Lost in Jersey
So close to NYC, New Jersey is a melting pot of creativity, ambition, and culture. Everyone has a Jersey story and on Lost in Jersey, we’re here to share them with you.
Lost in Jersey
Book Publishing Secrets Revealed
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Ready to go from hopeful scribbler to published author? The Book Doctors, Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, are here to spill the literary tea. With years of industry smarts, hard-earned wisdom, and plenty of laughs, they break down what it really takes to get your book into readers' hands.
In this episode, you'll learn:
📚 The two A’s every author must master: Authority (why you) and Audience (who’s reading)
🔍 How to make your book “unique but familiar” — with just the right comparison titles
🚀 Why self-publishing is having its main-character moment (and how publishers are taking notice)
💪 David’s epic tale of 113 rejections — and why perseverance pays off
👯♂️ The power of a “dream team” — from cheerleaders to tough critics
📝 Why protecting your work from feedback is a rookie mistake
📺 Submit for their new TV show, America’s Next Great Author — imagine Top Chef meets Queer Eye... but for books!
Whether you're plotting your debut or dusting off a long-lost draft, this episode is your literary launchpad.
Links:
America's Next Great Author Website
The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published
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Meet The Book Doctors
Speaker 1Hey Jeanette , hi Rachel . Today we met with the co-founders of the Book Doctors , and their names are Arielle Ekstedt and David Henry Sterry .
Speaker 2They give so many great tips about how to publish a book for everyone , and I mean honestly . If you even have an inkling desire to write a book , you need to listen to this podcast and you all should get their book . Their book is called the Essential Guide to Getting your Book Published . I think it is . Yes , exactly that , and it was published in 2005 . And they've updated it for the current world that we're in for publishing , and they both have a long history . They are experts in this field .
Speaker 1Yes , there are , right there , published writers themselves , and also Ariel was a literary agent for a very , very long time , so they know the ins and outs of going from pitch or idea to publish and if you need their help , well , everyone needs their help because it's not an intuitive . It's not intuitive and they're both really warm and engaging and funny . They'll handle you with care .
Speaker 2Yeah , and be open-minded , because I think that was probably one of the biggest tips there was . Like you need to work with people . Enjoy this interview .
Speaker 1Welcome , Arielle and David . Thank you so much for coming on Lost in Jersey . We're very excited to talk to you about all things books , literature , publishing , TV , it seems , all that kind of stuff . So we're excited to get going on that . But first , before we do , we always ask our guests how did you get to New Jersey and are you from New Jersey and if not , where are you from ? I think you should start , because you're the native .
Speaker 3I was born in Dover General Hospital 100 years ago . No wait , yes , All right , I was born in Dover General Hospital . My parents are immigrants . They moved to New Jersey to explore the American dream . I was born here . For the first seven years of my life I lived in New Jersey . I honestly never thought I would come back . I lived all over America . Then , when we found out we were pregnant well , she was more pregnant than I I said immediately oh , we got to move back to the East Coast because both of her parents are here . I never had grandparents and I wanted my kid to have grandparents . We have to move back to the East Coast and she was very happy to do that and at the same time , we told people we're moving back . One of her clients , who's now our best friend , basically said oh , you live in a house with two family house the other side of the wall .
Speaker 3These old people want to sell their house and you can get it . It's falling apart inside .
Speaker 2That's the deal , right . Everybody wants that deal , yeah .
Speaker 3And move to Montclair , new Jersey , and I'm like , oh my God , I'm going to have my Jersey boy going back to Jersey and I'm so happy I did . I love living in the Garden State .
Speaker 2That's great . So I mean , it's full circle .
Speaker 4So , and now you've been here .
Speaker 2How long have you been ?
Speaker 4back For almost 18 years now .
Speaker 3The longest place I've ever lived now Montclair and we had no idea how many amazing artists of all kinds , particularly writers , editors you shake a tree and an editor and an artist and a musician falls out of it in Montclair .
Speaker 1That's true . And then a new one is born every second .
Speaker 4I am from the city and I'm going to admit that I had Jersey bias , that's the stain that all New Yorkers have .
Speaker 4And part of the reason for that is I grew up on the way upper west side , at 119th Street . It was such a wonderful neighborhood to grow up in and when we came , when we decided to move back east , we did look in the city , but first of all we couldn't afford anything . When we came and looked at Montclair , I felt like it was so reminiscent of growing up on the Upper West Side in the 70s and 80s , when I grew up , and the artists , the musicians , those small shops , all that kind of community .
