Collaborcast Collaborist

Hi Collaborist! On this week's episode of Collaborcast we talk to literary agent, Joanna MacKenzie! We dive in to the publishing market today, and how it has changed since the pandemic. We also discuss self-publishing, and how this could be a wrong way to go for most authors. Make sure to stick around for Joanna's "Do's and Dont's" of query letters. Joanna also gives us insight in to how her love and studies of movies have translated over to the literary world!
From Joanna, "I owe my love of books to the librarian of my childhood bookmobile, who, after I had worked my way through The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High, lifted the velvet rope and let me into the grown-up section, where I discovered V.C. Andrews. And to my father, who gave me Cat’s Cradle, Wuthering Heights, and One Hundred Years of Solitude for my fifteenth birthday. A seasoned publishing professional with nearly twenty years on the agenting side, I’m driven by the stories my authors tell, both with the novels they write and with the careers they build. I represent New York Times bestsellers, Edgar and Anthony Award nominees, and critically acclaimed storytellers writing in all areas of adult and young adult fiction."
Jason Buchholz’s acclaimed debut novel, A Paper Son, was published by Tyrus Books in 2016. He has ghostwritten books and book proposals for a variety of authors and as an editor he has fostered the development of dozens of manuscripts, both in fiction and nonfiction. He has also worked as a journalist and a travel writer. A current nonfiction project has him hiking and kayaking deep into the quiet landscapes of the many wilderness areas of Northern California, where he lives. When he’s not writing or reading he spends his time playing and traveling with his son and daughter. Jason graduated from UC Berkeley and holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco.
Ben LeRoy began his publishing career in the early 2000s as the publisher of Bleak House Books (2000-2009) and then Tyrus Books (2009-2017) until the latter was acquired by Simon & Schuster. During his time as publisher, Ben worked on a variety of critically acclaimed and award winning titles. He was also a regular panelist and speaker at writing conferences. Since 2017 he has continued to work with writers to help them understand and best tell their stories. He has extensive relationships within the publishing and bookselling community and is a mindful observer of current trends and artistic integrity. He is continually exploring new ways of approaching editing.
We provide editing, writing, coaching, and consulting services for writers in all genres. Whether you’re a first-time writer planning your first manuscript or an established author wondering why your latest draft isn’t quite working as well as it should, our bespoke services will help you attain your goals. If you feel like we can help you in your writing aspirations, please visit us at www.collaborist.org.
 

Hi Collaborist!
This week on Collaborcast we interview Emily Krempholtz. Emily is an esteemed editor, book coach, and hopefully, soon-to-be-published author! We dive into her new book and what got her, and America, into the booming cozy fantasy genre. We also discuss how to query agents, BookTok, Romantasy, and how the woman author is the major voice behind the Romantasy genre. Emily talks us through all the highs and lows of her current publishing journey, and how she persevered through it all. This is an episode you can’t miss!
Emily Krempholtz is a writer, editor, book coach, and storyteller. With a background that spans from journalism to fantasy, Emily is passionate about pulling at the threads of a narrative—be it memoir, self-help, or sci-fi—to unearth the powerful stories that lie beneath the fabric of the human experience. She prides herself on being an enthusiastic, supportive, and honest advocate for the authors she works with.Her reading interests are as varied and ever-changing as her hair color, but her specialties as an editor include memoir and personal development.On the fiction side, Emily loves to write, read, and edit works that fall under the genres of fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, romance, women’s fiction, and YA. If it’s got themes of found family, realizing your own potential, or breaking free from the “shoulds” of the world, she’s in.Emily also has extensive experience working in spirituality/wellness, prescriptive nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, and business guides, as well as short-form nonfiction like blogs, articles, brochures, and social media, particularly for small businesses. She loves conceptualizing a book’s structure from the ground up, and works with many writers to create successful book proposals that speak to that book’s unique message and firm place in today’s publishing landscape.Above all else, Emily lives for a story that grabs her with a strong voice and captivates her with a compelling narrative. If you bring her a story that makes her laugh, she’ll be your new best friend for life.
Jason Buchholz’s acclaimed debut novel, A Paper Son, was published by Tyrus Books in 2016. He has ghostwritten books and book proposals for a variety of authors and as an editor he has fostered the development of dozens of manuscripts, both in fiction and nonfiction. He has also worked as a journalist and a travel writer. A current nonfiction project has him hiking and kayaking deep into the quiet landscapes of the many wilderness areas of Northern California, where he lives. When he’s not writing or reading he spends his time playing and traveling with his son and daughter. Jason graduated from UC Berkeley and holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco.
Ben LeRoy began his publishing career in the early 2000s as the publisher of Bleak House Books (2000-2009) and then Tyrus Books (2009-2017) until the latter was acquired by Simon & Schuster. During his time as publisher, Ben worked on a variety of critically acclaimed and award winning titles. He was also a regular panelist and speaker at writing conferences. Since 2017 he has continued to work with writers tohelp them understand and best tell their stories. He has extensive relationships within the publishing and bookselling community and is a mindful observer of current trends and artistic integrity. He is continually exploring new ways of approaching editing.
We provide editing, writing, coaching, and consulting services for writers in all genres. Whether you’re a first-time writer planning your first manuscript or an established author wondering why your latest draft isn’t quite working as well as it should, our bespoke services will help you attain your goals. If you feel like we can help you in your writing aspirations, please visit us at https://collaborist.org/

