The Bestseller Experiment

We scrambled to put this episode together in which we try and put some positive vibes out into the world. We celebrate some of our listeners' recent triumphs, we answer listener questions, discuss creativity, strategies for working from home, how to make the most of your day and why writing is so important. Sit back and forget the world's woes for just a short while... Sign up to the BXP2020 Challenge here: https://bestsellerexperiment.com/bxp2020/

Karen Inglis is a bestselling indie children's author based in the UK. Her books have sold over 100,000 copies and in this Deep Dive episode she answers our listener questions on finding illustrators, printing, marketing, blurbs, age-ranging, the craft of writing children's books and tips on running great school events. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

We're delighted to welcome back Orion Publisher (and Editor of the Year nominee!) Emad Akhtar to critique our latest round of One Page Punch-Ups. These are pages sent in by our Chart Topper Patreons. We read them and critique them and all learn a little something that we can use in our writing.

In this week's episode from the BXP Archives... Best known for her novel Chocolat, which sold well over a million copies and was made into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche, Joanne has written over twenty books, including Runemarks and Gospel of Loki, which were based on Norse legend. We spoke with her about writing, aspiration and sheds.

BA Paris is the bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors, and with her new novel The Dilemma she takes a simple idea and digs deep with gripping effect. It's this writing style that has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and made her an international bestseller. In a delightfully unassuming interview, she tells us how it all started when her daughters told her to do something for herself for once.

The Romantic Novelists' Association celebrated their diamond anniversary last week with a glitzy award ceremony where four — FOUR! — of our listeners were nominated for awards. We spoke to them about the role the RNA has played in their careers, we bumped into our old friend Rowan Coleman, and we end with a very special interview with Milly Johnson, the evening's recipient of the RNA Outstanding Achievement Award. Whatever your genre, there's lots to inspire you here. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Steff Green has written over 30 books since 2015. Her career started with a near-miss with a major publisher, but she struck out on her own and now she's an award-winner, a USA Today bestseller, and passionate about her storytelling. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Ahead of our main episode with James Swallow in a few weeks, we have this exclusive Q&A with James where he answers our listener questions on working in rooms with other writers on series like The Black Library, and he gives us great tips on pace, characterisation, balancing realism and the fantastic, writing for games, and how you can make your world tell the story for you. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

In this week's episode from the BXP Archives... From farrier to million-selling indie author, USA Today bestseller, and writing machine, Shannon bestows wisdom, inspiration, and a quote that we want on t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Bec Evans was previously a guest on a Deep Dive (ep199, discussing her book How to Have a Happy Hustle), but since then she has surveyed over 3,500 authors about their writing habits and discovered some incredibly useful data on how writing little and often can improve your productivity and creativity as a writer. In this special live show, she reveals great tips for writers on toggling, tiny habits, micro-challenges and being spontaneous.

In this exclusive Deep Dive episode for our Patreons, Barbara Poelle is a New York literary agent and author of Funny You Should Ask: Mostly Serious Answers to Mostly Serious Questions About the Publishing Industry — and she answers our listener questions on trends, genre, slush piles, getting an agent, and generally de-mistifying the publishing industry. This is essential listening for authors who want to be traditionally published. To become a Patron of the Bestseller Experiment: https://bestsellerexperiment.com/subscribe/

In this week's episode from the BXP Archives... In this episode you will discover… What does a commission editor do? It's not just correcting your spelling! What's changed in publishing? And how you can make the most of these opportunities. The most common mistakes by writers: And how you can avoid them. Don't cheat your reader: And how to have a longer career as a writer.

In the first of an occasional series where we dive into specific genres, we look at science fiction with Hannu Rajaniemi, award-winning author of The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel, Summerland and more. We answer listener questions on defining the genre, keeping up on scientific developments, world building, how to generate story ideas, and why we would love to read an Ian M Banks Star Wars novel. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

LJ Ross has long refused to play by other people's rules and when she didn't like the look of a publishing contract she struck out on her own. Over four million copies of her books have been sold to date and she's still going strong. She answers our listener questions on marketing, pricing, Kindle and she tells us why she's launching her own imprint and a prize for authors. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

In this week's episode from the BXP Archives... As we begin our epic quest to write and chart a book in one year, we need to discover what kind of person buys bestselling books. We turn to Hachette Book Group consumer insight expert Vics Tranter, who shares her experience and wisdom with us and we discover just who will be reading our book… and it's a bit of a shock, to be frank.

