#AmWriting

Sometimes, the internet turns against you. What to do, what not to do, how to ride it out and remember--the loudest voices aren't necessarily the most numerous. 

Over the course of our careers, both Jess and I have endured some PR storms. We share some of the gory details, but more importantly, advice from PR pros and from our experiences on how to handle it when you go a little bit viral in the worst way.

We heard from PR experts Ophir Lehavy and Carol Blymire. Ophir pointed us to a crisis control article, and Jess called out (in the good way) a couple of books that are useful when you're at the eye of the storm: Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate, from Sue Scheff and So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson.

#AmReading

KJ adored Ben Schott's P. G. Wodehouse homage, Jeeves and the King of Clubs.

Jess is treasuring The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus, Ryan Jacobs and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King--which she found at the dump, possibly the most indie book source of them all.

#FaveIndieBookstore

Shout out to one in Jess's new home town, Burlington, VT: The Phoenix

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Subscription services like Kindle Unlimited and Audible do make books—some books—cheaper for readers, but what do they do for authors—and what are readers missing? (with Sarina Bowen)

A few highlights from this episode: 

If you take something expensive—good content—and you pay people reasonably to create it, it’s tough to make this work. What we're often seeing as consumers are loss leaders for big media. Amazon doesn't have to make money from Kindle Unlimited. 

One you might not have heard of: Scribd. So far, it's reasonable for authors and for readers (although their "unlimited" may really mean "unlimited unless you're a superuser, in which case maybe not"). 

The takeaway for writers: limit yourself to Kindle Unlimited with great caution.

The takeaway for readers: Unlimited is still limited--to what's there and available. Relying on suggestions and highlights from various services is probably limiting what you see, and maybe what you read. 

#AmReading

Sarina is seeking "great books with ghosts in them." Which reminds me (KJ) of one Sarina and I both enjoyed: The Keeper of Lost Things, Ruth Hogan

Jess is listening to Nick Hornby's Slam, and Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World from David Epstein. She added an appreciation for Stephen King's Ur. 

KJ is slowly reading Author In Progress and regretting some Kindle Unlimited downloads from an author she once enjoyed (Katie Fforde). She also read, appreciated and did not enact the advice from Newsletter Ninja!

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Want more Sarina Bowen? Go here. 

Mary Laura Philpott tells all. It's glorious. It's embarrassing. Nobody told you you'd be sitting on a barstool in front of a crowd in a short skirt.

Mary Laura Philpott is the author of I Miss You When I Blink, a book with the most awesome subtitle ever: Essays. That's it. Here's a little something she wrote on subtitles and why we love to hate them, from LitHub. 

We've been following her book launch (check back to Episode 150, #NeverReady) and now, her triumphant tour. Or maybe not so much and certainly not all the time. 

Links to some of the fantastic Indies who hosted Mary Laura:

Whistlestop Bookshop

Books Are Magic

M. Judson Bookseller

Word Bookstore in Brooklyn and New Jersey

Malaprops Bookstore in Asheville, NC

The Snail on the Wall Huntsville, AL

Politics and Prose Washington, DC

Books and Books, Florida

City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert

#FaveIndieBookstore

And finally, no interview with Mary Laura would be complete without a shoutout to her favorite Indie--and her beloved employer--Parnassus Books in Nashville.

Find out more about our guest, Mary Laura Philpott, here —and check out her latest book, I Miss You When I Blink, on IndieBound or at Libro.fm.

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Remember those goals you set with Jess and KJ back in January? Neither did they, but they dug them out and sort out how the year’s going so far.

In Episode 140, we set our 2019 goals. (Listen here). Now, at 2019's halfway mark, it's time to check in on those--and we'd love to hear how you're doing on your goals in the #AmWriting Facebook group. Halfway here? More? En route? Revising the endgame? We get it all. 

