London Writers' Salon

A deep dive into the habits, mindsets, tools, craft secrets and creative practices bestselling writers use to write novels, plays, poetry, and articles. Hosted by the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, Matt & Parul.

London Writers' Salon is a arts podcast hosted by Parul Bavishi, Matthew Trinetti, with 214 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Parul Bavishi, Matthew Trinetti hosts London Writers' Salon, a arts show with 214 episodes published.

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  Episode #214

  #214: Emma Gannon — Finding Your Creative Compass, Letting Go of People-Pleasing, Redefining Success, and Owning Your Work Through Self-Publishing

  Oct 3, 20261h 3m

  Sunday Times bestselling author Emma Gannon on healing burnout through play and joy, trusting your creative intuition over people-pleasing, and what she's learned from self-publishing alongside traditional publishing. You'll learn Why burnout might be healed through play and joy rather than by pushing harder. How some books arrive in a month while others take years, and why there's no single right way to write one. The case against selling a book before it's written. A squirrel-inspired method for gathering raw material and letting a book's themes reveal themselves. What to remember when you're tempted to talk yourself out of writing a book. When people-pleasing quietly drowns out your creative intuition, and how to hear it again. How small, everyday acts of creativity keep the spark alive between big projects. What to do on bleak days, and why your younger self might hold the answer. Self-publishing from the inside, including the numbers behind one book. How judging a major literary prize can stretch you as a reader. Resources & Links Interview Transcript (unedited) Emma's Substack, The Hyphen Emma Gannon's website Our previous podcast episode with Emma: #089: Emma Gannon — The Success Myth, Substack, Self-Publishing, Productivity Dysmorphia, The Arrival Fallacy, Being A Happy Creative A Creative Compass by Emma Gannon A Year of Nothing by Emma Gannon Table for One by Emma Gannon Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh How to be Hopeful by Caitlin Moran The Pound Project Writing in Community — LWS Community Anthology About Lulu If you're self-publishing a book, Lulu now offers a Direct Buy Button that enables you to sell direct to your reader through a simple code. There's no cost to using it and it makes it easier to sell books directly from anywhere: your newsletter, social profile, website or podcast - and you don't have to worry about shipping or taxes. For more information head to lulu.com . In Partnership with Discoveries 2027 This episode was recorded in partnership with Discoveries 2027, the Women's Prize Trust's writer development programme for unagented and unpublished women writers. Discoveries is designed to empower new voices, unlock potential, build confidence, and increase writers' skills and knowledge. Submissions for Discoveries 2027 opened Tuesday, September 15. Submit here . About Emma Gannon Emma Gannon is the Sunday Times bestselling author of nine books, including A Year of Nothing and OLIVE, which was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, Table for One (2025), was selected as People magazine's 'Fiction of the Week.' Emma also writes one of the UK's most popular Substack newsletters, The Hyphen, which has thousands of paid subscribers. In addition to her writing, she hosts creativity retreats around the world and served as a judge for the 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Her latest book is A Creative Compass: Finding Your Way to a Creative Life.   For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com. For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com. * FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

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  Episode #213

  #213: Anthony Anaxagorou — Thinking Like a Poet, Pushing Past Self-Doubt, and Treating Rejection as Part of the Job (From The Vault)

  Sep 25, 202651 min

  Poet, publisher, and educator Anthony Anaxagorou on treating rejection as part of the job, pushing an idea to its edge without losing the reader, and ending a poem where it can keep travelling — a re-release of episode #012. You'll learn: Why walking away from writing for years doesn't necessarily mean you ever left it. How to treat rejection as part of the job rather than a verdict on your worth. What happens to your work when one stamp of validation starts to feel like an entitlement. How a restless, never-satisfied mind can become a creative engine. A morning listening exercise, borrowed from Lydia Davis, that can hand you the first line of a poem. What to do when you're stuck on a line and the answer is sitting on your bookshelf. Why “accessible” is one of the most loaded words in poetry. How far to push an idea before you lose the reader. Two ways to take a flat, literal line and make it tell the truth slant. Why your poem probably starts later and ends earlier than you think, and what the reader does with the space you leave. Resources & Links Original episode: #012 Anthony Anaxagorou — Push Past Self-Doubt and Think Like a Poet Anthony's website How to Write It After the Formalities Heritage Aesthetics Out-Spoken Out-Spoken Press “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” by Emily Dickinson About Anthony Anaxagorou Anthony Anaxagorou FRSL is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His poetry has been published in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, New Statesman, Granta, and elsewhere. His third collection, Heritage Aesthetics (Granta Poetry, 2022), won the 2023 RSL Ondaatje Prize. His second collection, After the Formalities, was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize and called a poetry book of the year by the Telegraph and Guardian. He was awarded the 2019 H-100 Award for writing and publishing, and the 2015 Groucho Maverick Award for his poetry and fiction, and in 2023 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2012 Anthony set up one of London's leading poetry nights, Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night now held at London's Southbank Centre, and established Out-Spoken Press – a publishing house that looks to challenge the lack of diversity in British poetry publishing. His craft book, How to Write It, was published by Penguin's #Merky Books in 2020. For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com. For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com. * FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

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  Episode #212

  #212: Marti Leimbach — The Art of Writing a Novel, Why Self-Doubt Is a Good Sign, Revising Without Losing Heart, and Surviving the Highs and Lows of Publishing (From The Vault)

