Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

This is a big day, not only is it the first week of Submissions September, but we have something much more important happening: Today is the release of next novel, Rekka’s Peridot Shift Trilogy, ‘SALVAGE’! It’s an amazing book and we’d love for you to check it out.

On the WMB side of things, this is the first week of Submissions September!  Rekka and Kaelyn are bringing you six, (6!) episodes this month all about the process of submitting your novel.  We have a lot of awesome episodes lined up and even some special guests.  Here’s what will be coming your way for the  month:

Week 1 (9/3/2019): Is This Ready For Other People to See?- Submitting Your Manuscript

Week 2 (9/10/2019): My Entire Novel in Three Hundred Words - The Dreaded Query Letter

Week 3 (9/17/2019): Agents of Literature, Part 1: An Interview with Literary Agent Caitlin McDonald

              (9/18/2019): Agents of Literature, Part 2: Interviews with Agented Authors

              (9/19/2019): Agents of Literature Part 3: Interviews with Agented Authors

Week 4 (9/24/2019):What is Going On Over There? - The Other Side of the Submissions Process

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and any words of encouragement or congratulations you want to send Rekka’s way.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

 

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

 

 

Kaelyn:00:00   Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the, We Make Books Podcast a show about writing, publishing, and everything in between, and also the first week of Submissions September.

Rekka:00:09   Yes, yes, and also.

Kaelyn:00:11   But wait, there's more, there's more. It is also Book Day for Rekka Jay!

Rekka:00:17   Well, RJ, Theodore,

Kaelyn:00:19   RJ Theodore.

Rekka:00:19   Wherever she is.

Kaelyn:00:20   Wherever she is. RJ Theodore, author of Salvage the second book of the Peridot Trilogy from Parvus Press, released today. Um, so yeah, big day for Rekka. Very exciting. How you feeling?

Rekka:00:31   I'm feeling oddly calm about,

Kaelyn:00:33   Well, that's because we're recording this before it's actually happening.

Rekka:00:36   Yeah. That's the truth.

Kaelyn:00:37   It's still, it's still, it's still happening.

Rekka:00:40   It's still coming up. Yeah. Gosh, yeah. Now, now you're getting me nervous.

Kaelyn:00:44   And so, uh, yeah. So today, today's records book day, very exciting.

Rekka:00:47   So if you are listening to this live or otherwise, you can go find yourself a copy of Salvage, um, and if you don't have the money to buy a book, you can request it from your local library, which also would be very -

Kaelyn:01:00   That would be fantastic. Um, also today, you know, maybe you could show Rekka a little love, tweet her some, uh, some congratulations, some support. Um, you know, if you listened to the previous episode as, you heard that uh book launch days are stressful.

Rekka:01:16   Stressful, a little weird.

Kaelyn:01:17   Anticlimactic, yeah.

Rekka:01:19   A little quiet, I work from home, so it's just like me alone in my office and nobody's blowing birthday noisemakers or anything.

Kaelyn:01:27   Well, now, guess what we're going to do. So, yeah. Anyway, we're, we're really excited for Rekka's book launch and um, we're also super excited for Submissions September. I'm real, I'm giddy excited about this.

Rekka:01:41   Kaely

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

This week, we’re talking about a special state of being: The Debut Author. Who are these mysterious creatures, caught between a new chapter of their lives and the rest of their careers? What do the fates and their futures have in store for them?  And how the heck do you kill all of this time waiting for your book to be released??  Being a debut author is uncharted waters for most, how exactly do you navigate this? We talk about all of these things, yell about cookies, and Kaelyn nearly dies of shock after Rekka makes a sports analogy mid-episode.

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and your thoughts on Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings Series.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

 

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

Rekka:00:00   Welcome back to, we make books, a podcast about writing, publishing and everything in between. I'm Rekka Jay. I write science fiction and fantasy as RJ Theodore.

Kaelyn:00:08   And I'm Kaelyn Considine. I am the acquisitions editor for Parvus Press. And today we're talking about debut authors, uh, which Rekka still is one.

Rekka:00:19   Technically.

Kaelyn:00:20   As of when this is being released. But yeah, not for much longer now for much longer than two weeks.