Hi Collaborist! On this episode of Collaborcast, we sit down with John Ritter! We dive in to how he navigated the cliches of the private investigator genre, while writing "Fatal Conceit". Ritter also fills us in on how he was able to have such a diverse amount of environments in his book, while making them all rich with detail. Finally, John Ritter gives us some recent updates on his new book!
From small-town Midwest roots, John Ritter bounced around America growing up—Kentucky, Texas, Wyoming, Southern California. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas, interrupted by two years of hitchhiking in the Southwest and work as a carpenter’s helper and meat cutter. He began a reporting career at two upstate New York newspapers the summer Nixon resigned. Then came a short stint in Phoenix at the Arizona Republic before hiring on at start-up USA TODAY in Washington. He spent twenty-eight years there, as an editor on the national desk, then as a general-assignment reporter handling both breaking news and in-depth stories about the environment, education, aviation, and politics. He and a colleague were named 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalists in investigative reporting. A move to the Bay Area as a national correspondent found Ritter on the road up and down the West Coast and throughout the mountain West. He left journalism in 2009 to write fiction and currently splits time between Northern California and Southeast Asia. Fatal Conceit is his first published manuscript.
Jason Buchholz’s acclaimed debut novel, A Paper Son, was published by Tyrus Books in 2016. He has ghostwritten books and book proposals for a variety of authors and as an editor he has fostered the development of dozens of manuscripts, both in fiction and nonfiction. He has also worked as a journalist and a travel writer. A current nonfiction project has him hiking and kayaking deep into the quiet landscapes of the many wilderness areas of Northern California, where he lives. When he’s not writing or reading he spends his time playing and traveling with his son and daughter. Jason graduated from UC Berkeley and holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco.
Ben LeRoy began his publishing career in the early 2000s as the publisher of Bleak House Books (2000-2009) and then Tyrus Books (2009-2017) until the latter was acquired by Simon & Schuster. During his time as publisher, Ben worked on a variety of critically acclaimed and award winning titles. He was also a regular panelist and speaker at writing conferences. Since 2017 he has continued to work with writers to help them understand and best tell their stories. He has extensive relationships within the publishing and bookselling community and is a mindful observer of current trends and artistic integrity. He is continually exploring new ways of approaching editing. We provide editing, writing, coaching, and consulting services for writers in all genres.
Whether you’re a first-time writer planning your first manuscript or an established author wondering why your latest draft isn’t quite working as well as it should, our bespoke services will help you attain your goals. If you feel like we can help you in your writing aspirations, please visit us at https://collaborist.org/
00:00 Opening Credits
00:45 Writing Groups this Summer!
01:45 John's entrance (Bio + Book Summary)
05:31 "How did you navigate the cliches of your genre?"
07:40 Baggage of main character
10:15 Intelligence of main character (all of the references he uses)
18:18 Change from journalism to fiction
25:16 Diverse and immersive settings that Ritter used
33:43 New Book!
35:38 1st person to 3rd person

