[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to another episode of Shooting the Shit with Literary Agents, Carly Waters, and CC Lyra.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where we dissect publishing gossip, discuss book industry trends, and the overall state of the book business.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you'd ever wanted to grab a coffee with two literary agents, grab your mug, and pull up a chair.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: Happy Monday.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are so happy to see you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really loving all of the uptick on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I actually watched ourselves back.
[SPEAKER_02]: I say I never watch a SPACCC.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually watched us back a little bit on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually like it better than just listening to me on like if I was to go on Spotify or Apple Podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it brings back the memory of you and I having that conversation in a way where I'm like, oh, I'm just living the conversation.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's something better about watching on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_01]: So then you get to watch your beautiful self.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, hot people have privileges.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: See you tonight.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've talked about this before, but we also have, we have the same good side.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, yes, we do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if like on YouTube, who gets the good side.
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess it depends on the way we turn our faces, but we often argue who gets to have the good side.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when we take pictures like it's really hard because we have to take turns, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because either I get the good side or currently gets the good side.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think every listener will agree with me that all of your sides are good, currently.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I should be winning every time because I legit have what I have a scar on the other side of my face.
[SPEAKER_01]: So...
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen, we're also beautiful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Should we tell people the next place we're going to be in person?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I actually don't think we have dropped this information yet to everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have teased the idea that we are all going to be in the same place.
[SPEAKER_01]: But should we let everybody know that we need to do it with the three of us?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll wait for the next episode of the three of us.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we will let you guys know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I was thinking about that because we're all going to be in person together this summer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you'll see who will win the good side battle.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll see.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a mystery.
[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll we'll save that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say to kick us off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a mystery question.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not an answer on the spot question.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know how analytical I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm someone who if you ask me something, I want to process it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to look at it through every angle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Build all these answer trees in my head.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're welcome to answer right away.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to invite you to think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you can answer
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is the question.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you could sign any dead author, this author will now come back to life, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not gonna stay dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will magically come back to life, not like a gross zombie situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, they look nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're lovely to work with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they're just as lovely as they were when they were alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you could sign any author who has already passed away, who would you sign fiction or nonfiction?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's totally up to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason why I'm saying only dead authors is because we're lovely agents, we don't poach, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but if they're dead, their agent is dead too, because everyone knows that that's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your agent dies after you die.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we can't live without our clients.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so we're not poaching anyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the agent has not really active.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the agent has not resurrected.
[SPEAKER_01]: No zombie agent to just not be author.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you get to sign them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So who would it be?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who would you sign?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will answer the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the question of myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't thought about it yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I wrote that down.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll make a note.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll think about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we will touch face on that next week.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, if anybody wants to comment on the YouTube comment section and let us know who they would want to see come back to life as an author.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let us know what your ideas are.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I won't take any of your ideas.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll think up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll think of my own, but you can drop your ideas.
[SPEAKER_02]: over there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we have, so our, our list today of topics is a little bit all over the place, guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to be really honest with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a lot of random ideas that have kind of been accumulating, so we have kind of a point form list.
[SPEAKER_02]: So CC, where do you want to start with our, with our list today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have so many things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we should start with the book.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a book that I finished reading and I don't know if you've read it already.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you asked me about strangers last week so I can ask you about this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you read Wild Dark Shore?
[SPEAKER_02]: I have not.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's one of those books where in this author, she comes up on everybody's list and I know she is so talented and I always think, when I have time, I'm going to read these or when I'm on vacation, I will read these.
[SPEAKER_02]: So she is on my must read list for the time that I do not have.
[SPEAKER_02]: But no, I have it and I've
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to practice the name linkage, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Practice what I preach.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to say her name, Charlotte McConaughey, wrote obviously, Wild Dark Shore.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just finished it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was late to the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was actually really interesting for me because I don't get to read for fun as much as I used to before was an agent, obviously.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like with every year of agenting, I have, you know, less and less time, also quite normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's still really important to me to read for fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not even just for fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also market research.
