Purveyors of dodgy writing advice, professional first chapter critiques for aspiring authors.

I'm an author--I have books published through Simon & Schuster and Macmillan. It's kind of a rough industry to break into, and we talk about how to be better writers, try to demystify the publishing process, give behind the scenes information and connect aspiring authors with first chapter critiques from professional authors, agents, and editors. Most of our listeners are interested in learning how to tell stories better or are actively trying to get agents or get their stories published, and we help.

I started this podcast because while I was trying to break into the publishing industry, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know why my projects weren't good enough for an agent to want to represent and then sell to a publishing company. Querying is really rough, mostly if agents don't want to represent your work, they just ignore you, don't even answer your email pitch to tell them what your book is about and first chapter. Except for a few times. I had a few agents who said, "I don't want this book. But here's why." That here's why made a huge difference. It allowed me to revise and make my manuscript better--I had actual reasons WHY I was failing. And, as a result of those rejection letters, I was able to finally get my manuscript into shape and find an agent who was excited about my work. After getting published, I wanted to give back some of that professional level advice so they too could figure how to revise their work so it wouldn't get glossed over by agents who receive thousands of queries a year. I roped my writing group into it with me--all of them are stellar writers (Kristen Evans is an acquiring editor at a small press as well!) and we also invite guests on the show at least once a month who can give unique and helpful perspectives on how to approach writing, and also to give specific feedback on chapters submitted to us by listeners. We've had big five editors, small press editors, agents, and New York Times bestselling authors on the show to give feedback to aspiring authors on the manuscripts they are trying to get published.

Time and funding is always the question, isn't it. We don't have a lot of funding--we're mostly patron-supported, but we don't even cover the costs of the show at the moment. We only release episodes two times a month, and it is a stretch to do it between deadlines and jobs and everything else. It's something we do because we like each other, we like the opportunity to help writers, and also love that we get to talk about writing and and the publishing business with the people who are at the center of it all.

Podcasting has been a wonderful thing for me personally because it forces me to think about how I write and as a result I have become much better at doing it. Also, I get to learn and discuss craft and technique with other authors--it helps me, too.

We podcast twice a month, and our guests are usually authors who have books coming out, so we'll look at the books coming out later in the year, contact an author's publicist, get an advance copy of the book, ask them to talk about something they worked on specifically for that book, and have a lovely conversation about how we can all write better stories. We do it over Zoom, have a general idea of questions we're going to ask, and have a first chapter submitted by a listener ready to discuss at the end of each episode.

We talk about it on Instagram, mostly. Also we have any guest coming on the show announce that they're doing a first chapter critique on their platforms, which brings new listeners in every show. Any listener who wants a critique also has to share something about the podcast on their own social media.

Automate anything you can! People are in it to listen, and extras are cool, but mostly what your audience is going to pay attention to is the podcast itself, not extra stuff.

https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation
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