First Cup of Coffee – April 6, 2026

A story about putting your work out in the world and how that can further your writing career, along with a few cautions in that direction. Also, how traditionally published authors aren't a monolith and the Jack Williamson Lectureship!

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Transcript

00:01.27
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy, also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:16.50
Jeffe Kennedy
Fantastic. ah Today is Monday. i had to think about it for a second. April 6th, 2026. I appreciate the feedback from you all on.

00:28.95
Jeffe Kennedy
Actually, it was like non-feedback from you all on a whether you care if I do Monday or Tuesday. The overwhelming ah response was you don't care, ah which is that's great for me, frankly.

00:44.57
Jeffe Kennedy
I love that for us.

00:49.05
Jeffe Kennedy
but So, yeah, I think I'm going to try to do Mondays unless I can't, in which case I'll do Tuesdays and then definitely Fridays. ah But um maybe not this Friday because I am off to the Jack Williamson Lectureship at the end of the week down at fabulous Eastern New Mexico University, which I only realized recently that the acronym is ENM.

01:16.57
Jeffe Kennedy
e n m university So it's like if they don't have classes on ethical non-monogamy, what are they even doing?

01:29.62
Jeffe Kennedy
ah of Jack Williamson Lectureship but Honors. Jack Williamson, obviously, who was a famous science fiction author, SFWA Grandmaster, coined many, many ah terms, science fiction terms that we use today.

01:51.81
Jeffe Kennedy
It's always fun because a lot of great people are there. It's a terrific concentration of really wonderful science fiction fantasy writers. um Connie Willis will be there. I think this year's guest of honor special guest is Ursula Vernon.

02:09.11
Jeffe Kennedy
Also writes as T. Kingfisher for her adult books. um And i don't know. offhand who else is going to be there. Oh, I probably do, but I do and I don't.

02:22.74
Jeffe Kennedy
ah I think I'm on a couple of panels. ah Dave Sweeten, professor at ENMU, not of ethical non monogamy. ah He organizes the thing coordinates

02:39.35
Jeffe Kennedy
And ah the wonderful John Ahjudah Barr has offered for me to record the podcast in their podcasting studio there, oh which I did two years ago with Kelly Robson. I didn't go last year because of Apollycon.

02:56.06
Jeffe Kennedy
It was on the same weekend. So this year I can go and I won't have Kelly with me, alas, but maybe I'll record the podcast at the studio. We'll see. um i don't know if I ever mentioned it when we did this two years ago, but John had arranged for us to have cameras also, but he had them like down on the table and Kelly and I took one look at those and we were like,

03:27.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Sorry, you know, vanity, whatever. ah is We are two women who um the under bosom, under double chin camera view was just like, no. if If you all ever want to blackmail me, you can get out that um video portion of the podcast. But John promised this time, having remembered this, that he would do a better camera angle.

03:58.46
Jeffe Kennedy
The thing is, is I was kind of thinking about staying in my hotel room and writing on the book until I was kind of needed, needed being in um quotation marks. But there's a guest of honor reading that morning.

04:15.62
Jeffe Kennedy
There's like an academic panel. That's not my not my bag, baby. I did academia for enough time. I don't need to do more of that.

04:27.19
Jeffe Kennedy
Then um Ursula is reading um and I'm getting choked up about it. Our pollen is so bad here, people. It's um these are allergies going. Even people who don't normally get allergies are complaining. My yoga teacher complained about it.

04:45.72
Jeffe Kennedy
um Yeah. So the thing is, is I've heard Ursula read before. um And I, so I'll let you in on a dirty secret of mine. I may have mentioned this before. I don't often mention it, but I, I'm not sure. I may have said this before this, but I don't actually like listening to people read.

05:10.62
Jeffe Kennedy
And I think this must be a me thing. I'm discovering that I'm weird with auditory stuff. um Late in life for me to be figuring this out, but I'm weird about how I listen to things.

05:25.78
Jeffe Kennedy
And I don't like listening to people read, even when they're a good reader. But I don't like audiobooks either. So I think these things are tied together. I like listening to someone read to me, which is a rare treat and very special. But... um Maybe that's different. I don't know.

