London Writers' Salon

Joanna Penn, bestselling thriller author and creative entrepreneur; Orna Ross, award-winning author and Alliance of Independent Authors founder; and Eleanor Anstruther, novelist and Substack literary creator, explore the indie author path. They discuss owning rights, choosing traditional deals strategically, mastering publishing’s seven processes, marketing without outsourcing too soon, and paying yourself first. Eleanor shares how serialising a finished novel on Substack can build confidence, community, and a distinctive creative ecosystem.

Emma Gannon, Sunday Times bestselling author of Olive and A Creative Compass, explores recovering from burnout through play, trusting creative intuition, and redefining success on her own terms. She shares the messy birth of Table for One, her squirrel-like approach to gathering ideas, the quiet power of everyday creativity, and the realities of self-publishing, ownership, and artistic integrity.

Anthony Anaxagorou, a British-Cypriot poet, publisher, and educator, explores returning to writing, surviving rejection, and escaping the trap of prize culture. He discusses restless creativity, repeated revision, and finding poems through listening. The conversation also tackles poetry’s loaded idea of accessibility, pushing language without losing readers, turning literal experience into layered truth, and building a more inclusive literary community.

Marti Leimbach is a bestselling novelist, Oxford creative-writing teacher, and author of Dying Young, adapted into a Julia Roberts film. She recalls sudden success and returning to the blank page. They explore character-led discovery, revising oversized drafts, protecting a writer’s relationship with the page, turning difficult experiences into fiction, and why self-doubt may signal talent.

Laura Palmer, an editor and publishing executive who helped discover Stieg Larsson, and Jessie Sullivan, a performance-led publishing marketer with £8m in attributed revenue, reveal how Pellerin Books finds the right readers. They explore market research, smarter ad spending, vanity metrics, covers and editing, authentic social media, subscription reading, AI search, and why great writing remains the ultimate marketing strategy.

Lily King, the award-winning novelist behind Euphoria and Writers & Lovers, discusses the emotional arc of a novel, the scenes writers avoid, and finding a stalled book’s missing engine. She explores women and literary ambition, silencing self-criticism, writing from personal experience, notebook-based routines, useful criticism, and the patience required to finish a first novel.

Rachel Mann, a CAA literary agent and former editor who represents fiction and some non-fiction across adult, YA and middle-grade. She discusses what creates a physical, electrifying response to writing. She talks about navigating submissions, managing multiple requests and timing, why cutting often improves prose, and how platform and market realities shape representation.

Daisy Buchanan, award-winning novelist and broadcaster; Gina Beach, disabled poet, essayist and cookbook author; Deepa Paul, Filipina-Indian memoirist. They talk about finishing a book in hour-sized chunks. They explore writing in supportive groups, turning small tasks into big projects, wrestling with procrastination and self-doubt, and learning to take your work less seriously.

Soman Chainani, bestselling fantasy author known for The School for Good and Evil. Natalie Doherty, publisher and acquisitions pro behind award-winning children’s fiction. Jasmine Richards, author-editor and founder of Storymix with 15+ years' experience. They discuss centering the reader from the first thought. They unpack pithy loglines, starting later in the book to hook readers, and pacing to match modern kids’ attention.

Maya C. Popa, Romanian American poet and teacher known for Wound Is the Origin of Wonder, speaks on wonder as the sublime, surviving rejection, and the ruthless craft of revision. Short takes on pruning beloved images, finding a poem’s true entry point, protecting creative life from financial pressure, and building supportive writing communities.