In this special episode, we speak to writer and producer David Whiteley about his Star Wars documentary The Galaxy Britain Built. David takes us through the journey of building a documentary idea into a feature-length documentary and an accompanying book. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Number one bestselling author Caroline Mitchell recently Tweeted that she had sold a million copies of her books since first getting published in 2013. Writing on her commute, Caroline started out by setting herself daily goals and moved from never having written before, to self-publishing, to awards and deals with Bookouture and Thomas & Mercer. It's an inspiring story and it all started… with an exorcism. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

When Robyn Sarty set up her own publisher, Belwood Publishing, she approached Sage Gordon-Davis about writing a series of sweet romance novels. In the first of a series we'll be following Robyn and Sage through the year as they develop the books and prepare them for publication. They tell us how the idea came about, the nitty gritty of contracts, agreements, budgets and royalties. This is essential listening for any writer thinking of self-publishing.

It's 2020 and the BXP2020 challenge is off to an amazing start with over 118.5 million words pledged already! We've been overwhelmed by messages from listeners telling us it's transformed the way they write. In this special live show, we share listener tips for making the most of the challenge and how you can get involved. The podcast also get crashed by author and Youtuber Claire Burgess who is taking on the challenge!

Author A.Y. Chao tells us how she funded her debut novel Soul Affinity on Kickstarter in just 4 days! If you've never tried Kickstarter before, but always wanted to give it a try, this is a great episode to see just how it works and what strategies you could use to make your novel a reality. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Scott Pack will inspire you with his tips on writing, editing, submission and publishing. Scott Pack celebrates 20 years in publishing in 2020, having worked as head of buying for Waterstones, and as a publisher at HarperCollins, Unbound, Eye and Lightning Books and more. His new book Tips from a Publisher is crammed with advice for writers at all levels and is essential reading. Scott will inspire you with his tips on writing, editing, submission and publishing. Get 30% off Scott's book here using the code bestsellerxp: Get 20% off the How To Get Published event

We take stock of the year so far and read out some of the messages we've had from our amazing listeners. And we look forward to 2020 and the BXP2020 Challenge. And yes, it's that time of year when Mr. Stay wheels out his terrible Santa impression for the sponsor message… and we announce the winner of the Garth Nix giveaway! To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

As we approach the end of the year, we contemplate hibernating after NanoWriMo before gearing up for the BXP2020 challenge in the New Year. We answer our listener FAQs about the 2020 Challenge and Mr. D reveals the experiments that he's been running on our listeners. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

We are delighted to welcome back Orion Publisher Emad Akhtar to critique our latest round of One Page Punch-Ups. These are pages sent in by our Chart Topper Patreons. We read them and critique them and all learn a little something that we can use in our writing. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Another one of our listeners is an award winner! Kirsty Eyre won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print "Unpublished" award for her novel Cow Girl this year. We speak to Kirsty, Harper Fiction editor Martha Ashby and comedy legend Helen Lederer about the award and how you can get involved along with great tips on writing comedy and for entering the competition.

We welcome Kate back to the podcast to celebrate the release of her new book for writers Pitch Power- discover what makes your book irresistible & how to sell it. Most authors hate writing pitches and queries but Kate LOVES IT. The book outlines seven steps to perfect your book's pitch. Kate also takes some of our listeners' blurbs and offer tips on how to improve them. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

PWA founder Chris Banks was on hand to give us greater insight into how to use PWA's reports on readibility, style, dialogue, repetition, sticky sentences and glue indexes, more effectively. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

"Bad language" is a divisive issue for writers. Some revel in it, others work hard to keep it clean. Dr Emma Byrne is the author of Swearing Is Good For You, which takes a look a scientific at the benefits of cussing. In this really entertaining and informative episode we talk to Emma Byrne about the history of swearing, its negative associations and the uses of swearing in fiction for both adults and children. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

The highlights from our latest live show in which we swap productivity tips and launch our biggest ever challenge yet - the BXP2020 challenge. If you want to make 2020 your best writing year, you'll want to hear this. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Dana Kaye gives us great insight into how you can network while overcoming anxieties, and she answers our listener questions on building relationships with bloggers, reviewers and readers. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Chris Banks, founder of ProWritingAid, tells us how a skiing accident led to him developing ProWritingAid, which has become the leading analytical tool for writers all over the world. He gives us some great tips on how it can improve your writing. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Kate Harrison returns to the podcast with a Deep Dive special where she takes a look at blurbs from our listeners' books and gives tips on how to make them stand out and convert browsers to readers. Kate's forthcoming book Pitch Power gives authors ????