Speaker 4So , yeah , I now have no desire to move back to the city .
Speaker 2The reason that you came on my radar is that we live in the same town and I saw that you did . Is it a pitch palooza at the library recently ? And tell us a little bit about how you got into it and , you know , maybe give us some tips . Give authors or people tips in this industry . But first tell us how you got into becoming the book . Doctors is what I've seen . Whose idea was it and how did it come about ?
Speaker 3So originally I was the writer , she was my agent , and then we got married and she fired me as a client .
Speaker 1Probably a good idea . Were you an unruly client , or it's just like maybe it shouldn't be Terrible .
Speaker 3Terrible client . I was so bad . Hopefully I'm a better husband .
Speaker 4Actually he was an amazing client before he became my husband .
Speaker 3Yes , that makes sense .
Speaker 3I had a book called the Essential Guide to Getting your Book Published . We had to figure out a way of promoting the book . It's nonfiction . Our publisher at that time , workman the greatest publisher sent us out a 25-city tour . So what are we going to do ?
Speaker 3Came up with an idea that came from a party where there was a bunch of drunken writers pitching her books because they found out she was an agent . I'm like , ooh , we should do an event where writers get a minute to pitch us their books . We , the experts , would critique their pitch in a kind and gentle way to let them know how to make it better . We'd have a winner at the end and we would turn that winner onto an agent or a publisher who was right for their work . And the first one we ever did was at the Strand Bookstore 18 miles of books and there was a line outside .
Speaker 3We were very nervous , like , is this going to put out petty fours and everything ? And he was all nervous , peter Workman . There was a line outside and I'm like , oh , that's probably for they're doing a grumpy cat event or something Like what are you guys waiting for ? We're here to pitch our book , man . I'm like what it was packed . It was so fun and so amazing and we heard incredible pitches from all kinds of people and at that
Journey to New Jersey
Speaker 3moment I thought , oh , this should be a TV show . And as soon as I came off the stage , someone said dude , you should make a TV show out of this . So we did then .
Speaker 4Wait , make a TV show out of this . So we did then Wait , I'm going to stop you because you're going too far in advance ?
Speaker 2No , because they asked about that .
Speaker 4So that was in about 2005 . The meantime I'd actually left publishing and I started a company called Little Mismatched that sold socks that don't match .
Speaker 1I saw that and it's so awesome because my daughters always loved wearing mixed match socks . They don't ever wear them as a pair .
Speaker 4Yeah . So I had this company and we had a lot of success and we sold the company to a large private equity company , which then fired me .
Speaker 4So we had a one-year-old daughter at that point . So it was kind of a blessing in disguise because I had to be home and we got to be home together , because David was working from home at that point and we had this event that we were doing all around the country Chipaloozas and so we said you know what ? We're just going to start a business because so many people need help getting their books published .
Speaker 3We discovered there was an enormous , huge swath of the population that wanted to write books , from 12-year-old kids to 94-year-old Navy veterans and everything in between .
Speaker 4All different types of people . So we set up a consulting business that helped people from idea through and past publication of how to get successfully published , and we had this book , as David mentioned as well . So that was like our calling card was . We had this doorstopper of a book with all this information and the Pitchapaloozas became this incredible event that we did everywhere , from rural Alaska , where we got a grant to go to tiny libraries , some of them in towns as small as 40 people , to major cities , to every place in between major cities to every place in between , and what we found was is that book publishing basically publishes people who have connections to book publishing .
Speaker 3You got to get somebody to get in the door . The gatekeepers don't want people that didn't go to , that aren't their uncle or their cousin or went to an MFA program or Harvard .
Speaker 4Right right , we were discovering the most incredible talent . Amazing , I'm sure .
Speaker 3South Dakota , wichita , kansas , you name it the border of Mexico and America in the Southwest .
Speaker 4Yeah , and because these people were so talented , we were helping them to get successfully published . Some of those people have now gone on to be some of the most award-winning best-selling authors today . Incredible . That must feel so good . It's the best feeling .
Speaker 3It is the best feeling .
Speaker 4And so now , to tie it back to what David was saying about people saying oh , you got to make a television show out of this . And so people then were like we , you got to make a television show out of this . And so people then were like we don't want to watch people writing , and we were like we don't want to watch people writing . And we are not teaching people the craft of writing . What we do as book doctors is we are teaching people how to go from talented amateurs to successful professional authors .
