A deep dive into the habits, mindsets, tools, craft secrets and creative practices bestselling writers use to write novels, plays, poetry, and articles. Hosted by the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, Matt & Parul.
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#219: Christine Tyler Hill — Noticing as a Creative Practice, Making Art From the Ordinary, and Not Waiting for Permission to Create
Episode 219
Saturday, November 7, 2026 • Duration 01:11:25
Artist, naturalist, and crossing guard Christine Tyler Hill on turning a daily practice of noticing into The Cloud Report, how constraints and play sustain her work, accepting support as an artist, using social media without letting it steer the art, and not waiting for permission to create.
You'll learn
Why ordinary, overlooked places reward those who keep returning to them.
How attention can become a creative practice, and a way of changing how you see the world.
What a strict format and a monthly deadline can do for an overwhelmed creative mind.
The role of play, experimentation, and feeling lost in making new work.
A case for sincerity over polish when sharing your work.
When accepting support for your art feels uncomfortable, and why it matters to let people help.
What Leonard Woolf's irises can teach us about making art in dark times.
How to use social platforms without letting them dictate the direction of the work.
Writing about the things you love without worrying about being twee.
Why it pays to start the project you need now, even when others don’t understand it.
Quilt Study, Christine's art book with Directangle Editions
About Christine Tyler Hill
Christine Tyler Hill is a multidisciplinary artist, naturalist, cyclist, and crossing guard based in Burlington, Vermont.
She is the creator of The Cloud Report, a monthly printed newsletter featuring drawn and written observations from the intersection, the woods, the studio, the garden, and beyond, and Tender Dispatches, her weeklyish newsletter sharing three things she's reading, loving, or thinking about.
If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!
#218: Behind the Scenes With the UK’s Top Literary Agents — Abigail Bergstrom, Madeleine Milburn, Juliet Mushens on Playing the Long Game, Turning Ideas Into Author Brands, and Bouncing Back From Rejection | Compilation
Episode 218
Saturday, October 31, 2026 • Duration 46:49
Three of the UK’s leading literary agents — Abigail Bergstrom, Madeleine Milburn, and Juliet Mushens — on what happens after an agent says yes: building a writing career that lasts, turning an idea into a distinct author brand, and moving forward after both success and disappointment.
You’ll learn
What good author care looks like, especially when the news is bad.
When the biggest advance isn’t the best offer.
Why a writing career is a long game, from reinventing a stalled career to surviving the pressure of a big debut.
How to find the unique lens that makes your idea worth writing.
What turns an author into a brand, and a simple way to stay consistent without becoming gimmicky.
A literary agent’s lessons from querying her own novel under a pseudonym.
The marketing questions worth asking a publisher before you sign.
What really happens on the call when an agent offers representation, and how to choose between agents.
Balancing passion and the market when deciding what to write next.
How to move forward when a book doesn’t sell, and why success can be just as tricky to handle.
#217: Dawn O'Porter — Finding Your Voice, Writing as a Loyal Companion, Writing Memoir Without Exposing Others, and Success Beyond the Bank Balance
Episode 217
Saturday, October 24, 2026 • Duration 01:01:30
Novelist, memoirist and broadcaster Dawn O'Porter on trusting her own voice, writing the book she had to get out of her system, drafting without a plan, protecting the people in her food memoir Hungry Eyes, and measuring success by what you create rather than what you earn.
You'll learn
Why writing can be the most loyal relationship in a creative career.
The case for writing the story you're carrying before you write anything else.
What immersive journalism can teach a novelist about not letting the reader down.
Why some writers feel trapped by a plan, and what's worth knowing before you start instead.
A simple trick for bringing a stubborn character to life.
When a first draft can be far shorter than the finished book.
How to know when a sentence has already said enough.
How to write memoir when the people in your story don't want to be in it.
The remark from a friend that became a writing mantra.
What it means to measure success by what you've made, not what you've earned.
#216: Sarah Gilbert — PR for Indie Authors, Thinking Like a Publicist, and Starting Small to Build Momentum
Episode 216
Sunday, October 18, 2026 • Duration 50:51
Lulu PR Manager Sarah Gilbert on building a reader-first publicity plan, pitching the media as an indie author, and turning small grassroots wins into lasting momentum.