Kaelyn:00:26   I will no longer be a debut author and we'll have to hang up that hat. So this episode was inspired. Well, we already had the idea to do an episode on being a debut author because I've seen it come up a lot and since we agreed that we would do that, it came up a few more times. Um, @ka_doore - K.A. Door, who is the author of the Perfect Assassin, did a tweet thread about the handbook that needs to be written for debut authors.

Kaelyn:00:54   Someone should handle that.

Kaelyn:00:55   Yes. And um, Kai did offer that. If anyone would like to pay her to take two weeks off of work, she would happily write that handbook. And so some of our topic points were taken right out of that. And then Melissa Caru, author of The Tethered Mage @MelissaCaru also sort of talked about what an odd sensation it is to be a debut author. So those were two that I wanted to just shout out and thank for, um, you know, just kind of guiding our conversation a little bit. And also, you know, like say, hey, we see you. You know, cause as you'll hear in this episode, sometimes you're just like, what am I doing? Who, who am I now that I have a book deal and, and what am I getting into.

Kaelyn:01:40   It's both an identity and existential crisis.

Rekka:01:43   And it's a big to do list as well. So, um, we talk about the tasks that you need to accomplish, the things your publisher will be doing. How would it talk to your publisher and your agent during this time when you feel like maybe they're just busy and they don't have time for you because they're supposed to be doing something and you shouldn't be bothering them. Stuff like that. And then also like how to feel and how not to feel and how to distract yourself from your feelings.

Kaelyn:02:04   Yeah. So, um, we hope you enjoyed the episode and by the way, stick around through the end of it because we have some news announcement type thing and then also we have a giveaway the end of the episode. Um, so, uh, stick around. Take a listen there and um, we hope that you enjoy Episode 11: Debut Authors

Kaelyn:02:32   We don't have the

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

This week, we’re talking about those wonderful, terrible things called reviews! Our last episode was pretty facts and numbers driven so this week, we wanted to talk about something a little more personal: Reading what people think of your book.  Reviews are so much harder to deal with than we think they will be and in this episode we talk about everything from who will be reviewing your book to coping with a less than favorable review.

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and your predictions for how long the Mets will manage to stay above .500 (Kaelyn’s got her money on less than 24 hours).

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

 

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

 

 

 

Rekka:00:00   Welcome back to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast. This is all about writing, all about publishing all your questions, all your wonderments, all the just the good fields and also some bad ones, unfortunately today.

Kaelyn:00:14   That's true. We're talking about feelings a lot today.

Rekka:00:16   We talk a lot about feelings.

Kaelyn:00:18   Yeah so, uh, today we didn't introduce ourselves.

Rekka:00:22   Who are we anyway?

Kaelyn:00:23   [laughs]

Rekka:00:23   After the, after recording that episode, I don't even know anymore. I'm Rekka. I write science fiction and fantasy as R.J. Theodore.

Kaelyn:00:30   And I'm Kaelyn and I am the acquisitions editor for Parvus Press.

Rekka:00:34   And we talk about books -

Kaelyn:00:35   A lot.

Rekka:00:36   And sometimes we talk about other aspects of books, like the things that other people say about books.

Kaelyn:00:42   So today we're talking about reviews and um,

Rekka:00:43   Mmm, I don't want to talk about reviews anymore.

Kaelyn:00:47   Well, it's a little bit of an emotional roller coaster.

Rekka:00:50   Yeah.

Kaelyn:00:50   Reviews in general are because um good reviews -

Rekka:00:54   Are amazing.

Kaelyn:00:54   Amazing.

Rekka:00:55   And they lift you up.

Kaelyn:00:56   Bad reviews, not so much.

Rekka:00:58   Yes. They smash your head against the concrete repeatedly.

Kaelyn:01:01   Yeah. So, um, today, you know, we were talking about things we were going to discuss and um, this was something that, it was funny because it started out a little nebulous and then we realized we actually had a lot of structured information to talk

Rekka:01:14   Yeah, we really did.

Kaelyn:01:14   Um, so we kind of go, we take you through, uh, the process of how books get reviews, um, different kinds of reviews, what they mean, how they can influence you and finally move into the how to deal with reviews, which is, um, you know, a little bit more of a personal side to it.

Rekka:01:31   Yeah. Yeah. I got a little personal yeah.

