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99 I Am In Print with Sarah & Elane | Co-founders of I Am In Print
467 Plays3 years ago
I Am In Print co-founders, Sarah and Elane are on the show to tell us all about their 1-2-1 agent programs, their upcoming events and what inspired them to start I Am In Print.
Signing up to the Patreon will give you access to the Discord server, where you'll be able to interact directly with Jamie as well as many of the previous agents, authors and editors who have been on the show. You'll also be able to see who the upcoming guests are and put forward questions for Jamie to ask them.
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The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes
Jamie, Melissa and Noami talk about the best and the worst writing tropes!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Right Mentor.
00:00:03
Speaker
If you're a children's writer, you've probably heard of Right Mentor, and if not, do I have a treat for you.
00:00:08
Speaker
Right Mentor is a group of authors and friends who've built a supportive system for fellow storytellers from picture books up to young adult that delivers mentoring programs, courses and conferences and much, much more.
00:00:17
Speaker
Right Mentor has a range of services, but if you stick around until the end of the episode, you can find out how to get an entire month of their premium subscription, the Right Mentor Hub, for free.
00:00:26
Speaker
So I will see you at the end.
00:00:28
Speaker
Now, let's get back to the episode.
00:00:29
Speaker
So
The 'Big Secret' of Publishing Revealed
00:00:30
Speaker
our podcast is called Right and Wrong.
00:00:31
Speaker
Are these your notes?
00:00:33
Speaker
These are your notes about what we're going to say.
00:00:36
Speaker
Anything.
00:00:36
Speaker
It's a short answer.
00:00:38
Speaker
So how many novels did you not finish?
00:00:41
Speaker
Oh my God, so many.
00:00:42
Speaker
It was perfect.
00:00:44
Speaker
What are you talking about?
00:00:45
Speaker
This is not difficult.
00:00:46
Speaker
Ooh, a spicy question.
00:00:49
Speaker
I love it.
00:00:49
Speaker
This is it, guys.
00:00:51
Speaker
The big secret to getting published is you have to write a good book.
00:00:55
Speaker
You had it here first.
00:00:59
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast.
Mission of I Am In Print
00:01:02
Speaker
Today I'm lucky enough to be joined by the co-founders of I Am In Print, Elaine and Sarah.
00:01:09
Speaker
Hi guys, welcome to the show.
00:01:12
Speaker
Hi, thank you.
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much for having us.
00:01:14
Speaker
Thanks for coming on.
00:01:16
Speaker
Let's kick off straight away with I Am In Print.
00:01:19
Speaker
Which one of you does the best elevator pitch?
00:01:24
Speaker
I would say Elaine.
00:01:25
Speaker
Oh, I knew it.
00:01:27
Speaker
I absolutely knew it.
00:01:29
Speaker
It would always be that.
00:01:31
Speaker
So we help writers work towards their dream of becoming published authors through a range of online and in-person services.
00:01:41
Speaker
How was that, Sarah?
00:01:42
Speaker
Did I pass?
00:01:43
Speaker
Very good.
00:01:44
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:46
Speaker
That's our aim, really, just to, you know, give as many people as many opportunities as we can, really.
00:01:54
Speaker
And we've done our best to try and create a platform where people can learn all about writing and publishing and literary agents and everything, really.
00:02:05
Speaker
A community to unite all writers, published and unpublished, and enhance the lines of communication with agents and publishers.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yes, exactly that.
00:02:15
Speaker
Yes, exactly that.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, we're building a writing community around the world.
00:02:19
Speaker
We meet so many amazing people and are privileged to share their stories, not just their stories that they hope to be in print, but their life stories as well.
00:02:30
Speaker
We get to know so many of them who come repeatedly to events that we're running or to have a one-to-one privately with an agent.
00:02:38
Speaker
So it's an honour really to share that journey with them.
00:02:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:43
Speaker
So you mentioned a bit there, events and agent one-to-ones.
00:02:48
Speaker
Is that kind of most of the range?
00:02:52
Speaker
I'm saying it as if that's not very much when that's obviously a lot of things encompassed within that.
00:02:56
Speaker
But that's all the stuff, is it?
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:58
Speaker
Someone asked me recently, do you do this full time?
00:03:02
Speaker
Yes, yes, we do.
00:03:03
Speaker
Because actually, it takes a really long time in publishing.
00:03:06
Speaker
Everything is really slow.
00:03:08
Speaker
People take a long time to get back to you.
00:03:10
Speaker
And not just because that, you know, not because they're being rude or discourteous, but because publishing is so busy.
00:03:17
Speaker
So often you're inviting people to take part in something, agents, authors, publishers.
00:03:22
Speaker
And it does take quite a long time to build a program or put a schedule together.
00:03:27
Speaker
So yes, it's a full time thing for us.
00:03:31
Speaker
So let's start with the agent one-to-ones.
00:03:36
Speaker
I, that seemed to be the thing that was first up on the website when I went through the website.
00:03:41
Speaker
How long have
Origins of Agent One-to-One Sessions
00:03:42
Speaker
you guys been setting up these, uh, one-to-one?
00:03:44
Speaker
We started, I think it was back in 2019.
