Secrets from the Green Room

Irma and Karen chat about how organised (or disorganised!) they are with their writing. Then Irma chats to booksellers Katarina Pearson (Harry Hartog), Alison Page (Dymocks) and Peter Arnaudo (The Book Cow) about how to get friendly with booksellers – what to do (when and how) and what not to do, how long you can expect your book to stay on the shelves, how sales and returns work, the important role of sales reps and how they impact book selection, why relationships with local authors are key, when and how to sign books, how to organise events with bookshops, nightmare experiences with authors (and amazing ones too!), and the bizarre things that have happened in their stores. About KatarinaKatarina Pearson helped develop and subsequently owned Electric Shadows Bookshop over 25 years. Since March 2019, Katarina has been Literary Events Coordinator for Harry Hartog Bookshop at the Australian National University and is on the Board of the ACT Writers Centre.About PeterPeter Arnaudo established the Book Cow Bookshop in Kingston, Canberra in December 2020 and it’s his first bookshop. Prior to that he was a senior public servant for 25 years. About AllisonAllison Kay and her husband Richard bought Dymocks, Canberra 19 years ago. It was their first bookshop and they worked as a team to make it a huge success. They have just retired from the business.

In a special series direct from the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Irma chats with Natasha Lester about how utter despair before an award ceremony preceded the best moment of her life, the lightbulb moment that changed the course of her career, the rewards of constructive sulking after rejection, how a fraught editing process almost destroyed her current book, how she manages three books at a time in different stages of writing, editing and promoting, the high of hitting the New York Times bestseller list, and why the Muse doesn’t actually exist.About NatashaNatasha Lester is a New York Times bestselling author of ten novels who lives in Perth. Her books have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world. She is also former marketing executive for L’Oreal and has a love of vintage fashion. The Age newspaper has described her as a ‘remarkable Australian talent’. And we’re very fortunate to have her on the podcast today. 

In a special series direct from the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Irma chats with Craig Silvey about the author school visit as a child that changed his life, the careful considerations around writing characters from marginalised communities, why he thinks writing to word counts is unhelpful, how writing is like an illness, the hardest manuscript he had to abandon, and the most frightening library display of his book.About CraigCraig Silvey is an author and screenwriter from Fremantle, Western Australia. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Rhubarb, was published in 2004. His bestselling second novel, Jasper Jones, was released in 2009 and is considered a modern Australian classic. Published in over a dozen territories, Jasper Jones has won plaudits in three continents, including an International Dublin Literary Award shortlisting, a Michael J. Printz Award Honor, and a Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlisting. Jasper Jones was the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year for 2010. Honeybee, his latest novel, won the Fiction prize at the 2021 Indie Book Awards and was shortlisted for the 2021 Literary fiction book of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. 

In a special series direct from the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Irma chats with siblings Rhett and Brooke Davis about what it’s like sharing the world of publishing with a sibling, their very different paths to becoming published authors, the downsides of a worldwide tour when your book is a smash hit, the childhood books that shaped them and are now echoed in their writing, how grief led to them both publishing novels, the pressure of writing a second novel when your debut has been an international bestseller, seeing famous writers in the green room and realising how petrified they are, and horrifying realisations gleaned from diary writing.About Brooke and RhettBrooke Davis is author of the internationally bestselling novel Lost and Found which sold into 25 countries. And Rhett Davis won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2020 for his novel, Hovering. Rhett and Brooke grew up in Bellbrae, Victoria, but Brooke now lives in Perth and Rhett in Geelong. 

In a special series direct from the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Irma talks to Claire G. Coleman about how poetry influences her non-fiction style, the downsides of book touring, how she deals with Twitter trolls, the complications of working with two publishers, her love-hate relationship with the editing process, and how she responds to criticisms that she’s ‘not blak enough’.About ClaireClaire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. Her debut novel, Terra Nullius, won a Black&Write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship and a Norma K. Hemming Award. Her latest book is a non-fiction work, Lies, Damned Lies. She also writes poetry, short fiction and essays, and lives mostly in Naarm (Melbourne). 