Speaker 3And these principles apply to any business you want to start . Anything you do , whether it's being a plumber or being a writer or being a lawyer , you've got to figure out how do I take my skills and find an audience for what my business is , explain who I am and what I do successfully . How do I get clients ? How do I get clients ? How do I keep clients ? How do I grow a business ? These principles apply to so many different fields .
Speaker 1Question on that , just the audience , because I took a writing workshop when I lived abroad for two years , in Amsterdam , and it was the first time I'd ever taken any sort of writing class and I loved it . But I remember there was this conversation back and forth about do you write with an audience in mind ? And then a lot of people are like no , never do that , Never try to tailor your stuff to an audience , and then people who would not tailor anything to anybody else being frustrated that they could never get published . What is that rule for audience ?
Speaker 4awareness . It's a balance that has to be struck . The thing is is that we live in a different reality than we've ever lived in before when it comes to artistic creation and in publishing right now , if you wanted to get published by a publisher that you know the name of Penguin , random House , simon Schuster , etc . Having a great book is a very small piece of the puzzle .
Speaker 3My terrible joke about that is the best way to get published by Mr Harper and Mr Collins are to walk in the room with one of the Kardashians and someone from the Lego Corporation . That's how you get a book deal . It's so sad to say that , but those giant publishers are looking for it because they're all owned now by corporations .
Speaker 4So we would love to say never think about your audience , Just write whatever you want to write .
Speaker 3And you can do that .
Speaker 4If you don't care about getting published or publish yourself , yeah , and you don't- .
Speaker 3Because that's a- .
Speaker 1Right , you could self-publish , right ?
Speaker 3Yes , and used to be . Self-publishing was the redheaded stepchild of the publishing business . Not anymore . Every publisher has somebody in their organization who scours self-published authors who've become wildly successful . That's another way to get a good deal no-transcript .
Speaker 4The vast majority of people not just who self-publish , who get published are not wildly successful . What we teach in workshops , the point of the Pitchapalooza , is really to help people understand the business side of this , because we want their art to thrive , they have to understand and , to your point of this class , if you don't know who your audience is , where they are , there's just so many barriers .
Speaker 3And we also define success Right , whatever it means to you . You might just want to have a book for your grandchildren that's on . That's a success for you . You don't need Mr Harper and Mr Collins to do that . We can do that .
Speaker 1Right , I feel like a lot of or not needed
Birth of Pitch-a-palooza
Speaker 1to make your living , because they will say I guess Liz Gilbert always says don't depend on your art for income .
Speaker 3Right , I mean some people . We get emails that say , oh , I've just taken a second mortgage on my house and when my book comes out I'll be able to buy an island . We're like , no , don't do that . No , there's so many people who want to make a living as a writer and we always say , like I have a list of different ideas that I want to make into books and I analyze , like some books I say are love books . I just do them because I love to do it and I don't care if I sell a copy . Books are books that I really think have a chance at breaking out . And , weirdly , the books that are my love books are the ones that have blown up . The biggest attention I got for a book was one that was so outside of the mainstream of publishing . There was no chance that this was going to blow up and yet it ended up on the front cover of the Sunday New York Times book review . So you don't know , wow .
Speaker 1Well , to that point you have to let it out into the world and see , you never know .
Speaker 2So I think that , yes , I agree that I think many people have different reasons why they want what they want to get from their book publishing , but I do think most everybody wants it to be read and it to be seen and for people to take notice in some way . And , of course , new York Times bestseller is always the , you know , the cherry on top right . Everybody wants that . But let's just say you've written a book and you're ready to start putting it out there . What are the first things that you would tell someone that they need to ? I mean , there's the title , there's the pitch , what's the basics ?
Speaker 4So what's interesting is I would start way before the person has written . When considering your idea for a book and this is again , not if you're just like . You have something in you , you have to get it out , doesn't matter , but you want to try and sell a book . That the first question . We on your years in the healthcare industry and you have something to say based on your expertise . Okay , that's great , that makes sense . Let's say you're a nurse and you're writing a thriller and the main character is a nurse . Because you're a nurse , you know things about the nursing industry that could make a great plot , right , yeah , that all makes sense . You're the person to write that book . But let's say you're writing a health book but you have no expertise in health whatsoever , or I'll say we get this , which I think happens nowadays .
