Sunday Nice Things: Book Journey x Alka Joshi

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Technology, Kids & Family, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Parenting

4.3 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we're dropping an episode of Book Journey into the feed, a behind-the-scenes podcast from editor and Northern California Writers Retreat director Heather Lazar about how writers become authors. This conversation follows Alka Joshi, international bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy from first pages to agent to editor to a breakout debut. You will hear how a voice becomes a manuscript, what a real revision process looks like, how contracts and covers happen, and how a thousand book clubs powered word of mouth. About the Northern California Writers Retreat: a juried fiction retreat held four times a year in Carmel Valley. Each session brings together 18 writers, literary agents, an editor, and an author in residence for an intensive, practical immersion in the craft and business of publishing. Founded and directed by Heather Lazar, the retreat blends hands-on editorial guidance with real-world industry access. Applications are open until November 7. I’ll serve as author in residence for the third session, April 8–12. Listen to more episodes of Book Journey here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello all. Welcome to Sunday Nice Things.
0:10.0	Fun fact, this week, Nick Astor and I officially became a bookstore.
0:16.0	We did our first pop-up bookshop at an event that I did here in Philly at the Filler Club, and we sold out of our books.
0:24.8	It's crazy. It's so awesome. We're calling ourselves the bookcase. We're on Instagram as bookcase.
0:31.6	And we're about to load up our new book trailer for other pop-up fun. Part of that new job, I can't believe I got
0:38.3	myself a new job, I have so many freaking jobs, but part of that new job is reading a lot of books
0:43.2	and deciding which books I'm going to stock in the book trailer. One of the people whose
0:47.5	recommendations I always take is Heather Lazar. She is the founder and director of the Northern
0:53.0	California Writers Retreat, which is a jurried
0:55.7	fiction retreat in Carmel Valley that brings together 18 writers, literary agents, an editor,
1:01.1	and an author in residence, which is going to be me this year during the third session,
1:06.0	from April 8th to April 12th.
1:08.9	Applications for NorCal Riders Retreat are open until November 7th. If you want to join us this year, get your application in. It's going to be a lot of fun. I really, I can't wait to go. I can't wait to go. I got to do it during COVID virtually, but now I get to be there in person. Heather has also launched a podcast, and I love this because it's kind of like behind the music,
1:28.6	but for books. It's called Book Journey. She talks to an author about how they develop their
1:33.1	writing career and how their books actually become books. Today's episode is with Alka Joshi,
1:39.5	the international best-selling author of the Jaipor trilogy. I think you're going to love this episode.
1:45.1	I'll put a link to all of the other ones in the show notes, as well as the application to apply for the NorCal Riders Retreat.
1:52.8	Welcome to Book Journey, the podcast where we learn how writers become authors. I'm Heather
1:58.2	Lazare, founder and director of Northern California Writers Retreat,
2:02.4	a jurried fiction retreat held four times a year in Carmel Valley. I started my publishing
2:08.2	career at a literary agency. Then I worked for Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster,
2:13.9	where I was a senior editor before I left to start my own editorial business
	...

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