¶ Writers With Wrinkles Podcast Highlights
Hello , lovely listeners , authors , aspiring writers and everyone in between . I'm Beth McMullen and I'm Lisa Schmid , and we're the co-hosts of Writers with Wrinkles . This is our last original episode for season two and for the year 2023 . And , honestly , when we started this little podcast Boondoggle , I didn't think we'd make it out of 2022 . And now look at us .
You know what I knew we would .
Lisa has the confidence and I'm the cynic . That's how we roll .
You know what ? No , that's not true . That was not it . I knew that we would keep going because you are , you have dogged determination .
What she's saying is that I'm a taskmaster , that's what she's saying . She's trying to be polite , but underneath that politeness , she thinks that I'm a taskmaster . That's okay . Somebody's got to crack the whip around here .
You know what you do . An amazing job you really do . I mean , I look at everything you do and if people could see me , I would be bowing down right now too .
The amazing thing is how much of this podcasting nonsense we have figured out , because when we started I'm an avid podcast listener but I knew nothing about how you make one At least I knew nothing about how you make one . So we have literally been like tripping and stumbling down the path to where we are now and we've learned quite a number of things .
Well , we have , starting with the fact that we need to introduce ourselves .
That's like my favorite mistake , I know , and that it literally took us something like 60 plus episodes to figure out that we had never introduced ourselves .
And what's really funny is that after that episode where we finally did , I got a comment I think it was on Spotify from a listener who was like I could never tell you guys apart until you finally said who you were .
Well , I think I've mentioned that I feel like we've morphed into each other .
I know we're becoming one .
Well , there's sometimes I , when I'm listening , I'm like , is that me or is that Beth and you ? And it's funny because you have a very distinct way of talking . You carry out sometimes you'll carry out your last syllable A little drag , you drag .
It's like you want to be Australian . I would love to be Australian . I love the way they speak . It sounds so much cooler than the way we speak . But that's an aside , that's just my little thing .
I want to be British , so I get it .
We can just all join the you know the empire . So this is our last episode . So we're you know we're fresh out of really cool stuff to share with you .
So we were just going to run down a few of the episodes from the past year that have been really awesome , call out a few names and hopefully that will inspire you to go back and listen to some of these episodes , if you joined us later in the year or you missed some of them or you know something like that .
Like because it's it's shocking , we have well over 75 or 80 episodes at this point , which just boggles my mind . But then I look at podcasts who are like this is our 1,000th episode and I'm like , oh God .
I know Well and I also look at how much we've learned along the way and I'm almost cringey to go back and listen to the earlier episodes . I totally hear you on that .
Remember that one episode and this is a lesson I learned is the one episode where it was a books on Botox and I was talking about the line , the witch and the wardrobe and I was in the midst of an emotional crisis and so I just sounded like I was rambling , and I've learned never to do a podcast if I'm not in a great space , and so there's been times
now where , if I'm having an issue or something , I'll just say I can't do it right now .
I think it's true because it comes through in your voice and it also you do have to concentrate on what you're going to say and paying attention , and you can't drift away into your own emotional chaos when you're doing this , because then the episode gets really messed up , like there's definitely a technique to it that we have clearly been refining over the months
and years now . So hopefully on the listener's end they're like oh yeah , it's getting better .
Or they're like huh , I know , I hope that people start like if they're just now discovering us , that they just get past some of the earlier ones that I just feel Right Jump , right to 2023 .
¶ Recommendations for new listeners and top episodes of 2023
Ok , so actually here's a good place to start if you're going to jump into the show . One of our most popular episodes was from July 17 , 2023 , which was a top five deep dive into writing spooky middle grade fiction . People went crazy for that one . Isn't that funny they did Very popular . Yeah , it was really popular . People loved it . I like that .
That was one where we talked about starting with a great hook , keeping your pace fast , building suspense and using humor and all of the things that are important to a middle grade spooky story . I love hearing that . I know that one was really popular . I have all the episodes up right now with all of the details about which ones got the most downloads .