Speaker 3There's so many people who want to write kids' books and they think that their authority is . I'm a parent and I told a story to my child that they love . That doesn't make you an adult person to write a kids' book , and yet it seems like we get an email with people saying that .
Speaker 4Second question is who is your audience ? All the time we hear queries or pitches where people say this is like no book ever written . This is a book for everyone .
Speaker 2That's the kiss of death it is don't say that , say that this is unique , or what if you're saying it's unique .
Speaker 4You could be like . You know , my audience is the love steampunk romance , which is a very like specific thing , that where there's a very clear audience and it's easy to reach them because they they listen to the same channel social media , all that kind of stuff . But you could say mine is unique because it , you know , it takes on the plot of a George Eliot novel or something like you know .
Speaker 3So what we always say to people is we want something that's unique and yet familiar . Okay , if it's too unique , you're like what is this ? I've never seen anything like this . I don't even know what this is , and people are going to distance themselves from that . If it's too familiar , it's a cliche . It's something that is , and the way you explain this to people it's like this , but it's different , like that , and we call those using comp titles comparative titles .
Speaker 1I was going to ask about that because I know that in film and TV that's a lot of times what the pitches are . It's like Legally Blonde meets- .
Speaker 3One of the greatest ones in movies is .
Speaker 4Jaws in Outer Space .
Speaker 3It's the greatest pitch . That's the movie Alien . Yeah , Right now I'm reading a book and I'm saying it's like Catcher in the Rye if Stephen King told it .
Speaker 1Like Catcher in the Rye if Stephen .
Speaker 3King told it , two things represent Catcher in the Rye , alienated , sarcastic teenager at a boarding school . Stephen King , supernatural , crazy things are going to happen .
Speaker 4Yeah , and titles signal where a book is going to end up in the bookstore and they also show your depth of knowledge of your category of book . So people say this is Harry Potter meets the Bible , then you're like you don't know anything about your category of book . So people say this is Harry Potter meets the Bible , then you're like you don't know anything about your category . But if they dial down to something very specific in the middle grade area or whatever , then we can see okay , you read in this area , you know who your audience is , you know what the competition is for your book .
Speaker 3Right , it's a shorthand of letting you know if you want an agent , if you want a publisher , they're overworked . They need a way to explain it to other people . Then , if those two things resonate , then they unpack it and go into the details of it .
Speaker 1So you have to package the pitch and package your idea in a way that it makes it really simple for the publisher to understand what to do with you and what to do with it .
Speaker 4And when you say what to do with you , you have to understand what to do with you . Yes , you do Because the publisher , even the biggest publishers , they're more like a printing and distribution service and , except for the biggest authors , you are not going to get a marketing and publicity plan . It's really on the author's shoulders . And all of these things that we've talked about the bio , the competition , the comps , the audience that turn into your publicity and marketing plan all of those tools funnel into that .
Speaker 3And a lot of amateur writers plan All of those tools funnel into that and a lot of amateur writers , talented amateurs , have this still , this idea , like we get saying all the time once my book is out , I'd be more than willing to go on . Good Morning America , I'm available at any moment .
Speaker 1Well , that's great , because I was worried that you might have a conflict , but I think it's also because we've grown up with or at least for me I grown up with envisioning the publishing industry a certain way , due to film and television and reading the New Yorker or whatever , and then I would assume that sort of fantastical vision of , oh okay , well , once I land this , then I'll get that , and then it's just you have to follow these steps . It's good that you're breaking it down and saying , actually no , I'll get that , and then it's just you have to follow these steps . It's good that you're breaking it down and saying , actually no , that's not .
Speaker 3We should talk about blurbs . You know the little jacket that's somebody else saying you're awesome , which , as we all know , is better than you saying you're awesome , because it leaves you the greatest blurb you can have is when someone says oh , this is a great book . It's like this meets that it's on the book now and somebody else said it and we say get a blurb before you even go to an agent . So that's the first thing they read at the top of the email .
Speaker 4A bookseller ?
Speaker 3it doesn't even matter who adopter , whatever .
Speaker 4Actually the Stephen King came from an author friend that David asked to blurb his book . So there you go .
Speaker 3So you go into the agent's office with somebody else already saying how awesome you are .
Speaker 2That is really good advice . So you have to then ship your book out to some people to give you a blurb before you even start the pursuit of a publisher .
