A First Draft Miniseries
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Over nine episodes, this podcast series lays out how a book goes from your laptop to the bookshelf. By following the ups and downs of Jennifer de Leon’s journey in publishing her debut young adult novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, the series explains traditional book publishing works in the U.S., with industry experts providing context and perspective for every step.
First Draft creator and host Sarah Enni talks to professionals at all stages of the publishing process—agents, editors, publishers, industry analysts, publicity and marketing professionals, and more—to give aspiring authors and industry vets alike a comprehensive context for the industry—and, hopefully, inspire ideas about how to make it better.
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Publishing 101
🎉🏆🤓 Welcome to Track Changes! Before we get into how a book becomes a book, we need to take a look at the publishing industry. What companies are the major players, and how does an aspiring author without connections get involved?
We meet Jennifer de Leon as she prepares for the release of her debut young adult novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, on August 18. Tough Jennifer has been writing for years, she quickly learns that there’s a lot about Capital-P-Publishing that she doesn’t know. Luckily, this mini-series is going to provide some answers. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)
For some publishing basics, we turn to Courtney Maum, author of Costalgere, I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, and more. Her most recent book, Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book is a comprehensive guide for new authors.
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Agents: Who They Are and How to Get One
🧑💻💛🧑💼 Literary agents are the first publishing gatekeepers. We explore whether writers need agents, and get a sense of what an agent has to offer, as well as how to approach one.
When Jennifer de Leon first got a literary agent, she was too intimidated to call them or ask questions. But making the switch to a new agent opened her eyes, and a world of potential for her writing career. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)
Literary agents Holly Root, founder of Root Literary, and Seth Fishman, with The Gernert Company, walk us through the benefits of representation, the querying process, and outline some questions every writer should ask before signing with an agent.
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Selling Your Book (Part 1)
💰📚💰 Submission: the notoriously stressful process in which an agent sees if any editors are interested in buying the rights to your book.
Jennifer de Leon’s first time going on submission—when an agent sends a book to a select few editors for consideration—she saw her dreams of selling that book end, not with a bang, but with a whimper. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)
What goes on behind the scenes when a book is on submission? Literary agents Holly Root, founder of Root Literary, and Seth Fishman with The Gernert Company, return to lead us through this notoriously nerve-wracking process, step by step: from selecting the right editors, to setting up auctions, to asking their authors to get real about what they need.
Selling Your Book (Part 2)
📚📈💸 We know what you and your agent are doing during submission, but what goes on behind the scenes at the publishing house when an acquiring editor wants to buy a book?
Jennifer de Leon’s second time going on submission was an entirely different experience. Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From went to a double auction, and Jenn saw what goes down when editors compete for a book. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)
Former Little, Brown and Delacorte senior editor Kate Sullivan, Senior Content Development Manager for New Leaf Literary & Media, walks us through all the steps an editor takes between receiving an agent’s pitch and signing a deal memo to acquire a book. Acquisitions meetings, P&L statements, and TI sheets, oh my!
Advances
💰 Let’s talk about money: how do authors get paid, how much do authors get paid, and what do they need to keep in mind when the checks roll in? 💸
Courtney Maum, author of Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book lays out the basics of book advances. Holly Root, founder of Root Literary and Seth Fishman, literary agent with The Gernert Company give a helpful overview of how much authors are paid across a variety of age categories and genres. And Sarah Burnes, literary agent with The Gernert Company, walks through what earning out means.
Then, we get into #PublishingPaidMe with Tochi Onyebuchi, who, along with L.L. MicKinney, started the viral publishing industry pay transparency movement.
Contracts
📑🔍 Contracts! We get into the basic structure of your contract, and all the rights, clauses, provisions, and negotiated terms you need to know to make sure your contracts is right right for this book and beyond.
Most authors find themselves negotiating better terms for a single contract. But Jennifer de Leon was in the enviable position of having to compare multiple offers for her debut young adult novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, on August 18. Hear what she learned to prioritize by going through that process. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)
Then literary agents Sarah Burnes with The Gernert Company and Jo Volpe, President of New Leaf Literary & Media, break down what authors should know to look for in their contracts. And Kate Sullivan, senior content development manager at New Leaf Literary & Media and former senior editor at many Big 5 publishing houses, adds perspective from an editor’s point of view.
After the Book Deal
💻 ➞ 📚 What happens between signing the book contract and seeing a book on shelves? Industry experts Katherine Tegen, publisher and editor at Katherine Tegen Books, at HarperCollins; Alvina Ling, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Little Brown Books for Young Readers (and co-host of the Book Friends Forever podcast); and Stacey Barney, Executive Editor at G. P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, talk us through walk us through edit letters, production schedules, cover design, first pass pages, sales meetings and more.
Marketing and Publicity (Part 1)
📚🗣️💰 How do readers learn about your book? We get into how publishing companies decide on the marketing budgets for each book, and what marketing tools are at their disposal. The difference between publicity and marketing; how authors can maximize what their publisher has planned; and the one thing that matters most when it comes to promoting books.
Marketing and Publicity (Part 2), and Defining Success
📚📈❤️ How authors can create a marketing strategy to promote their own book, and when it might be right to bring in an independent marketing or publicity firms. Jenn shares the highs and lows from launching Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, and we discuss expanded definitions of success.
Bonus Episodes
BONUS: Inequality in Publishing Inequality in Publishing
🔍📚 How bad is structural inequality within the U.S. publishing industry, how did it get that way, and what can we do to make it better? Industry experts and activists contextualize, illuminate, and identify some of the key inflection points that perpetuate inequality and get into what every book lover can do to enact change.
Publishing in the Time of COVID
🩺😷 Literary agents Faye Bender, partner and founder of The Book Group; Sarah Burnes and Seth Fishman with The Gernert Company; Kristin Nelson, founder of Nelson Literary Agency; and Holly Root, literary agent and founder of Root Literary discuss how the global pandemic, and widespread shelter-in-place laws have changed their jobs, how publishers have responded to the uncertain retail market, what books are more or less likely to sell in this climate, and what all writers should be focused on during this time.
The Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From Team
A conversation between the entire team behind debut young adult novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From: author Jennifer de Leon, Literary agent Faye Bender, partner and founder of The Book Group, and Caitlyn Dlouhy, Vice President & Editorial Director at Caitlyn Dlouhy Books at Simon & Schuster.
Publishing From Every Angle
A conversation between an author, agent, and editor to cover the ins and outs of the publishing process. The panel features Abigail Hing Wen, debut author of Loveboat Taipei; agent Joanna Volpe, president and literary agent at New Leaf Literary & Media; and Alvina Ling, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Little Brown Books for Young Readers (and co-host of the Book Friends Forever podcast).
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