00:03:49
Speaker
Um, we, I mean, we began I am in print by just interviewing authors, you know, to try and get as much information out of them as possible about how they got published.
00:04:00
Speaker
And we were contacted by someone who was unable to get out of the house because of a disability and was unable to go to writing festivals where you could do agent one-to-ones in person.
00:04:14
Speaker
And they basically said, is there anything you can do to help get these online?
00:04:21
Speaker
And we went away.
00:04:22
Speaker
We kind of looked at different platforms and things and worked out how we could do it.
00:04:25
Speaker
And we had it up and running within about three weeks, I think.
00:04:29
Speaker
And we managed to have
00:04:31
Speaker
I think there were about six agents that we worked with at the beginning, wasn't there?
00:04:34
Speaker
We used to do like one set of six sessions a month.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yes.
00:04:40
Speaker
And gradually it's just grown and grown and we've done like big weekends and now we do do them pretty much every week, don't we?
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, we do.
00:04:49
Speaker
So we began I'm in printing 29, 2018.
00:04:50
Speaker
So that was May, 2018.
00:04:51
Speaker
We had the idea.
00:04:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:56
Speaker
And as Sarah said, the one-to-one started pretty much a year later.
00:05:01
Speaker
So we were broadcasters before we facilitated the one-to-ones.
00:05:06
Speaker
And in 2019, just in that six months from June to December, we started
00:05:13
Speaker
did around 40 to 50 agent one-to-one sessions.
00:05:16
Speaker
And now, you know, we can do that.
00:05:18
Speaker
Well, it does sound a lot, but it isn't really.
00:05:22
Speaker
Now we're doing pretty much that every month.
00:05:25
Speaker
So, and then the quarterly weekends as well, where we can do sort of up to 90 in a weekend where we're working flat out across the weekend.
00:05:34
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:05:37
Speaker
It was quite funny, actually, that we decided to do an agent one-to-one session
00:05:41
Speaker
weekend you know the first one ever because there were a lot of teachers and people that worked in the week that could only make weekend appointments um so we put together a big schedule I can't remember how many we had maybe 16 agents over the from the Friday to the Monday set it all up and we used to do everything by hand back then so we set up the payment system and everything on the website and launched it
00:06:08
Speaker
And I actually went out for a walk, didn't I, Elaine?
00:06:11
Speaker
She went for a walk.
00:06:14
Speaker
She pressed go live manually.
00:06:17
Speaker
And I'm sat there manually replying to people and manually having to take down the slot on the website so that it's no longer showing.
00:06:25
Speaker
And she disappeared, Jamie, for about two hours thinking, oh, well, hardly anyone will buy a ticket.
00:06:30
Speaker
And I'm texting her saying...
00:06:32
Speaker
Can you just come back?
00:06:33
Speaker
Because this is crazy.
00:06:35
Speaker
They sold out so fast that first weekend.
00:06:39
Speaker
It was just totally unexpected.
00:06:41
Speaker
I mean, I had a lovely walk, Jamie.
00:06:42
Speaker
I did.
00:06:44
Speaker
Well, that's wonderful.
00:06:45
Speaker
Your mental health was at an all-time high.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, hers was.
00:06:51
Speaker
But we just never expected that, you know, there would be such a demand for them, to be honest, in the beginning.
00:06:56
Speaker
It was quite a surprise.
00:06:58
Speaker
So we've learned from that experience and now...
00:07:01
Speaker
we've automated
The Value of Agent One-to-Ones for Writers
00:07:02
Speaker
a lot of what we do to make it easier and not so labor intensive for us.
00:07:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:08
Speaker
That's good.
00:07:08
Speaker
That's good.
00:07:08
Speaker
So you're doing them almost weekly now.
00:07:11
Speaker
If, if, um, for, for people wanting to apply, getting an agent one-to-one, what are the steps?
00:07:18
Speaker
What do they need to have prepared to submit, et cetera, et cetera.
00:07:23
Speaker
So, um,
00:07:25
Speaker
It's good to do some research, I guess, first, you know, find out which agent best fits your genre.
00:07:32
Speaker
Look at what authors they represent and, you know, see if it's a good fit for you really and what you've written.
00:07:41
Speaker
We've had a lot of people, you know, we would say to have their manuscript finished.
00:07:48
Speaker
But recently we've had a lot of people request to do the agent one-to-ones that are just at the beginning of their writing.
00:07:54
Speaker
And they just want to chat to an agent just to kind of run their idea past them to see if it would be worth actually spending the time writing the book.
00:08:04
Speaker
So that's happened quite a lot recently.
00:08:08
Speaker
So you don't necessarily have to have your manuscript ready to be able to to do a one to one.
00:08:15
Speaker
A lot of agents have been happy just to have a chat with people about their ideas as well.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker
I mean, I had a one-to-one a long time ago.
00:08:25
Speaker
And whilst I did have a manuscript and it was talked about, to be honest, when I look back at it, the things that I learned from that weren't necessarily to do with my writing.
00:08:35
Speaker
I ended up abandoning that book.
00:08:37
Speaker
or shelving, let's say, never say never, right?
00:08:40
Speaker
But that piece for a while.
