There’s a lot of mystery for authors in the world of publishing with few concrete answers. For years, it’s been tough to find people who will talk openly about, well…anything. I once asked an agent whether anyone talked about their author earnings. The response was a sideways glance and the comment, “Well, if you want to air your dirty laundry….”. Huh.

Fast forward to this spring (17 years and 14 books into my life as a traditionally published author) when I discovered the Publishing Rodeo Podcast by two authors Sunyi Dean and Scott Drakeford. They both debuted books in 2022 through the same publishing house and quickly realized how different their experience had become due to support (for Sunyi) and lack thereof (for Scott) from the publisher. They decided to band together to offer an open discussion about their experiences and observations and have done an excellent job pulling back the curtain on everything from advances to marketing support and retaining rights to negotiating deals.

I’ve corresponded with both Sunyi and Scott, and they’ve been overwhelmed with the response from authors dying to give and get real information about publishing from the source–other published authors. For decades, agents and editors have advised not to talk about, well…anything. Let them take care of it, they say–“you just write, oh, and market yourself.” It’s led to a pervasive control issue–they control the information. I probably don’t need to explain why a business practice of ignorance of one’s own profession is harmful to authors because (1) it should be apparent, and (2) Scott and Sunyi do it for me. 🙂

I highly recommend this podcast for all authors, whether you’ve written your first novel or 50th.