Shooting The Shit about what agents really think about writer’s conferences, how agents get good at their jobs, and what actually sells books right now
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra
4.8 • 842 Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Shooting The Shit, Carly and CeCe unpack the state of today’s publishing industry—from their latest projects to upcoming conferences and the realities of writer–agent dynamics. They dig into what writers can expect from conferences, how agents sharpen their manuscript-analysis skills, and whether podcast appearances really move the needle on book sales. At the heart of the conversation: building a lasting author brand and navigating the ever-shifting publishing landscape
Note: Cece Lyra is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates. If you’d like to query CeCe, please refer to the submission guidelines at www.wsherman.com. Carly Watters is a literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency, but her work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly on this podcast are solely that of her as a podcast co-host and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What's up everyone? This is Cece. If you're a writer, then chances are you've wondered if your story is good enough. |
| 0:07.1 | Maybe you're wondering that right now. I get it. Here's what I can tell you. As long as your story is making the reader curious, you're good. |
| 0:15.3 | Now, I'm not saying you won't have to make edits when working with an agent or publisher. Edits are a part of the game, but I am saying that you will get ahead in your career |
| 0:24.4 | if you know how to make the reader curious. |
| 0:26.9 | The best way to do that, infuse your story with plenty of tension, conflict, and stakes, |
| 0:32.7 | which is why I'm so excited to invite you to join my four-day course, writing tension, creating tension, conflict, |
| 0:39.3 | and stakes in your story. It starts on October 13. My favorite part about this class is that there |
| 0:46.0 | are formulas, yes, formulas, for tension, for conflict, for stakes. And for the first time ever, |
| 0:53.5 | we're having two optional interactive |
| 0:55.8 | components, including a query letter studio and live critiques of select first pages. I'm super |
| 1:03.8 | excited about this new format because I've seen it yield results in writer's works. And it works |
| 1:09.3 | for writers of any genre as long as you're serious about |
| 1:12.6 | improving your work. So if you're ready to take your writing to the next level, join me for |
| 1:18.4 | this four-day course. Don't worry if you can't attend live. The sessions will be recorded. |
| 1:25.3 | For more information, check out my bio on Instagram or the podcast's website. |
| 1:30.5 | I'm looking forward to seeing you there. Welcome to another episode of Shooting the Shit with |
| 1:38.0 | Literary Agents, Carly Waters, and Cece Learro, where we dissect publishing gossip, discuss |
| 1:43.6 | book industry trends, and the |
| 1:45.2 | overall state of the book business. If you've ever wanted to grab a coffee with two |
| 1:49.1 | literary agents, grab your mug and pull up a chair. Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of us shooting the shit. We're starting to get into the groove. What can we gossip about? What can we talk about? I also feel like we started on such a high with like the big reveal of the show and then Cece's job move and now we have to like settle into the groove of the show a little bit. So I hope it will continue to be as juicy as possible |
| 2:17.8 | as we go, but we will find out. Well, now our listeners will be like, no, no, you tell us all |
| 2:24.4 | the time on Books with Hooks that after you escalated the tension, the tension needs to keep |
... |
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