My guest for this episode is someone who has spent nearly 50 years in publishing. Tony Collins has worked for a number of publishing houses, owned three magazines, published an astonishing 1,400 books, and is now a literary agent. In this conversation, we talk about the lessons he’s learned in his career. We talk about the most common error that writers make when with their work, how the author must remember they are a guest at the reader's table, and there are many other things for readers to do. We talk about the essential power of narrative, why we can’t write in the way Dickens did, the place for anecdote in non-fiction, finding the right publisher, engaging well with them, and why it's essential for your book to get the title and your hook right.
Tony speaks with decades of experience and there are some wonderful, fundamental insights here, I hope you find the conversation useful, here it is.
Want to know how to query an agent? I do, so I decided to talk to talk to one of the best agents in the business right now; someone with international clients, and experience of selling book, TV, and film rights. This episode is a wide-ranging conversation with Juliet Mushens of CaskieMushens literary agency in which we talk about how to approach an agent, what to put in the query letter, and what in a single sentence, the agent is really looking for. ...
This episode is a conversation with award winning science fiction and alternative reality author Gareth L Powell. We talk about how maturing as a writer and a person can inform our work, Gareth’s advice for developing authentic and rich characters, and the inspiration behind his new book Embers of War. Gareth can be reached at his website www.garethlpowell.com and on twitter at @garethlpowell ...
What is the interior life of the character, and what sort of interior life should we be showing in our work? This episode looks at the thoughts and feelings of our characters, and gives practical advice on what sorts of interior life should be shown in a story, and how it should be done. Cut the banal day dreams and focus on the blade in the mind, the thoughts that have a sharp edge to them. Dark or angry, comedic or sexual, there's a truthful and cutting thought lurking in every character that will help to set a scene, drive a plot and develop a character. Don't be afraid to reveal the interior life of your character, just make sure it's grabbing the reader and driving the story when you do it. ...