Kaelyn:01:33   Which, um, you know, but I think that's great.

Rekka:01:35   Yes.

Kaelyn:01:35   It's, um, it's, it's an overlooked aspect of this that is very important to authors both in terms of selling their book but also emotionally and, um, kind of goes into that taking care of yourself through this process because it's stressful and it's horrible.

Rekka:01:53   It is stressful, and this episode assumes that you are like me incapable of just not looking at the reviews at all. Yeah. That advice, I don't know who it's meant for. It is not meant for me cause I can't, I can't abide that advice no matter what I

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

This week, it’s the Dreaded Money Episode! That’s right, we’re talking about advances, royalties, and how you get your money. This seems to be a bit of a taboo topic for a lot of writers, but it shouldn’t be! You wrote something and you should get paid for it! Rekka and Kaelyn go through all that, talk about some personal experience, and spend way too much time listening to Kaelyn obsess about a pond and debate the merits of pajamas as every day wear.  

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and descriptions of any recurring bad dreams you’ve had since watching that trailer for the “Cats” movie.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

 

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

 

 

 

Kaelyn:00:00   Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the, We Make Books podcast, a podcast about writing, publishing and everything in between.

Rekka:00:06   I'm Rekka, I write science fiction and fantasy as RJ Theodore.

Rekka:00:10   Um, I'm Kaelyn. I'm the acquisitions editor for Parvus Press.

Rekka:00:14   So acquisitions, editing, writing, like we're all in this to make that cheddar, right?

Kaelyn:00:22   We're talking about money today, people, this is, this is that episode. Uh, we are talking about money.

Rekka:00:29   Yes. So we mentioned it in the episode. It's a bit of a thing, like it feels like it's taboo. It feels like, how dare you presume to even approach me with these questions? It feels like it's -

Kaelyn:00:43   It's scary

Rekka:00:43   I'm creative. How am I supposed to talk about money? Because if I'm talking about money and thinking about money, then I've sold out like, so we want to just, we get into that and this episode is full of as much information as we could broadly discuss. We, um, are not lawyers. We are not financial advisors.

Both:   01:02   [laughs]

Rekka:01:02   We do not want you to follow every word and, um, have a bad experience. But we did want to just approach all these subjects that most people feel that they can't talk about or that, um, it's, it's above them. It's not their business or anything like that. It is your business because you're a writer.

Kaelyn:01:24   It's absolutely your business.

Rekka:01:24   When you sign a contract, that contract is to sell the rights to print your book. So if you are selling the rights, then there should be an exchange of currency as part of that sale. And so where is it? Who determines it? Where does it come from? When do you get it? We're going to go into all of that in this episode and it's chock full of information. And again, we apologize when the episodes run a little long, but I think this is one that maybe everybody needs to hear.

Kaelyn:01:46   Yeah, this was, um, we tried to cover as much as we could, um, in the time that we had, um, like Rekkaa said, this is not something you should be embarrassed about talking about. You're at the end of the day you're, you made a thing, you should get paid for the thing

Rekka:02:03   And information is empowering. So take a listen.

Kaelyn:02:06   Take a listen.

Rekka:02:07   Empower yourself and then go out there and yes -

Kaelyn:02:10   And sell that book, dammit.

Rekka:02:12   All right.

Kaelyn:02:12   All right. Enjoy the episode, everyone. Thanks

Music:02:14   [Intro music]

Rekka:02:28   So that was shocking to me

Kaelyn:02:28   Do you not walk arou

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

This week we’re talking about ARCs or Advance Review Copies! What are they?  Why do we print them?  Who gets them?  Why do they smell better than your average book??  Rekka and Kaelyn discuss all of those things, tell a few funny stories, and spend more than a little time getting side tracked talking about ARCs they’ve received. 

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and any particularly good pie recipes you may have – apple is especially appreciated!

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

 

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

 

Rekka:00:00   Welcome back to another episode of the we make books podcast. I'm record Jay and I write science fiction and fantasy as RJ Theodore

Kaelyn:           00:07   And I'm Kaelyn Considine and I am the acquisition editor for Parvus Press. This is one of my favorite things that happened in the process of publishing a book. And we are of course talking about advanced review copies or ARCs.

