That’s right – Hungry Authors is going to be a book! This week, we’re spilling the tea on how we ourselves secured a traditional publishing deal. We share exactly what happened, step-by-step, with all of the details of how we made connections, worked with our agent, and negotiated our contract. In addition, we break down the pros and cons of our book proposal, getting really honest about what we were up against and how we overcame some very common challenges.Ultimately, we are SO grateful for the opportunity to bring Hungry Authors to life – and that’s why we’ll be taking the summer off from podcasting to focus on writing the book. You can look forward to Season 2 in September 2023, along with a new book mapping product that we’ll be launching soon.In the meantime, we’d love to send you our EXACT book proposal (minus our home addresses!), the query letter we sent to agents, and the video we submitted to publishers. Click here to give us your email so we can send it to you!https://bit.ly/hungryauthorsPlus, keep following us on Instagram @hungryauthors this summer as we document the writing process!

Megan Faulkner is deep in launch mode with her book, Happily Ever After All. And as a first-time author, she is rocking it!! A few weeks before her book published, she surpassed 1000 preorder sales – which, if you know publishing, is A LOT. We just had to chat with her to find out her secret, talk about working with an assisted self-publishing company, and learn her advice for other aspiring authors. Turns out, you might want to adopt Megan’s grandma!Megan Faulkner encourages women to embrace a full, abundant life of freedom. Megan has served full time in the local Church for fifteen years where her enthusiasm for ministry to teenagers and their families, women in various seasons of life, the marginalized, and orphans have collided into a singular passion for seeing people encounter the love of Jesus and leave radically changed. Megan’s blog, Joy in the Journey, depicts ridiculous tales of living a life filled with Jesus and His grace. Wife Me Up, Megan’s podcast which has reached about 10,000 listeners, is a place where women who live on purpose and mission have their voices elevated. Her first book, Happily Ever After All: On-Purpose Living in a Fairytale World, releases on May 5! Aside from reading, studying, and teaching God’s Word, her passions in life include Haitian orphans, sunshine, and coffee—in that exact order.

We love chatting with Hungry Authors who are in the middle of it – so today we’re thrilled to have Steph Crowder on the show! Steph is a business coach and trainer whose course “Year on the Wall” has helped hundreds of people plan their time differently. She’s in the process now of turning that course into a book. We talked about the difference between writing fiction and writing nonfiction, growing your self-belief as an author, the benefits of being a beginner in the writing process, and how to work through your first book jitters.Steph Crowder is a business coach & sales expert who has been helping people build online businesses they love since 2015. As an English major in college and an avid writer for as long as she can remember, becoming a published author is her biggest dream she intends to realize in the coming year!

We talk a lot about traditional publishing on this podcast, so today we wanted to switch gears and talk about self-publishing with one of our favorite entrepreneurs, Jake Kelfer! Jake had an unconventional entre to publishing – but once he published his first book and saw the power books have to change your life, he was hooked. In this episode, we talk about why self-publishing might be the right choice for you no matter your credentials or background, how to clarify the intention for your book, and the power of being your own distributor.Jake Kelfer is a lifestyle entrepreneur, life elevator, and coach to ambitious entrepreneurs and freedom seekers helping people write and launch bestselling books. He is the creator of Big Idea To Bestseller which helps coaches and entrepreneurs write, publish, and launch nonfiction books to grow their businesses and make an impact.He is a 4x bestselling author, a high-energy motivational speaker and hype man, investor, and the founder of the Professional Basketball Combine, which helped 70+ NBA draft prospects turn their dreams of playing pro basketball into their reality. He and his work have been featured on Forbes, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and many other major media outlets.Connect with Jake on social at @jakekelfer!

Zibby Owens is living the dream! In the book world, she’s an author, podcaster, and most recently a publisher and bookstore owner. She brings innovation and outside-the-box thinking to every bookish endeavor, and it was so much fun to hear how she thinks about every aspect of the reading life. She’s not just a reader’s reader; she’s also an author’s author, and she’s designing her publishing company around novel ways to support authors. Zibby shares what her editorial team looks for in great memoirs, and what she’s learned from opening her own bookstore.Zibby Owens is an author, award-winning podcaster, entrepreneur, and CEO. Owens founded Zibby Media, a privately-held media company, in 2018, with her award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. The company has since grown to include the publishing house Zibby Books, the magazine Zibby Mag, the podcast network Zibby Audio, the education platform Zibby Classes, and community events like retreats, a book club, and a writing community. She was celebrated as “New York’s Most Powerful Book-fluencer” by New York Magazine. Owens is a regular contributor to “Good Morning America” and other broadcast outlets. She is the author of the memoir Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, the children’s book, Princess Charming, and the editor of two anthologies. Owens is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School. She lives in New York with her husband, Kyle Owens of Morning Moon Productions, and her four children. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens.

