Write the Damn Book Already

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Anna Dorn’s debut novel, Vagablonde, came out in May 2020, which was a spectacular moment to launch a book (hear the sarcasm). Her tour was obviously cancelled, which she was fine with since she prefers doing things online anyway.
The paperback version came out October 6, 2026 from Simon & Schuster—six years later, which is not the typical order of operations and also a decent reminder that even traditional publishing doesn’t always follow the script people assume it does.
The main character, Prue, is a 30-year-old attorney who wants two things: to live without psychotropic medication and to experience success as a rap artist. Anna was also once a lawyer who wanted to be a rapper, so we know where some of this came from!
The six-year gap between hardback and paperback versions gifted her something most authors never get, which is five years of distance before re-editing her own book, which she ended up liking far more than she expected to.
We get into:
How distance let her read her own novel almost like someone else wrote it
What she updated, and which dated references didn’t survive
Why law school prepared her for editorial notes better than anything in publishing did
How she decides whether a Goodreads consensus is worth acting on
Why she’d rather read for a few minutes at someone else’s event than host a launch
What happened to the five novels she’s abandoned
On the business side, Anna is cheerfully hands-off. Her take is that if she were business minded she’d be doing something more lucrative, which is exactly why agents exist. She went to law school and still doesn’t want to read her own contracts!
Her next novel is slated for January 2028. In the meantime she freelance edits and writes a Substack with a friend about perfume titled...wait for it...Sample Sluts, where they pair scents with pop music and Bravo shows. I came away with a reading list, a watch list, and a renewed interest in Salt and Stone.
🧭 BACK COVER BLUEPRINT
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WONDERING EXACTLY HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH SO YOU CAN STOP GUESSING?
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READY TO FINALLY BE IN THAT "CAN'T STOP WRITING" FLOW?
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Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. 

Available wherever podcasts are available:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Let's Connect!
Instagram
Website

Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions!
Jane Bitomsky’s debut novel, Death by Misadventure, came out October 1, 2026 from Lake Union. It opens in the 1500s with a naked dead man found under a waterwheel, missing a certain piece of his anatomy, and a coroner who has to work out whether it was an accident or something considerably worse.
Jane has a PhD in early modern English history. Her dissertation covered pregnancy and crime, which means part of it dealt with women pleading their bellies to delay execution. She assumed that background meant the research for the novel would be minimal. It wasn’t. 
Legal records are formulaic and tell you almost nothing about how people actually spoke to each other, so she ended up reading literature from the period, digging into historical societies to find real parishioner names and local occupations, and learning a truly impressive number of Elizabethan euphemisms.
Then there’s the road to publication. We discuss: 
Ninety rejections before her first agent said yes
Three rounds of edits over a year, then nine rejections from publishers on submission
A second manuscript her agent read and declined to take out
A parting of ways in January 2025, followed by thirty more rejections
Two offers by March, a new agent, submission in April, and an acceptance in June
A hundred and twenty rejections total, by her count
When I asked how the agent split felt, Jane called it "slightly dispiriting," which might be the most restrained response I've heard. She also pointed out that rejection doesn’t stop once you’re published. Her first review was two stars and came with a full essay on everything that's wrong with the book. We had a good time talking about clicking into a reviewer’s history and finding their other three-paragraph takedowns of peanut butter and wallpaper.
We also got into the marketing side, which looks different when you’re a debut author in New Zealand with an Amazon imprint. There’s real anti-Amazon sentiment there, her publisher’s focus is digital and audio, and when she called a local publicist, she was told plainly that they couldn’t help. She did find her book in Wellington’s biggest independent bookstore, however!
Her plan for a launch party is one I’ve never heard and immediately loved. She’s waiting until November or December so people have had time to read it, and she’s giving copies to friends ahead of time so there are actual questions from the room instead of her being alone on a stage wondering if anyone cares what she has to say.
Jane isn’t a social media person, which she declares without apology. She bought a dagger to open her author copies on camera, and now that it lives locked in her desk, she’s planning to use it on a cake with an edible version of her book cover on top and something resembling blood inside.
Her next book is with her agent now. She’s deciding between Death by the Angel and Death by Harlotry. I of course have strong feelings about which one it should be.
🧭 BACK COVER BLUEPRINT
Get back cover templates for nonfiction, memoir, and fiction; real-world examples; a polishing checklist; and a guide for turning it into an optimized online description that attracts the right readers. 
🔗 https://www.publishaprofitablebook.com/blueprint
WONDERING EXACTLY HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH SO YOU CAN STOP GUESSING?
Grab the action plan and finally feel confident you’re doing this the right way.
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/actionplan
READY TO FINALLY BE IN THAT "CAN'T STOP WRITING" FLOW?
Grab the free nonfiction or memoir kickstart that's helped hundreds of authors get out of their heads and into the flow: 
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/chapterone
Support the show
******
Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. 

