Shooting The Shit About The AI Creativity Loop And Book Emergencies
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
Literary agents Carly Waters and Cece Lyra discuss the evolving landscape of the publishing industry, ranging from educational opportunities
Key takeaways
- Carly is launching a 'Writing Tension' course featuring an interactive 'Acquisitions Pipeline' simulation with literary agents and editors.
- Literary agents often perform tasks outside their core scope, including tracking copyright registration and analyzing BookScan heat maps to plan author tours.
Main topics
- Writing Tension Course
- Unexpected Literary Agent Duties
Notable quotes
We are built by language and the relationships we forms with other language speakers. And now for the first time in history, some of those language speakers are not human.
Conclusion
The episode serves as a reflection on how much of the 'human experienc
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:02) Raise your hand if you've heard me say publishing is competitive. I feel like everyone's probably raising their hand right now because I say it all the time, we say it all the time, and it's true the publishing industry is so competitive. So if it's so competitive, here's my question for you. Do you know how you measure up against other writers? Do you know about your work's quality and readiness as it compares to other writers who write in your genre? Well... What if I told you there's a way to find out? Introducing the acquisitions pipeline, a simulation of how a book gets sold to a publisher. It's a new interactive component that I'm offering as an educational resource as a part of my popular writing tension course. Here's how it's going to work. We'll meet to learn all about creating tension, conflict, and stakes in your story. Think Lots of slides jam-packed with examples and of course a cozy Q &A session. Then the acquisitions pipeline will begin. What is the acquisitions pipeline? So students are going to be invited to submit their work. Four seasoned literary agents will review these submissions. Their mission is to select the works with the most potential. All students of the course will get to see which works made this shortlist. Then those submissions will be sent to a panel of nine acquiring editors from big five publishing houses. Their job to select the top two per genre for a total of 18 selections across genres. And they'll critique those selections at a live event that I'm moderating. On this panel, exclusive to students of the Writing Tension course, acquiring editors will highlight what's working in each submission, what's not, and how the writer can improve and make their work even more competitive. Does that sound super fun but also a little terrifying? Because it does for me. I'm really excited about this. I've been planning this for a while now. Writing Tension, featuring the all-new Acquisitions Pipeline, kicks off on September 24th, and it is a multi-day course. Don't worry if you can't attend live. All students will get a link to the recordings. And if you're interested in learning more, including the names of the literary agents, the names of the acquiring editors, and the genres we're covering, check out my... website. Keep in mind that due to the interactive component, spots are limited. I hope to see you there, and in the meantime, happy writing. Speaker 2 (2:45) Welcome to another episode of Shooting the Shit with literary agents Carly Waters and Cece Lira, where we dissect publishing gossip, discuss book industry trends, and the overall state of the book business. If you've ever wanted to grab a coffee with two literary agents, grab your mug and pull up a chair. Speaker 3 (3:09) Good morning, Cece. How are you? Good morning. I'm good. How are you? I'm Speaker 2 (3:15) good. Well, a couple of things. Anybody watching us on YouTube will know that Cece is not in her normal home office. And for those of you that just, you know, I like to follow along with when we record, we're recording on a Monday today. So everything is kind of moved about. We are supposed to have a special guest joining us, but we just got word that we're maybe having some scheduling issues. So she may or may not join us and we might have to reschedule. But we have lots of stuff to chat about today because, you know, it's publishing season and we're back to work here. Speaker 3 (3:43) Absolutely. It's a mystery. There's tension. Oh, speaking of tension, please remember today, this episode is airing on the 21st. Speaker 2 (3:50) Today Speaker 3 (3:51) is when the day one of my course, Writing Tension, begins. Writing Tension, Creating Tension, Conflict and Stakes in a Story. And if you want to sign up, today is the day to do it. That way you will be registered before the course begins. And the deadline to submit to the acquisitions pipeline. is September 24th at 11 p.m. Eastern Time. No exceptions. You have to submit before 11.59 p.m. Speaker 2 (4:20) Okay, and everybody, again, who's not watching us on YouTube, you really should. We have lots of great mannerisms. That tapping noise was Cece tapping her desk because that's how badly she wants you guys to come. So tap, tap, tap. If you heard the taps, that was her emphasis on come. The tapping was to emphasize no Speaker 3 (4:36) exceptions Speaker 2 (4:36) on the deadline. I Speaker 3 (4:37) also do want people to show up. Not trying to say I'm not inviting people, but I always get last minute people going, oh, I couldn't make the deadline. Can you make an exception? And