Craig and Irma unpack the role Amazon plays in the book world. Then Irma chats with Ultimo Press publisher Robert Watkins about why diverse publishing is so important to him, how to nab an editorial job, the way that authors should own the publicity stage and be proud, what makes him want to publish a manuscript, what good sales mean in terms of hard numbers, the impact of Covid on the publishing landscape, and a case of mistaken identity in the green room.About RobertPublishing Director of Ultimo Press, Robert Watkins, has over 20 years’ experience in the Australian book industry having worked in book retail, sales, marketing, publicity, publishing and most recently as Head of Literary at Hachette Australia. His love for a good story well told has led to publishing some of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary authors, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Claire G. Coleman, Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Sarah Schmidt and Peter Polites, to name just a few. 

Craig and Irma talk about books that have wowed them. Then Tony Birch chats to Irma about the sensitivity around fictionalising family, the importance of First Nations writing, who has the right to tell certain stories, the problems with teaching writing at university, the rejections that have really stung, the time his mum threatened a radio host, and the famous writers who have snubbed him in green rooms.About TonyTony Birch is an author of three novels, four collections of short stories and two collections of poetry – which have won or been shortlisted for many of Australia’s most prestigious literary awards – including winning the Indigenous Writers Award for both the NSW and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. He was head of the Honours program for creative writing at the University of Melbourne before becoming the first recipient of the Dr Bruce McGuinness Indigenous Research Fellowship at Victoria University in 2015. In 2017, he became the first First Nations writer to win the Patrick White Award, and his most recent book is Dark as Last Night, a collection of short stories.

Sulari Gentill, a Sri Lankan-born author and former lawyer turned writer, dives into her journey from astrophysics to crafting the Rowland Sinclair mystery series. She discusses the challenges of writing in chaotic environments, her surprising experience at an awards ceremony, and how historical themes relate to today's societal issues. Sulari also shares insights on the pros and cons of the profit-sharing model in publishing and amusingly recalls a memorable encounter with Tanya Plibersek at a writers festival.

Irma and Craig discuss inspirational quotes.Then Craig chats to writing couple Cat Sparks and Rob Hood about whether there’s competition in a relationship when you’re both writers, how your book can be a sausage in the sausage factory, how hard it is as an editor to get what you want from a slush pile (because authors don’t read the freaking guidelines!). Also, the benefits of being published by small presses and having a supportive writing community, what constitutes a good writing day versus a bad writing day, and snobby big name authors in the green room!About CatCat Sparks is a writer of speculative fiction as well as an editor, graphic designer and photographer. She has run Agog! Press, an Australian independent press that produced ten anthologies of new speculative fiction from 2002–2008. She has won several Ditmar Awards and Aurealis awards for excellence in speculative fiction, and has published a bajillion short stories, two collections of her own work and a novel, Lotus Blue.About RobertRobert Hood is one of Australia's leading horror writers although his work often crosses genre into science fiction, fantasy and crime. He has published five young adult novels, four collections of his short fiction, an adult fantasy novel, fifteen children's books and over 120 short stories in anthologies and magazines. He has also co-edited many anthologies of horror and crime. He has won seven Ditmars and been nominated for six Aurealis Awards.

Irma and Craig talk about the differences in typing and handwriting work.Then they both speak to Nigel Featherstone about how he always feels like an outsider, why it shits him that writing isn’t considered real work, how Tony Abbott was the unlikely inspiration for his novel Bodies of Men, the strange benefits of interviewing his characters, why he is an obsessive re-drafter, the experience of a writing nervous breakdown and the moment his agent thought he literally died on the phone to her.About NigelNigel Featherstone is a Goulburn-based writer. His work includes novels, novellas, short stories, essays, memoirs, plays and even a libretto! His awards include being longlisted for the 2020 ARA Historical Novel Prize, short-listed for the 2020 ACT Book of the Year award, shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards and a 2020 Canberra Critics Circle Award. His novels include the highly-praised Bodies of Men, and his latest novel is My Heart is Wild Little Thing.