London Writers' Salon

Children’s fiction studio founder Jasmine Richards (Storymix), publisher Natalie Doherty (Puffin and HarperCollins Children’s Books), and bestselling author Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil) on shaping an idea commercial enough to sell, what makes a children’s book impossible to put down, and trusting the unconscious to write it.

 

You’ll learn

Why the most commercial idea is the one that centres its reader from the very first thought.

How a single pithy log line can carry a book all the way from the slush pile to the playground.

The counterintuitive trick of starting your story at chapter three.

How to read what children are reading now so your pacing keeps up with theirs.

What a publisher is really looking for when a manuscript lands on the desk — and why voice comes before plot.

How the categories from early readers to YA actually break down on the bookshop shelf.

The difference between weaving in a message and writing a book that feels worthy.

The case for never self-censoring in a first draft, and saving the negotiation for later.

How tiring out your conscious mind can unlock a freer, more instinctive way to draft.

Why the goal of writing should be the writing itself, not the bestseller list.

 

Episode Links

#050: Jasmine Richards — How to Pitch Commercial Children’s Fiction & The Business of Children’s Publishing

#081: Natalie Doherty — The Magic of Writing for Children, Market Trends & Behind the Scenes of Publishing Children’s Books

#035: Soman Chainani — Writing Dark Tales for Children & Balancing Creative Work with Discipline

 

About the Guests

Jasmine Richards is the author of over a dozen children’s books, ranging from picture books to teen fiction. Her most recent novel, Keeper of Myths, was published by HarperCollins. She has over 15 years of experience as an editor, including roles at Hamish Hamilton, Puffin, and Dutton Books in New York. Jasmine is the founder of Storymix, a children’s fiction studio, where she uses her unique experiences to develop new voices and inclusive stories.

Natalie Doherty is a Publisher at Puffin, although during this interview she was at HarperCollins Children’s Books. She’s worked with award-winning and bestselling authors, including Tom Fletcher, Robin Stevens, R. J. Palacio, Tamzin Merchant, and Nazneen Ahmed Pathak. Before moving into editorial in 2010, she worked in Contracts and Rights at Hachette and holds a BA in Modern European Languages and an MA in Translation. Her recent middle-grade acquisitions include Simon Stephenson’s The Snowman Code and Philippa Leathley’s Inkbound.

Soman Chainani’s debut series, The School for Good and Evil, has sold more than 3 million copies, been translated into 30 languages across 6 continents, and became a major motion picture from Netflix starring Charlize Theron, Laurence Fishburne, Kerry Washington, and Michelle Yeoh, with Chainani as an executive producer. Each of the six books in the series — The School for Good and Evil, A World Without Princes, The Last Ever After, Quests for Glory, A Crystal of Time, and One True King — debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. A graduate of Harvard University, Soman created his own fairy-tale major before going on to an MFA in film at Columbia University. He has made films that have played all over the world, and his writing awards include honors from Big Bear Lake, the CAPE Foundation, and the Sun Valley Writers’ Fellowship. In Beasts & Beauty: Dangerous Tales, Soman reimagines old stories into fresh fairy tales for a new era.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
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Poet Maya C. Popa on writing with wonder, the ruthless craft of revision, and building a sustainable life in poetry.

You’ll learn

Why wonder has more in common with the sublime — the beautiful and the terrible — than with simple delight.

How a poem loses its charge the moment its ending is visible from the opening line.

What “negative capability” asks of a writer stuck in the dark middle of a draft.

The question worth asking when the work feels uncomfortable and you’re certain something has gone wrong.

A ruthless method for finding a poem’s true entry point — often buried three-quarters of the way down.

When to cut the images you love most, even the ones that took hours to invent.

How to write about longing and love without collapsing into confession.

Why asking your writing to carry your finances can quietly poison your relationship with it.

What to guard at all costs while holding space for other writers.

The freedom that arrives once rejection stops meaning anything at all.

Resources & Links

📄 Interview Transcript

If You Love That Lady by Maya C. Popa

Gerard Manley Hopkins - Poetry Foundation

Wound is the Origin of Wonder by Maya C. Popa

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Maya’s Substack

Conscious Writers Collective

Poetry Society of America Awards

Maya’s ‘Five Things I Have Learned’ class

About Maya C. Popa

Maya C. Popa is a Romanian American poet. She holds a PhD on the role of wonder in poetry from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she was a recipient of a department bursary for exceptional merit, and previous degrees from Oxford University, New York University, and Barnard College.

Popa is the author of If You Love That Lady (W. W. Norton, 2026); Wound Is the Origin of Wonder (W. W. Norton, 2022), named one of the Guardian’s Best Books of Poetry; and American Faith (Sarabande, 2019), a runner-up for the Kathryn A. Morton Prize, judged by Ocean Vuong, and winner of the North American Book Prize in 2020. She has also received awards from the Poetry Foundation and the Oxford Poetry Society.

Popa is the poetry reviews editor at Publishers Weekly and is the founder of Conscious Writers Collective, where she teaches and oversees all literary programming for poets and prose writers. She lives in New York City.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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Author Casper ter Kuile on transforming everyday writing into a sacred ritual, drawing on rest and reflection to fuel creativity, and moving past self-doubt to write as a gift for others.

You'll learn

Why the point of the work week might be the rest, not the other way around.

How to turn an ordinary daily habit into a ritual using three simple ingredients.

What a weekly tech sabbath can unlock in your most creative thinking.