Rekka:00:19   Because you get to see it and it's a thing and it's real and they haven't been lying to you this whole time and they're really going to publish it.

Kaelyn:           00:24   I don't know what it is. I love getting the ARCs it's -

Rekka:00:27   Do they smell different?

Kaelyn:           00:28   They yes, they smell, this is a trade secret: they smell different than a regular book.

Rekka:00:33   They do smell different,

Kaelyn:           00:34   Yeah.

Rekka:00:35   I'm going to dive in here.

Kaelyn:           00:36   No Rekka's right in to the spine.

Rekka:00:39   [laughter]

Kaelyn:           00:39   Um, so yeah, we're just talking today a little bit about what ARCs are -

Rekka:00:43   What it is because as you even mentioned, and I think one of our very intro episodes -

Kaelyn:           00:46   It was the intro episode

Rekka:00:48   You didn't even know what ARC meant so -

Kaelyn:           00:49   That was the example I gave about don't be afraid to ask stupid questions because I knew what an advanced review copy was and I had just never heard it abbreviated to ARC and then I was like, oh, it's that thing I love.

Rekka:01:00   Yeah. It's my favorite thing. I know what it is, I just didn't know you called it that.

Kaelyn:           01:03   Yeah. You know, we talked a little bit today about what an ARC is, what its function is -

Rekka:01:06   Who gets them.

Kaelyn:           01:07   Who gets them.

Rekka:01:08   And where they go.

Kaelyn:           01:09   Where they go.

Rekka:01:09   And what their purposes.

Kaelyn:           01:11   Exactly. Yeah. So, um, you know, a little interesting bit about the history of them, sort of where they come from and why they are what they are.

Rekka:01:20   Mmmhmm.

Kaelyn:           01:20   Um, so I think it was a great episode.

Rekka:01:22   Yeah

Kaelyn:           01:22   I enjoyed doing it.

Rekka:01:23   Yes. Well, I always like paying attention to ARCs and, and we get to squeal a little bit about ARCs that are out there in the world. Right this moment as we recorded.

Kaelyn:           01:30   Yeah we definitely devolved into -

Rekka:01:33   A little bit of squealing.

Kaelyn:           01:33   A little bit of squealing. So apologies for that.

Rekka:01:36   No apologies.

Kaelyn:           01:37   Okay. Nevermind. We're not sorry.

Rekka:01:38   Love us as we are -

Kaelyn:           01:40   O

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We’re back to our usual format this week and we’re talking about that question that’s lurked in the back of every writer’s mind: Is this thing I’ve written any good?

Rekka and Kaelyn spend this episode discussing the various things that can derail your book, who will tell you about it, and what to do next.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and any lingering thoughts or feelings about Endgame that you just can’t get out of your head.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

 

=== Transcript ===

 

 

 

Kaelyn: (00:00)

Welcome back to another episode of the we make books podcast. I'm Kaelyn Considine

 

Rekka: (00:04)

And I'm Rekka Jay

 

Kaelyn: (00:05)

And we have um, I think a really good episode.

 

Rekka: (00:08)

It's a little telling about the, the fragile mental state of an author

 

Kaelyn: (00:12)

Yeah

 

Rekka: (00:12)

Because this one comes to us from a listener. The question was posed as "Will my editor tell me my book is shit"? Which you laugh. But I mean

 

Kaelyn: (00:21)

[laughter] I laughed a lot when I saw that.

 

Rekka: (00:21)

But it is the question, isn't it?

 

Kaelyn: (00:26)

Yes, it is.

 

Rekka: (00:26)

Like everyone wants to know is someone going to tell me or are they just going to let me put this out in the world as is? But the other half of this, the implied half of this question I think is, is my book shit?

 

Kaelyn: (00:35)

We talk about both of those. Um, we do talk a lot about, you know, getting feedback from your editors, but we also do delve into like the hey, maybe don't with this book.

 

Rekka: (00:46)

Yeah, maybe you could just not.

 

Kaelyn: (00:48)

Yeah. So it is an uncomfortable conversation that I think a lot of people are curious about because writers I know from much experience in this area have this question constantly, I won't even say lurking in the back of their mind

 

Rekka: (01:01)

It is forefront. It is,

 

Kaelyn: (01:02)

It is just the playing on loop.

