Shooting the Shit About Winning Author Mindsets and Agent Submission Timelines
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra
4.8 • 842 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They are back! CeCe’s in Ottawa, Carly’s in LA — but the tea is still hot! They break down Q3 book sales (romance + thrillers took a hit), talk timing for submissions, decode what agent feedback really means, and dive into the “good news comes fast” myth. Plus: AI scam alerts and why rejection is just part of the game.
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 | Welcome to another episode of Shooting the Shit with literary agents Carly Waters and Cece Learro, |
| 0:08.2 | where we dissect publishing gossip, discuss book industry trends, and the overall state of the book business. |
| 0:14.1 | If you've ever wanted to grab a coffee with two literary agents, grab your mug and pull up a chair. |
| 0:26.0 | Thank you. agents, grab your mug and pull up a chair. All right. |
| 0:26.6 | Well, Cece and I started having a great conversation and then realized we didn't hit |
| 0:29.9 | record. |
| 0:30.9 | So, Cece- |
| 0:31.6 | Terrible for me. |
| 0:33.1 | I'm mad at Carly, guys. |
| 0:34.3 | I'm mad at Carly. |
| 0:35.3 | Today, I am mad at Carly. |
| 0:37.4 | Ask why. Ask why. Why, Carly? Why am I mad at you? Cici, why are you mad at Carly guys. I'm mad at Carly. Today I am mad at Carly. Ask why. Ask why. Why, Carly? Cici, why are you mad at me, Carly? Because you're going to be in L.A. when I'm going to be in Ottawa. Like, I never go to Ottawa. I've only been to Ottawa once in my life before and I'm going to be in Ottawa on Monday for a super fun event with my client, Dr. Tracy Dalglish. It's going to be great. It's going to be all about her new book, you, your husband, and his mother. And I was like, Carly can come. It's going to be so much fun. Guess what? Carly's going to be in L.A. What does L.A. have that Ottawa does not have. Why are you in L.A. Callerling. I know. So listen, I actually booked this L.A. What does L.A. have that Ottawa does not have? Why are you in L.A. Carly? |
| 1:11.9 | I know. So listen, I actually booked this L.A. trip a very, very long time ago because of my |
| 1:17.4 | chaotic life schedule, needing to break it up between kids' events and obviously other work |
| 1:24.2 | travel. I couldn't do everything back to back. And I also, I mean, I will say I selfishly picked L.A. in November because of the weather. You know, Ottawa's starting to do that, like, dip into, you know, fall where I'm starting to get the winter sad zies. And I thought this would be a great week just to like, you know, duck out and get some sun on my arms. And the CCC's also give me thumbs down i told I'm going to bring my big hat. I'm bringing my big sun hat. I got a laser facial last week where they like, you know, do the, they try to get rid of the like, I don't know, sunspots and age spots. So I do have to wear lots of sunscreen and my big sun hat. So will be very protected but I'm excited about your |
| 2:01.1 | event and I so if you guys are listening to this hat and sunscreen no matter what though |
| 2:06.2 | of course yes yes yes yes I will need less lasers if I just follow Cc's advice here |
| 2:12.0 | so Cc if you guys are listening to this on Monday morning, and if you're on Ottawa, so it is |
| 2:17.6 | tonight, if you were listening to this on Monday. So go to the event. CCC. If you are in Ottawa, |
| 2:23.4 | our Ottawa listeners, I know there's a handful of you. So yeah, definitely, definitely go check |
| 2:28.1 | her out. And then I also have a client in town. Alex Manley is doing an event for their essay |
| 2:33.0 | collection at Perfect Books this week. So a lot's |
... |
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