Speaker 3Well , let's talk about building what we call a dream team .
Speaker 4Okay .
Speaker 3Writing's a solitary affair most times , but we tell people join a writer's group First thing I do when I go to a new city . I went to San Francisco . We moved there . I got into a writer's group and among the people there was this guy who was ridiculously handsome , so talented , so nice , so kind . They're like there was this guy who was ridiculously handsome , so talented , so nice , so kind , like if this guy gets a break , he's going to be huge . Well , his name is Khaled Hosseini and he was the kite runner . Now I'm friends with the guy and and if you look on the essential guide to getting your book published , there's a blurb from Khaled Hosseini now I now it's good to know how that happened joining a writer's group also .
Speaker 3Like it was every Tuesday , I was in this writer's group by about Sunday . I'm like , oh God , I have got to have something good to come in with .
Speaker 4That does keep you accountable . And to that point , Khaled , when David met him , was emergency room doctor with two young children
Audience Awareness for Authors
Speaker 4. Doctor with two young children and he would get up at four o'clock or 4.30 every morning to write for an hour before he had to get the kids ready , all that kind of stuff , and then go do surgery for 10 hours and that's how he was able to produce in order to have his wonderful books .
Speaker 3So , on your dream team , go join a writer's group . Have somebody who's a cheerleader , who helps what you do and knows how to articulate how awesome you are . Have a Debbie Downer who can articulate why you suck in a really concise and educated way . Have somebody who is good with graphic design so you can send stuff out that looks really cool . And I have about 10 writers that I send them my stuff and they critique it for me and I read their stuff and critique it for them . It's super important to have a lot of different people read your work before you send it out and a lot of people think , oh , someone's going to steal my work . No , no one's going to .
Speaker 4That's one of the biggest things that we hear is oh , I'm not going to share my work with anyone because we're afraid of the idea of being taken . That , to me , is the single best way to never get published .
Speaker 2Well , I also know a little bit . I think that there's also a protection , self-protection going on , that they don't want criticism , they don't want someone to change what their vision is , and it's just a protectionary thing too , and I think that you're saying that that's probably a bad thing .
Speaker 4Yeah , so let's speak to that for one second , because rejection and perseverance are two sides of the same coin . One way to go from rejection to perseverance is to learn how to become resilient from rejection , and the only way to do that is to keep being rejected .
Speaker 3This book that I had . That blew up . It was rejected by 113 . I was already a bestselling author from the top of the food chain , to like Bob's publishing company . Bob lives in his mom's basement . This guy wouldn't publish my book , but every time I got rejected I said to people what can I do to make it better ? Oh , you need a better . I made a better title . Oh , you need some stars from this little world you're talking about . So I got a couple of stars by the 114th time I sent it out to the right person . Finally , this thing was so tight because every time I got rejected I learned a little something about my book .
Speaker 2Well , I have a question about that really quickly before . So you said you sent it out to 113 . I think you're exaggerating .
Speaker 3No , I can show you the list .
Speaker 2Okay , by the time you have crafted your revisions and made it all this tight , haven't you run out of publishers ? Do you go back and start sending them again to the same people and say I've made some changes . Can you take a look again ? You actually can do that .
Speaker 3You can , but that's highly unlikely . That's not how I did it .
Speaker 2I told you so what did you ? How did you ? Is there 114, ? Like that 114th clearly wasn't the one you wanted , right ? Oh , it's true .
Speaker 4So that was . That's part of the interesting part of the story , and this goes back to all the other things that we're talking about about audience and you know , finding the right match for your books . So the best publisher for you is the publisher who specializes in your kind of book and knows where your audience is .
Speaker 3Also continuously . Whenever I would meet somebody or see an old friend , they'd go what are you doing ? Well , I'm writing a book and here's what it's about . I tell everybody this isn't a piece of advice I give to any writer . When someone asks you what are you up to , your answer is I'm writing a book . And if they ask you and only if they ask you what is the book about ? You got one minute to tell them what your book is about , because you never know , you might be talking to somebody whose cousin works for Harper Collins .
Speaker 3This happened to me on an airplane . You don't want to be the person who goes . What my book is about ? Oh , it's about a dog and a guy , and this really cool stuff happens and 10 minutes later you're like and the dog does this to the guy . I finally , at a midnight movie in New York , I ran to an old friend . I said , oh . She said , what are you doing ? I thought , oh , I'm doing this book and here's what it is . She said , oh , I've got the perfect person for you and I'm like awesome , and I sent it to the perfect person . Within a week I had a book deal .