Hi Collaborist!
Thinking about writing a memoir? Have some things you really want to say, but worry you might get in trouble for it? Whose story is it anyway? We go over some things to keep in mind as you tell the story of your life and the people who have made guest appearances.

Hey Collaborist! On this episode of Collaborcast we're joined by journalist and author Meg Kissinger. She talks about what went into writing her memoir While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence. We discuss not only the craft of writing memoir, but also the profound mental work that is required of us when telling stories about our own lives and the lives of those closest to us.
Join Jason, Katelyn, and Ben as they welcome Meg Kissinger to Collaborcast!
ABOUT MEG KISSINGER - Meg Kissinger spent more than two decades traveling across the country to report on America’s mental health system for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she has won dozens of accolades, including two George Polk Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, and two National Journalism Awards. Kissinger teaches investigative reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a visiting professor at DePauw University, her alma mater. Her stories on the abysmal living conditions for people with mental illness inspired changes to Wisconsin law and led to the creation of hundreds of new housing units. She lives in Milwaukee with Larry Boynton, her husband of more than 40 years.
ABOUT WHILE YOU WERE OUT -Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year 2023
From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them. Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding—a heavily medicated mother hospitalized for anxiety and depression, a manic father prone to violence, and children in the throes of bipolar disorder and depression, two of whom would take their own lives. Through it all, the Kissingers faced the world with their signature dark humor and the unspoken family rule: never talk about it. While You Were Out begins as the personal story of one family’s struggles then opens outward, as Kissinger details how childhood tragedy catalyzed a journalism career focused on exposing our country’s flawed mental health care. Combining the intimacy of memoir with the rigor of investigative reporting, the book explores the consequences of shame, the havoc of botched public policy, and the hope offered by new treatment strategies. Powerful, candid and filled with surprising humor, this is the story of one family’s love and resilience in face of great loss.
For more information about Meg, visit www.megkissinger.com
For more information about Collaborist, visit www.collaborist.org
 

Hey Collaborist -
Have you ever read a memoir and wondered how much of it was true and how much of it was "true?" On this episode of Collaborcast we discuss reader expectations and author intentions in the matter of retelling the story of a lived life. Is truth important in memoir? Is it possible to be 100% accurate with an unreliable memory? Does it matter?
ABOUT THE HOSTS:
Jason Buchholz’s acclaimed debut novel, A Paper Son, published by Tyrus Books in 2016, explores themes of migration, borderlands, heritage, and the sometimes hidden stories that bind us all together. He has ghostwritten books and book proposals for a variety of authors and as an editor he has fostered the development of dozens of manuscripts, both in fiction and nonfiction. He has also worked as a journalist and a travel writer. A current nonfiction project has him hiking and kayaking deep into the quiet landscapes of the many wilderness areas of Northern California, where he lives. When he’s not writing or reading he spends his time playing and traveling with his son and daughter. Jason graduated from UC Berkeley and holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco.
Ben LeRoy has long been fascinated by the power of words and story to connect and expand the world. He was the founder and publisher of the critically acclaimed publishing companies Bleak House Books (2000-2009) and Tyrus Books (2009-2017) until the latter was sold to Simon & Schuster. During his time in publishing, Ben was a frequent speaker at conferences and routinely interviewed for pieces about the industry. In 2014, after the suicide death of a friend, Ben did volunteer work in all 50 states as part of the Be Local Everywhere project.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Need an Editor, Ghostwriter, or Coach? Hire a Collaborist! – https://collaborist.org/services/
More about Jason Buchholz - http://www.jasonbuchholz.com/
More about Ben LeRoy – http://www.thebenleroy.com