00:08:43
Speaker
So I fully understand like just speaking to an agent is such a valuable asset for any writer, no matter what stage they're at in their career.
00:08:51
Speaker
Yes, absolutely.
00:08:52
Speaker
I mean, from a point of view of the market, I think that's the most important
00:08:58
Speaker
probably the most valuable aspect that a writer will get out of it because the market changes so quickly.
00:09:03
Speaker
So years ago, vampires were in, for example, and then after the success of Twilight, they went out and then publishers were no longer wanting to purchase books about vampires.
00:09:12
Speaker
But now that sort of trend is coming back in again.
00:09:15
Speaker
So if you're writing something, it's quite important to know whether that trend is in at that moment, because if you're getting standard rejections on a regular basis, it might just be that the industry isn't ready for that.
00:09:27
Speaker
Now or again, you know, so it's all about timing, I think.
00:09:32
Speaker
And just getting yourself in front of an agent will help with that.
00:09:37
Speaker
It will also help, importantly, with your cover letter.
00:09:40
Speaker
Lots of agents receive up to 100 manuscripts a week to have a look through.
00:09:47
Speaker
And we've been told by agents with the best will in the world, they don't have time to read things in depth.
00:09:53
Speaker
So if your cover letter doesn't look spot on in terms of format, flatter the agent as much as you can.
00:10:01
Speaker
They are human and they do like to know that you've done, as Sarah said, your research on them and that you're putting comparisons in that that will be familiar to them.
00:10:11
Speaker
So make sure that you have your cover letter looking really accurate and an agent can really help with that, which will boost you up their pile of reading in sort of a tremendous way, which you wouldn't get if you didn't get that advice from them.
00:10:25
Speaker
And of course, if you're just sending out blindly to an agency, you're not going to receive that feedback.
00:10:30
Speaker
So sitting in front of them is really valuable, we think.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:36
Speaker
That, I mean, agents are so knowledgeable about the industry.
00:10:38
Speaker
It's so like tied in with their job.
00:10:40
Speaker
So yeah.
00:10:42
Speaker
And, and they're all like you mentioned, they are human and they're all unique people.
00:10:47
Speaker
So the agents that I've had on this podcast,
00:10:50
Speaker
they often approach submissions and writing and how they kind of view manuscripts in a very different way.
00:10:56
Speaker
So it is, as you say, very important to not only research agents in a broad sense, but to actually look at individual agents to craft what would be the best possible cover and submission for that individual agent.
00:11:09
Speaker
Definitely.
00:11:12
Speaker
I mean, there's
00:11:13
Speaker
They're also subjective as well.
00:11:15
Speaker
I mean, like you said, you wrote something and had an agent one-to-one.
00:11:20
Speaker
And that's basically how Elaine and I started.
00:11:22
Speaker
We tried writing a book and we had several one-to-ones before we set up I Am In Print.
00:11:27
Speaker
With mixed reactions, Sarah, it's fair to say.
00:11:31
Speaker
We remember, we used to go to Winchester Writers Festival, as it was, and we went four years in a row, I think, and we took our little middle grade fantasy adventure along, thinking...
00:11:44
Speaker
that we'd written the great thing.
00:11:47
Speaker
And we'd sit in front of an agent.
00:11:49
Speaker
So instead of a one-to-one, we'd have a sort of two-to-one because there was two of us writing, which was quite unusual.
00:11:54
Speaker
And we used to give the organiser, Sarah Gangai, a little bit of a headache probably in that she had to...
00:12:01
Speaker
fit two of us in.
00:12:02
Speaker
But we sit there and you'd sit down in front of an agent and two of them might like it.
00:12:06
Speaker
And then two of them might not at all.
00:12:09
Speaker
And you'd come away completely conflicted.
00:12:13
Speaker
So we always say to people now, just write the book ultimately that you want to write.
00:12:18
Speaker
So take all the industry and the market advice from the agent, because that is, as you said, Jamie, they're at the top of their game.
00:12:25
Speaker
So they know all of that, but it's subjective.
00:12:27
Speaker
And ultimately you want to write and put your best,
00:12:31
Speaker
heart and feelings into your book and to bring the best out of it.
00:12:35
Speaker
So if an agent is telling you to change it from first person to third person, give it a try.
00:12:41
Speaker
But if it doesn't feel right, ultimately go back to where you were with it because another agent might love it that way.
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, true.
00:12:47
Speaker
And a publisher might love it that way.
00:12:49
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:12:50
Speaker
You know, you never know with these things.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:52
Speaker
And I think it's great that Elaine and I have had that experience of doing the one-to-ones ourselves because then we know
00:12:59
Speaker
you know, what it's like to be in that position, to be in front of an agent.
00:13:05
Speaker
I mean, one of the festivals we went to, honestly, we had a first agent one-to-one and,
00:13:13
Speaker
they didn't like the idea at all, basically.
00:13:15
Speaker
And when we, to be polite, when we came out, we couldn't look at each other.
00:13:20
Speaker
We couldn't even look at each other.
00:13:22
Speaker
No, we drove home in absolute stony silence, I remember.
00:13:25
Speaker
And we just put our manuscript away for about three or four weeks and didn't touch it at all.