So that was a really popular one . Jennifer March-Soloa was enormously popular . She's an agent and she gave some unbelievable tips on how to get your manuscripts ready to send to an agent . That was a really good one . If you're just starting out looking for an agent , highly recommend listening to that one .
She's fabulous . During that whole episode . I was just there's times when I'm listening to our guests talk and I think , oh my gosh , everybody needs to hear this . Yeah , I know . And you want to scream it from the rooftops , and she was one of those guests where I was like , oh , every queering agent needs to hear this .
Uh-huh , yes , every queering , queering . Author .
Yeah .
I felt that way with our . We just recorded an episode which you guys won't hear until season three , which starts in January 8 , with Kathleen Schmidt , who is a marketing guru for publishing , and she was kind of blowing my mind , so you're going to want to listen to that one .
That will be our first episode for our new season , so I'm looking forward to that .
And I can hardly wait for people to hear Kathleen speak . She's she offered up some really interesting nuggets of wisdom in regards to where people should be focusing their time and efforts but , more importantly , where they shouldn't be focusing their time and efforts when it comes to social media , and I will be picking her up on that advice . It's .
It was good advice .
She had really good advice . I was super impressed with the stuff that she was saying because it was stuff that was actionable , that you could fold into your existing process pretty easily and just getting some clarity on what works in marketing and what doesn't .
You know what , if you spend a lot of time doing this as opposed to that , you're going to get really poor results . So put your energies elsewhere , which I think is something we all need to hear
¶ Important Lessons and Insights From Guests
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One of my favorite episodes and of course I'm biased is with Leslie Sam Petty with open book literary and she's my agent and I just want to give a shout out to her because she is .
You know , you hear all these you know agent horror stories , things that have happened , or how people get ghosted or their agents not responsive or they find out that their agents never been subbing Like . You hear all these crazy stories and there's , you know , always the good and the bad , but Leslie is a good egg .
She's always there for me , she's super responsive . Like if I send an email , she's like back to me within like half an hour , 45 minutes , if she . You know , I had an issue recently and she jumped right in . You know we had an hour long phone call . She managed it , she followed up , she took care of all my problems .
When we're on sub , she's like she's my champion .
And I remember one time when I first signed with her and I had nothing out yet you know she was , you know , subbing my chapter book and I was upset about something I can't even remember what it was and she called me like three times during the day , like I didn't realize she was calling me and finally I picked up and I'm like , oh my God , my agent's been
trying to call me all day and she the only reason she was calling me was just to check in and say , hey , how are you doing ? What's going on ? And she's like that all the time .
She'll , you know , she'll call me and sometimes she'll just text me with something that's going on that she thinks would that would be good for me or that would um is of interest . So in like just now I got an email checking in for you know the end of the year and what our plans are for next year . So she's very much partner and you know she's .
She's that gal that you want in your corner .
Yeah , we are rebroadcasting her episode on Christmas day , so Christmas day and New Year's day will have episodes that have been run on the show previously , and Leslie's will be on the 25th , so you can either go find it , because it's already out there , or it will show up in your feed regardless , because we're going to rebroadcast it because it has so many
important things that you should know , especially when you're staring down a new year and maybe you have set some sort of goals for yourself for this year . So if you're listening to that episode will definitely help you out . Another one that was really popular this year was Elizabeth Yolberg , who writes YA , middle grade and , I think , everything else .
She lives in London . She did this crazy visa that it's like an artist visa and she moved to London and she's like walking around being inspired by London all the time . So we had a really fun conversation with her . We also had some good advice on how to handle reviews so that you don't end up , you know , catatonic in the corner crying all day long .
So that's a good one . That was in October 2023 .
Best advice with reviews is just not to go read them and don't go to good reads Exactly , yes , good reads , bad , bad reads I think we rename it Bad Reads .
It is Bad Reads .
I think we already renamed it Bad Reads in an earlier episode , because there's nothing good about it .
I want to rename it something else , but this is a PG rated show , so I can't say it here . But you guys know what I mean it's not good , it gets you nothing , it doesn't sell books and it crushes your soul , so why on earth would you ever go there ? You know , yeah , another really popular one that we had was from March or no , excuse me May of 2023 .
That was Erin Pascal , who's the senior editor at Andrews McMeal . People loved that one . It was a big one . She had lots of good advice on the book publishing process that I think resonated with a lot of readers who feel like it's a big unknown
¶ Key lessons learned from hosting "Writers with Wrinkles"
. So , okay , that's a rundown of some of the ones that we really liked this year that you guys also liked . If you're new to the show , those are some good ones to go and listen to .
I made a little list of things that I have learned doing the show , because while you guys are hearing all the cool stuff that our authors and marketing specialists and publishing insiders are talking about , we're learning too .
Here's my number one Reading is the most important thing that you can do for your writing craft , and that one I get from Lisa , who's the champion of this , and so many of our guests say it If you're going to write , you've got to read . It's just as simple as that .
It's true . There was a gal I just saw on Twitter the other day that she said that she'd just written this book . I think it was a middle grade and it took her so many years and when she went to Query they were asking for comps and from the last five years .
I started writing this three or four years ago and I haven't been reading because I didn't want to feel like I was stealing somebody else's idea and I didn't even know what books were my comps and I just thought , okay , that's your biggest mistake .
Right there I was going to say something and then an agent chimed in and was like , okay , that's , your biggest mistake is not reading . So , yeah , reading is key .
The next thing I have on my list of things that I've learned is that , from listening to all the authors , every journey to publication is different . Respect yours , but also don't be afraid to take lessons from the people that we've talked about , things that they do that you think might work for you .
You can't get so stuck in your process that you can't absorb new information that makes your process better .
So I've thought a lot about that , because I've been working on this new adult novel manuscript and I've tried a lot of new things , a lot of which have come from the people that we've talked about , who've said you know , I do this and this is the result that I get .
Some of it works , some of it doesn't , but I think you have to be willing to give it a try , see what happens , especially if you've been writing for a long time and you can get kind of stuck . Third one collaboration comes in many different forms .
We have heard so many cool stories about collaborating between authors , with illustrators , with other people in the industry , that I don't think there's any one right way to do it . You know , everybody seems to have their own process .
So I think if you're considering a collaboration with somebody , what seems to travel through all of these different people's experiences is that you need to be really clear , upfront about what the roles are for your collaboration . Number four on my list we've already covered this a little , but number four is Goodreads is Stupid .
Wow , that made the list . That's awesome . That's it . Those are my four things .
And Goodreads is stupid Made the list because it is and I want , if you get nothing else out of today's episode , step away from your Goodreads . You don't need it . It does nothing for you .
So funny . I actually posted that my book was on Goodreads and I only kind of like half-heartedly did it because everybody else was doing it . I'm like I should probably do it , but I don't , like I don't even go on there very much Like I'll , you know , go on if somebody wants me to add it to their like , something added to their list , or whatever .
I'll always do that for somebody , but it's just not someplace and I , you know , I don't do readers actually go there looking for reviews . I just don't think readers are going to those places to find out where they what book they want to read next . I just you know
¶ Future plans and resolutions for 2024
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I think people go there now just to spread , you know , toxicity around . I don't . I never hear stories about joy coming out of Goodreads .
I , you know what I have ? Not either I've never heard a joyful story . It's always been doom and gloom .
Okay , my , my resolution for 2024 is that I'm not spending time on anything that doesn't want to go out . I used 360 like a tablet , so I sat in that complex right in daily would have to increase the discoverability of our show and add listeners .