[SPEAKER_01]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyway, this I'm saying this to explain that I, my eyes were quite tired from all the screen reading and so I was like, okay, just listen to it to do the audio book read with your ears and I started but that did not work for me and it's a wonderful production very well recorded it's just that the writing is just at such a beautiful writing that I was like, I can't I have to highlight this and I can't highlight while I walk and listen to a book at the same time where my highlighters I was very hard not to have my highlighters.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I finally did the e-book because I love highlighting on my e-book and oh my gosh, what a phenomenal novel.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had the editor Caroline Blake from Flatiron.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speak at our deep dive and like she spoke about how you know this book captivated her and I'm like I get it now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get the high guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it now creating it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are books that I read and I go still don't get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: This I get it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that's the thing is that Agent's like, we hear so many, you got to read this, you got to read this and we're always like, okay, I believe you, but then you have so many times, and it just becomes a thing that, and I think we're gonna talk about this today, you know, things that people come up to, and then it just becomes part of this zeitgeist in our industry where you're like, have I read it?
[SPEAKER_02]: I just heard about it so many times, but then you know, I actually feel like sit down and read it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, moving it up my list with all my free time.
[SPEAKER_02]: speaking of all my free time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so I have a couple stories I wanted to run through.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the stories I wanted to tell you about, and this is an example of when I have to talk very vaguely because it is a bit of a specific thing, but I can't talk about the specific thing because it is needing to be very vague.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got, so okay, maybe I'll start with saying,
[SPEAKER_02]: The normal way that an offer usually arrives in an agents inbox is usually the result of multiple conversations, you know, whether it's by email, whether it's by phone, sometimes very often these days, there is an interaction, such as maybe a potential phone call between an editor in an agent and an author.
[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that you're describing it, I'm going, yes, yes, something like I would like one of those today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so that is kind of the bill.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a building action.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's like, you know, a lot of momentum that's that's kind of happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I will say it used to be before COVID that an editor would always call, they would always call with an offer more and more these days it's an email with an offer I mean it happens very rarely these days that it's a call for a few reason some of it was just like they would call just kind of courtesy to also to make sure you get the offer you know with email sometimes you're like, well, I just have nothing into the ether obviously hoping it arrives in the inbox but a call would be like, hey, I'm sending you an offer today just so you know, it's blank advance, you know, obviously I'm going to get this to you in writing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not like that you negotiate it on the phone, per se.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes I would ask pointed questions, but I would always be like, send it to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll review it, talk to my client, and I'll be back with you with my notes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there would be a conversation that is built in.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think I'm told you to destroy twice in my agent career.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got offers made to me in person.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did I tell you these stories?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so, because that's how it would remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's very cool in person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we just haven't been able to happen in the middle of the meeting.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it just so happened twice.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just so happened that I was in New York for my regular meetings, and It just so happened that they have had the acquisition meeting that morning and knowing that they were gonna see me that afternoon That they were like, well, I was gonna.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I didn't want to know you because I was seeing you like I haven't offer for you, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's happened to me twice, which is like a very that's a very fun thing And again, you don't negotiate like across the table in the meeting, but you're just like, okay, receiving the information Ask a couple questions, discuss with the client
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm speaking to my client, and then when I call my client, it's like, we have an offer.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm always like, keep it together, C-C.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: You got to ask, like, you know, the few select questions that you need to make, you know, the context, and then off we go to talk to the client.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so the reason that I'm bringing all of this up is because I got an offer in my inbox.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nope.
[SPEAKER_02]: prior conversation with this editor about the project or the author, the offer came into my inbox with the client's name spelled wrong twice.
[SPEAKER_01]: So is it a difficult name?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, kind of like my name.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could people smell it C-E-C-E as opposed to C-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-
[SPEAKER_02]: in two different ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't even like they spelled it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't like the copy and paste of the name and correctly, for us anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was just like, that is a new one for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Clients name sells wrong twice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I've ever heard of that happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to think.
[SPEAKER_01]: But people misbell my name all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lovely people who I know adore me all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this bugs you more than it bugs me and I'm not trying to get your feelings at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think because it happens so often with me, and you know how weird my name is, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like my, my full, you have a very long name because you're definitely our five names, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you're five.
[SPEAKER_01]: I held on that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: See you.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that because of that, like this might be like a very, we all project our own stuff, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's definitely a surprising thing, but I don't think it would bug me as much as it would bug you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh really?
