Our Favourite Things of 2023

Today we're responding to a series of articles that have gone viral over the last couple of weeks. They're all about the publishing industry, and whether or not it's dying out. Included: how big is the market for books? Is it growing or shrinking? Are publishers profitable? Is it even worth writing books anymore? What about indie books, self-publishing, e-books, and audio? What do publishers get right and what do they get wrong. James says the C word twice and apologises to all the Americans for being Australian. Main sources: No One Buys Books by Elle Griffin People Buy Books, Publishing Is Thriving, and Substack Will Never Replace Books, by Brooke Warner which also links to several other great pieces. The one we used most heavily was: Yes, People Do Buy Books, by Lincolm Michel --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Failure is non negotiable. So how can learn and grow from our failures? We share some of our failures, what they taught us, how we dealt with them at the time, and what we think of them now. Included: dealing with rejection from gatekeepers, why failure should excite us, letting ourselves be upset, and more! There are still tickets to both of our US workshops! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Another spice one provoked by some online discourse. Is it wrong to make money from our art? Does making art with the intention to sell it sully it? It's a strong no from us. Listen to learn why! Don't forget we have two workshops in California coming up. LA on the 25th of May San Francisco on the 1st of June Both are going to be 5 hours long (including a lunch break), with teaching, QandA, journaling, and a chance to mingle with other artists. Cheapest tickets start at $50. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Back to our favourite punching bag: Perfectionism. We talk about how perfectionism leads to stagnancy, stunts your growth as a creative, and ultimately leads to worse art. LA and San Francisco artists (or anyone who wants to travel there!), we are coming to your city! LA workshop: 25th of March San Fran workshop: 1st of June Pricing is on a sliding scale to accomodate different budgets. Learn more here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Join us on a walk and talk as we play a little game of Would You Rather, artist edition! We would love for you to check out Amie's fiction. Her witchy tudor novel, Regrettably, I Am About to Cause Trouble, and her Sexy medieval romp, The Rules Upheld by No One are available in audio, e-book, and print on most major platforms. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

This is one of our favourite ever conversations! Emma Couette, six novels in the last five years. All while holding down a full time job. We talk about how she juggles a 9-5 job with this sort of release schedule, doing her own promo, fighting for her novels, finding good people to give feedback, making difficult choices about how to allocate resources to creative projects, and much more! We learned so much about the Indie publishing space and came away with heaps of things we want to action. We reached out to Emma and asked her on the podcast because we are blown away by how she fights for her writing. How diligent she is. How much care she puts into her promotion and her social presence (@emmacouetteauthor). Here are links to Emma's novels, please support her: Silent Night purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/guildtrilogybookone Summer's Revenge purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/summersrevenge Winter's Wrath purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/winterswrath Emma's website: ⁠https://www.emmacouetteauthor.com⁠ Emma is @emmacouetteauthor on Insta, Tiktok, and Threads. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Welcome Amie's sister Kirsty to the show! At 29 years old, Kirsty is the founder and director of Made Home, a Sydney based home transition company, with fifteen employees and dozens of customers! We spend a lot of time trying to get to the bottom of why Amie and Kirsty both became Entrepreneurs and what exactly it was about their childhood that made them bounce off traditional work. We also discuss the challenges of more traditional businesses versus creative businesseses, how motherhood has changed Kirsty's relationship with work, and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

First off, friends, audio continues to betray us at every turn. We had multiple glitches again this week so, if James suddenly starts talking about the Patriarchy seemingly mid-sentence, we apologise for the non sequitur. I think things mostly make sense though? Let us know. So, what's the episode about? Amie has an arch nemesis, and that arch nemesis is a man called Hubs who goes by the social media handle @Hubs.life (not normalise the 9-5 as we mistakenly say in the ep). Hubs doe not know Amie. Amie has never met Hubs. But Hubs made the mistake of making a series of reels and tiktoks urging his followers to "normalise the 9-5". We talk about why we in fact do not need to do this (spoiler, because it is already incredibly normalised). If you soldier through the "life update" section at the 2/3s mark, we go on to discuss our tips for those of you trying to create around your job (which we also have a full podcast episode on). Xoxo Amie and James P.s. Amie's novels are going gangbusters at the moment! Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble is flying off the proverbial shelf largely thanks to a massive shoutout from Emmi.Reads. If you've read Regrettably, we'd love if you could review it on goodreads, to get it higher in that sweet book nerd algo, or on the non-Amazon affiliated Story Graph. Remember it is both free on Youtube, and included in a Spotify Premium membership. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

REAL PODCAST STARTS AT ABOUT 07:00, everything before that is bullshit chat. We talk you through how we like to plan out projects (or don't). Sit with us in a sort of ASMR, fly on the wall type way as we plan what we want to work on for the rest of the year. We try to give our chaotic lives a loose structure. Which doesn't always work. Expect: pros and cons of planning, what we think of ultra long term planning, how we choose projects to work on, finding our rhythm, and more rambles! Guess what! We are offering two free, hour long masterclasses for anyone who's ever wanted to check out our live teaching. Sign up here. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message

Today we have Creative, Performance Coach, Mentor and good friend Sion Cousins on the podcast. An incredibly important episode for Creatives who have big dreams. In this episode we talk about what gets in the way between us and our goals. James gets his own mini coaching session, we talk about when I first started instagram, and lots lots more. Our Rhode mics did not work (name dropping because I am pissed) so please bare with the audio! Sions information: You can work one on one with Sion, just email him and you can set up a free call! Website: https://www.sondervail.com/home Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sondervail/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message