Jess, in particular, gets moving the goal posts--and in fact, the whole point of a check in is to consider doing just that. Goals aren't there to help you fail, they're there to help you move towards them--and if a goal is unreachable this year, it's time to set a goal you can achieve that moves you in the right direction. For Jess, that's a new, revised book deadline.

I'm reporting a big fat checkmark on one goal--finding a publisher for my novel (hello, Episode 147). The Chicken Sisters will be out in the summer of 2020, and the new goal I'm slotting in there is to finish my revisions on time.

One bonus to the mid-year review is realizing that while you probably haven't checked something off yet, you really have been moving the dial. We did some math in January and realized that we've spent $10,000 producing #AmWriting between us (that was a bit of a shock). With one fantastic sponsor, we're on our way to, if not getting paid for our time, at least not paying to podcast, but we're still working on this one. We've asked, and you all have resoundingly said you'd like to sponsor us yourselves (no mattress ads for us!). We're more than halfway to offering a way to do just that. 

I love a good midyear goal review because revising goals and recommitting to them feels like a fresh start at the beginning of a season when I do like to slow down a bit--but not TOO much. I refined some personal goals, and made sure that my calendar allows for staying on track when it comes to the professional ones--but that I'm also not putting so much on my plate that I can't enjoy the summer when it finally gets here. 

And then--it will be time for another re-grouping in the fall.

#AmReading

Jess: The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, Leslie Jamison

KJ: The Collected Schizophrenias, Esme Wang

The Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT--a favorite of us both, a reliable source of favorites the minute you walk through the door and a fantastic host of events. And a reminder--when you just HAVE to order that book right now before you forget, it's quite likely you can do that right on your fave Indie's website and then pick it up in the store--where you'll have the opportunity to buy more books. 

We love our sponsor! If you’re not quite where you want to be on your writing goals for the year—or suspect that after this summer, you might be a wee bit behind—join us and our sponsor, Author Accelerator for the Find Your Book, Find Your Mojo retreat in Bar Harbor, Maine from September 12-15, 2019. Now is the perfect time to get this on the calendar so that the inevitable August slowdown will just be the lead-up to your big fall fresh start. 

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship, and The Secret Library, an interview podcast about real people who made time to write, often against the odds, because they believe that books matter. Find both on iTunes or on your podcast player of choice.

We welcome Shane Burcaw. You thought writing was hard? Try doing it with no muscles.

Shane Burcaw is the author of three books: Laughing at My Nightmare, the picture book Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability, and his new book, Strangers Assume My Girlfriend is My Nurse. Shane and his girlfriend, Hannah Aylward, host the YouTube channel, Squirmy and Grubs, with nearly 400k subscribers. Their YouTube channel reads: “Once upon a time, a boy with no muscles fell madly in love with a beautiful girl who had plenty of muscles to spare. The townsfolk gasped with horror at the sight of their disgusting interabled relationship, but they didn’t care.”

Kirkus calls Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse, "An accessible, smart-assed, and unexpectedly tender exploration of life, love, and disability."

We talked about the how of writing for Shane, (which included a shout out to the Remote Mouse App) but even more about the why--and why Jess's students in particular (along with many many others) have loved Shane's books since his first. Think "trademark acidic wit" which is also fully present here.

Shane’s nonprofit, Laughing at My Nightmare, funds adaptive technology for people with muscular dystrophy: https://www.laughingatmynightmare.com/

Squirmy and Grubs on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdomP1JqhnyBQGaBmfDl4KQ

Shane’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaneburcaw/?hl=en

Shane’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/shaner528?lang=en

Hannah’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahayl/?hl=en


#AmReading

This Is Not a Love Scene, S.C. Megale

A Season of Dragonflies, Sarah Creech

Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z's New Path to Success, Shalini Shankar

#FaveIndieBookstore

Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, where they mix chickens and lizards in with books for kids and young adults. 

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Parkland author Dave Cullen on everything you ever wanted to know about pitching and writing a topical nonfiction book at top speed (and going broke doing it).