if I'm reviewing submissions, I can typically be flexible. But I am not the person doing it this time. We have a panel of agents and then we have a panel of acquiring editors. And I made a commitment to them that I would, I'm trying not to tap. I made a commitment to them that I would make sure they had everything, all the submissions ready by a certain date. And I want to be respectful of that. I want to be respectful of boundaries. I absolutely understand that things happen, but you know, deadlines are deadlines and it's important to, to stick to them as well. So yes, I am excited. I cannot believe that in a week. everything will kick off and then I will know how many submissions we'll have and then I'll tell you once we record again I'll probably know by then and then I'll tell you and we'll see how many how many of the ones I think are the best match the ones the agents and the editors think are the best. Remember I gave you a Speaker 2 (5:37) ratio didn't I give you a ratio Speaker 3 (5:39) of Speaker 2 (5:39) you did and you probably wrote it down because I said I'm gonna forget so whatever you wrote down that was going to be my my guess I think I did I say 75? You were met Carly, Speaker 3 (5:48) your memory. Good Speaker 1 (5:50) job. Good job, Carly. Speaker 2 (5:53) Guys, Speaker 3 (5:53) I tease Carly about her memory all the time. FYI, just so you guys know. No, no, I fully own it. Speaker 2 (5:58) I absolutely fully own it. Also, I just got back from a spa weekend. So maybe my brain was very like recharged and that's why I'm able to kind of, you know, remember things. Speaker 3 (6:06) Wait, tell us about the spa weekend. What'd you do? Yeah, Speaker 2 (6:09) it was lovely. So my mom, my sister and I have been trying to get together once a year. We see each other more than that, but we're trying to get together once a year. No kids, nobody else, like just the three of us. And so we've kind of been, we've decided we're going to kind of do a spa weekend. So anyway, we just got back. from St. Anne's Spa, which if you're in Ontario, it is right off the highway in Grafton. And it's just like a beautiful English. cottage, English garden style spa overlooking Lake Ontario. And it was really, really beautiful. And we had a really lovely time. And, you know, for long time listeners know that Cece and I talked about skincare from time to time. And Cece, I did get a facial. I got this jet peel facial where they like, literally, it seemed like they were pressure washing my skin or like pressure wash four times. Anyway, I'm feeling refreshed. Again, anybody watching on YouTube, hopefully I'm glowing because I did get my little jet peel face. Speaker 3 (7:00) You are glowing. I mean, in fairness, you're always glowing. But yay, yay for spa weekend. So my weekend was pretty different. I went to the Latinx Storytellers Conference. Yes. And so the location is the Scholastic Building, which is in Soho. It's Speaker 2 (7:14) a Speaker 3 (7:14) great location. It is. Speaker 2 (7:15) They have incredible views from that rooftop. Incredible. Speaker 3 (7:18) Such beautiful views. And also, and this is a very CC comment, it is near Good Cookie Place. So two cookies. One of their locations is in Soho. It's like a four minute walk from Scholastic. So that was really great. The conference was amazing. I Speaker 2 (7:35) saw some pictures. Eric reposted some things in his Instagram stories of you Speaker 3 (7:38) guys Speaker 2 (7:38) on stage. And I was like clapping from my home, looking at my phone. It was so fun. Speaker 3 (7:44) It was so fun. Like we had a wonderful mixer where, you know, we got to mingle with Speaker 1 (7:49) acquiring editors and fellow agents and just writers Speaker 3 (7:52) and so many. Thank you, by the way, to everyone. If you're listening and you were there and you said hi to me, thank you. It was so lovely to just be like eating my cheese because I was eating my cheese. I'm always eating. And then people would be like, Cece, hi, I really like your podcast. And they'd be so sweet and so kind. And it's just amazing. It's just good, good vibes, good energy. I have to say, book people are really the best people. You know, like it is just so amazing. I loved it. And then we had a panel on Saturday where I got to moderate and I got to ask Sandra, Adriana, and Eric a whole bunch of questions. And we got to take questions from the audience too. And it was so much fun. And possibly one of the best things about the Scholastic building is that they have a giant Clifford. The Clifford the Red Dog. Oh, Speaker 2 (8:38) the dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 3 (8:39) It's so cute. Every time I see that dog, I imagine what Baba's reaction would have been if he had seen it. Like that never would have happened. But I, cause he loved big stuffed animals. So every time I see it, I go, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, he would have freaked out with that big giant red dog. And it's just, it's just so cute. It's so cute. It was, it was an amazing conference. I will, if they will have me, I will go back next year. I will go back every year for as long as they will have me. Speaker 2 (9:02) Yeah, I was going to say you sang their praises last time. I had a book emergency this weekend. Do you want to hear about my book emergency? Yeah. What was the book emergency? So I brought, obviously, multiple books to the spa with me. You know, my goal was turn off the phone, unplug, you know, I'm not needed. So it was not a professional book emergency. It