The reframe that turns a dreadful first draft into something you can build on.

A piece of advice from a mentor that dissolves the pressure to say something new.

How reading writers you love can quietly refill the tank when you're stuck.

Why treating your writing as a gift changes the way you handle criticism.

The practice for staying humble and kind toward yourself in equal measure.

What sacred reading traditions can teach you about going deeper into any text.

Why the smallest groups, not the biggest audiences, are where meaning actually forms.

Resources & Links

Casper ter Kuile's website

The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile

The Nearness

Harry Potter and the Sacred Text (podcast)

Sacred Design Lab

"How We Gather" report

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Seth Godin

About Casper ter Kuile

Casper ter Kuile is the author of The Power of Ritual and the co-founder of The Nearness: a space to explore life's big questions with like-hearted others. Casper holds Masters in Public Policy and Divinity from Harvard University, is the former cohost of popular podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, and loves harmony singing, the London Review of Books, and arriving at the pub after a long country walk. He lives with his husband in Brooklyn, NY.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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Bestselling and award-winning writers Seth Godin (The Practice), Amie McNee (We Need Your Art) and Mason Currey (Daily Rituals) on choosing yourself before anyone else does, protecting the hour you actually have, and why the practice that works is the one that fits your life rather than someone else’s.

You’ll learn

Why "grow a thicker skin" is the wrong advice for a writer facing rejection.

What shifts when you notice the harshest rejection you face each day is your own.

The case for lowering your standards if your ambitions are big.

How an hour that doesn’t look like writing can still be an hour of writing.

What the word discipline shares with the word disciple, and why it changes how a project turns out.

A quiet argument for half an hour a day over the perfect routine you can’t sustain.

Why chasing the writer you think you should be pulls you away from the work.

When a good outcome hides a bad decision, and what that means for your practice.

The difference between talent and skill, and why only one of them applies to writing.

Episode Links

#158: Amie McNee — Creating Without Permission, Overcoming Self-Doubt, Facing Rejection, Building a Life on Your Own Terms, Embracing Social Media as an Artform

#177: Mason Currey — Daily Routines and How Artists Work, Focus Time and Protecting Your Best Hours

#150: Seth Godin — Obscurity Is the Enemy, Here’s How to Stop Seeking Validation, Find Your Audience and Build a Creative Practice

About the Guests

Amie McNee is a trained historian turned creativity coach, writer, and speaker best known for her popular Instagram account, @InspiredtoWrite, and The Unpublished Podcast. She’s self-published two historical fiction novels: The Rules Upheld by No One and Regrettably, I Am About to Cause Trouble. Her book We Need Your Art: Stop F*cking Around and Make Something is a manifesto on the vital, human importance of creating. Her most recent novel, To Kill a Queen, a queer historical mystery set in Elizabethan London, was published in 2025.

Mason Currey is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles and the author of the Daily Rituals books. In addition to compiling the Daily Rituals books, Currey was a design-magazine editor for ten years, working as the managing editor of Metropolis, the executive editor of Print, a senior editor at Core77, and the programming chair for the 2015 Core77 Conference. His freelance writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Slate, and he has delivered talks on the creative process to high school and college students, writers’ groups, and the partners of the design consultancy IDEO. He sends out a fortnightly newsletter on routines, rituals, and wriggling through a creative life. His latest book, Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life, was published by Celadon Books in 2026.

Seth Godin is the author of twenty-plus international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work and have been translated into 39 languages – among them Unleashing the Ideavirus, Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Tribes, The Dip, Linchpin, Poke the Box, and All Marketers Are Liars. He writes the most popular marketing blog in the world and speaks to audiences worldwide. He is the founder of the altMBA, the founder and former CEO of Squidoo.com, the former VP of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, and the founder of the pioneering online startup Yoyodyne.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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Irish writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa on turning archival fragments into living narrative, writing across the borders of genre, and giving voice to the forgotten lives of women committed to a Victorian asylum.

You’ll learn

Why the greatest gatekeeper between a writer and the page is often the writer themselves.

How a single word buried in clinical notes can become a bridge to a silenced voice.

What poetry can teach prose writers about immediacy and the shock of a strong opening.

The case for pointing at the gaps in the record rather than papering over them.

When a fleeting curiosity is worth following, and what happens once you treat it as real.

How third person can give a writer just enough distance to keep going.

A sense of fidelity to the reader you imagine standing at your shoulder.

How the drowsy space between sleep and waking can become an engine for ideas.

The ethics of using real names, and the difference between the dead and the long dead.

How the act of leaving things out turns even “fact” into a story.

Resources & Links

Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

About Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Doireann Ní Ghríofa is an Irish writer devoted to exploring how the past makes itself felt within the present. 'A Ghost in the Throat' finds an 18th century poet haunting a young mother, leading her through visions of blood, milk, lust, and murder. Written on the roof of a multi-storey car park in Ireland, it went on to be described as "powerful" (New York Times), "captivatingly original" (The Observer), and a "masterpiece" (Sunday Business Post). 'A Ghost in the Throat' won the James Tait Black Prize and was voted overall Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, while the US edition was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. It was translated into 20 further languages worldwide.

Doireann is also the author of seven critically-acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship (USA), the Ostana Prize (Italy), a Seamus Heaney Fellowship, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, among others.

Her new book, Said the Dead, distils hundreds of hours of archival research into a polyphonic portrayal of a single institution — a derelict Victorian asylum in Cork, and the women once committed within its walls.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON
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Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon
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If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!