 

Rekka: (01:05)

Yeah. Nevermind rose colored lenses. These, this is, you know, the metaphorical lens by which we, we look at other work that we don't see the process to get it to publication.

 

Kaelyn: (01:16)

Yup.

 

Rekka: (01:16)

And then we look at our work and you know, what's the phrase that you're comparing your rehearsal to other people's performance

 

Kaelyn: (01:22)

Perfomanaces?

 

Rekka: (01:22)

Performances.

 

Kaelyn: (01:23)

And I'm going to qualify here real quick. This is not, we're not talking about imposter syndrome.

 

Rekka: (01:27)

Right.

 

Kaelyn: (01:28)

This is not, I wrote something really good and I think it's bad. This is books that genuinely have problems.

 

Rekka: (01:34)

Right. So, um, but a lot of authors do go into the process of putting it towards publication, not knowing whether their book has problems

 

Kaelyn: (01:43)

Yes.

 

Rekka: (01:43)

Or how they would know. So involving an editor in some way in your book publishing process is going to help you sort of filter out those questions. But then there's the question of are they just going to take my money or are they gonna, are they gonna give me the honest feedback that it's shit. So we get into that at all these different stages in all these different types of editors. Um, who is going to tell you it should and when.

 

Kaelyn: (02:14)

Okay, this one comes from a listener and, uh, the submitted question was, didn't say you wanted it anonymou

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

Like last week, this week we are doing something a little different.  First and most exciting, we have our first guest!  Christopher Ruz, author of The Ragged Blade joins Rekka this week to talk about his book’s long road to publication.  Second, that’s right, it’s just Rekka on this episode.  As Kaelyn will explain in the intro, she’s Ruz’s editor at Parvus Press and wanted to give he and Rekka the opportunity and space to talk about what it’s like working on your own verse with an editor.  They had a great conversation and we think you’ll really enjoy it.

The Ragged Blade is currently in stores and online and you can (and should) find Christopher Ruz online @ruzkin on Twitter and www.ruzkin.com.  Check him out and tell him that Rekka and Kaelyn sent you.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and any lingering thoughts or feelings about Endgame that you just can’t get out of your head.

A transcription of this episode can be found below.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

=== Transcript ===

 

 

Kaelyn:00:00 Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast, a show about writing, publishing, and everything in between.  I’m Kaelyn Considine and I am the ‘editor half of the podcast and this week we decided that we’re going to do something a little bit different.  Uh, the first part is that we have oh first ever guest, author Christopher Ruz, whose book ‘The Ragged Blade’ was released a week ago today, which would make that June 4th for those who might be listening at another time.  Um, the second thing is that I’m not on this episode, and the reason for that is that I’m Ruz’s editor at Parvus Press and we wanted to have Ruz on because he had a really interesting journey of getting his book published.   Um, you’ll hear all about it in this episode but it went from a short story, to a self-published novel, to a traditionally published novel,  by my publishing company, Parvus Press.  And we wanted to hear all about everything that led up to getting this published, and uh especially working by yourself to self-publish verse working with an editor.  So, in the interest of podcasting journalistic integrity, I recused myself from the episode so that Ruz and Rekka could have a conversion on the real ups and downs of traditional verse self-publishing and working on things on your own verse working with a professional editor.  Um, it’s a really interesting conversation, they both have some very interesting stories about how they got to where they ended up in their publishing careers.  So it’s a really great episode, it sounds like Rekka and Ruz had a lot of fun recording it, um, I gave them carte Blanche to uh, talk about anything they wanted, including me, and uh, they did not hold back.  And u, as always, we’d love to and want to hear back from our listeners.  Any questions or feedback, or just general feelings you have about what you’re listening to – you can find us on Twitter @wmbcast and on our website, ‘wemakebookspodcast.com’ and you can email us there if you want it send us a question or a comment and we’re always happy to happy, if you’d like to have them remain anonymous.  So, I think that’s everything, and we hope that you enjoy this episode with author Christopher Ruz.

02:02[Intro music]

Re

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast, a show about writing, publishing and everything in between.

 

This week’s episode is a little different.  We made the perilous journey to the City of Angels and we’re coming to you live from the Nebulas in Los Angeles, California! (Well, Los Angeles adjacent anyway.)

