Writer's Digest Presents

Writer's Digest Presents

Writer’s Digest Presents is the official podcast of Writer’s Digest, where we’re writers helping writers since 1920. Hosted by the editors of Writer’s Digest, this monthly podcast features interviews with writing and publishing experts whose insights will help ignite your creative vision, hone your skills, build your platform, and get your work out into the world. Join us on the third Tuesday of each month for conversations, interviews, book recommendations, and a writing prompt connected to our episode theme.

Episodes

What a Book Coach Can Do for You (featuring Adrienne Westenfeld)

June 16, 2026 • 39 mins
Book coaches offer a wide range of services that are catered to your personal needs as a writer. Maybe you need help brainstorming plot problems, or you need help with your query letter. Maybe you simply need someone to hold you accountable to get the words onto the page. Whatever the need is, book coaches are there to help you get the writing done and build you writing community. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," sen...
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The Dogs That Shaped Us With Isabel Klee

May 19, 2026 • 40 mins
Isabel Klee is best known for her work in fostering and rehabilitating dogs in New York City. As "Simon Sits" on social media, Klee chronicles the experience of caring for heartbroken animals and giving them a second chance at life. Now, with her #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, "Dogs, Boys, And Other Things I've Cried About," Klee is inviting readers into her personal orbit with stories of heartbreak and betrayal, of personal...
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Reading Like a Writer with Amy Jones

April 21, 2026 • 74 mins
In February, "Writer's Digest Presents" managing editor Moriah Richard and senior editor Michael Woodson discussed performing reading audits and what they can do for your reading life. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents", editor-in-chief Amy Jones is talking about the importance of reading like a writer to benefit your writing life. But what does that mean—to read like a writer? For Amy and Michael, it means doing a...
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The Fight Against Amazon with Bookshop.org

March 17, 2026 • 48 mins
Amazon's rise in dominion over the publishing industry is largely connected to the idea that convenience outweighs community—and independent bookstores across the country were shuttering in their wake. With the prevalence and rise of online shopping, there seemed to be no way to fight Amazon's power. But publisher and writer Andy Hunter had a different take. What if you could fight the rise of Amazon while also helping suppo...
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How (and Why) To Do a Reading Audit

February 17, 2026 • 54 mins
If you were to do a reading audit of the last year or two of reading, what would it look like? Do you spread your reading across various genres, or do you stick to just one or two? Conducting a reading audit can help notify which genres are missing from your TBR and which genres are surprise favorites for you—all of which helps with your writing. In this episode of the Writer's Digest Presents podcast, managing editor Moriah...
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Writing the Perfect Ending (w/ Literary Agent Allegra Martschenko)

January 20, 2026 • 41 mins
We spend so much of our writing time perfecting the beginnings of our stories that we might be neglecting the endings—and literary agents can tell. While it's vital to have a strong start to your manuscript to get an agent's attention, if you aren't able to carry that momentum through to the end, it can be the difference between getting representation and being told, "Thank you, but no." In this episode of Writer's Digest Pr...
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Why You Should Consider Writing Retreats

December 16, 2025 • 27 mins
SEASON FINALE. With the new year right around the corner, it might be time to start thinking about your creativity in 2026. For writers, writing retreats offer uninterrupted time to focus on your craft, build your writerly community, and receive feedback from publishing experts. In the season finale of "Writer's Digest Presents," editor-in-chief Amy Jones and literary agent Jessica Berg talk about why writers should consider writi...
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Turning Your Career Into a Book (with Alexandra Gater)

November 18, 2025 • 46 mins
Say you want to learn more about woodworking, but you're not quite ready to follow a how-to video on YouTube and just want to learn as much as you can about the craft. So, you turn to your local bookstore for the best how-to book on woodworking. Publishing has long been the answer to the "how" question of our hobbies, but writing about what you do for a living is a very different task than doing what you do for a living. In this e...
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The Craft of Writing Horror (with Carson Faust)

October 21, 2025 • 36 mins
If blood and violence aren't your thing, but you love a palpable atmosphere and aren't afraid of a few ghosts, gothic fiction is right for you. The gothic and southern gothic horror sub-genres exemplify the notion that no matter what kind of reader you are, you can always find a great book in any genre. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," we're chatting with author Carson Faust about writing southern gothic fiction, his...
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Keeping Young Readers Engaged (with Alyssa Colman)