00:13:32
Speaker
And until we found the confidence to think, okay, well, why don't we try this?
00:13:36
Speaker
And so we picked it up and tried again.
00:13:38
Speaker
And then we sort of found our way back into it.
00:13:40
Speaker
But
00:13:41
Speaker
it's so easy to take something to heart, you know, because you're sitting in front of these people and you're pinning so many hopes on them liking it.
00:13:52
Speaker
And we know exactly what that feels like.
00:13:54
Speaker
So we have a lot of first time people
00:13:56
Speaker
people coming into the room to see an agent and you can tell they're so nervous and they say, Oh, I'm really nervous about meeting with this person.
00:14:04
Speaker
We say, look, as you've said, they're human and you know, they're lovely.
00:14:08
Speaker
Now we are on the other side of the fence.
00:14:10
Speaker
It's easy for us to say, but now we know them in a professional capacity.
00:14:13
Speaker
They are all super lovely, but we know what it's like to sit there in fear.
00:14:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:19
Speaker
And also it's easy to forget that agents can also be nervous a lot of the time when they're meeting authors and being pitched to and being submitted to.
00:14:28
Speaker
Because they don't want to reject people.
00:14:31
Speaker
No, not at all.
00:14:32
Speaker
And in fact, we interviewed, we've interviewed lots of people, but, um,
00:14:36
Speaker
A few agents that we've interviewed have told us that they don't like letting people down when they have to reply to say, thanks for sending in your full manuscript, but actually on reflection, it isn't for me.
00:14:48
Speaker
That pains them.
00:14:49
Speaker
It isn't an easy decision for them to make.
00:14:52
Speaker
And they are willing you on to get the best out of your story.
00:14:56
Speaker
So it's, yeah, sometimes it's not an easy decision for them at all.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yes, indeed.
00:15:03
Speaker
And so for anyone listening, if you are thinking about
00:15:07
Speaker
looking into agent one-to-ones, make sure you do your research.
00:15:10
Speaker
And a lot of the agents that you guys work with have actually been on this podcast.
00:15:14
Speaker
So if anyone listening has heard any of the agents on this podcast, do have a look on the I'm in print website to see if they've popped up.
00:15:23
Speaker
I did see that Diana Beaumont and Lydia Silver are both doing stuff with you guys in January.
00:15:29
Speaker
But I think they're also both booked up.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:32
Speaker
They are.
00:15:32
Speaker
Yeah, they're always very popular.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:35
Speaker
It looks up very quickly.
00:15:37
Speaker
How far in advance do you put up the agents for the months?
00:15:43
Speaker
Usually about three months in advance.
00:15:45
Speaker
So we give people sort of.
00:15:47
Speaker
a good three months and importantly we do let our subscribers know first so we will always be loyal to the people that have chosen to give us their email address in exchange for us sending them information about what's coming up
00:16:03
Speaker
So those people will always find out first.
00:16:06
Speaker
And honestly, they are waiting.
00:16:08
Speaker
I remember we were again, this was back in the manual days.
00:16:12
Speaker
We had to set it going live at 10 o'clock and we promised our audience we were going to make it go live the weekend at 10 o'clock.
00:16:20
Speaker
And there was somebody, we were in a meeting, I think, Sarah, weren't we?
00:16:26
Speaker
And the meeting ran over by a couple of minutes.
00:16:29
Speaker
And we had an email from someone who was in Australia sitting up waiting for us to press go live.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:36
Speaker
It's like trying to get Coldplay tickets sometimes, Jamie.
00:16:38
Speaker
You know, it just goes crazy with certain agents and their slots.
00:16:42
Speaker
Some agents, their slots sell out within half an hour.
00:16:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:16:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:46
Speaker
I have spoken a lot with the team over at RightMentor.
00:16:49
Speaker
And when they do agent one-to-ones, they said it's exactly the same thing.
00:16:53
Speaker
They sell out in minutes.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:56
Speaker
Such a popular phenomenon.
00:16:58
Speaker
It is, I guess, just getting that time with the agent is just so valuable, isn't it?
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:05
Speaker
So that's the agent one-to-ones.
00:17:07
Speaker
Outside of that, you guys also do events.
00:17:11
Speaker
What kind of events are they?
00:17:14
Speaker
What should people expect if they wanted to attend your events?
00:17:17
Speaker
So
Events and Workshops by I Am In Print
00:17:18
Speaker
we began...
00:17:21
Speaker
Back in, I think it was just before lockdown.
00:17:24
Speaker
It was February 2020.
00:17:25
Speaker
Sorry, I thought you were talking about the beginning.
00:17:28
Speaker
We started in, we had the idea in May 2018, but our first broadcast was 2018, wasn't it?
00:17:38
Speaker
And so we were broadcasting to start with before we started the events themselves.
00:17:43
Speaker
Ah, okay.
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:46
Speaker
But we thought we'd have a go at doing a live event
00:17:51
Speaker
picture book writing day so we our first event was back in 2020 just before lockdown in February with David Litchfield the picture book author and Arabella Stein from the Bright Agency and Katie Cotton his publisher as well yeah and and we did a lovely day event up in London and then I think two weeks later or
00:18:15
Speaker
three weeks later the lockdown hit.