05:47.29
Jeffe Kennedy
And I know that ah there's a whole thing with some authors are good readers and many are not. Most are not. um And that plays in. But ah I don't know. I don't know what my problem is. The thing is, is I don't necessarily want to listen to Ursula read and she will not care.

06:07.32
Jeffe Kennedy
So the first thing I have is a luncheon that starts at let's just see. it's a pretty leisurely schedule. Um, and so I have things I'll go down there Thursday midday. There's a couple of things Thursday evening, but then, um, the keynote luncheon is at 1130 and I'll go to that cause I, I will be interested in her keynote speech.

06:33.46
Jeffe Kennedy
Different thing. I don't know. ah I like listening to speeches. i like listening to keynote speeches. i don't like listening to people read from their books.

06:47.04
Jeffe Kennedy
What is that? I don't know. Okay. um And then, um yeah, then I don't have anything until three, ah which is then a steady stream of panels for several hours. So I would have time later to go back to my hotel and work on the book. So maybe that's what ill I will do.

07:09.21
Jeffe Kennedy
or find a nice spot on campus to sit and work. Um, as I recall, a couple of years ago, Dave Sweeten offered me like an office space. Maybe I will request that that might be a good solution to all of this. I'm so glad we had this chat.

07:27.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, yeah. And then I'm going to be hanging out with Dorinda on Saturday night and Sunday. So it'll be good to spend some time with her, my lovey.

07:39.77
Jeffe Kennedy
Saturday morning there is a traditionally a workshop and i I saw it's on there. Connie Willis gives a workshop and it's really fun because it's almost like a um what does she call it like a mastermind class or crowdsourcing because there's so many great authors in the room that she like calls on all of us to contribute to the the teaching and I always end up learning something really interesting and cool.

08:07.03
Jeffe Kennedy
So, and then we have lunch. ah This is more detailed than you need. But it's it's actually, um some things are more fun for the authors than others. And this is a definitely fun for the authors thing.

08:24.50
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, maybe I will do the podcast with John on on a Friday morning. In fact, John listens to this podcast. Let's just do it, John. Let's just plan on it. And then I'll work in working on the book at other points during the day. How's that? All right.

08:40.15
Jeffe Kennedy
And we're going to do the good camera angle. I will um plan my outfit accordingly. We should see if someone wants to come do the podcast with us.

08:51.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe I'll look and see. Maybe Dorinda will. Anyway, I'm just bouncing around now.

08:59.61
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay, um speaking of audiobooks, I don't think I mentioned, listened to the audiobook narrator auditions for Among the Thorns. There's going to be three three different narrators for the three different points of view, and I am so excited. ah It was much easier for the me this time. I had very strong opinions, and And i'm I'm very excited. So, um and interestingly differed from Agent Sarah. and We were trying to decide if it was because of her cold meds or if, I don't know. I think I'm getting better at listening to auditions. So many things are acquired skills, right? You don't realize that you don't know how to do these things, um i guess, until you don't know how to do it, until you're like, how am I supposed to decide? But then you get better at it.

09:56.73
Jeffe Kennedy
So a story I wanted to tell you all. um I actually even um jotted it down on my phone because it occurred to me to talk about this. I'm not sure if I have before going on nine years of this or ah actually not just going on nine years of this podcast.

10:16.76
Jeffe Kennedy
I guess it is going on. I had to look it up. And my very first episode was on July 5th, 2018. Isn't that funny? And I was doing it like four days a week back then.

10:33.75
Jeffe Kennedy
So we should have the 10-year anniversary would definitely be. Well, it's weird, isn't it, right? Because it's like the weird year wrap thing. This is the ninth season. 10th season will be next year or so, but then it'll be like a 10-year anniversary in 2028. So who knows? I can't even.

10:58.17
Jeffe Kennedy
and But we should start doing like a special July 5th episode. I don't know what we would do, but...