Speaker 1My goodness , yeah . So it's good that they can come to you and your book and figure out actual steps to take
Building Your Dream Team
Speaker 1in order to get there , because it will not come naturally . It doesn't come naturally to me and again , this is across the board .
Speaker 4You have a product you want to launch . You have a restaurant you want to open Any of these things . Most people don't go out and get the necessary advice or training or what have you , and then their restaurant is closed in three months . There's no secret sauce . I really do have to say and we talk about this all the time 90% of it is perseverance above everything else . And we say there are two kinds of perseverance there's smart perseverance and stupid perseverance .
Speaker 1That's really hard to know which one .
Speaker 3Well , we'll give you an example of stupid perseverance . We'll say I've sent out the exact same pitch to 100 people and no one has responded . Same pitch to 100 people and no one has responded . Well , I guess I'll send it out to 100 more . No , no , no , no . You got to evolve it and learn how to make it better .
Speaker 2Okay , so you're called the book doctors . People can come to you , can hire you . Is it the both of you that they hire ? Do they come in ? Is it like therapy that you sit down and you say where are you at ? I'm going to do 10 sessions to get myself from this funk of not being able to publish . How does it work so ?
Speaker 4we , it's both of us and then we also have a small team of other people and we all have specialties that we do so depending on the type of book that it is . So David is far more fiction-based than me . I'm far more nonfiction-based , but , for example , the two of us and our colleague Laura Chenone all do memoir . So there are certain things , but depending on what the memoir is about , we would choose who is the best person . And then we also have a couple younger people on staff who do what we call beta reads , which are just like a quick read with a short letter to tell you are you on the right track ? Are there certain ? And it's much less expensive . And then we also have someone on staff who helps people find the right publisher for them and the right agent for them , because that kind of research can be really , really difficult . So , depending on what you've cut like , david and I both work with people on pitches across the board pitches slash query letters .
Speaker 3Some clients we have once a week we meet Right and for these writers they know they have to have something prepared and I give them some . People need deadlines .
Speaker 1How often do people come in where they have their idea and then you actually help them shift that idea to something else ?
Speaker 3Master of that .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 4That's my like doing that and setting up the structure for a book . I'm the daughter of an architect .
Speaker 3She's a literary architect .
Speaker 4I'm a literary architect , it's like my favorite thing to do , and sometimes people come with books that are all over the place . A skill that I have is to be able to see thematically how all the stories fit together and how they build , climax , finish , all that kind of stuff . So David has such a gift for language and the musicality of some prose and for stakes . How do you build the stakes up so that you Raise her stakes ?
Speaker 3Yeah Well , when I first came to Ariel as a writer didn't know her at all . I had written what really was an experimental novel and I didn't even know it because I didn't know how to write a book . It took me nine months to get her as my agent that's another story for another day . When we had our lunch writer agent lunch and she eventually said to me what is this ? Usually , first , novels are about someone's life . Did you really murder four of your stepfathers ? I'm like , no , I didn't at all .
Speaker 3No , it's fiction she said well , what is your story ? And I told her my real book . I wanted to write that . I was too scared to write about horrible things that happened to me when I was 17 years old , like unspeakable terrible things . And she's like , oh , david , that's the book you have to write . And so I abandoned that other book and went about writing this memoir .
Speaker 4And then this memoir became a national bestseller .
Speaker 3And your whole life kind of it also helped heal me from these horrible , traumatic things that happened to me . It was essential in my redemption the love of a good woman and a good agent .
Speaker 1Amen , and they're the same person . I mean , how lucky is that ? That's the shocking thing .
Speaker 3That's pretty great . I mean , how lucky is that .
Speaker 2That's the shocking thing . That's pretty great . Well , this has been so helpful . I mean , I think I can completely see why there was a line wrapped around the building and why it's been so successful . You guys give such great tips and such , I mean , and also it's coming from you know people who , like you said , you know you are the expert in this , so I can see why it's working , and so you do know your audience . That one would say , as you said you should .
Speaker 3I want to say one more thing before we sign off .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 3We are 15 years . I pitched this television show 15 years .
Speaker 1Yeah , is this the America's Next Great Author ? Yeah , I wanted to ask you about this . I'm glad you brought it up and finally , I got Ariel on board .
