Honestly guys, I have no idea what we said in this one. We recorded it over three weeks ago! Hope it's good... Let me know!

We have a summer sale on for the next week! 50% off all our courses.

Q and A episode today people!

We're answering YOUR questions:

Do we want kids?

Is Fan Fiction a good way to practice writing?

What do we do when we fall of out love with our art?

And more!

We will be in an aeroplane in the sky when this goes out so hopefully it works!

You can join our San Francisco workshop digitally via A Writing Room! The session will be recorded so you can watch the replay too!

We're in a little bit of slump at the moment. How do we deal with it?

It's normal to not always feel motivated and enthusiastic with your work. We share what we've been struggling with lately, common reasons creatives get into slumps, imposter syndrome/the pain of leveling up and feeling like you aren't fully ready for that next level.

We also give you an update on our MUSCLES!

Did you want to come to come to one of Amie's live workshops but don't live in California? Our hosts, A Writing Room, are offering a livestream of the San Francisco event on June 1st! Replay included.

Today we're responding to a series of articles that have gone viral over the last couple of weeks. They're all about the publishing industry, and whether or not it's dying out.

Included: how big is the market for books? Is it growing or shrinking? Are publishers profitable? Is it even worth writing books anymore? What about indie books, self-publishing, e-books, and audio? What do publishers get right and what do they get wrong.

James says the C word twice and apologises to all the Americans for being Australian.

Main sources:

No One Buys Books by Elle Griffin

People Buy Books, Publishing Is Thriving, and Substack Will Never Replace Books, by Brooke Warner which also links to several other great pieces. The one we used most heavily was:

Yes, People Do Buy Books, by Lincolm Michel

Failure is non negotiable. So how can learn and grow from our failures?

We share some of our failures, what they taught us, how we dealt with them at the time, and what we think of them now.

Included: dealing with rejection from gatekeepers, why failure should excite us, letting ourselves be upset, and more!

There are still tickets to both of our US workshops!

Another spice one provoked by some online discourse.

Is it wrong to make money from our art? Does making art with the intention to sell it sully it?

It's a strong no from us. Listen to learn why!

Don't forget we have two workshops in California coming up.

LA on the 25th of May

San Francisco on the 1st of June

Both are going to be 5 hours long (including a lunch break), with teaching, QandA, journaling, and a chance to mingle with other artists.

Cheapest tickets start at $50.

Back to our favourite punching bag: Perfectionism.

We talk about how perfectionism leads to stagnancy, stunts your growth as a creative, and ultimately leads to worse art.

LA and San Francisco artists (or anyone who wants to travel there!), we are coming to your city!

LA workshop: 25th of March

San Fran workshop: 1st of June

Pricing is on a sliding scale to accomodate different budgets.

Learn more here

Join us on a walk and talk as we play a little game of Would You Rather, artist edition!

We would love for you to check out Amie's fiction.

Her witchy tudor novel, Regrettably, I Am About to Cause Trouble, and her Sexy medieval romp, The Rules Upheld by No One are available in audio, e-book, and print on most major platforms.

This is one of our favourite ever conversations! Emma Couette, six novels in the last five years. All while holding down a full time job.

We talk about how she juggles a 9-5 job with this sort of release schedule, doing her own promo, fighting for her novels, finding good people to give feedback, making difficult choices about how to allocate resources to creative projects, and much more!

We learned so much about the Indie publishing space and came away with heaps of things we want to action.

We reached out to Emma and asked her on the podcast because we are blown away by how she fights for her writing. How diligent she is. How much care she puts into her promotion and her social presence (@emmacouetteauthor).

Here are links to Emma's novels, please support her:

Silent Night purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/guildtrilogybookone

Summer's Revenge purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/summersrevenge

Winter's Wrath purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/winterswrath

Emma's website: ⁠https://www.emmacouetteauthor.com⁠

Emma is @emmacouetteauthor on Insta, Tiktok, and Threads.

Welcome Amie's sister Kirsty to the show! At 29 years old, Kirsty is the founder and director of Made Home, a Sydney based home transition company, with fifteen employees and dozens of customers!

We spend a lot of time trying to get to the bottom of why Amie and Kirsty both became Entrepreneurs and what exactly it was about their childhood that made them bounce off traditional work.

We also discuss the challenges of more traditional businesses versus creative businesseses, how motherhood has changed Kirsty's relationship with work, and much more!