11:07.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, I did want to, um I got off on that tangent because I was saying, you know, after all these years of doing this, I have like the ah the old granny sitting on the porch in her rocking chair. i don't remember what stories. I've already told you.

11:22.04
Jeffe Kennedy
But something made me think about this. um When I started working with Agent Sarah, which was...

11:36.60
Jeffe Kennedy
um, ah a long time ago now too, which was probably around 2017 or so. Um,

11:47.99
Jeffe Kennedy
when she was Grace Draven's agent and I had actually helped, uh, Grace and Sarah connect. I'm trying to I'm I'm thinking because I don't want to go into that whole story, though. If people want to hear it, let me know if you haven't. um Basically, Sarah says that I interviewed her for Grace at the RWA conference in I think was Anaheim. And when I protested that I did not interview her, ah Sarah said, Jeffe, you totally interviewed me.

12:22.17
Jeffe Kennedy
ah let sorry. Uh, but you know, in the service of a friend and grace had asked me to, she wasn't there. I'll tell you that. I know I've told that story anyway.

12:34.87
Jeffe Kennedy
Later, i think that was before started working with her, obviously, um but because I had a different agent. And so when I decided to leave my second agent and I was sort of casting about, I asked Sarah if she would be interested in representing me because I really liked... um Well, I liked when I'd interviewed her and there were many things I liked about her and I liked what she had done for Grace.

13:09.82
Jeffe Kennedy
And so, yeah, we, we talked on the phone and I said, you know, would you be interested in representing me? And I know this is like a little backwards about it and all this. And she said, well, um let me, she said there, you know, I said, maybe you don't want another fantasy romance person because you've got grace now. And she's more amazing than I am.

13:32.18
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And Sarah said, well, that's not necessarily true. And, She said, but give me some time to read your work. She said, obviously, I know what you're like as a person. I know something about your career so far. She said, but let me, you know, check out your work and send me some things. And so, you know, okay, which' perfectly fair.

13:53.66
Jeffe Kennedy
And then it turned out that she had already read my stuff without realizing it. She came back and said, you know what? I had petals and thorns on my Kindle. And I read that a few years ago. And she said, and I loved it. And she said, yes, yes, let's work together.

14:14.01
Jeffe Kennedy
So. I thought that that was fascinating. Um, and there's a few things that happen that way when I got my first agent.

14:25.77
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I had sold a book to Carina Press on my own called Rogue's Pawn which is I now have the rights back to and has pretty covers. Um, and still sells surprisingly well for that being like the first novel I ever wrote.

14:43.58
Jeffe Kennedy
ah yeah that start makes i'm I'm thinking of all sorts of side stories and we're not going to go there. ah But my first agent read that book and loved it and asked me if I was represented.

15:01.91
Jeffe Kennedy
So I'm going to put that out there a I feel like this is an important aspect of networking, of putting your work out there.

15:16.47
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I had kind of a funny threads conversation over the weekend with someone who was saying that they felt like every interaction on threads where they would, you know there would be traditionally published authors out there lamenting, um you know, like how, because they didn't sell 11 billion books, they were dropped by their publisher, even though the publisher didn't put any marketing into it and how awful it is to deal with thread publishing.

15:45.40
Jeffe Kennedy
But then as soon as somebody says that's why they're going to self-publish, that all these trad published authors pop out and say, no, it's wonderful. And I had responded saying that I felt like what they were detecting is the fact that traditionally published authors are not a monolith. There is a huge range of experiences, um a huge range of traditional publishers and putting that in air quotes, because some of them are frankly scammers and writers.

16:14.68
Jeffe Kennedy
too shitty work not to put too fine a point on it and others are amazing. Um, and how people handle setbacks is different too. You know, people love to go on social media and complain about setbacks.

16:31.99
Jeffe Kennedy
But anyway, the person responded to me saying, well, that they just wanted to, you know, this was why they decided to self-publish rather than languish in the query trenches. And I get that. And i'm I'm not sure which way I'm voting for on this necessarily, because...