Available wherever podcasts are available:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Let's Connect!
Instagram
Website

Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions!
I have a complicated relationship with 30 Under 30 lists. I'm genuinely happy for everyone on them, and I'm also in my fifties and have not done most of those things, so there's a part of me that reads those lists and feels like I missed the boat and the train. 
Turns out, David Galef and Beth Weinhouse had the same reaction back in their late thirties when they saw an anthology titled 30 Under 30. So they created 20 Over 40 instead, and when the call went out, writers wrote in saying some version of "Where have you been all my life?" Now, twenty years later, they've put together 20 Over 60, a collection of short stories (fictional) written by authors over the age of sixty about being over the age of sixty. 
David is a fiction writer and lit professor who directs the creative writing program at Montclair State, has published around 200 short stories, and edits Vestal Review, the longest-running flash fiction magazine around, where the limit is 500 words. Beth is a journalist and magazine editor. They are also married, which made for a fun recording setup!
We got into:
Why they refused to make an anthology about disease, decline, and death, and what they looked for instead
The stories that surprised them, including a kleptomaniac with a pepper mill problem and a woman visiting her husband and her ex-husband in the same hospital
How they handled permissions, payment, and the contributors you've likely never heard of alongside Joyce Carol Oates and Paul Theroux
What every agent and press told them before Beth built a presentation out of statistics (and sold the book almost immediately)
Why David thinks a good plot gets you on the bestseller list and a memorable character gets you remembered
How they're marketing to a demographic that reads more, spends more, and belongs to more book clubs than anyone else
David said something about the unknown writers in the collection that I've repeated twice since. Most of us haven't heard of 90 percent of the authors out there, if not 99 percent, and a lot of them are tremendously accomplished. I used to feel embarrassed when a guest turned out to have written 185 books I'd never encountered (hello, Debra Webb). Now, I think, "If everyone already knew everyone, nobody would ever discover anything!"
We also talked about book tours being largely a thing of the past, and how the ones still happening are often financed by the authors themselves. Their contributors are doing local events around the country instead, which means nobody is getting shipped off on a ten-city tour.
And because this is apparently where my brain lives now, we spent a few minutes chatting about whether we could get a tracking device into every book, which led to a conversation about the inventory robot at my grocery store. Her name is Tally. She is six feet tall and very friendly.
🧭 BACK COVER BLUEPRINT
Get back cover templates for nonfiction, memoir, and fiction; real-world examples; a polishing checklist; and a guide for turning it into an optimized online description that attracts the right readers. 
🔗 https://www.publishaprofitablebook.com/blueprint
WONDERING EXACTLY HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH SO YOU CAN STOP GUESSING?
Grab the action plan and finally feel confident you’re doing this the right way.
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/actionplan
READY TO FINALLY BE IN THAT "CAN'T STOP WRITING" FLOW?
Grab the free nonfiction or memoir kickstart that's helped hundreds of authors get out of their heads and into the flow: 
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/chapterone
Support the show
******
Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. 

Available wherever podcasts are available:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Let's Connect!
Instagram
Website

Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions!
Anna Pitoniak spent years as a senior editor at Random House, wrote her first two novels in the hours before and after work, and has now published five books of her own. Her newest, The Swiss Agent, comes out December 1, 2026 from Simon & Schuster. It showed up on my doorstep and I got unreasonably excited, because I am fully in my espionage era right now.
Anna is one of the few authors I've spoken with who has sat on both sides of this business at the same time, so I had a lot of questions for her. 
We picked up the marketing and publicity conversation I've been having across several recent episodes, and Anna gave me her definitions of each: Publicity is earned media, meaning coverage nobody paid for. Marketing has a paid component, like ads and giveaways. Then we got stuck on the same blurry spot Cassie Miller and I landed on a few weeks ago, which is where influencer and bookstagram outreach falls. Neither of us has a perfect answer.
We also got into:
Why she didn't submit her first novel to her own imprint, and what her boss said when she brought it up
What having BookScan access did to her head, and why losing it was a relief
Why it's so hard to connect cause and effect with book sales, even when something big happens
The question she asks herself about a big first week versus slow steady growth over years
Why she used to warn authors away from fall publication, and what changed her mind
How The Swiss Agent took close to three years to write/rewrite, and why returning characters made it harder rather than easier
Anna is candid about the comedown after her first novel came out. She'd built up so much adrenaline expecting fireworks on publication day (don't we all?), and what she got instead was the ordinary quiet of a Tuesday when other books also come out and everyone moves on. 
That book has since earned out and sends her royalties twice a year, which she notes is enough to at least cover the oat milk in her latte. 
🧭 BACK COVER BLUEPRINT
Get back cover templates for nonfiction, memoir, and fiction; real-world examples; a polishing checklist; and a guide for turning it into an optimized online description that attracts the right readers. 
🔗 https://www.publishaprofitablebook.com/blueprint
WONDERING EXACTLY HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH SO YOU CAN STOP GUESSING?
Grab the action plan and finally feel confident you’re doing this the right way.
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/actionplan
WANT TO SELL MORE BOOKS (WITHOUT THE SELF-PROMO CRINGE)?
The Author Visibility Bundle gives you 200+ done-for-you email templates, social media graphics, and other book promo tools designed to help authors build buzz and drive sales, without feeling pushy. 
👉  PublishAProfitableBook.com/visibility
READY TO FINALLY BE IN THAT "CAN'T STOP WRITING" FLOW?
Grab the free nonfiction or memoir kickstart that's helped hundreds of authors get out of their heads and into the flow: 
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/chapterone
Support the show
******
Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. 

Available wherever podcasts are available:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Let's Connect!
Instagram
Website

Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions!
She's back! Cassie Miller joined me last spring to talk about her debut, Meet Me Under the Lights, and now she's here with book two, Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane, out October 6, 2026 from Penguin Teen. I somehow have three copies, one of which is the finished edition with glitter on the cover. Cassie, the actual author, has not yet seen the glitter. I felt terrible about this for almost a full minute.
This time we talked marketing, because I've been in a lot of marketing conversations lately and the same misconceptions keep coming up. Namely, that traditional publishers do nothing to market your book (which is sometimes somewhat true), and that marketing and selling are the same thing. 
Cassie was generous enough to walk us through what her experience has actually looked like, one book in and with a second about to launch.
We got into:
Cassie's definition of marketing versus publicity, and why she thinks one has a face and the other happens behind the scenes
The marketing campaign printed right on the back of her ARC, and what it  means in practice
Why she's never been afraid to ask her publicist questions, and why she thanks her publishing team in nearly every email
How she coordinated with her publicist to personally send ARCs to the bookstagrammers who championed her first book
How a fellow author confessed that her gorgeous social media presence came courtesy of a publicist she hired herself
Why a fall farmer's market book became a Christmas book during contract negotiations, and why Cassie said yes immediately
Whether launching in a crowded holiday season makes you a needle in a haystack
Cassie describes herself as an introvert who can extrovert, and then describes unboxing her ARCs to the Sugar Plum Fairy while her son filmed and shook his head. She makes a really good case that authors, especially those writing for kids and teens, need to be willing to be a little silly.
We also debated the appeal of "It's a Wonderful Life." I will not be taking questions at this time regarding my position.
🧭 BACK COVER BLUEPRINT
Get back cover templates for nonfiction, memoir, and fiction; real-world examples; a polishing checklist; and a guide for turning it into an optimized online description that attracts the right readers. 
🔗 https://www.publishaprofitablebook.com/blueprint
WONDERING EXACTLY HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH SO YOU CAN STOP GUESSING?
Grab the action plan and finally feel confident you’re doing this the right way.
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/actionplan
WANT TO SELL MORE BOOKS (WITHOUT THE SELF-PROMO CRINGE)?
The Author Visibility Bundle gives you 200+ done-for-you email templates, social media graphics, and other book promo tools designed to help authors build buzz and drive sales, without feeling pushy. 
👉  PublishAProfitableBook.com/visibility
READY TO FINALLY BE IN THAT "CAN'T STOP WRITING" FLOW?
Grab the free nonfiction or memoir kickstart that's helped hundreds of authors get out of their heads and into the flow: 
👉 PublishAProfitableBook.com/chapterone
Support the show
******
Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. 

Available wherever podcasts are available:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Let's Connect!
Instagram
Website

Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth