First Middle Grade Podcast Episode

Today the Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire podcast welcomes our first Middle Grade writer, Janet Sumner Johnson, author of THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY. She joined me to talk about querying when you already have a book published, and the complexities of having different agencies handling your separate projects.

We also discuss the challenge of writing for middle graders, the assumption that books for children are somehow lesser than books written for adults, as well as the question of what content to include for younger readers.

Then we geek out with favorite books from our childhood and how we interpreted them differently as adult readers, and the skill involved in layering a children’s book in a way that will change the meaning for an older reader.

If the blog or podcast have been of any assistance to you in your writing life, I would very much appreciate monetary support so that I can continue to produce them.

Writer, Writer, Pants On Fire Podcast March Roundup Plus Mindy's Best (And Worst) Writing Advice

Publishing can be overwhelming, and for the most part new writers are dropped into the ocean of the business without a lot of idea of what to expect. Agents are there for you, but sometimes you have questions about the most basic of things that maybe you don't want to bother them with (bother them, they don't mind).

Still, knowing is half the battle, and being a new writer often feels like an all-out war against ignorance. I came up with a new weapon for aspiring and newly published authors alike, and introduced it earlier this month.

The Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire podcast - where I interview a published author once a week with questions about their publishing journey, writing process, and careers - has been going well, and I've had quite a few listeners reach out to let me know that it's helped them.

I thought I'd take the last Monday of each month to roundup the episodes, with a little recap.

Enjoy this episode, and please, consider donating to support the show if you're able.

Announcing the Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire Podcast

In 2010 I signed with a literary agent after having spent ten years in the query trenches. Many of the mistakes I made were easily avoided, and I probably could have been published much more quickly if I'd done the necessary research. After learning the ropes through a large and scattered network of writer sites, blogs, and forums, I had finally found a measure of success.

I started this blog Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire shortly after landing my first book deal. I decided to pay it forward by hosting a blog where I asked published and agented authors all the questions I'd had when I was still aspiring.

This blog has been regularly updated for six years now, taking a lot of my time and attention, with no monetary return. Often I have thought it was time for me to hang it up, but whenever the thought crossed my mind I would get an email from a follower who let me know how the blog had helped them on their publishing journey.

In 2017 I decided that if the blog was going to keep existing it also needed to grow and offer my followers something new. The Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire podcast came from that idea. I am excited to bring this new medium to my followers, but it has also demanded an enormous amount of my time as I set up interviews, record, edit, and go through post-production with each episode. I'm a perfectionist, so I'm editing out filler words, dead air, and anytime that myself or my guest bumble about a bit.

If the blog or podcast have been of any assistance to you in your writing life, I would very much appreciate monetary support so that I can continue to produce them.You can support me by buying me a coffee in exchange for my content through Ko-Fi or PayPal.

New episodes will go up every week! Please follow the podcast to be notified of each new episode, or subscribe through iTunes.

And with that I bring you my first episode! Please enjoy my conversation with Kate Karyus Quinn about writing, publishing, gaining (and losing) an agent, and the pitfalls that exist even once you have a finished book in your hand.