Those are the only two things that I'm doing , and if any action that I'm taking or any time I'm spending doesn't contribute to that , I'm not doing it . So that's my resolution . I'm done wasting my time on social media that nobody reads good reads , that nobody cares about efforts that are pointless but you feel like , oh , I have to do them .
I have to do them . Actually , you don't have to do them , so I'm not gonna do that .
I've got a couple of resolutions too , I mean just things I want to achieve next year , and my chapter book series is going on sub in . I'm very excited for this one , it's so cute . I am , too , just wrapping up the second one and I've just sometimes I just sit there and I'm laughing . I'm like , oh my God , this is . But again I'm entertained by myself .
So that's yeah , my son will hear me laughing and he'll just be like , oh my God , are you laughing and hearing ? Right , there's mom .
I'm like , yeah , Getting alone in her writing room laughing like a crazy person .
But then I also need to finish my new time travel MG , which is making my head hurt I think everyone already knows . But also like stepping away more from social media .
I mean , I have to do it for you know , I'm doing it for writers with wrinkles and I have to do it , obviously , for my stuff , but I'm moving away from Twitter completely is like my big goal , because that's yeah , it's just , it's a wasteland .
I canceled my account and I did not see any impact . None like it had zero impact , other than I pulled back a little bit of the time that I used to spend on it . So I think I think for people like us it doesn't it doesn't have any impact . You could just let it go .
Well , and it's interesting Like I used to see there was so many teachers on there , like that was my big that's . I loved like talking to other you know , seeing the teachers and the librarians , and I don't see them anymore , like I don't see any engagement and I'm just , and there's just so many people have left .
It's really it's a ghost town and it just it's not like it used to be and so there's no point of being on there . I'm gonna leave my account there , but I'm just it's gonna basically become inactive .
¶ Social media strategies and moving to new platforms
I this is a good time to point out that that writers with wrinkles is now on threads . You can find us over there . Lisa figured that out today . Yay , we were all threaded out now .
Kathleen told me yesterday how to do it and I'm like what ? Like I didn't know that you could . This is like a news flash for anybody else who may not know . Like in the beginning with threads , you could only get to it on your phone there , you couldn't get to it on your , your , your laptop or your computer .
And then I found out yesterday you could and I was like what ? Like now threads has opened up to me Cause I'm like I just don't . I do most of my stuff on on my computer . So I went on and I'm like , oh , this is magic . So we're on .
They have added the ability to to add a single hashtag to your posts and it comes up as this little hyperlink . And so yesterday , drumroll , I discovered the cats of threads and I literally spent like two hours watching cat videos and cat pictures and sharing them all with my son , who's like please stop bombarding me with the cat pictures .
I'm like , oh , come on , they're so cute cats on the top of Christmas trees . It was adorable Anyway , so that made me very happy .
Oh my God , I didn't know . They added the hashtag thing . I'll have to . They did .
They did . So you can . You can find us over there and we will be . We will be very excited to you know thread with you . Oh boy , that was bad , that was really bad . Okay , that's all for today's episode . We are rerunning two of our favorite episodes , one of which we already mentioned .
That will be Leslie Zampetty , on Christmas day , and then on New Years we have Eric Smith , who is another agent and author , and his episode was chock full of really useful information . So we're hoping that if you haven't listened to those , you will give them a go . You will not be disappointed .
We've got some great guests lined up for you in season three , which kicks off with marketing expert Kathleen Schmidt on January 8th . As we already mentioned , we are super excited for 2024 .
¶ Closing remarks and a look ahead to Season 3
Lisa has a book coming out Yay . It's called Heart and Souls . Go , order it , pre-order it . Wherever you buy your books , you will not be disappointed . It's really fun and funny , like all of Lisa's work is . And that's it .
So until 2024 , from us here at Riders with Wrinkles to all of you , we wish you warm , healthy and joyous holidays , however you celebrate , and we will see you back here in January . Bye Lisa , bye guys , bye guys .