You'll learn
Why earned media carries more weight with readers than anything you pay for.
The question every author should answer about their book before planning any publicity.
How writing a press release can clarify what your book is really about, even if you never send it.
When the story behind your book is more pitchable than the book itself.
How to build a media list and write a pitch that offers something in return.
Why starting small and local can open doors to bigger opportunities.
How far ahead to start your publicity, and how long to keep it going.
The difference between a media “hit” and a media “run,” and what to do with each.
Ways to give your backlist new life long after launch.
What to watch out for when hiring outside PR help, and the mistakes authors often make.
If you're self-publishing a book, Lulu now offers a Direct Buy Button that enables you to sell direct to your reader through a simple code. There's no cost to using it and it makes it easier to sell books directly from anywhere: your newsletter, social profile, website or podcast - and you don't have to worry about shipping or taxes. For more information head to .
#215: How to Go Indie — Joanna Penn, Orna Ross, Eleanor Anstruther on Owning Your Rights, Paying Yourself First, and Serialising Your Novel on Substack | Compilation
Episode 215
Saturday, October 10, 2026 • Duration 58:36
Indie authors Joanna Penn, Orna Ross, and Eleanor Anstruther on going direct to readers and protecting your rights, the business and money side of self-publishing, and building an audience by serialising on Substack.
You'll learn
Why curiosity and a willingness to experiment matter more than any credential when you go indie.
Why the writers you admire may not make their money the way you think.
What separates an independent author from someone who simply self-publishes.
How a ten-poem experiment revealed what self-publishing really changes.
The seven processes that make up the craft of publishing, and why production is only one of them.
Where marketing connects to the book itself, and why outsourcing it too early rarely pays.
A money principle every indie author should adopt from their very first sale.
How years of rejection can become the foundation of an independent creative life.
What a year of one-minute daily posts taught one writer about the fear of pressing publish.
The non-negotiable rule for serialising a novel on Substack, and how to keep readers from losing their place.
#214: Emma Gannon — Find Your Creative Compass, Let Go of People-Pleasing, Redefining Success, and Owning Your Work Through Self-Publishing (With Discoveries Prize)
Episode 214
Saturday, October 3, 2026 • Duration 01:03:10
Sunday Times bestselling author Emma Gannon on healing burnout through play and joy, trusting your creative intuition over people-pleasing, and what she's learned from self-publishing alongside traditional publishing.
You'll learn
Why burnout might be healed through play and joy rather than by pushing harder.
How some books arrive in a month while others take years, and why there's no single right way to write one.
The case against selling a book before it's written.
A squirrel-inspired method for gathering raw material and letting a book's themes reveal themselves.
What to remember when you're tempted to talk yourself out of writing a book.
When people-pleasing quietly drowns out your creative intuition, and how to hear it again.
How small, everyday acts of creativity keep the spark alive between big projects.
What to do on bleak days, and why your younger self might hold the answer.
Self-publishing from the inside, including the numbers behind one book.
How judging a major literary prize can stretch you as a reader.
#213: Anthony Anaxagorou — Thinking Like a Poet, Pushing Past Self-Doubt, and Treating Rejection as Part of the Job (From The Vault)
Episode 213
Friday, September 25, 2026 • Duration 51:19
Poet, publisher, and educator Anthony Anaxagorou on treating rejection as part of the job, pushing an idea to its edge without losing the reader, and ending a poem where it can keep travelling — a re-release of episode #012.
You'll learn:
Why walking away from writing for years doesn't necessarily mean you ever left it.
How to treat rejection as part of the job rather than a verdict on your worth.
What happens to your work when one stamp of validation starts to feel like an entitlement.
How a restless, never-satisfied mind can become a creative engine.
A morning listening exercise, borrowed from Lydia Davis, that can hand you the first line of a poem.
What to do when you're stuck on a line and the answer is sitting on your bookshelf.
Why “accessible” is one of the most loaded words in poetry.
How far to push an idea before you lose the reader.
Two ways to take a flat, literal line and make it tell the truth slant.
