Write the Book, Play the Game

Hello, authors! Welcome to Episode 6 of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author. In the final installment of Season 1, we’re again sharing ground-tested insights and strategies from our years in the midlist trenches.This week, we’re sharing the strategies and hacks that make our lives as professional authors manageable. We’ll discuss…* How we juggle writing and admin in an average workday* Gretchen’s signature “crockpot method” * The exact apps and digital

Hello, friends! Welcome to episode 5 of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author. We’re once again revealing everything we wish we knew when we started out as tiny baby authors at Big 5 publishers and have learned along the way.In the penultimate episode of Season 1, we’re discussing the author-agent relationship—one of the most important partnerships in your writing career.We aren’t talking about query letters or manuscript wish lists—there are tons of great

Welcome to Episode 4 of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author! We’re once again revealing everything we wish we knew when we started out as tiny baby authors at Big 5 publishers and have learned along the way.This week, we’re chatting about finding and leveraging your author community (aka your group chat). We’ll discuss…* The #1 mistake authors make in group chats* Where to find fellow writers and how to make them your friends* How to evaluate your current

Welcome to Episode 3 of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author! We’re once again spilling everything we’ve learned in our cumulative decades as professional trad-published authors.This week, in what’s sort of a Part 2 to last week’s episode (about how our zany industry survives and thrives), we’re delving deeper into the data you can (and should!) obtain about your book and brand, plus how to parse and leverage it. We’ll discuss…* The industry trends and

Welcome to Episode 2 of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author! We’re once again getting candid (some might say: too candid) about the business savvy we’ve picked up in our cumulative decades as professional authors. This week, we’re diving headfirst into (what sometimes feels like) this dumpster-fire of an industry. We’ll discuss…* What publishers really think when your book “fails”* The data Amazon and Goodreads don’t share with publishers* Why, how, and

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author! We’re authors Andrea Bartz & Gretchen Schreiber, and over the next few weeks, we’ll be pulling back the curtain on our own experiences in decades of trad publishing, sharing everything we’ve learned about building sustainable careers. There are plenty of great podcasts out there addressing writing craft and sharing book recs and author interviews, but we’re here to do something