This week on Authors Off Script, we're getting into bookish spaces, who gets to take up room in them, and who actually pays the price for being there.

We talk about the growing presence of men in spaces that have historically been created, shaped, and largely supported by women readers and authors—and the frustration that can come when people enter those spaces without considering whether their presence is actually needed, or whether they're simply taking up space that could be going to the people the community was built around.

And then we get into the money conversation.

Authors can spend hundreds of euros to attend book events, travel, book accommodation, pay for tables, and promote their work… while influencers and other guests can sometimes be invited and paid to attend.

So naturally, we have questions.

This week on Authors Off Script, we're talking about... absolutely nothing related to books.Well. Probably.We decided to share some of our worst dating stories, questionable decisions, unfortunate encounters, and the kind of romantic disasters that are hilarious in hindsight but definitely weren't funny while they were happening. Because we're authors, naturally there's also a tiny possibility that some of these experiences will eventually make their way into a book.

This week on Authors Off Script, we're talking about one of the weirdest expectations that has crept into modern romance reading culture: why do readers expect authors to publish books so damn fast?

We dive into the pressure authors can feel when readers are asking, "When is the next book coming out?" barely five minutes after finishing the last one, and how the rise of indie publishing may have helped create this expectation (it's our fault then, sorry).

Let us know what you think about it on IG at @authorsoffscript

This week on Authors Off Script, we have absolutely no idea what we're doing. There is no book talk. No writing advice. No publishing discourse. No carefully prepared topic to pretend we're organized adults. Just us. Chatting.

We bounce from coregasms to the sports we used to practice, childhood memories, random life stories, and approximately seventeen conversations that have absolutely no business being in the same episode.

It's one of those episodes where you basically get to hang out with us without the pressure of having to learn something productive, which, honestly, we all deserve sometimes.

This week on Authors Off Script, we're talking about pen names, and why they can be about so much more than creating an author persona.

For many writers, using a pen name is a creative or marketing choice. But it can also be a way to protect your privacy, your personal life, and sometimes even your physical safety.

We chat about why authors might choose not to publish under their legal names, the boundaries between an author's public and private life, and how much personal information we're really expected to share online just because we write books.

This week on Authors Off Script, we have officially lost the plot.

There was no real plan. There was a tangent. Then another tangent. Then somehow we started manifesting our future, imagining where our writing careers could take us, and getting increasingly unhinged about all the things we want to make happen.

And honestly? We may have manifested a little too hard.

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This week on Authors Off Script, we're covering a truly logical combination of topics: hair colors, writing processes, and the eternal battle between plotters and pantsers.

We talk about how we actually write our books, what our creative processes look like behind the scenes, and whether we need a detailed outline or prefer to simply throw our characters into a situation and see what happens.

IG: @elenalocatelli_ and @letiziafirmani and @authorsoffscript

This week on Authors Off Script, a single casting announcement sends us completely off the rails.

Thanks to Jamie Campbell Bower joining The Rings of Power, Letizia takes the opportunity to deliver what can only be described as a full-blown TED Talk on Tolkien lore. Elena, meanwhile, does her best to keep up, asks the questions everyone else is probably thinking, and learns far more about Middle-earth than she ever planned to.

One of us had the time of her life. The other survived.

As always, we're 50% writing, 50% chaos, and 100% off script.

Connect with us on IG @letiziafirmani and @elenalocatelli_

This week on Authors Off Script, we’re talking about translation deals, international publishing opportunities, and the growing concern around publishing houses using AI in ways that can harm authors and translators.

As two Italian authors living abroad, we dive into what we’ve observed in both the Italian and Spanish publishing markets, the opportunities they offer, and the red flags authors should watch for before signing a contract.

Connect with us on IG @elenalocatelli_ and @letiziafirmani

This week on Authors Off Script, we accidentally convince ourselves that opening a bookstore in Italy is a perfectly reasonable life plan.

What starts as a dreamy "what if?" turns into a conversation about the Italian book market, reading culture, and how Italians interact with books. We also take a nostalgic detour into what it was like growing up in Italy in the 2000s, reflecting on the pressure to be "perfect," cultural expectations, and the experiences that shaped us as readers, writers, and people.

Follow us @letiziafirmani and @elenalocatelli_ or @authorsoffscript on IG