Why your poem probably starts later and ends earlier than you think, and what the reader does with the space you leave.
#212: Marti Leimbach — The Art of Writing a Novel, Why Self-Doubt Is a Good Sign, Revising Without Losing Heart, and Surviving the Highs and Lows of Publishing (From The Vault)
Episode 212
Sunday, September 20, 2026 • Duration 46:53
Bestselling novelist Marti Leimbach on the art of writing a novel, surviving early success and the long career that follows, and turning lived experience into fiction — a remastered version of episode #016.
You'll learn
Why your relationship to the page has to outrank every other voice in writing and publishing.
How to tell apart the voice that says you're no good and the voice that says you're not finished.
The case for admitting you're not up to the task before you sit down to write.
What a genuinely good writing day looks like, and why a single sentence can count as one.
Why no novel is ever perfect, and what Picasso understood about original work.
How enormous early success actually lands on a writer, and what the morning after looks like.
A way of finding the real story inside a draft that has grown far too big.
When self-doubt is a sign of talent rather than a lack of it.
Why some books have to be written as fiction rather than memoir.
The trick of convincing yourself you have unlimited time when you clearly don't.
Marti Leimbach is known for her bestsellers, Dying Young, made into a film starring Julia Roberts, and Daniel Isn't Talking. She is interested in neurodiversity and has shared the stage with young inventors at the Human Genome Project (Toronto), the National Autistic Society, and the University of Oxford. Her interest in science influenced her YA thriller, Dragonfly Girl.
#211: Laura Palmer & Jessie Sullivan — How to Market Your Book, from the Founders of Digital-First Publisher Pellerin Books, Finding the Readers Who Will Love Your Book, and Why the Best Book Still Wins
Episode 211
Saturday, September 12, 2026 • Duration 50:10
Pellerin Books founders Laura Palmer and Jessie Sullivan on how readers discover books now, where to put your marketing money, and why the quality of the book still decides everything.
You'll learn
The rule that quietly decides which authors get a publisher’s time, budget and attention.
Why the first question about marketing a book is never “how?”
How to research your readers and your market without paying for a single tool.
The metric that makes an ad campaign look like it is working when nothing is.
What a cover and a developmental edit should cost, and the one place never to skimp.
Why raising your ad budget too fast makes it perform worse, not better.
How subscription reading changed what a sagging middle chapter costs a writer.
Whether a publisher actually cares how many followers you have.
Three books on writing that between them cover almost everything, and the two-word rule that keeps readers turning pages.
Why you cannot keyword your way into a reader’s life in the age of AI search.
#210: Lily King — Emotional Arc, Women and Literary Ambition, Silencing the Inner Critic, and Why Patience Is a Writer's Real Craft
Episode 210
Sunday, September 6, 2026 • Duration 56:17
Award-winning novelist Lily King on finding the emotional arc of a novel, writing the scene you keep avoiding, and making peace with ambition, self-criticism and the long road to a first book.
You'll learn
Why the scene you most want to avoid is usually the one your book needs.
How a small change in the final pages of one section can rebuild an entire novel.
What it means to think in emotional arc rather than theme.
The difference between being hard on yourself about writing and being hard on yourself while you write.
Why giving yourself permission to write about your own life can unlock everything that follows.
When a middle section goes flat, and how to find the engine it's missing.
How ambition shows up differently for women writers, and the shame that can come with it.
A notebook method built on margins, timelines, and a daily writing log.
Why a bad review can be more useful than praise.
What nine years on a first novel teaches you about patience.
Abigail Bergstrom is a Welsh writer who has written for national magazines and broadsheets, including ELLE, Sunday Times Style, the Telegraph and Refinery29. Having worked in publishing for over a decade, she is an industry leader and an expert in navigating the cross-section between digital and print. She’s edited some of Britain’s most prominent feminist voices, was nominated for Literary Agent of the Year 2020, and was listed in The Bookseller 150. An intersectional feminist campaigner, she co-founded the campaign ‘This Doesn’t Mean Yes,’ which was covered in the media internationally. She founded Gleam Titles and now runs Bergstrom Studio, a literary agency and publishing consultancy, and writes the Substack newsletter Something to Say. She is the author of the novels What a Shame and Selfish Girls.