September 16, 2025 • 38 mins
Fall is upon us and a new school year has begun. Kids are lining hallways and rushing to class, clutching their school work, and new books to read. Between independent reading and required reading, keeping young readers engaged with reading helps build lifelong readers from the start. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," middle-grade author Alyssa Colman sits down to discuss how to keep young readers engaged, how writing...
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Meet Cutes, Miscommunication, and Queer Romance with Chip Pons

July 15, 2025 • 39 mins
The conversation around publishing journeys is often binary: You either try traditionally publishing or choose self-publishing. But the reality for many authors is a combination of both. Author Chips Pons self-published his debut novel, You & I, Rewritten, in 2022. Now, he returns to bookshelves with her second novel, and first traditionally published, Winging It with You. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," we chat...
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Tackling Historical Nonfiction (with Robert Fieseler)

June 17, 2025 • 64 mins
When you tackle historical nonfiction, you're offering doing more than simply putting to paper the events of the past. In author and journalist Robert Fieseler's experience, it meant hunting down sealed documents from a state that never wanted this history exposed, and it meant uncovering hundreds of names redacted from records and conducting countless hours of interviews—all before the actual writing takes place. In this ep...
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Writing Fiction Based On Your Life (with Jessica Berg)

May 20, 2025 • 33 mins
How do you write what you know? By writing fiction based on your life. This doesn't mean writing memoir or simply changing the names of the people in your life: It could be a passing comment you hear at the bus stop, or someone's missing shoe you notice in the street, or it could even just be a feeling from a time in your life..the list goes on and on! In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," editor Michael Woodson sits down...
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BONUS EPISODE: Writer's Digest is Going to England!

May 7, 2025 • 28 mins
Writer's Digest is heading to England! From September 12-20, you can join managing editor Moriah Richard and literary agent Amy Collins in London and Bath for the writing retreat of a lifetime! Listen here as they are in conversation with editor-in-chief Amy Jones about what to expect on the retreat, what they're most looking forward to, and more!
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How to Be a More Media-Savvy Author (with Paula Rizzo)

April 15, 2025 • 39 mins
The first job of a writer is to actually write their book. The next is to promote it. But getting in front of a camera or microphone and talking to a live audience isn't as easy at it may sound, and authors who are used to having thousands of words in a book to lean on may need to come up with just a few minutes of sound bites to help them get their point across. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," content editor Michae...
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Writing Whatever You Want (with author Hilary Leichter)

March 18, 2025 • 37 mins
In publishing, we spend a lot of time talking about genre, and a lot of authors know exactly what genre they're interested in writing in. But what about writers who have story ideas that don't easily fit into any one genre category? Should they shift the story to better fit a marketing mold, or should they just keep writing and faith that their unique story will find the right home? In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," c...
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Getting Started In Screenwriting

February 18, 2025 • 40 mins
Screenwriting is a completely different animal than novel writing—there are different rules, there are different ways to get feedback, there are different expectations...but understanding screenwriting can help you navigate your own stories whether or not you're interested in filmmaking. In the first episode of season four of the "Writer's Digest Presents" podcast, content editor Michael Woodson sits down with Script magazine...
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How to Fictionalize Personal History: A Chat With Sharon Short

December 17, 2024 • 34 mins
Sometimes, our own personal family history where elements of it make for the perfect story—but what do you do if the history itself works best in a totally different era, or a dog makes more sense to be a cat, or winter works better than summer when it really happens? This is where personal history and historical fiction collide. In the final episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," editor-in-chief Amy Jones...
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How Fight Scenes Can Reveal Character—and More!

November 19, 2024 • 62 mins
Fight scenes in fiction aren't just physical—they can be psychological, emotional, and often setting our characters up for any kind of fight helps us understand them better. Why they walk the way they do, what guards they have up, their weaknesses, their strengths. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," trained fighter and author Carla Hoch shares all of her knowledge about writing fight scenes, why writing fight scen...
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From Self Publishing to Traditional Publishing: An Interview with Zenda Walker

September 17, 2024 • 45 mins
In 2021, author Zenda Walker won grand prize in Writer's Digest's 29th Annual Self-Published Book Awards for her picture book, Zara's Wash Day. Since then, she landed a two-book traditional book deal, republishing her award-winning book with a new foreword from Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, plus a follow-up book, Zion's Crown. Editor-in-chief Amy Jones and content editor Michael Woodson sit down with Zenda to discus...
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