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they didn't mean to do it, and they're giving us money.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, it takes a simple, hey, actually the spelling's blah blah blah, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's, I don't know, obviously different people feel different.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, bye.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and I, you know, I'm not going to go to the whole aftermath of this, but Wait, what did you do?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, now you have to tell us what you did.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you gently correct it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it takes the offer.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a gen, I'm not going into that, but it was a gentle correction of the name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Blink once if you took the offer.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I have to blink because I have to do, I'm humans.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing it on purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I hope that you took the whatever offer major client have, which I know of course you did.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so that's the end of my big story about offers with misspelled names.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's put on my mind, which is blurbs.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how much we've talked about blurbs on this show before, but just so we're on the same page in terms of the listeners.
[SPEAKER_02]: Blurbs are the thing that is a quote from another author that goes on kind of either the front cover or the inside jacket copy so that I'm the back, it's the endorsements from your fellow writers, your colleagues to say, this is a great book.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, couldn't put it down.
[SPEAKER_02]: All of those kind of, you know, a few of words that Peter say about each other and that goes into the sales copy.
[SPEAKER_02]: It helps convince booksellers, you know, oh, this really got to grab this book and, you know, commences the team to get excited and all of those things.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we haven't really talked about blurbs too much in terms of their functionality.
[SPEAKER_02]: But every once in a while there will be, you know, some sort of rant on social media about why do we even need blurbs?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there was a publisher.
[SPEAKER_02]: We think we talked about this where there was a publisher who said, We're not going to do blurbs anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was a whole thing where the some some authors of that imprint who are anonymous said, but they're still an expectation that even though they might not want to do it, that like we have to still get the blurb.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, it's it's a very, it's a very tricky thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember being a reader before I was an agent and I actually would buy a book, depending on who had blurped it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's a little bit of where my opinion comes from blurbs do matter for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think they're an important part of the publishing ecosystem.
[SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely empathize with how much work it is for authors.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really this is coming from deep inside my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please note, there's lots of empathy.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, there are things that are like a part of the job and they're really, really hard, but they're a part of the job.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like obviously keeping boundaries, I'm not saying you have to say yes to every player per quest, of course not, you will navigate this, this is actually something that clients talk to agents about all the time, you know, one is it okay to say yes, one is it okay to say no, often the request will come to the agent and the agent responds on the clients but have like there are many ways to navigate this, but what I am saying is it's really, really important and it doesn't make a big difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also want to say keeping it
[SPEAKER_01]: writers, writers, if you are this writer you're not listening to the show because I know that you don't listen to the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who asks someone for a blurb?
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's say, writer A asks writer B for a blurb.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when writer B asks writer A for a blurb, they don't do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't miss it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not cool, writer A.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like that is not cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not cool to not reciprocate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once again, yes, there are always situations where it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: But generally speaking, you return the favor, I think, you know, it is an economy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is.
[SPEAKER_01]: people know this, people don't, people aren't going around, you know, living in the world thinking, yes, blurbs magically happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's a transaction.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a part of being an author.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's really not cool to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Being a good literary citizen matters a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: And actually, no a story with a super famous author who refused another also famous, but less famous author, a blurb after the less famous one had asked her, sorry, the other way around, after the less
[SPEAKER_01]: And this was one of the situations where for a while their stars were rising the same, but then one of them took off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tell you who it is once we stop recording.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, this person, the super famous one, said no to the now less famous one after, you know, she helped her.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then something happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if she talked to her agent, her editor, her policies that she was like, oh, actually I can't do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, she went back on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was like, oh, no, I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't offer you the blurb after all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, happy to see that because I think she showed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now what about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are your feelings about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man, I feel like it's a very hard thing to navigate because once authors get really busy and have very busy publishing schedules, where maybe they're publishing a book a year, they're on a tight schedule, they have a lot going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand why they start to like back off from the blur process, but that is when their name starts to mean so much especially to debut authors and it is so important to continue to blur.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know there's some authors where
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they'll be like, I'm on deadline, but if somebody who from certain background reaches out, you know, or it's like a debut or, you know, somebody from my hometown or, you know, something where it's like the will make exceptions for X, I think the more famous and author gets, they have to realize how much their name means.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think it's really important to send the elevator back down again.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I don't know I Just feel like sometimes I wish that people would give more The lirbs even when they're really busy and it's really it's a really hard thing to ask though the other thing is like timelines can get really tight With how how much time do you give somebody to read and ask for the blue bag?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's also really tricky, and some authors will want a digital copy, a someone want a physical copy, and then are the arts printed early enough.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like you can see how all of this requires so much organization, from the editor, from the production team to kind of get all of this organized.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a lot, and I am very empathetic, but I'm also very pro blurb if you can.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, because you never know when you're going to need a favor from somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and also something I remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard this from multiple debut authors, authors who are like,
[SPEAKER_01]: just about to pub.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't know each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I heard this from them in separate situations.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've said something to the effect of my gosh getting blurbs is so nerve-wracking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm so grateful to everyone who gave me a blurb and I will never forget it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will always return the favorite notches to the people who gave me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to the next class of tape you authors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because once upon a time you were in their shoes, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate people engaging in this sort of futurizing with their
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, time traveling into the future and going one day, one day, hopefully I'll have an established career.
[SPEAKER_01]: I won't be a debut, being a debut is wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying bad things about a debut, but you know, one day I won't be a debut anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll have many books under my belt and I will return the favor to debut.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's a beautiful sentiment, beautiful beautiful sentiment.
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate authors who say that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it's hard as agents obviously we try to protect our clients time.
[SPEAKER_02]: We know that they are also really busy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as much notice, usually as you can give is best.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, especially with people who write like a book a year, you, those authors also get asked if a lot of worms, because like the circles that they've read in are also people doing a book a year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then that's a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's really hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then if you are
[SPEAKER_02]: having a book a year, then you don't want to ask the same people every year.
[SPEAKER_02]: The author doing the ass case, you have to like rotate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's interesting for this book two books ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have blurred me in a while.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it is a bit of, you know, politics in that regard.
[SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, that's my ramblings about blurbs and how we still need them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And everybody has to send the elevator back down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, everybody has to send the elevator back down.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that line, that's a good line.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I have a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're talking about blurb, so obviously talking about books.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been thinking about comps that I get all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I started doing this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not sustainable.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to keep doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've been trying to manage my slush in a way that's more like data driven, because we use email.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't use query manager and it's impossible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I tried for a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for a while, I kept list of the comps, comps and queries that I was getting.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like I kept it in a little spreadsheet.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some titles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could get, get, get, count over and over again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to not normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: But do you see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see books that are comped all the time?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then like, what are they in on your list?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a great question.
[SPEAKER_02]: The one that just always comes to mind for me for at least the past year would be wedding people.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think wedding people is called to all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because people come to it for different reasons.
[SPEAKER_02]: People come to it about divorce.
[SPEAKER_02]: They come to it about grief.
[SPEAKER_02]: They come to it about love.
[SPEAKER_02]: They come to it about wedding books.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is the book that encompasses so many things, you know, intergenerational stuff, friendship, like it just does so many things, and it was such a mess.
[SPEAKER_02]: So wedding people is top of the list for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: What about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely wedding people, but also, my gosh, what is the, of course, now I'm totally linking on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The God of the Woods all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, love these two books, all you applause for these two books.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's tricky though,
[SPEAKER_01]: When you come to a book that is, that did well, and that is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've read, I have to be honest, I go into the pages very excited, like the sample pages.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I also have very high expectations because you're telling me that this is like the wedding people.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's going to be humor and levity and at the same time depths.
[SPEAKER_01]: and psychological acuity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's going to have it all, because that book has it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Same with the God of the Woods.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tension and propulsion, but at the same time, insights into human behavior and razor sharp commentary.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's all gonna be packaged and this amazing entertaining format, which is a tall order.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, again, I'm not suggesting people need to stop or worry about this at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just feel like as agents we're probably getting this in comps over and over again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, totally.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, and now we're gonna hear from our sponsors.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, and we are back, so I wanted to give a shout out to some of the YouTube comments that we have been getting, because everybody really chimed in last week, which I love, because one of the questions was about the three most used emojis, and I was like, I could barely come up with them, so this person shot a bowling said the peace sign, the two hearts and cat with heart eyes, somebody else had just the regular old heart, the kind of like crying laughing face and that's a laboratory,
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what it's called.
[SPEAKER_02]: Party, the party celebratory one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Somebody else had to pop in cans, the double hearts, and the envelope with the heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's really cute one, great choice for emojis.
[SPEAKER_02]: Regular heart, crying laughing phase and cat phase, laughing crying phase, green heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: The one with like the squiggly eyes, with like the wiggly mouth.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what that one is like, dizzy?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that dizzy?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe confused or disoriented?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I like that one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: So those were those were great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once from you guys, we had our AALA mixer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our new member mixer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone who's a new member joins and because I'm in the membership committee, I go to the mixer and I welcome people with my fellow committee members.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we asked this question of agents joining the AALA and so many of
[SPEAKER_01]: So many of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So many of them used the like the melting face.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love melting face.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that should have been one of my.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, it was oh yeah melting face melting face melt like it was just so funny It shouldn't be like any of the dollar signs like money bags and that one came up as well Okay, but that one is not surprising to me the melting face like now it isn't but at the same time I was like oh yeah, oh, yeah Yeah, that's the dollar sign came up as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean it's also like what you use isn't necessarily what you're using with clients Right like you might not use emojis with her clients.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, fair.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not fair Okay
[SPEAKER_02]: At Monique Nelson said, I've bought the audio after starting a print or ebook for two reasons.
[SPEAKER_02]: Number one, I loved the book and want to re-listen when it doesn't require my full attention.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just want the feels and more importantly, number two, when there's an experience I want from hearing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: For example, I started reading curse daughters and it was so good and I wanted to experience them hearing it from an African narrator or in this case too, it's really good decision highly recommend.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also love that when there's something just like stylistically where you just want to hear something nationally or leorically or an accent like, yeah, I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those are really good reasons.
[SPEAKER_02]: I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, and somebody else said they don't want to have any interest in audiobooks, which is really interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then somebody else said, I'm listening to strangers memoir on audiobook.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am so torn.
[SPEAKER_02]: I still these great reviews of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm struggling.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate to say that because I'm writing a memoir because it makes me think I don't have a clue.
[SPEAKER_02]: But she thinks she's bored with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then she says, yes, CCC, she reads the audiobook herself.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I had to speed it up and her reading is very slow.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the great thing about audiobooks.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can just do like,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, just increase the speed and go as fast as you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I have to say, I have to say, I have to say, speeding up audio books.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, I can't really know.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: Blast for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I would definitely think that that is intentional.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is an intentional delivery.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, would you go play and be like, hey, now please do it for the play to me at 1.5.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, no, no, I wasn't even one at 1.3 right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will, I will.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying no, I'm not asking you, I'm still saying no.
[SPEAKER_01]: Telling you, oh, God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you guys so much for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: We really appreciate you guys chiming in.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just let what else are in the comments.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that Carly does more in a quiet weekend than I do in a busy weekend.
[SPEAKER_02]: So,
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad we all have our sense of balance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever found Reddit, subthreads, about us?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, my god, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would never miss those.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't look for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got sent one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got sent one, and I made the mistake of putting on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of people say this about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people go she does so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's so amazing like there's there's a lot of wonderful things I'm not saying about but I don't like reading about myself, so it's but lovely comments lovely comments But like a lot of people say that and they say that with good reason
[SPEAKER_02]: You are so brave.
[SPEAKER_02]: I started sweating when you started talking about a reddit thread.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, I don't want to know so I'm just saying have you seen this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good friend that you trust also an agent and I go, I don't know what like I'll click on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this again.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was my friend was in the middle of a chat.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was context that I'm like, no, and then and then you can't not read it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm not going to look at it again, but you can't read it.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I do not seek out the Reddit threads about myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of preserving our self care, you had a question about the agent self care and art to do this today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're humans and humans have hard weeks, you know, and sometimes the hard week is personal stuff, sometimes it's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I firmly believe that agents
[SPEAKER_01]: our job, our job first and foremost is to sell and sales is a transfer of energy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we're having difficult weeks, our energy is affected, our moods are affected, this is normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my question to you is when you're having a bad week, and it's affecting your energy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, how do you practice self-care?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what do you do to process it all?
[SPEAKER_01]: And still show up as your best self?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's such a beautiful question.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I wanted in two buckets because you're talking about having a personal bad week because I was thinking about two examples.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, there could be a bad work week, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And the thing with our job is we interact with so many different people.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I'm having maybe a negative experience in one bucket of my agent life, I really do have to compartmentalize that.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so it doesn't feed over into all the other positive interactions.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as agents,
[SPEAKER_02]: you know and my husband has watched me do this job for over 15 years and he's like it is such a roller coaster he's watched me go on huge roller coasters and he's like you've gotten better over the years of not being so high not being so low right just riding the way but riding it closer to the middle
[SPEAKER_02]: which I think is a good thing, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's taken me a really long time not to be like, you know, he would watch me if I was waiting for an offer, just sit and like twittled my thumbs for like three hours, you know, when I was starting out.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like he's just, he's seen me ride all these highs and lows.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's really interesting for his perspective to have that mirror.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the work side, right where you have to figure out a way to compartmentalize it.
[SPEAKER_02]: fighting a way to ride the highs and lows in a way that feel a bit more moderate and a way that you don't feel sustainable.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the personal side that's such a good question.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm trying to think at the last example of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Having a bad week and it's affecting my energy and how do I practice self-care.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the most important things to me really it's it's sleeping exercise and I know it's a really boring answer.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I really
[SPEAKER_02]: even though I have small kids, I'm somebody that like really always needed a lot of sleep.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've had friends, you know, have small kids and like I can totally survive on five hours, four hours, I'm not that person.
[SPEAKER_02]: I absolutely mean my sleep.
[SPEAKER_02]: So definitely sleep and exercise, you know, and I won't sacrifice one for the other, but if I can get in,
[SPEAKER_02]: a good amount of sleep, fit in some exercise.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because the way that I think about this job is, you know, it's a career, it's a lifestyle.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, it's not something you dip your toe when you're like, is this for me?
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to know that I can do this for the next dozens of years.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: if I ever need to feel like I need to dial things back or it's like I need a vacation, I need a long weekend.
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to take the morning off, you know, and you need to book a therapy appointment, you need to get a massage, I don't ever feel guilty about that because I know that my clients were going to benefit my family will benefit from me trying to ride those ways closer to the midline.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I really think about it as like big and holistic as I can, even when it feels really acute.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's where I think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's really, I, you know what, I don't think it's a boring answer, sleep in exercise.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a foundational answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're reminding us that sometimes going back to basics is what matters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the things I do, I do really weird things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So some are not weird, the not weird ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: I journal, journaling helps me.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's something about writing down what I am feeling, having to put, you know, pen to paper, and it is pen to paper, literally, really helps me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if I have to journal twice a day, because it's a really hard day, you know, for personal reason, then I'll do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another thing I do is I play their certain songs, certain go-to songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: While I don't consider myself to be like a musical person, like I don't listen to music every day, for example, there are certain go-to songs that make me feel like I'm in a different place in my life, like music has that power, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Totally.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very transcendent and there are songs that I will play so if I'm feeling pain, I will play a song and I want to be reminded that I'm strong I will play a specific song and if I'm feeling You know disappointed and hurt and just like I will play a song that reminds me of of joyful things like I have specific songs that I listen to on repeat It's really weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's meditative and transcendental.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like the pattern and the repetition is almost religious and spiritual.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you know, something that my client Dr. Courtney Tracy taught me to confuse your brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Confusing your brain is, can actually like, if your brain is spiraling like mine, and I imagine her is because she taught me this.
[SPEAKER_01]: For a lot of people this works, just do something really weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like one of the things she did for example, she doesn't call the phone.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys, please keep this in mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: She just went inside the pool with her clothes on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that confuses your brain, but it it's essentially resets your brain a little bit like I'm not explaining it with the neuro It's kind of like cold.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like cold therapy, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know when you just immerse yourself in something cold like the opposite?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but with the clothes on meaning it's not something like your brain is going to go
[SPEAKER_01]: So you bring kind of resets because you're confusing your brain, meaning your brain has to stop spiraling.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're bringing our focus on something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just one example.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be something totally different.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I try to do something that isn't on autopilot.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm just doing things that are on autopilot for me, it's too easy for my mind to spiral.
[SPEAKER_01]: So to leave my mind a little bit, I will do...
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of weird things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I won't get into them, but I will do something that will confuse my brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it helps me a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: It helps me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then also too, you know, I think this is just something that comes with age.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're remembering that you've been through hard moments before and you got to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you might not know how things are going to work out or what the future will look like, but you've done it before and you can do it again.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of my leg mantras, and I actually recently wrote them all out, I should get them there upstairs, trust your future self.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the one that I always tell myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, you know, the version that you've prepared for the future is everything that you've built.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you're allowed to put the weight down because the future you has already dealt with this and they're ready to catch you in the future.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, 100% yourself.
[SPEAKER_02]: 100%, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Self-care is so important.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, next thing we had on our list was, oh, you had a question for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked with traditional media last week.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll question it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you read any magazines?
[SPEAKER_01]: If it kept seeing you post stories with magazines and like home decor and things like that, I have magazines that I read.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not religiously, I mean, I guess some religiously, but like I love reading magazines, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that there are,
[SPEAKER_01]: magazines have had their, they're heyday, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you've had their peak and we're not there anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world has changed, but I quite enjoy magazines.
[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoy the feeling of holding a magazine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think might seem to be a teenager because I used to love magazines as a teenager.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I just enjoy the experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: So do you have any magazines that you love?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I have a long list.
[SPEAKER_02]: I,
[SPEAKER_02]: Definitely love like a theory design home decorating architectural digest so I wrote down I had to write them down because that's like I have so many architectural digest love dwell love home and guarded UK specifically UK because
[SPEAKER_02]: North American design, I'm going to go on my rant.
[SPEAKER_02]: North American design magazines tend to look very much the same.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's not always a lot of risk taking with design and I really appreciate magazines where it's like, Well, we'll do this where things that are a bit outside the box, so you're not just opening this and being, I don't know, This is like another Instagram or Pinterest page.
[SPEAKER_02]: Home in garden UK is very London maximalist or very like English garden and I feel very transported when I look at those magazines and they also inspire me to take more creative choices in my own wardrobe or home and so I'm very much into things where I really just don't want to feel like I'm also on Pinterest or I'm also on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to make a design or home magazine that's going to take me somewhere else that's very important.
[SPEAKER_02]: In terms of more literary magazines, if I'm traveling or I just know that I like maybe want to do some like reading for my magazines, Harper's Magazine, like the Harper's Magazine.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, say.
[SPEAKER_02]: Vanity Fair.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then a Canadian reference would be the wall risk.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I were so good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if I'm going on a trip, like, and I'm going to, you know, in their port, you know, going to the magazine staying, I'm wrapping all of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's my influence.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love those last three that you said.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're also favorites of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also love psychology today on surprisingly guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love psychology magazine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to agree with a lot of their takes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually don't mind that.
[SPEAKER_01]: To listen, I like reading about things I don't agree with, because I want to like a logic check there, a lot, you know, like I was going through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Explain to me how you got there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I might not agree, but I have like I want to understand to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a very important critical thinking exercise My guilty pleasure is Town and country My door town and country.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, it's so well written like Excellent writing on a line level and then it has I have my most recent edition here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I subscribe guys
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the headlines.
[SPEAKER_01]: Miami's private school meltdown.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, you want to read about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what the meltdown is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't read it yet, but like the sun's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Inside of fifth avenue, fight club.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to read this, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a break it to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's your plane they like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a private plane.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a private plane.
[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, come on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get to live in a world where people have private planes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is very different from where my world.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is just, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's my guilty pleasure.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just have the most fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: The most fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a great list.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love how committed we are to print media.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am totally excited and that will definitely be buying all of these all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is many as I guess.
[SPEAKER_02]: I only have this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I used to also have a subscription to the New Yorker, but since I've had a subscription to the New York Times, I don't read the New Yorker anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I kind of did a new throw or there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the New Yorker, but their print is getting really small and my eyesight's not the best.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have to go to the doctor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever I'm getting old, I'm getting old.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and the last thing on our list for today was a listener question.
[SPEAKER_02]: CCD want to paraphrase our listener question?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, and I apologize to the listener because I can't find your DM, but I remember reading it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or else I would be reading it, you know, verbatim, but you asked something to the effect of, I have had multiple trusted beta readers read and love my work, but I'm not getting full of requests.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is it that my beta readers love something, but agents clearly don't?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember the person wrote a little, little end or saying, you know, I appreciate if you
[SPEAKER_01]: Generally speaking, I know you can speak to my specific situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were very thoughtful and the way they worded it saying You know, they weren't asking about their thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were asking like, hey, how come beta readers love something?
[SPEAKER_01]: But then agents don't you know aren't we all readers?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I think it's a good question It is a great question.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean my first instinct to that answer is an agent doesn't think they can sell it
[SPEAKER_02]: because it could be a great book, but an agent has to sell the book.
[SPEAKER_02]: And those are very different things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I enjoy things all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually, I have a couple things I've been sitting on for a little while in my slush pile of requested manuscripts where I really like them and I'm having a really hard time rejecting them because I really like them.
[SPEAKER_02]: But as an agent, I have to think how am I going to sell this?
[SPEAKER_02]: And if I can't confidently go and pitch this thing, then I'm not the right agent for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's kind of the quick and dirty answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, I think building off what you said, hey, I think that it has to do with the fact that beta readers aren't salespeople.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your beta readers don't sell.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when they were reading something and they're offering notes, it's similar to an academic setting where an instructor is reading a student's work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are, you know, your job is to give them feedback within the scope of what
[SPEAKER_01]: putting this work side-by-side against other works and deciding who wins a prize or who's better or that's not what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a competitive situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone can get an A theoretically.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also have seen, I think this is important to say, and I'm honestly not saying it's happening in this case, but a lot of beta readers aren't being fully honest.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen a lot of people share beta
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of sugar coating, a lot of complementing, a lot of like it's like heapfuls of spoons of sugar and then there are lines about improving but I and I wonder I wonder how how easy it is for a writer to like
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess sift through all that, you know, really complimentary feedback, which probably will intentioned.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm not sure it's super helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I do think that it's important to always say something nice about a work and there's always something positive and I understand wanting to be positive.
[SPEAKER_01]: But unless you're like a cheerleader, I do believe it's cheerleader critique partners.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unless you're cheerleader.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, to me, that's all often behind it, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if the beta readers were to all of a sudden say, hey, would you invest money in this?
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, if you don't, you lose money, like, I don't think they would say yes is what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: They wouldn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: They, it is easier to compliment something than it is to criticize something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's something that it's important for people to, to remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: and beta readers are still very important.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because something can still be the best version of itself and still not be able to crack through.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's the hard thing for people to understand is that you might have written your story to the best of your ability or the best way that that story is able to be told.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's still not going to become a book and that's a really hard thing for people to hear.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, it's very hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do believe in being honest though.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so most manuscripts don't become books.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wish most did, but they don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I don't like that we're ending on a spot.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was gonna say, what a lifting message can we leave everybody with here today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the uplifting message currently?
[SPEAKER_01]: Should we talk about the Miami's private school meltdown?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, I believe that our listeners can handle it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe that our listeners are experiencing spring.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is March, the sun is shining.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be able to get outside a bit more.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I think life in general is starting to wake up.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we believe in you guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that you can have a positive ending to this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, I have a final question on Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just by the time this airs, it's already Monday.
[SPEAKER_01]: The women, you know, right now it's Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_01]: the clocks change and daylight savings begin.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am not asking how you feel about this switch, like the act of springing forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am asking how you feel about daylight savings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like being being in a time zone is that even what it is, but where it's later, like it's sunny or like how do you feel about daylight savings?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the switch just the constant.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, I think we can be done with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there's places that are getting rid of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Isn't British Columbia getting rid of it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're doing daylight savings and then not going back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're always going to be in daylight savings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's different.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: My question is, are you pro?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I pro more daylight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I count the days until it's lighter out in the evening.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this darker in the morning to all the morning people out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: She does not care about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, here's, here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm struggling to understand this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you a baker?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, then why are you up in the morning?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you're not baking bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, you're not baking bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I have to be up in the morning if you have to if you're being compelled to for some reason, professional, etc.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you're not in a good mood anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what's a little bit more darkness to your bad mood?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: All this built for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Morning people get everything in this life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Morning people always win.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is built for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the one saying that night I was
[SPEAKER_01]: It's bad for your mental health, like love daylight savings.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love longer evenings, love.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, well let's end on that lovely rant about how much we love daylight.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we will see you guys all next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: CC Lira is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to query CC, please refer to the submission guidelines at www.wshomen.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carly Waters is a literary agent at PS Literary Agency, but a work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly on this podcast are solely that of her as a podcast co-host and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of PS Literary Agency.