Speaker 3We got one of her partners , kwame Alexander , who's an amazing force of nature , then she got on board and then , once we had that team , then we built this whole giant team of amazing people and we pitched it to so many places I can't even tell you . And we finally found
Pitching and Persistence
Speaker 3a streamer called Canopy with a K , and they have a gigantic catalog of TV and movies .
Speaker 4They are the worldwide partner to libraries for streaming television and movies , so it was a perfect fit .
Speaker 3We're doing a story , a show about books and they're with libraries .
Speaker 4It's a perfect fit and we signed the deal . We're in a story , a show about books and they're with libraries . It's a perfect fit .
Speaker 3And we signed the deal . We're in pre-production . We're having meetings every day . It's so exciting . Now the show is evolving into something else .
Speaker 4And it's a very similar thing . We thought we wanted Hulu or Netflix or whatever , but actually this is the streamer . That's our core audience . It is yeah .
Speaker 2Is it going to be like American Idol for books or something like that ?
Speaker 4Here's our elevator pitch . It's Top Chef meets Queer Eye , and the reason for that is that it follows a similar format to Top Chef , but there are no eliminations , because we are trying to build community and help people grow , not to tell them to go home .
Speaker 3Yeah , don't take your knives and leave .
Speaker 4So the whole point is for the group of people who end up in the house to support each other , to get to a place where they can all help each other . I love that .
Speaker 3And then in the end we will have a winner . We will get a cash prize and a publishing contract .
Speaker 4So sign up for America's .
Speaker 3Next , great Author , you can go to our website Okay .
Speaker 4For casting calls and all of that americasnextgreathorcom . We've got a newsletter , all that kind of stuff .
Speaker 2That's the ultimate book , club or group power group to get involved in there . You have that kind of support to get your book done . That's amazing . Well , that's exciting so congratulations on that .
Speaker 1That's huge Thank you .
Speaker 4This was so fun , by the way , you guys are really fun , thank you , Thank you , thank you .
Speaker 1This was so fun . By the way , you guys are really fun . Thank you , thank you , thank you . This was such a great conversation , but we do have one last question .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , our last question is please tell us something that you love about New Jersey .
Speaker 4Okay , so I have an answer for this and then a little plug at the end . Okay , sure , I grew up in New York City . Then we moved to the Bay Area for seven years and we lived on a block similar to the block we live on in Montclair and we did not know any of our neighbors .
Speaker 3Not one single person in California .
Speaker 4People so radically unfriendly and unneighborly and we moved to Montclair and within the first week we had cookies , invites , I'm like Ariel , why are these people bringing me potlucks ?
Speaker 3Why are they ? What do they want from me ? And she's like no , they're being friendly , they're being neighborly .
Speaker 4I'm like oh my God . And I just find sometimes you know New Jersey , new Yorkers , can be a little rough or whatever , but the warm heart is there in a way . That is so , david . I love the Bay Area for many things , but I would never want to live there again for that reason . So I think it's super special and my plug maybe our plug is very obvious for us which is Wachung Bookstore .
Speaker 3I was going say that's my place .
Speaker 4You took my line . So the first people that we went and introduced ourselves to when we got here it's the most special community hub . We need it in the face of the Amazons of the world . Please don't buy your books on Amazon and go to Watchung Booksellers .
Speaker 3You know she stole my entire speech that I was going to give at the end about Watch on Booksellers .
Speaker 2Well , you will be very glad to know that whenever we have an author on our link on our website always links to Watch on Booksellers .
Speaker 4I have to make one more plug . The winner from Montclair from two years ago is Mr Gill Dan Gill Yay , I know From Glenfield , who taught at Glenfield for 53 years . His book is coming out . The one that he pitched at the Pitchapalooza , the first week in July from Little Brown for Young Readers . It's called no More Chairs . It's so beautiful , so exciting . I was so excited about that , yeah . So I hope everybody will go and pre-order the book and help Dan create a bestseller out of this super important story .
Speaker 3During this time where the world is filled with you , we should have him on , ask him to come on the podcast you guys are awesome .
Speaker 1Thank you so much for coming on . This was such a great conversation . We appreciate it , Thank you . This podcast was produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette Afsharian . You can find us on Spotify , iTunes
America's Next Great Author
Speaker 1and Buzzsprout . Thanks for listening . See you next week .
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