  Sep 20, 202647 min

  Bestselling novelist Marti Leimbach on the art of writing a novel, surviving early success and the long career that follows, and turning lived experience into fiction — a remastered version of episode #016. You'll learn Why your relationship to the page has to outrank every other voice in writing and publishing. How to tell apart the voice that says you're no good and the voice that says you're not finished. The case for admitting you're not up to the task before you sit down to write. What a genuinely good writing day looks like, and why a single sentence can count as one. Why no novel is ever perfect, and what Picasso understood about original work. How enormous early success actually lands on a writer, and what the morning after looks like. A way of finding the real story inside a draft that has grown far too big. When self-doubt is a sign of talent rather than a lack of it. Why some books have to be written as fiction rather than memoir. The trick of convincing yourself you have unlimited time when you clearly don't. Resources & Links Marti's Books on Amazon Marti's website Marti's Instagram Great On The Page — Marti's Substack Original episode: #016: Marti Leimbach — The Art of Writing a Novel About Marti Leimbach Marti Leimbach is known for her bestsellers, Dying Young, made into a film starring Julia Roberts, and Daniel Isn't Talking. She is interested in neurodiversity and has shared the stage with young inventors at the Human Genome Project (Toronto), the National Autistic Society, and the University of Oxford. Her interest in science influenced her YA thriller, Dragonfly Girl. She teaches on the Masters Programme in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. Dragonfly Girl is her eighth novel, but her first for young adults. For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com. For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com. * FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

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  Episode #211

  #211: Laura Palmer & Jessie Sullivan — How to Market Your Book, from the Founders of Digital-First Publisher Pellerin Books, Finding the Readers Who Will Love Your Book, and Why the Best Book Still Wins

  Sep 12, 202650 min

  Pellerin Books founders Laura Palmer and Jessie Sullivan on how readers discover books now, where to put your marketing money, and why the quality of the book still decides everything. You'll learn The rule that quietly decides which authors get a publisher’s time, budget and attention. Why the first question about marketing a book is never “how?” How to research your readers and your market without paying for a single tool. The metric that makes an ad campaign look like it is working when nothing is. What a cover and a developmental edit should cost, and the one place never to skimp. Why raising your ad budget too fast makes it perform worse, not better. How subscription reading changed what a sagging middle chapter costs a writer. Whether a publisher actually cares how many followers you have. Three books on writing that between them cover almost everything, and the two-word rule that keeps readers turning pages. Why you cannot keyword your way into a reader’s life in the age of AI search. Resources & Links Interview Transcript Pellerin Books K-Lytics Publisher Rocket Kindlepreneur Pellerin Submissions Bookbub Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody On Writing by Stephen King A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders Pellerin Publishing Advice About Pellerin Books Pellerin Books is a new independent publisher of popular fiction, built for the way readers discover and fall in love with books today. It publishes immersive, emotionally engaging stories readers can’t put down – from thrillers to romance, historical fiction to science fiction, saga to fantasy and everything in between. It is a digital-focus publisher, which means ebooks and audiobooks are at the heart of what it does, although all its titles are available in paperback for readers who love to hold a book in their hands. At Pellerin, we believe deeply in good books and the difference they can make. We became publishers because we believe in the craft of storytelling, the power to create living worlds and characters that reach beyond the page. Making books, for us, is a way to be part of that strange magic that binds reader and author when the right book gets into the right hands. About Laura Palmer & Jessie Sullivan Laura’s love of storytelling drew her into the publishing industry in 2007 as an assistant at Quercus Books, where she was part of the team that discovered and published Stieg Larsson. In 2010, she joined Corvus, where she rode the ebook boom, delivering sales previously unheard of for new authors, and was shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn prize for women in publishing. In 2012, she co-founded Head of Zeus, alongside publishing veterans Anthony and Nicolas Cheetham. As executive director and fiction publisher, Laura ran three imprints and published more than a hundred authors at Head of Zeus. Bestselling authors she has worked with include Dani Atkins, JP Delaney, Dan Jones, Graham Masterton and Amanda Prowse. Jessie Sullivan has spent her career at the intersection of publishing and performance-led marketing. She is one of the most commercially effective marketers in modern publishing, with over £8 million in directly attributed revenue and more than £10 million in total marketing impact. For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com. For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com. * FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

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  Episode #210

  #210: Lily King — Emotional Arc, Women and Literary Ambition, Silencing the Inner Critic, and Why Patience Is a Writer's Real Craft

  Sep 6, 202656 min

  Award-winning novelist Lily King on finding the emotional arc of a novel, writing the scene you keep avoiding, and making peace with ambition, self-criticism and the long road to a first book. You'll learn Why the scene you most want to avoid is usually the one your book needs. How a small change in the final pages of one section can rebuild an entire novel. What it means to think in emotional arc rather than theme. The difference between being hard on yourself about writing and being hard on yourself while you write. Why giving yourself permission to write about your own life can unlock everything that follows. When a middle section goes flat, and how to find the engine it's missing. How ambition shows up differently for women writers, and the shame that can come with it. A notebook method built on margins, timelines, and a daily writing log. Why a bad review can be more useful than praise. What nine years on a first novel teaches you about patience. Resources & Links Interview Transcript It's Not The End of the World by Judy Blume The Pleasing Hour by Lily King The English Teacher by Lily King Euphoria by Lily King Tom Lake by Ann Patchett Heart the Lover by Lily King Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell @lilykingbooks - Lily's Instagram The Correspondent by Virginia Evans About Lily King Lily King is the award-winning author of six novels. Her most recent novel, Heart the Lover, was published on September 30th, 2025. She has also published a collection of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her 2020 novel, Writers & Lovers, won the New England Society Book Awards and was a New York Times Notable Book and chosen as a top-ten best book of 2020 by The Washington Post, NPR, People Magazine, and The Los Angeles Times. Her 2014 novel Euphoria won the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Euphoria was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014, as well as on Amazon, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, and Salon's Best Books of 2014. For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com. For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com. * FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

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