Madeleine Milburn has been on the committee of the Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA). She has appeared on The Bookseller’s list of the 150 most influential people in the book trade every year since 2017. Since founding the agency in 2012, Madeleine was awarded Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2018 and was shortlisted again in 2020. She has been responsible for discovering some of the highest-selling and award-winning contemporary authors who consistently hit the bestseller lists in the New York Times, including Nita Prose (The Maid), Costa Book Award winner and multi-million copy bestseller Gail Honeyman (Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine), Ashley Audrain (The Push), Elizabeth Macneal (The Doll Factory) and Holly Bourne. She represents multiple bestselling crime and thriller brands, too, including C.L. Taylor, C.J. Tudor and Mark Edwards.
Juliet Mushens is the founder of Mushens Entertainment and has been a literary agent since 2011. More than a dozen of her clients are Sunday Times bestsellers, with more than half a dozen reaching the number one spot. Her clients include million-copy no. 1 bestseller Jessie Burton, multi-million copy NY Times bestseller Taran Matharu, and record-breaking multi-million copy no. 1 bestseller Richard Osman. The Times ran a piece recognising her as the first agent to represent the number 1, 2 and 3 UK bestsellers in the same week: ‘Star literary agent first to top the charts three times’, a feat she has since repeated. Juliet sits on the advisory board of Book Brunch, is President of the British Fantasy Society and sits on the board of the Women’s Prize Trust.
If you're self-publishing a book, Lulu now offers a Direct Buy Button that enables you to sell direct to your reader through a simple code. There's no cost to using it and it makes it easier to sell books directly from anywhere: your newsletter, social profile, website or podcast - and you don't have to worry about shipping or taxes. For more information head to lulu.com.
About Dawn O'Porter
Dawn O'Porter is a bestselling novelist, memoirist, journalist and broadcaster. She is the author of several novels exploring female friendship, identity and the complexities of women's lives, including Paper Aeroplanes, The Cows, So Lucky, Cat Lady and Honeybee.
Her latest book, Hungry Eyes: A Memoir of Appetite, Ambition and the Odd Bag of Wotsits for Dinner, turns to nonfiction to explore food, memory, ambition and the experiences that have shaped her life.
Alongside her books, Dawn has written widely on feminism and women's lives and built a career spanning journalism, documentary filmmaking and television.
Sarah is the Public Relations Manager for Lulu.com, the publishing and print on demand company started in 2002 by Red Hat Founder Bob Young.
With over 16 years experience in the publishing industry, Sarah is passionate about helping authors and publishers find ways to connect with their audience. In previous roles, she led author public relations campaigns and coached many in preparation for their book launches. When not in the office, she's trying to figure out her hobbies as an empty nester, gardening is in the lead.
If you're self-publishing a book, Lulu now offers a Direct Buy Button that enables you to sell direct to your reader through a simple code. There's no cost to using it and it makes it easier to sell books directly from anywhere: your newsletter, social profile, website or podcast - and you don't have to worry about shipping or taxes. For more information head to lulu.com.
About the Guests
Joanna Penn is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F. Penn, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She has sold over a million books across 176 countries and 5 languages. Her podcast, The Creative Penn, has been downloaded over 10 million times in 228 countries.
Orna Ross is a bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction and inspirational poetry. She is also a creativity facilitator and the founder-director of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). She has been named one of The Bookseller's Top 100 people in publishing and advocates for self-publishing as an artistic expression and viable business option for authors.
Eleanor Anstruther was born in London, educated at Westminster School and studied History of Art at Manchester University where she was distracted from finishing her degree by a trip to India. She was lost and found for the next twelve years, starting a commune and travelling the world before finally settling down to write. Her acclaimed debut novel, A Perfect Explanation (Salt Books), was long listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the 2019 Not The Booker Prize. Since then Eleanor has grown a significant following on Substack, concentrating her new work there where she serialises her novels ahead of publication, as well as running a hugely successful interview project called 8 Questions. Her memoir, A Memoir in 65 Postcards & The Recovery Diaries, and her second novel, In Judgement of Others, were both serialised on Substack before publication, and her latest novel, Fallout, was published by Empress Editions in April 2026. If you'd like to connect directly with Eleanor, come on over to The Literary Obsessive on Substack, and get in touch.