16:49.56
Jeffe Kennedy
Petals and Thorns was my very first, um, I don't want to say it was my first fiction publication, but it was certainly, it was like novella length, maybe a little bit longer. And it was certainly my first substantive fiction work that was published. And it's this, um, erotic, uh, it's a BDSM beauty and the beast.

17:12.63
Jeffe Kennedy
And I did it in response to a call for red hot fairy tales.

17:20.60
Jeffe Kennedy
And it ended up being published by Lucid, who is gone now. But it was great having that story published by Lucid because it gained me a lot of attention. Um...

17:33.07
Jeffe Kennedy
It established my reputation earlier early on as a writer of very erotic stuff, which was good and bad. i think some people still pigeonhole me that way. And, oh, well.

17:49.78
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But that story continues to so well. I'll i'll link to it in the show notes in case you want to read it. It's it's very filthy. Yeah. And it's a little bit of a dubious consent, too. Just fair warning there. But I loved that because it was out there, because it was out in the world, Sarah was able to read it and already had it on her Kindle.

18:15.32
Jeffe Kennedy
And so she knew something of how I wrote. um The same thing with deciding to publish with Karina Press. That was a great get back in the day. It was um one of the first digital first publishers when e-books were really coming online and having ah that my first agent, Pam read that, uh, rogues pond and offer me representation. That was a big thing. So I can see the point that self publishing your work is definitely a way to get it out there. And certainly there is a huge trend in traditional publishing now where, um,

18:56.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, self-publishing is being used essentially as like the field teams. I'm not a sports teams person, so forgive me if I mess up this metaphor, but you know, like the, the minor leagues or the field teams and so forth, uh, where they, the majors go out and they scout and they see who's doing well. The drawback is, has been, and always will be if your self-published book does not do well,

19:24.66
Jeffe Kennedy
they're not going to pick it up. And it's hard to get a self-published book to start. um I'm not saying don't do it. In fact, I think I am saying do it, but I'm saying don't overlook some of these other opportunities because having your work out there for people to read is is a good thing.

19:46.33
Jeffe Kennedy
um But i don't want people to be mad at me, but... A lot of work that gets self published.

19:58.93
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm sorry, it isn't ready yet. And mine would not have been ready yet. If I had self published rogues pawn instead of going through the query trenches for years and revising it according to feedback, um, it would not have been the book that it became.

20:22.10
Jeffe Kennedy
ah petals and thorns went through a lot of revisions from a professional editor and the the thing is If you self publish and you hire an editor, even if you're out there saying yes, but I've hired a developmental editor.

20:39.83
Jeffe Kennedy
The thing to keep in mind is a developmental editor wants to keep your business. You're their client. They want to make you happy and they are never going to be as hard on you as an editor whose loyalty is to the publishing house.

21:00.97
Jeffe Kennedy
They're being paid by somebody else. They're answering to someone else for quality. And so they are going to inevitably be harder on you, harder on the work than someone who has an investment in keeping your return business.

21:21.69
Jeffe Kennedy
Even the most ethical person and even the most reasonable writer who's great about taking feedback, you are still going to have that dynamic. And what can you do about it? I don't know. Um, unless you could find someone who will tell you the truth about your work and that you will actually listen to them instead of um getting upset. And we all get upset. i mean, that's that's part of it, right? Nobody likes hearing that their story has major flaws. But

21:54.39
Jeffe Kennedy
This has been a little bit more rambly than I intended, but I hope that I've gotten my point across that, um yes, get your work out there, but get it out there in a measured way.

22:09.11
Jeffe Kennedy
um Try to rein back that impatience. And I've been there. I've so been there, you know, where you're just, you want it to happen already. And it's been years, um you know, the whole stuck in the quarry trenches idea

22:25.21
Jeffe Kennedy
But it's a hugely informative experience and you you will learn and grow for going through that. It's um it's good pain.

22:35.80
Jeffe Kennedy
oh All right. On that note, I'm going to get to work on my book a and I will be speaking to you from the ethical non-monogamy campus um on Friday.

22:51.74
Jeffe Kennedy
See you all then. Until then, you all take care. Bye-bye.