We talked to Dave Cullen, about writing Parkland: Birth of a Movement, in ten months while he was 3 years overdue on his current book. 

"I'm just not gonna tell Gail," he said of his editor when he took the first assignment from Vanity Fair--but there was something going on with the Parkland students that grabbed him, and he--with the help of his agent, Betsy Lerner--grabbed it. 

"I just had to."

He describes the process of writing the book, how the length, plan and due dates evolved--and how he almost went broke doing it. 

#FaveIndieBookstore

Dave's #FaveIndieBookstore is Books & Books in Miami Beach, FL. "It was the only store I specifically asked to visit on my tour."

#AmReading

A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin 

Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Letham

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Story expert Lisa Cron joins Jess and KJ to dig into the mechanics of a good book, including the difference between plot and story, and looking beyond “what happened” to “why did it happen”.

To talk to Lisa Cron is--unless you've already read Story Genius or Wired for Story--to possibly flip everything you thought you knew about story--fiction, nonfiction, short, long, whatever--onto its head.

Story, she points out, isn't plot. It isn't what happens, and then what happens next, and then what happens next. It's the why behind those happenings. It's not, well, a spaceship just landed on the green in front of the library, and I'll either a) rush towards it or b) head for my car.

It's WHY I do those things. It's not just what I do next, but what it is about me, now the main character in this rather stressful tale that may end with us all being the entrees on some giant interstellar menu, that makes me make the no doubt terrible choices that I make (good choices make bad books). And that's my backstory. Which brings me to one of the many, many quick-write-that-down moments in this episode. 

Backstory isn't backstory. It IS the story. It informs every line of every page, every decision, every "because of this, then that," right up until the end, when whatever screwed me up in the first place becomes something I can overcome in order to win the aliens over and persuade them that we're not tasty after all (before I fry them with my laser gun and it's alien nuggets for everyone, with a variety of dipping sauces).

Our guest, Lisa Cron, is the author of Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel* [*Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere] and Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. She also contributed to Author in Progress: A No-Holds-Barred Guide to What It Really Takes to Get Published.

#AmReading

Jess sings the praises of The Lewis Trilogy, Peter May

Lisa recommends Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng

KJ is still finishing her favorite novel of this year so far, There's a Word for That, Sloane Tanen.

Book Soup, Los Angeles

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Jess and KJ extemporize on the power of stickers - where the only thing that matters is getting into the work, and getting the words out. And some bonus advice to authors on what not to do.

Kj here, with a confession: I've been lying to myself

Letting myself off the hook. 

Not keeping my butt in the chair and my head in the game.

I mean, sure, I had lots of excuses. I've been traveling or doing intense farm stuff since April 12. That's almost a month with--count them--only two days of being entirely home without travel or a major, all-day farm commitment. So okay then. Some of those days I called it. I knew I wouldn't get anything done on my next book, and I didn't.

Some of those days I had a reasonable plan. Open the file. Stay with the work. That's all.

But SOME days... some days I futzed around. I kept moving the needle. I let myself quit because "I'm really not focusing" or "this isn't getting anywhere" and although I had time to do something, and plans to do something, I didn't manage to do anything.

So here's the thing about goals, and getting your daily (or 5 days a week, or 6 days a week) sticker: the achievement needs to be hard, but do-able. 

Something that will pull you alll the way in and ask something of you. Something that will measurably move the dial.

If your sticker goal doesn't demand that you say no to some things--no to lunch, maybe, or no to taking a walk on the nice day, or no to a child who wants but doesn't exactly NEED a ride somewhere--in order to say yes to the goal, then the goal isn't high enough. Because it's the saying no that makes you, as Steven Pressfield would say, a pro. It's the saying no that means you're saying yes to yourself as a serious person with work that needs to get done, whether there's anyone else waiting for that work or not.

You're waiting.

I'm waiting.