 

We had an amazing weekend and while we were there, we took some time to talk to some of the people attending the Nebulas and get their advice, insight, and words of wisdom about the ins and outs of attending a con.  We talked to so many great people and they all had great stories and sage advice to share us and our audience. 

 

Here are the lovely voices you are going to hear: 

James Patrick Cronin (@jamespcronin) – Voice actor and owner of Blue Nose Audio

Michael R. Underwood (@mikerunderwood) – (Amazing!) Author, publishing consultant, and co-host of the @speculatesf podcast.

Lee Harris – Senior Editor for Tor.com and finalist for Best Accent of the Episode.

Joseph R. Lallo (@jrlallo) – Author and one third of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Marketing Podcast

Arley Sorg (@arleysorg) – Writer, editor, all around amazing person – is there anything he can’t do??

Dan Wood (@danwoodok) – Director of Author Relations at Draft2Digital, and way more than just “ok”.

John Scalzi (@scalzi) – I’m told he’s written some books or something.

Peng Shepherd (@pshepherd) – Author of “The Book of M”.

Mike Anderson (@MAndersonSciFi) – Author and spinner of incredible insights.

Kellan Szpara (@KMSzpara) – Author and inducer of extreme nail envy.

C.L. Polk (@clpolk) – Author, Nebula finalist, and winner of the best convention hack of the episode!

Cat Rambo (@Catrambo) – Writer, educator, SFWA President, and Mistress of The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers

Caitlin Seal (@CaitSeal) – Author of “Twice Dead” and distributor of boxed wine.

TJ Berry and Dave Liloia (@tjaneberry and @warpdrives) – She’s an author, they both host the Warp Drives podcast, and were just so much fun to talk to!

Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (@snarkbat) – Author of both speculative and non-fiction and Accessibility Coordinator for SFWA

Mark Tompkins (@MLTompkins) – Author and crafter of possibly the most successful elevator pitch in history.

Jonathan Brazee (@jonathanbrazee) – Author, retired Marine colonel, he promises that you’re going to have a great time at the convention.

Emma Osborne (@redscribe) – Author and sunshine incarnate – you will immediately feel better after talking to them. Second finalist for Best Accent of the Episode.

 

We hope that you are enjoying this and all of our other episodes and as always, feel free to reach out to us on any of the social medias.  You can find us @wmbcast and www.wemakebookspodcast.com.  Find Rekka @bittybittyzap and Kaelyn @kindofKaelyn.  

Thank you for listening!

 

 

The SUPREMELY LONG transcript for this episode is available in gdocs

Hi everyone, and thank you for listening to the launch episodes of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

In this final episode of the launch, Rekka and Kaelyn switch tracks and get real about how an author might worry what a publisher will do to their book after they get the rights.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and any theories you may have about the new Continental streaming series, based on John Wick.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this introduction, the first batch of new episodes drops on May 14th, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

A transcription of this episode can be found below.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

=== Transcript ===

Rekka: 00:01 [laughing] Hey everyone, welcome back to We Make Books–Kaelyn: 00:04 [laughter]Rekka: 00:04 –a podcast about writing and publishing and everything in between. I'm Rekka, I write science fiction as RJ Theodore.Kaelyn: 00:12 And I'm Kaelyn, I publish science fiction and fantasy at Parvus press.Rekka: 00:17 And in today's episode, we are taking a different tone from the last two episodes of this launch.Kaelyn: 00:24 We get heavy here, guys. This one's, you know–Rekka: 00:26 I was couched, I was, I was definitely like, you know, "tell me about how you feel about your publisher."Kaelyn: 00:33 She's having some flashbacks, you know, and there wasRekka: 00:35 A bit of shaking.Kaelyn: 00:36 And how did that make you feel?Rekka: 00:38 There was a little bit of that.Kaelyn: 00:40 Yeah. But you know, so after the first couple of episodes where we really just kind of threw a lot at you with "this, then this, then this" kind of format, um, we wanted to take a step back and do something that was going to be a little more in line with what we're going to be doing down the line. So we were talking, we were trying to come up with what we thought would be a good third episode of this batch for the initial launch and uh Rekka, you know, said, "Well publishers can be scary."Rekka: 01:12 Well, and, that was kind of the whole concept of the podcast. So I was like, all right, so how do we talk about this? Like what do we want to ask the publishers?Kaelyn: 01:23 And at the same time from the publishers, what do we want to know about the writers and what they're thinking about this? So we kind of came to this agreement of let's talk about relationships between publishers, editors, writers, and what's scary, what each side wishes the other one knew about them or–Rekka: 01:41 like how did you approach the relationship? What was your expectation?Kaelyn: 01:44 Yeah, the things that when, especially writers, because they're new at this, whereas editors have done this multiple times previously, going into it going, "What do I do now?" And you know, that is the theme for this podcast, but we thought this would be kind of a good, good jumping off point for the rest of it. So, I mean we're going to have lots of different episodes about different topics coming down the line, which we're really excited about. Um, you know, we'll plug it in at the end of the episode, but you know, please do feel free to interact with us. You are encouraged to do so.Rekka: 02:12 Yeah. And I think this one will let you know that there's really not anything we aren't willing to tackle.Kaelyn: 02:18 Yes, we are... I mean, there is like, I joke in the episode, there is the publishing guild's

