The Page & Podium Podcast with Dr. Amanda Nell Edgar

If you’re writing a memoir, here’s something essential to remember: you can’t write well if you’re not also reading well. And I don’t mean reading more — I mean reading with intention. Reading with your writer brain awake. It’s easy to fall into a book and assume it arrived in the world fully formed, but every memoir you love is the product of choices, structure, and revision. When you read like a...

The New Year always brings a wave of reflection and big promises — and 2026 is no exception. If writing (or finally finishing) your memoir is on your heart this year, you’re not alone. The trouble is, most of us focus so much on the distant finish line that we burn out before we ever build momentum. In this video, I’m breaking down five simple, repeatable habits that will help you make real, stead...

For our last video and podcast of 2025, we are reflecting on the biggest mistakes we've seen (and made) over this year, often over and over again. These aren't mistakes like putting a comma before every "and" regardless of whether there's a second clause, but the kind of mistake that drags down your progress, gets your whole project off track, or just sucks the fun out of writing itself. Watch now...

"Building Platform" can feel like a dreaded, insurmountable task for writers (especially ones that tend towards introversion or hate social media) but it doesn't have to be. The concept and process of building a platform is often misunderstood. It's not just social media statistics! This week, we're breaking down how to shift your mindset regarding building your platform away from imagined benchma...

Landing a traditional book deal with a large publishing house is a dream for many writers. While we've said many times on this channel that all publishing paths are valid, we also want to encourage anyone aiming at that Big-5 Book Deal to go for it. Landing one of those deals is a long process (and comes with no guarantees), but this week we break down the process into five milestone steps to set...

Many times on this channel we've talked about the importance of the often-underestimated development or "prewriting" step, which includes brainstorming and outlining the structure and key focus points of your narrative. However, that process can be difficult to dive into when you're not ready. How do you know you're ready? This week, we're reviewing four questions to ask yourself and tips for that...

We want to stay informed and be aware of all that is happening in the world, but these days that can become overwhelming fast. That constant intake of bad news and conflict can fill our minds and make us feel many things—angry, hopeless, even guilty about our limited ability to help—but our creative impulses are drowning. Putting aside your creativity when the world feels like it’s on fire is not...

We're coming up on the season where our desire to make progress on our books rises...exactly as the time we have to write it somehow goes up in smoke. Planning a writing retreat, either during the holidays or sometime in in early 2026, can be an amazing chance to make headway on your book and be energized for the coming year. Watch for our we at Page & Podium set up our writing retreat to be a...

After years of ghostwriting and coaching others through crafting their memoirs and non-fiction books, it's time for me to dive into a more personal project. In doing so, I am reminded of the challenges of applying the elements of craft to very personal content and how freeing and transformative working through that process can be. This week, I'm sharing what I've learned from applying the methods...

Over and over on this channel, we have emphasized that the whole concept of "the lone author" is a widely held myth. Most books are written with some form of support, whether its technical, editorial, or just moral. In the past several years, the term "book coach" has emerged more on the publishing scene. But what exactly is a book coach, who needs one, and what benefits can you really expect? Par...

The term "vanity press" is generally used as an insult or by authors to describe what they for sure don't want to do. The image of a "vanity" press is one that will slap a cover on every manuscript that crosses their desk without regard to quality or content at the direct cost of the author. A traditional publisher, in contrast, is one that pays author for their work and takes on all the funds the...

So many--so, so many--deserving stories go unfinished. It's understandable, as this writing process isn't easy and it's often not straightforward. We hear every week from authors who are trying to revitalize stories that they've shoved in a drawer five, ten, even thirty years ago. From working with these women, we see a clear pattern--there are five main reasons women abandon their memoirs. The go...

Writers love a writerly accessory or two, but we all know deep down that having exactly the right notebook, keyboard, glasses chain, tea mug, color-coded post-its (I'm now just naming things on my desk, but you get the idea.) doesn't actually make or break your writing project. In fact, the real things you really must have for to make your writing project successful aren't things you add-to-cart....

We often refer to the drafting stage of the process "the chapter train"--especially when it's going well. If you set yourself up in development, you can get on the chapter train and chug-chug along to the end. But of course, having a plan doesn't mean something won't throw a problem on the tracks. This week, we're looking at five ways your chapters can go off the rails and how to stop and correct...

We often talk about a memoir's central message and how important it is for a strong and focused narrative. Many starting and even experienced authors struggle with this focus because sometimes it can tip over into preachiness, which is a put-off to readers and goes against what many writers really want for their book. You're not here to be judgmental or tell people how live; you're here to share s...

Perfectionism is a species of black and white thinking that can kill your book. We've seen passionate people with amazing stories to tell stopped at every stage of the process: unable to start without the perfect plan, unable to keep going unless every chapter is perfect, unable to revise without assurance that the fix is perfect, and unable to move into the publishing process without assurance th...

This week we are thrilled to have guest author Lisa Katona Smith on the day of the debut of Parallel Recovery: A guide for those who love someone with substance use disorder. Among other topics, Lisa discusses how she knew she was ready to write her book and expand the audience of her message. Lisa Katona Smith is the founder of Parallel Recovery-Family Recovery Services, and a nationally recogniz...

AI is here, and many writers are turning to it. It can produce words much faster than any human can--but does that mean it's actually helping? Is producing your work faster than you can read and evaluate it carefully actually saving you time? Over the past year, we've been taking careful stock of how LLMs--ChatGPT in particular--works and its effects on writing and writers. We are not impressed. A...

Writers often think that the best way to sell a book is to have the best book. However, what makes a book "good" and what makes a book "marketable" are not the same thing. We know that many excellent books tragically never find an audience. (And some books that are just pretty okay do.) We talked last month about what makes a memoir good--but what makes it actually marketable? When you get into th...

Being a writer often comes hand in hand with being a school supply/office supply nerd. We love to see August roll around because it means those amazing walls of school supplies for the coming year--new pens, notepads, ink colors, and all that. These accessories can become distracting toys, but if you a setting yourself up to write your memoir, you do need a few of these things! For our fun video t...

"If I could only just sit down, focus, and knock this out..." How many times have you said this to yourself about your writing? I certainly have, far too many times. Since when do we want to "knock out" things that we love? Truth we want to share? Connections we want to make? When we start thinking about our writing like a job at a word factory, our connection with it suffers. We struggle to see t...

In part four of our book sales series, we want to address an obstacle we see many of our authors face as they begin to promote their published book, especially authors of memoirs or hybrid memoirs. These authors have important experiences to share, have done the work of thinking through them and deeply considering their meaning and relevance, and have written the book on the subject—but still don’...

The launch of your book is a wonderfully exciting time. In this third episode of our series on sales, Amanda explores the different way your mindset can set you up for a successful book launch and continuing that into the months or years after your initial book launch. There are elements of our psychology behind both writing the memoir and trying to launch it into the market that can cause a lot o...

There is one question that haunts so many aspiring authors--"Will this book sell?" It's a fair question, but it's not one that anyone can easily answer with a simple yes or no for many reasons. And they certainly can't assure you of sales before the book is even started. There are many misconceptions and misunderstandings about how book sales actually work, so today, in part two of our series abou...

Every author wants their book to be a success. But what does it really mean for a book to be successful? Is it winning awards? Finding devoted readers? Helping others face their own lives with bravery? Sales? There is a distinct transition between the creative process and business, industry process of trying to publish, market, and sell your book. Making that transition can come with psychological...