00:18:17
Speaker
So yeah, we had had all these plans for all these other, you know, physical events, but we basically had to move everything online.
00:18:26
Speaker
And then we kind of started organising day events like how to get published or how to write romance.
00:18:34
Speaker
Spooky fiction was another one.
00:18:36
Speaker
That was a great day.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:38
Speaker
And yeah, we just, we just kind of contacted authors and agents and publishing professionals and
00:18:45
Speaker
And they all kind of come along and do like an hour slot.
00:18:49
Speaker
And it's all live on screen.
00:18:50
Speaker
So you can see them and you can see us.
00:18:54
Speaker
And people in the chat can ask as many questions as they want.
00:18:58
Speaker
And then there's replays as well.
00:19:00
Speaker
So we've done quite a few of those events, haven't we, Elaine?
00:19:04
Speaker
Yes, we have.
00:19:05
Speaker
And they've been really great fun.
00:19:06
Speaker
I mean, they're not at all stressful, Jamie, as you can imagine, when you're going back to back in a live session on screen.
00:19:14
Speaker
And by the end of it, you're starting to look a little bit red cheeked.
00:19:19
Speaker
But they are a lot of fun.
00:19:20
Speaker
I think the last one that we did online was how to write crime thriller.
00:19:24
Speaker
And we did we interviewed 11 people that day from nine o'clock in the morning until around.
00:19:31
Speaker
I think it was eight o'clock at night.
00:19:33
Speaker
So it was a long, long day, but it was brilliant because we had people from all over the world tuning in to sit in front of these amazing inspirational people.
00:19:41
Speaker
people and learn and quite a few of them stayed with us throughout the day.
00:19:46
Speaker
You kept seeing their names popping up in the chat, which was lovely.
00:19:50
Speaker
So yeah, it's a lot of fun.
00:19:52
Speaker
And then we were asked in, I think it was November, so about a year ago, November, 2021, we were approached by the aforementioned Sarah Gangai, who was previously organising the Winchester Writers' Festival
00:20:09
Speaker
And she was stepping down and asked if we would like to take it over.
00:20:15
Speaker
So we thought, how difficult can this really be?
00:20:20
Speaker
And we decided after a couple of meetings that we'd give it a go and we took it over.
00:20:27
Speaker
And it was a lot more difficult than we could ever possibly have imagined.
00:20:33
Speaker
But we ran the event in June this year.
00:20:37
Speaker
And after we'd taken some time in a dark room to recover, we thought, yeah, that wasn't too bad after all, was it?
00:20:45
Speaker
It was a bit of a success.
00:20:46
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:20:47
Speaker
It was quite funny, actually, wasn't it?
00:20:49
Speaker
That Elaine was actually, I think you were at Wookiee Hole, weren't you?
00:20:52
Speaker
Or the Cheddar Caves or something.
00:20:54
Speaker
That's right.
00:20:54
Speaker
I thought the Cheddar Caves inside a cave.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, when we got the original email and I'm desperately trying to get hold of Elaine to say, you know, do you think we can actually do this?
00:21:07
Speaker
So, yeah, it's quite funny how these things happen.
00:21:10
Speaker
But it was an amazing event.
00:21:12
Speaker
You know, it was so much fun on the day and just to meet everyone and all the lovely authors and workshop posts that came.
00:21:20
Speaker
It was just, it was brilliant.
00:21:22
Speaker
I mean, we were totally exhausted afterwards.
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, we were.
00:21:26
Speaker
I can imagine.
00:21:26
Speaker
It was.
00:21:27
Speaker
It was a very stressful time.
00:21:28
Speaker
Well, the thing is, and I think this is, people don't realise this necessarily, but when you're running something like that, there are so many things you have to learn.
00:21:37
Speaker
And we had to learn everything really quickly.
00:21:39
Speaker
We had two months to learn a whole host of platforms that we'd never used before in terms of how we take people's bookings and
00:21:49
Speaker
and how we facilitate competitions and manage those.
00:21:52
Speaker
There was all sorts of things.
00:21:54
Speaker
And we only had two months to learn them.
00:21:55
Speaker
And then we had two months to sell tickets, which was not long at all.
00:21:59
Speaker
So we were quite pleased in the end that even a few people turned up.
00:22:04
Speaker
We couldn't believe that we had quite a lot of people come and have a lovely time and that the agents and authors were
00:22:14
Speaker
said yes, that they'd come along.
00:22:16
Speaker
So, yeah, that's always a lovely experience.
00:22:20
Speaker
Well, I'm glad you guys survived your trial by far.
00:22:22
Speaker
We did.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:24
Speaker
We did a virtual festival as part of it as well.
00:22:27
Speaker
And with hindsight, we just, everything was too close together, wasn't it?
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:33
Speaker
Possibly if we, you know, had replicated it in the future, we would have spaced it out a bit more, I think.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:41
Speaker
Yeah.
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
00:22:42
Speaker
And you've got any events coming up?
00:22:44
Speaker
Ooh, now there's the question.
00:22:50
Speaker
We may have just secured some dates.
