This week I am celebrating a year of Novel Experience my podcast about writing and books for writers, readers and anyone who dreams of being published.
Making a podcast is hard graft but it has been an amazing experience for me and so I am taking a moment, before I launch my fifth season next week, to reflect on the things I've learned and to give the podcast branding a little refresh: behold the new look Novel Experience!
Without doubt the best thing about the podcast has been the community. I've had the opportunity to talk about writing process and the odd experience of being published with some of my favourite authors, from Sunday Times and New York Times Bestsellers, prize-winners and authors with ten or more books behind them to brilliant debuts who are just at the very beginning of their careers. It has been great for me to listen to other author's worries and writing tips and has been a real companion as I face the challenges of being published once more (have I mentioned that THIS FAMILY is coming out on May 11th?!) as well as attempting to write my third book. i hope that the 48 episodes I have produced in the last 12 months are a great help and motivation to all writers, whether published or aspiring to do so, but I also hope that these frank and wide-ranging conversations are interesting for readers, as authors share the processes behind the writing of favourite novels and make reading recommendations based on their own work.
Looking ahead, I already have a very exciting line up for the forthcoming fifth season of Novel Experience and I am looking to make the podcast even more accessible by publishing FULL TRANSCRIPTS of previous episodes on a weekly basis here on my blog and the introduction of weekly MINISODES - 5 to 10 minute episodes dropping just in time for the weekend- so you can dip in and get a bit of advice from your favourite authors on what they'd tell themselves if they could go back to before they were published or what they do to shake writer's block.
But for now - if you'd like to help me celebrate the achievement of a year of Novel Experience Podcast you can do four tiny things for me:
Hit that subscribe button - wherever you listen.
Rate the show - a star rating only takes a second, but it makes a huge difference to podcast being found.
Leave a review - loved it? like it? found it useful? please take a few minutes to say what you find most helpful about the podcast so those that might be looking for the same thing can find it.
Tell a friend - if a favourite episode resonates then please do share with someone you think might enjoy it - either by posting on your socials, dropping someone a text or - to be really radical - telling them in person!
That just leaves me to say thank you. Thank you to all the authors who have given their time to talk to me over the past year but most of all thank you to all of you that have listened! Here's to another great year of Novel Experience in the year ahead!