#91: Student Spotlight: How She Went From First Draft to Landing Her Dream Agent with Jamie Varon
May 9, 2023
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Guest Jamie Varon, an inspiring author, shares her journey from first draft to landing her dream agent. Topics include working with her agent, receiving tough feedback, seeking representation elsewhere, and eventually landing her dream agent. The podcast also delves into turning her book into a movie with a screenwriter, providing insights on writing and seeking representation in the industry.
Believe in your writing and trust your story to overcome self-doubt and seek validation from within.
Navigate critical feedback to refine your writing process and transition from hobbyist to serious writer.
Make empowered decisions aligned with your writing goals, prioritize creative growth, and seek supportive collaborations in the industry.
Deep dives
Building a Successful Book Coaching Business
The episode delves into the intricacies of establishing a successful book coaching business. It highlights the importance of believing in oneself and one's writing, emphasizing the need to push past self-doubt and trust in the value of personal stories. The narrative underscores the significance of celebrating milestones in one's writing journey, regardless of their magnitude. Through insights shared in conversations with industry professionals, including a literary agent and a screenwriter, the episode showcases the journey of overcoming challenges and achieving success in the writing realm.
Navigating Feedback and Publishing Industry Challenges
The podcast episode explores the nuances of handling feedback, especially critical feedback, and its role in refining one's writing process. It discusses the transition from viewing writing as a mere hobby to treating it as a serious business endeavor. Insights are shared regarding the writer's self-belief, focusing on believing in one's work first before seeking external validation. The narrative sheds light on the publishing industry dynamics, illustrating the importance of genre alignment and finding the right fit with literary agents and publishers.
Empowering Decisions Towards Literary Success
The episode delves into the empowering aspects of making decisions aligned with one's writing goals and aspirations. It encourages writers to trust their instincts and foster a collaborative spirit with agents and industry professionals. The importance of recognizing when a partnership is not conducive to creative growth is emphasized, urging writers to prioritize their vision and seek alliances that align with their artistic direction. The episode reinforces the idea of treating writing as a valuable business endeavor, advocating for authors to take ownership of their creative journey and make informed decisions for literary success.
Crafting a Compelling Query Letter
Crafting a strong query letter involves treating it as a marketing document. By understanding the book's brand, personality, and energy, the query letter can stand out from the multitude of submissions in agents' inboxes. The guest emphasized the importance of standing out and viewing the query process as an opportunity for growth and creative challenge.
Embracing Structure and Feedback in Writing
The podcast conversation highlighted the significance of embracing structure, such as genre conventions and query letter frameworks, to enhance creativity and effectiveness in writing. Feedback, although at times challenging, was discussed as essential for storytelling improvement, emphasizing the need to trust credible sources of feedback and maintain a positive perspective on the revision process to enhance the overall quality of the narrative.
In today’s episode, I’m sitting down with Jamie Varon to talk through her incredibly inspiring story of how she went from writing the first draft of her novel to landing her dream agent. Here’s a preview of what’s included:
[04:15] A quick introduction to Jamie Varon (including a timeline of her writing, editing, and publishing journey) as well as a summary of her novel, Main Character Energy [17:45] Jamie describes what it’s like working with her agent—including what it’s like receiving feedback and collaborating with her on changes to the manuscript [30:00] Jamie talks about what it was like to hear some really tough feedback from her literary agent—and how this feedback led Jamie to seek representation elsewhere. Spoiler alert: she ended up landing her dream agent shortly after! [59:30] What it’s like working with a screenwriter to turn her memoir/self-help book, Radically Content, into a movie (plus, our final thoughts on writing)
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