00:22:55
Speaker
We asked our audience on our social platforms about cities around the country, that they'd like to see an I Am In Print event taking place.
00:23:05
Speaker
And we've listened to the responses and said,
00:23:08
Speaker
We will be announcing that we are hosting another I Am Writing Festival in Bristol in May.
00:23:18
Speaker
So that will be happening.
00:23:19
Speaker
And there may be another event happening later in the year in the Midlands yet to be confirmed.
00:23:28
Speaker
So, yeah, we decided that we, instead of just doing one, Jamie, why not do two, we thought.
00:23:33
Speaker
So that's what we're going to do next year.
00:23:36
Speaker
So we'll start with Bristol in May and see how we get on.
00:23:39
Speaker
Okay, great.
00:23:40
Speaker
Well, that's really exciting.
00:23:41
Speaker
Good to see that you guys are officially out of lockdown and ready to start doing big events again.
00:23:47
Speaker
Yes, we are.
00:23:48
Speaker
We've got the 19th and the 20th of May secured.
00:23:51
Speaker
So hopefully we've done our best to make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else, but it's really hard actually to find a date in the year that, you know, hasn't got so much other things going on.
00:24:05
Speaker
And yeah, people will be able to buy a day ticket or
00:24:08
Speaker
a two day ticket and we hope that there will be lots of agent one-to-ones in person available as well.
00:24:17
Speaker
Amazing.
00:24:18
Speaker
That sounds great.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:19
Speaker
Keynote speakers and workshops and different things going on.
00:24:23
Speaker
Awesome.
00:24:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:25
Speaker
Cool.
00:24:25
Speaker
So outside that, that's, you know, a lot of the stuff that you guys do, it's all really great stuff.
00:24:30
Speaker
The one-to-ones, the events you guys have known each other since you were very young back in the school days.
00:24:37
Speaker
Yes.
00:24:38
Speaker
Since termed hair was in actually a long time ago.
00:24:45
Speaker
And was it, it was around 2014 that you started, you decided to co-write a book together?
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think it must have been.
00:24:55
Speaker
I had a young, yeah, I had, my son must have been about two then.
00:24:59
Speaker
And Elaine, you probably just had your son, didn't you?
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think I was probably pregnant at the time.
00:25:04
Speaker
And Sarah came up with this fantastic idea to keep us connected because she was living in New Zealand, that we should write a book together.
00:25:15
Speaker
Just for our sanity, really, because you do lose your mind a little bit when you when you've got all these maternal hormones flying around.
00:25:22
Speaker
So we started to write and we used a cloud platform to host what we were writing.
00:25:31
Speaker
And it was it was fun, wasn't it?
00:25:33
Speaker
We used to look forward to going and logging in.
00:25:36
Speaker
Yeah, because of the time difference, I would log in, do some writing, send it off to Elaine.
00:25:41
Speaker
And then when Elaine woke up, she would get it.
00:25:44
Speaker
Oh, great.
00:25:45
Speaker
And then she'd send it back to me so that when I woke up again, there'd be some more there.
00:25:49
Speaker
Just in constant rotation.
00:25:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:52
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:25:53
Speaker
So what's happening with that now?
00:25:56
Speaker
What's happening with both of your writings?
00:25:58
Speaker
Absolutely nothing.
00:26:01
Speaker
The reason being that we don't have the time.
00:26:05
Speaker
As well as all the physical events, we're actually about to launch an online membership because online is where we started.
Launching Online Membership Program
00:26:12
Speaker
So as much as we love to get out and meet people, those events are the best place to go and learn and meet your writing tribe.
00:26:20
Speaker
100% always.
00:26:22
Speaker
It's going to be a physical event.
00:26:23
Speaker
But we are conscious that there are people around the world who can't get to these events that are happening in cities in the UK.
00:26:30
Speaker
There are people, as we mentioned earlier, that perhaps have a disability or are on really low income.
00:26:36
Speaker
They can't travel.
00:26:37
Speaker
So we want to make this as accessible as we can.
00:26:40
Speaker
So we are going to be launching a membership programme which will spark off in the new year, January 2023.
00:26:50
Speaker
Amazing, you guys have lots in the work.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yes, yes, so lots of content there so people can log in at different times of the day and take part in a live session.
00:27:01
Speaker
We've got Ask the Agent sessions lined up, pitch parties, authors coming to give talks on how to build a website or how to run.
00:27:10
Speaker
to build your world in your book or how to write an opening chapter, all sorts of amazing people who've again said, yes, we can't believe our luck, but we're going to be working with them quite regularly to hold these online sessions and people will be able to watch them throughout the month on a replay.
00:27:31
Speaker
And, yeah, just take part, get involved.
00:27:33
Speaker
There'll be a writing community as well online so people can chat to each other and share their writing experiences and critique each other's work as well.
00:27:42
Speaker
It's important as a writer, as you know, that you have to have a group around you that's supportive and keeps you going.
00:27:50
Speaker
Indeed, it is extremely important.
00:27:53
Speaker
But I mean, all sounds great.
00:27:55
Speaker
You guys are doing really great stuff and providing such a great community and support system for writers.
