Mary Kole is joined by writing expert John Matthew Fox to chat about his work helping authors and founding his company, Bookfox. Conversation topics include the different publishing paths available to writers, the benefits and drawbacks of traditional vs. self-publishing, the challenges of effectively marketing one's work, and going beyond commercial success.

Despite the challenges of balancing writing with a day job and parenting, middle grade and YA author Tracy Badua keeps churning out adventurous contemporary fantasy stories. Tracy’s books explore themes of cultural identity, family expectations, and folklore, even drawing inspiration from Filipino superstitions she grew up with.

Young adult author Farrah Penn details her publishing journey, from striking out on submission to her debut novel. Listen in to this conversation for thoughts on the young adult genre, using tropes, crafting stakes and curveballs for your characters, and how screenwriting may help when writing a novel.

Get ready for some full transparency. How much an agent should be charging you, at what percentage, and when.

Advice on query letters: personalization, comp titles, submission strategy, and more!

Danielle Marietta joins the podcast to discuss Books & Things Publishing, the children’s book sphere, and the importance of promoting diverse authors. Tune in to learn more about Danielle’s writing journey, and her tips on self-publishing, social media marketing, and connecting with your target audience.

Romance author Allison Speka joins the pod to discuss her journey into writing and self-publishing. She talks about her love for the romance genre and shares her experience with self-publishing, including tips on cover design, book marketing, and the value of learning from other indie authors.

Join Mary Kole and Sara Zarr as they talk about the complex realities surrounding publishing and becoming a career author within a rapidly shifting YA and Middle Grade marketplace. Sara Zarr brings insight and personal experiences to surviving the sudden and drastic changes within the YA marketplace.

Communicating with literary agents is an important part of the querying process. Here are some communication do's and don'ts that'll give you the best shot at receiving a response to your query.

Writing in the new adult category might be a great career move, or it might be risky. Is it right for you?

Benjamin Roesch joins us to talk about his debut novel—but not his first novel—published with LGBTQ+ young adult indie publisher Deep Hearts. We talk about turning short stories into a novel, coming of age fiction, and being an older debut writer.

Tips on looking at your work with clarity so you can determine your personal "done," as well as what to do when you reach that finish line.

A conversation with debut science fiction and fantasy author Rebecca Coffindaffer (CROWNCHASERS, out now from HarperTeen) all about worldbuilding.

Mindy McGinnis—mystery, suspense, thriller author and dog haver—joins the Good Story Podcast to talk about her upcoming work with James Patterson, book snobbery, and showing characters' humanity.

NYT Bestselling young adult and middle-grade author Jonathan Auxier joins Mary Kole to discuss visual writing, worldbuilding, and how different media use dialogue to create action.

Story Mastermind is a five-month small group workshop intensive. The deliverable is a fully workshopped novel draft and submission materials. We’ll give you a taste of how we discuss story in Novel Mastermind: from the premise, the elevator pitch, the logline; to theme, character objective, and stakes.

It may seem weird to talk about failure and rejection in writing context as a good thing. But I really want to help you reframe it, because the actual writing journey is rather long. If you don't enjoy the actual writing process, you're gonna have a tough time because there is so much rejection and failure inherent in that journey.

If you have spent any time on the submission trail, you will notice that there are manuscript length guidelines for manuscripts that you may want to submit, and they are very category-specific. Here’s a run-through of children's books guidelines to get you started.

As a debut author querying a potential series, you’re in a much stronger position if you write one amazing manuscript with “series potential” than you are if you were the one needing multiple books to get your story told.

Decades-long agent, Rachel Orr, talks about real life clients as she shares what agents and editors are looking for, what to include in your query letter, and how to challenge the status quo.

Thinking about finding another literary agent? Here are some tips to help smooth the transition.

You have an offer of representation from a literary agent--now what? Here are some crucial questions to ask before you sign on the dotted line.

Here's what you need for a strong novel submission package that'll stand out to agents and publishers.

Writing a novel series? Here are some valuable tips on planning and executing your series, as well as how to pitch it to publishers.

How do you catch an agent's attention during a pitch session? Here are some tips and tricks for crafting a successful pitch and making a good impression.

If you're wondering about how to handle a literary agent revision request, how that informs your submission round, and what to expect when working more closely with an agent before an offer of representation, check out this video.

I love talking about switching literary agents because I want to normalize it. I want to make sure that people don't feel alone if and when something happens to them in their agent-writer relationships, because like any relationship, they might not work out the way we anticipate.

An agent asked for my full manuscript, hooray! This exciting situation opens up a lot of questions that you may have about literary agents. Learn all about literary agent manuscript requests in this class.

If you're wondering about literary agent response times, when to submit, and when to expect to hear back on your manuscript submission to agents, check out this video.