Rejection is probably our least favorite part of the writing life – but in this episode, we’re reframing rejections to talk about what we can learn, how to take care of ourselves, and how to stay motivated and focused on your goals. We invited creative coach and professional oboist Merideth Hite Estevez to share her publishing journey and how she helps other creatives reframe rejection and grow resilience in their writing life.An active freelancer and sought-after recitalist, oboist Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez has performed and taught throughout North and South America, Asia, and Europe. Her education has taken her all over the world—Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Yale School of Music, Fulbright Scholar to Germany, and to The Juilliard School where she received for her doctorate in oboe.As founder and director of Artists for Joy in 2017, Merideth invites artists into community to debunk the stereotype of the tortured artist, to unleash joy in the creation of art in all disciplines, and to consider creativity as a spiritual practice. Her podcast of the same name was a 2022 winner of the Award of Excellence in 2022 Communicator Awards and is in the top 2% of podcasts worldwide according to listennotes.com. Merideth has led thousands of artists in creative recovery and discovery through her popular support groups around Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way” and is a Start with Heart Facilitator through Graydin. She runs a thriving one-to-one coaching business help artists thrive.When she’s not playing oboe or making reeds, Merideth enjoys traveling the world and attempting to speak foreign languages with a southern accent. She hails from Abbeville, SC, but now lives in Bloomfield Hills, MI, where she resides with her husband, Rev. Edwin Estevez, daughter Eva, and son Eli.Merideth’s website: https://artistsforjoy.org/Merideth’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/artistsforjoy/Merideth’s freebie: 3 Ways to Love Your Inner ArtistDheepa Maturi’s Ritual for Rejection: https://www.dheeparmaturi.com/post/moment-by-moment

We’re jumping back into our series on the work of getting traditionally published, and this week Liz and Ariel are talking about literary agents: What do they do? Why do you need one? Where do you find one? How do you persuade them to take you on? How many should you pitch? When should you stop pitching?We’re big fans of literary agents – and not just because we have many friends who are agents; we’ve seen first-hand how having a literary agent can make all the difference in your publishing experience. In this practical episode, we’ll give you everything you need to know to find the right agent partner.Some of the links we mentioned in this episode:

When pitching and querying, we spend a lot of time waiting for an agent or publisher to say yes to us. But what if the road to that external yes isn’t just about having a killer idea, excellent writing skills, or a bucket full of perseverance. What if it’s about how we see ourselves? During this podcast interview, we explore the various internal no’s we can encounter, how they can lead to self-sabotage, procrastination, and prose that lacks the confidence needed to reach the finish line, as well as how to create the internal landscape that helps you say yes to your writing and yourself.Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach with an Ed.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a background in mindfulness. She regularly presents on grief and resilience and teaches courses on writing about trauma, memoir, and the book proposal. A regular contributor to the Jane Friedman blog, Lisa’s essays and short stories have appeared in HuffPost, Hippocampus Literary Magazine, and Kenyon Review Online, among others. She writes weekly letters to her newsletter followers on how to write and live from a space of authenticity and resilience. To learn more and receive a free copy of her e-book Write More, Fret Less: Five Brain Hacks that Will Supercharge Your Productivity, Creativity, and Confidence, check out her website: lisacooperellison.com.

The #1 best tool you can have in your platform is a strong network! And there’s no one better to talk about how to build your network than today’s guest, Tyler Wagner. In this episode, Tyler shares his top tips for cold-emailing the people you want to connect with and using in-person events like conferences to make connections.

Tyler Wagner is the host of the Tyler Wagner Show and founder of Authorsunite.com, where he helps people become successful authors. His passion is in helping others spread their message with the world through the written word. Follow him on Instagram @tylerbwagner.

This week we’re talking about one of the most underutilized tools in publishing: comp books! “Comp” can stand for competing, competitive, complementary, comparable, comparative – there are lots of names, but they all share the purpose of helping you to identify other books like yours. In this episode, Liz and Ariel teach you how to find comps, use those comps as models for your writing, write a great comps analysis in your book proposal, and use your comps to pitch your book to agents and editors.It’s only when you know the other books on your topic that you can contribute something truly new and unique!To learn more about our masterclasses or register for the upcoming beta version of our Book Mapping Course, visit https://hungryauthors.com/.