00:28:02
Speaker
I'm only a little bit sad that you guys are so ingrained in publishing now and you're not writing, you're not having the time to write anymore.
00:28:10
Speaker
I know.
00:28:10
Speaker
Do you know those characters tap me on the shoulder every so often?
00:28:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:14
Speaker
Excuse me, remember us.
00:28:16
Speaker
you've left us down a hole yeah honestly they really we we do say to each other fairly often we need to get back to that world that we've created and chat to those characters again because they they did used to make us laugh didn't they yeah and that that must be the reason that you guys started this whole project in the first place yes um
00:28:38
Speaker
I mean, to be honest, we had plans to set up a virtual admin company.
00:28:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:44
Speaker
Um, and we went to a exhibition in London just to kind of try and meet some contacts and things.
00:28:51
Speaker
And it was all about videos, video content, video content, video content.
00:28:57
Speaker
And that's kind of how the idea came to us.
00:28:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:00
Speaker
We came home on the train thinking, Oh my God, we should do, you know, author events online.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:07
Speaker
Um,
00:29:08
Speaker
And that's where the idea came from, really.
00:29:10
Speaker
And then it was a big decision whether to we went to the Winchester Writing Festival and had some one to ones with agents.
00:29:18
Speaker
And we did have a couple of full manuscript requests, but we knew the book wasn't ready.
00:29:23
Speaker
So we we had to go away and make the tough decision.
00:29:27
Speaker
Do we carry on with the book?
00:29:29
Speaker
Or do we focus on setting this business up?
00:29:33
Speaker
And that's what we did.
00:29:35
Speaker
We set the business up and that's why the book is in a drawer.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yes.
00:29:39
Speaker
The poor book.
00:29:39
Speaker
One day.
00:29:40
Speaker
One day.
00:29:41
Speaker
One day we'll see it.
00:29:42
Speaker
Yeah, we hope so.
00:29:44
Speaker
It is fun.
00:29:45
Speaker
I mean, it's a little bit wacky, but then that's kind of a little bit of our style, I think, there.
00:29:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
I mean, that's big in MG, right?
00:29:54
Speaker
We love wacky stuff.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:58
Speaker
Amazing.
00:29:58
Speaker
Well, that brings us to what is always the final question of each episode.
00:30:03
Speaker
And we'll go one at a time here.
00:30:05
Speaker
So starting with Elaine, if you were stranded on a desert island with a single book, which book would you take?
00:30:15
Speaker
This is such, I'm sure you hear this every time you ask it, this is such a difficult question to answer because there are so many genres that I read.
00:30:26
Speaker
So I'll turn to non-fiction if I want a little bit of a mental health boost or a
00:30:32
Speaker
a kick to say come on get on with things or I'll turn to a piece of literary fiction for beautiful writing that I can immerse myself in um it's just really difficult or children's picture books I loved reading those with my son um I think though I'm going to have to say a book that really impacted me and it was a book that was written by an author called Mitch Albom
00:30:57
Speaker
an American writer.
00:31:00
Speaker
And he wrote a book called The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
00:31:03
Speaker
And I was at university.
00:31:07
Speaker
I was about 35.
00:31:08
Speaker
I think I was a bit of a late developer.
00:31:10
Speaker
I went to university in my 30s.
00:31:13
Speaker
And I decided that I'd read this book that was recommended to me.
00:31:19
Speaker
And it was just one of the most beautiful books
00:31:22
Speaker
pieces of writing that I'd read.
00:31:24
Speaker
So yeah, I found it really a fantastic sort of escape, if you like.
00:31:32
Speaker
It was about someone that passes away and then is shown five people whose lives they've impacted during their own life.
00:31:42
Speaker
And it just really made me think about
00:31:45
Speaker
how we impact people around us, even with a single sentence or with a glance and how we can be different, how we can perhaps be kinder in life, how we can have more of an impact on others with just little nuances or kind gestures that we do.
00:32:04
Speaker
And so I would think I would take that one because it's an enjoyable read, but it's also a thought-provoking one too.
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah, what a lovely concept.
00:32:13
Speaker
It's very uplifting.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah, it really is.
00:32:15
Speaker
It really is.
00:32:17
Speaker
And what about you, Sarah?
00:32:18
Speaker
Which book would you take?
00:32:20
Speaker
So I guess I tend to read more non-fiction than fiction.
00:32:25
Speaker
I mean, obviously, when we interview authors and things like that, then I'll read their books.
00:32:30
Speaker
And it's often the saying, isn't it, that the best book that you've ever read is the one that you've just read.
00:32:34
Speaker
Sometimes.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker
But yeah.
00:32:40
Speaker
I think a book that I constantly go back to because I think I haven't grasped it yet is The Secret from Rhonda Byrne, I think you say her surname.
00:32:54
Speaker
And it's all about, you know, the law of attraction and your thoughts create your reality.
00:32:59
Speaker
And I read this book when it first came out.
00:33:02
Speaker
I don't know how popular it was over here in England, because I think I was living in New Zealand at the time, but it was massive over there.
00:33:09
Speaker
And it's a,
00:33:10
Speaker
kind of like a film, a documentary as well.
00:33:13
Speaker
And then I forgot about it.