Hi everyone, and thank you for listening to the launch episodes of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between!

We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves.

We kick off the podcast series with a discussion of the lifecycle of a book. We're going to cover straight up to the book's release over this episode and the next, and today we talk all the way up to the happy-scary moment when your book is picked up by a publisher.

We Make Books is a podcast for writer and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, and concerns, and any theories you may have about "Spider-Man: Far From Home."

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this introduction, the first batch of new episodes drops on May 14th, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

A transcription of this episode can be found below.

We hope you enjoy We Make Books!

Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap

Instagram: @WMBCast 

Patreon.com/WMBCast

=== Transcript ===

Kaelyn: 00:00 Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of the we make books podcast, a podcast about writing, publishing and everything in between. I'm Kaelyn Considine and I am an editor and acquisitions editor at Parvus press.

Rekka: 00:12 And I'm Rekka Jay. I write science fiction as RJ Theodore and one of my books has published through Parvus Press

Kaelyn: 00:18 And we love it. It's such a great book. Should I'll go get it. Um, so this is the second half of our two introductory episodes. Um, we are kind of doing a rough, uh, walk through.

Rekka: 00:30 I think it's more of a tear through

Kaelyn: 00:32 A tear through yeah. Tear through of, um, the publishing process. Same qualifiers. Last time we know this is not a perfect in depth every single part of the process.

Rekka: 00:42 The part you care about. Yeah. We didn't talk about it enough but we will someday.

Kaelyn: 00:45 No, I mean we were like that one. We're leaving that out. But, uh, this is, you know, so the first episode, which hopefully you just finished listening to, we covered, um, from having a finished manuscript up to submissions and broaching into the process of acquisitions here, we're gonna start with acquisitions and walk you all the way up to what happens to get the book on the shelf. If you didn't listen to the first episode I recommend go do that. If you didn't listen to our introductory episode, I also recommend you go do that. Um, just to get an idea of us, what this podcast is about and what we're planning to do here.

Rekka: 01:17 Yeah. Before we're 10 episodes in and you have a lot more to catch up on.

Kaelyn: 01:20 Yeah. And, uh, you know, we're releasing these all back to back. So, you know, this is a,

Rekka: 01:25 This is our launch day, funny we should mention that we get to that.

Kaelyn: 01:29 Yes, yes. So we talk a lot about launch days, um, so you know, just some information, some. Um, and to also give you an idea of topics that we were going to be discussing more in depth with dedicated episodes as we go down the line. Uh, so this is the second half of the two parter. Let's just get to it.

Rekka: 01:46 Yeah.

Kaelyn: 01:46 Hope you enjoy.

Kaelyn: 01:47 [Music]

Kaelyn: 01:54 Okay.

Kaelyn: 02:05 It is kind of what we do.

Rekka: 02:07 So, um, we spent an episode talking about sort of more the writers realm of responsibility.

Kaelyn: 02:14 Yes. Real quick. Welcome back everyone.

Rekka: 02:17 No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're fine. They've been here. Whatever we said high already, they're binging.

Kaelyn: 02:22 I don't know, you know, it's nice to like,

Rekka: 02:24 Be polite?

Kaelyn: 02:25 I know everyone