Garth Nix is a global bestselling author with over 5 million copies sold. He takes us through his extraordinary career from working in publishing, to being told he was a "one book wonder", and his surefire solution to solving those big writing problems... To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Awais Khan is the author In The Company of Strangers. After studying at the University of Western Ontario and Durham University he returned to Lahore to write his debut novel and enrolled in the six month novel writing course at Faber academy online course. Awais takes us through his experience on the course and how it gave him the confidence to take his writing to agents and publishers (and he also tells us why every author should check their junk mail on a daily basis!). To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

We welcome RJ Barker back to the podcast who triumphantly returns with his new book The Bone Ships. Starting a new series is never easy and RJ talks honestly about the self-doubt that all writers experience and he gives us a quick masterclass in pitching a series to a publisher. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

In the fourth of a series of Deep Dives into the business side of dealing with publishers and agents we speak to Phoebe Morgan, author and publisher. Phoebe takes us through the essentials of how a publisher chooses the books it publishes, and the common misconceptions that debut authors might have. We also discuss cover art, marketing spend, building an author's career, the relationship between agents and editors, digital first publishing, and whether authors ask enough questions of their publishers.

We welcome RJ Barker back to the podcast who triumphantly returns with his new book The Bone Ships. Starting a new series is never easy and RJ talks honestly about the self-doubt that all writers experience and he gives us a quick masterclass in pitching a series to a publisher. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

In the third of a series of Deep Dives into the business side of dealing with publishers and agents we speak to Paul Bulos, Contracts Director at the Orion Publishing Group and Hachette Children's Books. Paul gives us a publisher's perspective on book deals and he demystifies some of the terms used and talks about how deals are changing to meet the expectations of an ever-changing industry. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

We celebrate three years of the podcast with a packed live episode in which we continue our conversation with our listeners about writers and mental health. This is a very special episode where our listeners share some of the ways they cope with anxiety, depression and more. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

In the second of a series of Deep Dives into the business side of dealing with publishers and agents we welcome Ed Wilson back to the podcast and we talk about contracts, negotiations, rights and how the industry is changing in an age of digital-first publishers. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Keith published his first book as part of a drunken bet. There was no big plan and, by his own admission, he knew nothing of publishing and broke all the rules and made every mistake. And yet, just three years later, he has sold over 100,000 copies of his books and regularly tops the bestseller lists. Keith takes us through his extraordinary career so far and tells us why marketing books is like selling Victoria Sponges... To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

We are delighted to welcome back Orion Publishing's Associate Editor Juliet Ewers to critique our latest round of One Page Punch-Ups. These are pages sent in by our Chart Topper Patreons. We read them and critique them and all learn a little something that we can use in our writing. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

In the first of a series of Deep Dives into the business side of dealing with publishers and agents we welcome Rhoda Baxter back to the podcast and we talk about how to deal with publishers, agents, intellectual property, contracts, copyright, trademarks, advances, earning out, royalties and much more! To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

David Koepp is one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood history. With a collective box office somewhere in the region of $250b he's written Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, Death Becomes Her and many, many more. We were delighted to talk to David

Just over a year ago Keshini Naidoo and Lindsey Mooney left their jobs and took a huge risk to create Hera Books. A year on they tell us the biggest lessons they've learned, how some of their first authors were our listeners. They give us tips on how publishers select books for their lists and why every one of their authors is on their A-list.

Phoebe Locke is the pseudonym of Nicci Cloke. Phoebe's book The July Girls takes the life of a character from age ten to twenty-five, and in a fascinating interview Phoebe tells us how she had therapy sessions as one of her characters.

Kim is the narrator and producer of the Back to Reality audiobook and we go into detail about the process of preparing, recording and producing an audiobook with countless tips for writers on how to work with producers to get the best audiobook possible. Audiobooks are the fastest growing medium for writers and this is essential listening! To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Kim Bretton is an actor and has worked in theatre, TV and film, but these days she's found great success producing and narrating audiobooks in Nashville. We talk to Kim about her career shift into audiobooks and the spooky connection she had with Back to Reality. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Edward Cox is the Gemmell Award-nominated author of the Relic Guild trilogy, and with his new book Song of the Sycamore he builds an incredible world, both magical and believable, and it all starts with scribblings in notebooks. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality

Edward Cox is the Gemmell Award-nominated author of the Relic Guild trilogy, and with his new book Song of the Sycamore he builds an incredible world, both magical and believable, and it all starts with scribblings in notebooks. To support the show go to bestsellerexperiment.com/support Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality