The Fremantle Press podcast: Leanne Hall of Readings says networking can be a beautiful, natural and organic thing
Leanne Hall joins us on the podcast! We are so pleased to have a bookseller chat to us. Leanne is an author of young adult and children’s fiction and works as an online children’s and YA specialist at the independent bookshop Readings. Once you’ve listened to this podcast you’ll feel like you know your local bookseller, and the business of selling books, a lot better.
Though she acknowledges the highly competitive nature of our industry, Leanne’s interview is brimming with tips and encouragement. Even her idea of networking makes it sound quite nice really. She says, ‘I think a lot of people cringe with the idea of … networking in this really sort of callous, calculating way, but it doesn’t have to be like that, it can be a beautiful, natural and organic thing. Most writers are writing because they love books. They genuinely love reading and they love books … Act accordingly; demonstrate your passion and it will come back to you for sure.’
Topics discussed:
Competition for shelf space
Creating a relationship with your local bookseller
How bookstores choose books
Learning from your genre specialist before you’re published
Myth-busting the art of bookselling
Unlocking your writers block with Sasha Wasley
When NOT to approach your bookseller
The How to Be an Author editions of the Fremantle Press podcast are an informal series of chats between publishing industry professionals. Co-hosted by Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller and Publisher Georgia Richter, it features regular guest appearances by editor Armelle Davies, as the Comma Chameleon, special publishing industry guests and top tips from contributors to the book How to Be an Author: The Business of Being a Writer in Australia.
Show Notes
Extend your podcast
How to Be an Author: The Business of Being a Writer in Australia by Georgia Richter and Deborah Hunn is available in all good bookstores and online. Between its pages you’ll find everything you need to know about the business of being a writer from people who live and breathe books.
Connect with Georgia and many of the contributors to the book and podcast in the Facebook group.
Guests
Leanne Hall is an author of young adult and children’s fiction. Her debut YA novel, This Is Shyness, won the Text Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Writing, and her novel for younger readers, Iris and the Tiger, won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature at the 2017 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Leanne works as an online children’s and YA specialist at the independent bookshop Readings.
Sasha Wasley was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. She lives in the Swan Valley wine region with her two daughters. She writes commercial fiction, crossover new adult/YA mysteries and paranormal. Sasha Wasley’s debut novel, The Seventh, was published in January 2015. Her first new adult paranormal romance series, The Incorruptibles, debuted in 2016.
Organisations discussed
Readings Books
New Edition Bookshop
Books and authors mentioned
Littlelight by Kelly Canby
Original music
Title Music and Comma Chameleon Theme by Mo Wilson (copyright 2021)
Sound engineering
Aidan D’Adhemar, Fremantle PA Hire
Produced by
Tiffany Ko, Claire Miller and Chloe Walton, Fremantle Press Marketing and Communications
This podcast was produced in Walyalup in Whadjuk Boodja, on the lands of the Noongar people.