If you're self-publishing a book, Lulu now offers a Direct Buy Button that enables you to sell direct to your reader through a simple code. There's no cost to using it and it makes it easier to sell books directly from anywhere: your newsletter, social profile, website or podcast - and you don't have to worry about shipping or taxes. For more information head to lulu.com.
In Partnership with Discoveries 2027
This episode was recorded in partnership with Discoveries 2027, the Women's Prize Trust's writer development programme for unagented and unpublished women writers. Discoveries is designed to empower new voices, unlock potential, build confidence, and increase writers' skills and knowledge.
Submissions for Discoveries 2027 opened Tuesday, September 15. Submit here.
About Emma Gannon
Emma Gannon is the Sunday Times bestselling author of nine books, including A Year of Nothing and OLIVE, which was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, Table for One (2025), was selected as People magazine's 'Fiction of the Week.'
Emma also writes one of the UK's most popular Substack newsletters, The Hyphen, which has thousands of paid subscribers. In addition to her writing, she hosts creativity retreats around the world and served as a judge for the 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Her latest book is A Creative Compass: Finding Your Way to a Creative Life.
Anthony Anaxagorou FRSL is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His poetry has been published in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, New Statesman, Granta, and elsewhere.
His third collection, Heritage Aesthetics (Granta Poetry, 2022), won the 2023 RSL Ondaatje Prize. His second collection, After the Formalities, was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize and called a poetry book of the year by the Telegraph and Guardian. He was awarded the 2019 H-100 Award for writing and publishing, and the 2015 Groucho Maverick Award for his poetry and fiction, and in 2023 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2012 Anthony set up one of London's leading poetry nights, Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night now held at London's Southbank Centre, and established Out-Spoken Press – a publishing house that looks to challenge the lack of diversity in British poetry publishing.
His craft book, How to Write It, was published by Penguin's #Merky Books in 2020.
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She teaches on the Masters Programme in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. Dragonfly Girl is her eighth novel, but her first for young adults.
Pellerin Books is a new independent publisher of popular fiction, built for the way readers discover and fall in love with books today. It publishes immersive, emotionally engaging stories readers can’t put down – from thrillers to romance, historical fiction to science fiction, saga to fantasy and everything in between. It is a digital-focus publisher, which means ebooks and audiobooks are at the heart of what it does, although all its titles are available in paperback for readers who love to hold a book in their hands.
At Pellerin, we believe deeply in good books and the difference they can make. We became publishers because we believe in the craft of storytelling, the power to create living worlds and characters that reach beyond the page. Making books, for us, is a way to be part of that strange magic that binds reader and author when the right book gets into the right hands.
About Laura Palmer & Jessie Sullivan
Laura’s love of storytelling drew her into the publishing industry in 2007 as an assistant at Quercus Books, where she was part of the team that discovered and published Stieg Larsson. In 2010, she joined Corvus, where she rode the ebook boom, delivering sales previously unheard of for new authors, and was shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn prize for women in publishing. In 2012, she co-founded Head of Zeus, alongside publishing veterans Anthony and Nicolas Cheetham. As executive director and fiction publisher, Laura ran three imprints and published more than a hundred authors at Head of Zeus. Bestselling authors she has worked with include Dani Atkins, JP Delaney, Dan Jones, Graham Masterton and Amanda Prowse.
Jessie Sullivan has spent her career at the intersection of publishing and performance-led marketing. She is one of the most commercially effective marketers in modern publishing, with over £8 million in directly attributed revenue and more than £10 million in total marketing impact.
Lily King is the award-winning author of six novels. Her most recent novel, Heart the Lover, was published on September 30th, 2025. She has also published a collection of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her 2020 novel, Writers & Lovers, won the New England Society Book Awards and was a New York Times Notable Book and chosen as a top-ten best book of 2020 by The Washington Post, NPR, People Magazine, and The Los Angeles Times. Her 2014 novel Euphoria won the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Euphoria was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014, as well as on Amazon, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, and Salon's Best Books of 2014.
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