesse and daughter Alice. It describes the dramatic rescue of Alice from Turkey when she began to experience psychosis, and later, a diagnosis of bipolar. Sarah shares her insights on how to write a memoir that will be respectful of...

Carla Francis the author of three books - The Zen of Cat, The Cat with Three Passports and Pet Friendly Accommodation on the East Coast. Her latest book, The Zen of Cat, was published by Pan Macillan in 2023 and it has been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish and Thai. Her previous book, The Cat with Three Passports, has been translated into Italian, Thai and Serbian. She shares he...

Dan Morrison is the author of The Black Nile and The Prince and the Poisoner: The Murder that Rocked the British Raj. Dan did some incredible research for his new book, which is set in 1930s India and reads like a murder mystery. Dan is also deputy world editor at USA Today, and he shares some amazing tips for bringing past events alive with all five sense, as well as how to get started with an id...

No Buts was compiled by social worker Margaret Chipperfield, who worked for some 11 years with men who had been violent or abusive. Her book contains stories by men who successfully changed their behaviour.  Marg explains how she recorded the mens' stories on the highly complex and fraught issue of family violence and behaviour change. This episode was recorded as the virtual book launch. Lear...

Ruth Clare is an actor, TEDX speaker and the author of the award-winning memoir, Enemy, which was published by Penguin in 2016. It describes her father's trauma from the Vietnam War and the repercussions this had on her as a child. Earlier in the year she obtained the rights back and self-published her book. She explains why she made this decision, which includes a desire to regain creative co...

Leanne Hughes is the author of The Two Hour Workshop Blueprint, which has sold 3500 copies on Amazon alone in less than a year, garnering $38,000 in royalties. She shares her book marketing tips and describes the fantastic professional opportunities generated by her first book. Learn more about Leanne here: https://www.leannehughes.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannehughes/

Today's episode features An Ly-Tampere, a mentor of book coaches. She uses her decade of experience in business consultancy to guide them through the process of building successful businesses around their personal lives.   Her own entrepreneurial journey began with the birth of her child, which catalysed her transition into a better work-life balance. She enjoys Latin dancing, sipping Earl Gre...

John Pabon is the author of “The Great Greenwashing: How Brands, Governments, and Influencers are Lying to You” and Sustainability for the Rest of Us.  He is also a Sustainability consultant, speaker and UN advisor. John has 60,000 followers on TikTok and his recent speaking engagements include The Ubud Literary Festival and Mumbrella. Media coverage includes ABC News Breakfast, Channel 9 and CNN....

Michael Hanrahan is the founder and managing director of Publish Central in Melbourne, which provides self-publishing services, education and resources for non-fiction authors. Michael has decades of experience in publishing and he shares insights on the essential elements of book production for self-published authors. He also discusses the changing landscape of the publishing industry in Australi...

Bruce Lowery is the author of Catch the Wind: From the Nullarbor to the Far Northwest in '68. His memoir describes a formative year in his life as an 18-year-old when he hitchhiked from his home in Melbourne to Western Australia. He spent a year working in some of the most remote parts of the outback and met a host of colourful characters along the way. Bruce explains how he tapped into memori...

We have a special guest on the podcast today. Robert A. Lane is an audiobook coach & producer, life coach and inspirational speaker. He spent 30+ years working in the entertainment industry including radio, voice-over, and post production. He spent 14 years working at 20th Century Fox as their Feature Project Manager. He has over 20 years experience in audio as a re-recording mixer, sound desi...

Chris Munnery is Senior Key Account Manager at IngramSpark Australia, which is the world’s largest book distributor. Chris shares his insights on how indie authors can leverage IngramSpark and some exciting new features on the horizon, such as more direct sales opportunities for authors. https://www.ingramspark.com/

Louisa Deasey is a publishing coach devoted to helping writers succeed in the traditional book publishing industry. She secured deals with major publishers for both her memoirs. In this episode she gives a blow-by-blow account of how it happened, and shares her tips for query letters. https://louisadeasey.com/

 Anna Kharzeeva is the author of The Soviet Diet Cookbook, which she self-published in Russia shortly before the war broke out. Anna's book was doing very well and she ran cooking classes alongside her English-language book, which had a largely expat clientele. Anna and her husband had to flee Russia for their safety and they now live in Sydney. Anna talks about how external events can upend o...