00:33:16
Speaker
And it was actually when we went to the business expo, when we first were going to set up I Am In Print, that there was a speaker there that actually mentioned the secret again.
00:33:28
Speaker
And honestly, it was just like a light bulb moment.
00:33:31
Speaker
And I thought, oh, my God, yes, I need to read that book again.
00:33:37
Speaker
So it's just a book that you can dip in and out of and
00:33:40
Speaker
and try and refresh your memory about how to try your best to think positive thoughts and to notice when you think negatively and to try and push those negative thoughts to the side and just concentrate on everything that you're grateful for.
00:33:58
Speaker
That sounds great.
00:33:59
Speaker
You two are going to be on Ireland with the greatest mental health and just meditative atmosphere, I think, of anyone.
00:34:05
Speaker
Yeah,
Mental Health and Writing
00:34:06
Speaker
I think after the festival this year, we did go through a bit of a dip, I suppose.
00:34:13
Speaker
We were exhausted and we've both taken some time listening to some great podcasts and reading some great books and
00:34:22
Speaker
I think as writers, this is great advice that we've been given by different agents and so on, but you just need to look after yourself as a writer.
00:34:31
Speaker
You get so much rejection.
00:34:33
Speaker
You're often working on your own.
00:34:34
Speaker
We work, all right, we have meetings pretty much every day on screen, but we're working in isolation for the most part of the day.
00:34:44
Speaker
um it's important to to look after yourself to look after your mental and your physical health we've both joined the gym recently that has really helped our endorphins tremendously um or sarah goes for a walk obviously when it's busy um but when it's busiest when it's busiest yeah exactly when we launch the online program that's where she'll be on a walk
00:35:09
Speaker
So, yeah, we're both really very much into addressing our work-life balance.
00:35:15
Speaker
And we don't always get it right.
00:35:16
Speaker
We've got children.
00:35:17
Speaker
You know, we're trying to do all the things.
00:35:19
Speaker
But we're trying, I think, to keep ourselves in check and keep ourselves on track.
00:35:26
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:35:27
Speaker
And the great thing about being us, you know, and having our friendship is we can keep each other going, you know.
00:35:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:34
Speaker
If somebody's having a bad day, hopefully we can do our best to,
00:35:38
Speaker
to try and help and yeah we motivate each other you know we keep each other um going on a daily basis I think so too although Jamie she does usually tell people that she's been trying to get rid of me since we were 11 when we were forced to sit next to each other in a classroom but um yeah on the whole on the honestly honestly Jamie she she would not stop talking I'm like who is this girl I'm
00:36:04
Speaker
You just gave up at a certain point.
00:36:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:09
Speaker
Amazing.
00:36:09
Speaker
Well, great, great choices and great advice.
00:36:11
Speaker
Look after yourselves, all writers out there and just life advice, really look after yourself.
00:36:17
Speaker
Thank you so much guys for coming on the podcast and telling us all about the two of you and also I'm in print and everything that's going on there.
00:36:25
Speaker
It sounds really exciting.
00:36:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for asking us.
00:36:29
Speaker
It's really interesting to be on the other side of the table, I can tell you that.
00:36:34
Speaker
Now we know what it's like to be interviewed as well.
00:36:37
Speaker
It's so tempting to ask you lots of questions, Jamie.
00:36:42
Speaker
I'll end the episode as soon as you ask me.
00:36:45
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:36:47
Speaker
You are so welcome.
00:36:47
Speaker
If anyone would like to keep up with everything that's going on with Sarah and Elaine, you can follow I Am In Print on all socials at I Am In Print or head over to the website for the more detailed breakdowns of everything that's going on, iminprint.co.uk.
00:37:03
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss an episode of this podcast, follow us on Twitter at RightAndWrongUK or on Instagram and TikTok at RightAndWrongPodcast.
00:37:10
Speaker
Thanks again to Elaine and Sarah and thanks to everyone listening.
00:37:13
Speaker
We'll catch you on the next episode.
00:37:17
Speaker
Thanks for hanging around till the end.
00:37:19
Speaker
Now, let me tell you about Write Mentors Hub.
00:37:21
Speaker
A subscription to Write Mentors Hub gives you access to an online community where children's writers at any stage of their writing and publishing journeys can interact, share advice, offer support, develop craft and advance their careers.
00:37:31
Speaker
From craft talks to TikTok strategies, a shoulder to cry on while querying agents or marketing advice for your soon to be published debut, there's something for everyone.
00:37:39
Speaker
Every day is a writing day for hub members with an ever-growing range of initiatives like critique groups, workshops, pitching events, writing sprints, Q&As, and many, many more.
00:37:47
Speaker
The hub is constantly expanding, so go and check out the WriteMentor website for the full and up-to-date list of member-only benefits.
00:37:54
Speaker
You can get your first month completely free if you enter the coupon code RIGHTANDWRONG at the online checkout.
00:37:59
Speaker
That's W-R-I-T-E, the and symbol, W-R-O-N-G, at checkout for your first month free.
00:38:06
Speaker
So go join the Hub, Write Mentor's supportive community of storytellers, because writing can be lonely, but it doesn't need to be.