Heavy hearts and busy minds
How are you holding up? I've been following the news, and having conversations with my therapist about hopelessness. But I'm also writing a project with a friend, revising my manuscript, and of course finding comfort in my conversations with First Draft. If you find listening to others talk about their lives, their art, their struggles, and their hopes, then I have some great episodes for you. ❤️
I continue to release new episodes of Track Changes, the spinoff series that seeks to share knowledge and insight about the publishing industry. This week I released "Selling Your Book (Part 2)," in which a former Big 5 editor talks about how acquiring editors pick their projects, and gets into the details of acquisitions meetings and deal memo negotiations. This was ALL stuff I didn't really know or understand before I started the project. I hope you find it useful.
Podcasts continue to be a comfort to me right now (see below for a list of what I'm listening to!) so if First Draft has done the same for you, I am honored.
Read on for...
🗣️ I started a First Draft Facebook Group - join up and chime in!
💻 I'm moderating a panel at BookConline this weekend!
📰 Shoutouts to First Draft in the news
🎧 Recent can't-miss First Draft episodes
💎 Links for TELL ME EVERYTHING
Join the First Draft Facebook Group!
💻 Hang With Sarah On The Internet! 💻
📰 First Draft in the News 📰
I talked to Podcast Movement about my transition from one-on-one interview style (old school First Draft) to the narrative non-fiction style of Track Changes. (For any aspiring podcasters out there, Podcast Movement is a great resource!)
🎧 Recent First Draft Episodes 🎧
Track Changes: Selling Your Book (Part 2)
In the second look at how books get sold, 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!
Listen here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
99 Pages But There Can Only Be One Lev AC Rosen
Lev A.C. Rosen, author of Depth and Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts), talks about his latest young adult novel, Camp (which has just been optioned by HBO Max, go Lev!!!!).
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Pseudonymous Bosch and Shane Pangburn
With Names This Long Who Needs a Clever Title
Pseudonymous Bosch, the pen name for Raphael Simon, is the New York Times bestselling author of The Name of This Book is Secret and the Secret series, Bad Magic and the Bad series. Shane Pangburn is a writer and illustrator and producer of YALLWEST (hear his First Draft interview here). Simon wrote, and Pangburn illustrated, The Unbelievable Oliver and its sequel, The Unbelievable Oliver and the Sawed In Half Dads. Pseudonymous Bosch, Shane Pangburn, and Melissa de la Cruz are joining forces for a new middle grade series, The Reject Room, out in 2021.
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Track Changes: Selling Your Book (Part 1)
Literary agents Holly Root, founder of Root Literary, and Seth Fishman with The Gernert Company return to lead us through how an agent prepares a manuscript for submission, how they choose which editors to approach with a manuscript, and how they negotiate common types of book sales. We get into what a writer can expect during this notoriously nerve-wracking process.
We reconnect with Jennifer de Leon, debut author of young adult novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, out on August 4. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Reignite Your Pilot Light With Candace Bushnell
Candace Bushnell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle, and The Carrie Diaries talks about her newest book, Rules For Being a Girl, which she co-wrote with New York Times bestselling author Katie Cotugno.
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Track Changes: Publishing in the Time of COVID (Bonus Episode)
Publishing experts 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.
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
💅 ICYMI 💅
