Have You Heard About: The S#*! No One Tells You About Writing?

Welcome back to our regularly irregular series about resources I find helpful as a self-taught writer. I promise to continue to being these to light as I stumble across them and find value.

This week’s subject, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, joins Writing Excuses and The Reading and Writing Podcast to form a disjointed trilogy of panel-and-interview-driven writing advice pods.

Obligatory disclaimer: This is my opinion, not an ad. Cool? Cool.

Authors, editors, and agents Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra bring a wealth of industry experience to bear as they dispense no-nonsense advise with wit and whimsy. It feels like you’re gathered at brunch after a long writing conference, and the professionals have let their hair down to commiserate over how things really are in publishing. If you listen to Writing Excuses and wish they would talk about genres beyond speculative fiction, The Shit… may be for you. The host’s favorite books and the guest speakers tend to revolve around literary fiction, women’s fiction, and romance.

The real strength of this pod compared to similar products is the behind-the-scenes look at the publishing business from actual publishers. Authors who broke in 5, 10, even 20 years ago have one experience to share, which is certainly helpful, but hearing these experienced insiders discuss current industry trends and patterns they see among writers is invaluable.

If the titles was not a clue, sometimes their humor veers towards, oh, let’s call it saucy. Use your best judgement in that respect.

You can check out their backlist on Apple Podcasts, or your podcatcher of choice (I think I am one of the literal dozens using CastBox.). I started from the beginning, so I am sure there are gems posted more recently, but some of my favorites so far include:

#9 What You Need To Know About Self Publishing

#10 Why Writing Groups Are Integral

#15 How to Create and Maintain Suspense in all Genres

#24 First Books with Hooks & Freelance Editors – In this one they analyze real query letters with agents and acquiring editors.

If you are interested in learning more about the business side of writing, look no further than The Shit No One Tells You About Writing.