Mary Garden is the author of four books, and her new book is a memoir called My Father’s Suitcase. It is due out in May 2024. Her previous memoir, The Serpent Rising, won the High Country Indie Book Award 2021. Her last book, Sundowner of the Skies, was a biography of her father, Oscar Garden, who was a famous pioneer aviator. Sundowner was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Award 2020.  Ma...

Dana Da Silva is the author of The Shift, which is a memoir that combines travel, mental health and OCD and erotica. She talks about her decision not to write under a pseudonym, her tips for writing erotica well and things to consider when self-publishing (such as not ticking the 'box of death'!).

Maggie Walters is the author of the forthcoming memoir SPLIT: A Life Shared, Living with Multiple Personality Disorder. It will be published independently in May and in 2022 it was longlisted for the prestigious Richell Prize. Maggie is here to tell us about her publishing journey and her personal story of being a trauma survivor with Multiple Personality Disorder, which is now known as Dissociati...

Since founding the Book Adviser in 2016, Jaqui Lane has helped hundreds of business leaders to write and publish their books. The self publishing expert is one of Australia’s leading writers of corporate history books and she is also an Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors. In this episode, Jaqui explains how she carved out a niche in in writing corporate histories of some of Austral...

Suzanne Robinson has written 1278 reviews on Goodreads. She is currently ranked ninth in Australia as a 'top reviewer' on the global book recommendations website. A bad review can be really painful for an author, and a great review can make our day. I ask Suzanne what makes her love or loathe a book, and we talk about all things Goodreads - the social media platform for book lovers. All au...

Lexie Eatock is a book buyer at the iconic Sydney bookstore, Better Read Than Dead. We go behind the counter of a bookstore to find out what a book buyer looks for when deciding whether to stock a particular title. Lexie also shares insights into the kinds of books that are selling well at the moment, and some of the cyclical patterns of retail book sales.

Lucy Pearson is a freelance writer, bibliotherapist and library curator. In 2018 she won the inaugural Book Blogger of the Year award at the London Book Fair, after which she cofounded the Bondi Literary Salon with bookshop Gertrude and Alice. She splits her time between London and Sydney. Lucy explains the ancient and fascinating practice of bibliotherapy and provides her book prescription list f...

Book designer Bettina Kaiser is the Owner & Creative Director of Bettina Kaiser Art+Design. She has over two decades of experience in design for print and screen, and has a Masters in Visual Communications from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Bettina shares her insights on the elements of a great cover and some of the tricks of the trade for making a book cover stand out in a crowd...

As a publisher at Hachette Australia, Bernadette Foley spent ten years commissioning fiction and nonfiction book titles. She worked with authors such as Di Morrissey, William McInnes, Kate Ceberano and Richard Flanagan. She also spent five years as an editor and publisher at Pan McMillan. In 2016, Bernadette founded Broadcast Books in Sydney. She works with authors to publish independently or prep...

Nicole Webb is a former newsreader and executive producer turned book publicist. She is also the author of the memoir China Blonde, which describes the years she spent in China with her hotelier husband and baby.    After successfully executing a media campaign for her own book, Nicole realised she had a knack for book publicity and began taking on clients. Her first client was renowned ethicist P...

Lauren Finger has 20 years of experience as a book editor, and has worked on nonfiction titles such as Anh Do's The Happiest Refugee. In this episode, Lauren explains - * How a book editor improves a manuscript * Whether it's preferable to use an editor before pitching a manuscript to publishers * The most common types of writing issues she fixes * Where to find an editor in Australia