So this is my declaration of re-intent. My "sticker" for the next 30 days (at a minimum) is 1000 words. No shortcuts, no lowered goals. SOME DAYS I MIGHT NOT GET A STICKER--but there will be no participation awards. No A-for-effort. 

It's sticker or nothing around here, baby. And that's #WhySticker.

Other links in the episode: 

The Secret Library Podcast, episode 147: Martine Fournier Watson
What happens when your editor asks you to change a major plot point?

The famed 2-tier outline process at Author Accelerator.

#AmReading

Chasing Cosby, Nicole Weisensee Egan

The best novel KJ's read yet this year (drumroll please): 

There's a Word for That, Sloane Tanen

#FaveIndieBookstore

Book People Austin, TX

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

Podcasting from Mom 2.0 Conference with podcaster, journalist and author, Nicole Blades. She tells us about the pros and cons of skipping an agent, using rejection as fuel, and the joys of the writer community.

Nicole Blades is a Podcaster (Hey, Sis! Podcast), Author of Have You Met Nora?, The Thunder Beneath Us, & Earth's Waters --and this is a glorious episode, recorded live and in person at Mom 2.0, in which we really capture the joy of writing, of finding your novel, of getting to do what we do. 

We also get into Tall Poppies, the writer's sharing group (I'm not sure what to call it) started by Ann Garvin, which also includes the Bloom  

website. I've been seeing this crew ALL OVER Insta this week, sharing each other's books like crazy, and I love it. It's a formalizing of the writer's community we all love and dream of and hopefully have (and we DO--it's called the #AmWriting Facebook group, and while we may not formalize the sharing of each other's work, we sure do do it). 

And I say, as I so often do, that one of my favorite things about being a writer is that it's so easy and wonderful to share and celebrate each other. Because for one thing, we're all in this because we love books and good writing. And for another, nobody who likes books ever just bought one book. 


Other links mentioned in the episode:

Steven Pressfield

BookPeople, Austin, TX

#AmReading

Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Accidentals, Sarina Bowen

Heavy: An American Memoir, Kiese Laymon

My Father's Stack of Books, Kathryn Schulz

Chase Darkness With Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders, Billy Jensen

The Other Americans, Laila Lalami

#FaveIndieBookstore

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template.

 Nicole's #FaveIndieBookstore is Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, NY  "Even though I now live in Connecticut, I still feel like I can own this bookstore. Because ... Books Are Magic"

Find out more about our guest, Nicole Blades, here — and check out her latest book, Have You Met Nora? here or at Libro.fm.

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.

It's hard enough to start a subscriber email. But what if--like freelance writer Lyz Lenz, who has two books coming out in the next twelve months--you asked your fans to pay for it? It's so crazy, it might just work.

Hello from the Mom 2.0 conference, where Jess and I just did a panel on Launching a Speaking Career. More on that in an upcoming episode--but meanwhile, this one's a real thought-provoker. Most of us struggle with what's a good use of our time in our writing careers. We've talked a lot about the value of an email subscriber list when it comes to selling books and sharing your work--but what if the email is your work, or becomes a way to share your work? 

Journalist Lyz Lenz uses Substack to share a largely subscriber-only email with a group of readers/fans whose financial support has helped to carry her through the ups and downs of a freelance career. 

Other links mentioned in the episode: 

Lyz Lenz's Contently

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, Roxane Gay

Ann Friedman's Newsletter

#AmReading

Heavy: An American Memoir, Kiese Laymon

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, Dani Shapiro

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, Mark Bowden

The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation, Mark Bowden

#FaveIndieBookstore

Lyz Lenz's fave is Next Page Books in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Bart knows all the local gossip and has always been a great supporter of my work."

Find out more about our guest, Lyz Lenz, here—and check out the first of the TWO books she's working on this year, God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss and Renewal in Middle America on IndieBound.

This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwritingfor details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s 2-tier outline template (the one KJ swears by).

Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.

If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.