‘So you want to be a writer’ top 10 podcast episodes for 2018

It seems like yesterday that we kicked off 2018 with Episode 218 of the popular podcast series So you want to be a writer with our CEO, Valerie Khoo and children's’ author Allison Tait. And now, within the blink of the eye and 45 episodes later we find ourselves knocking of the door of 2019.

Time to take stock.

With almost a million (yes a million!) downloads, we are listened to from as far afield as the USA, UK, Canada, France, NZ, Germany, Netherlands and South Africa, with the majority of people using their Apple mobile products to tune in to us on a weekly basis.

This year’s crop of episodes have been especially popular, and here are your top 10 for 2018 and a list of relevant AWC courses to match.

1. Ep 229 Danielle Clode, author of The Wasp and The Orchid hit the jackpot at number one.

Here we talk to Danielle, the award-winning Australian author about her latest book and her writing which includes natural history, essays, science-writing, historical fiction and bestselling children’s books. Her books have won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for non-fiction, Whitley Award for popular zoology and been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested AWC course: Creative Writing Stage 1

 2. Ep 218 Top 10 writing tips from our favourite authors.

Coming in at number two for 2018 is our first podcast for the year where Valerie and Allison choose their top 10 writing tips from their favourite authors. Allison particularly loved her interview with Jacki French in Episode 214, and Valerie loved her interview with Brett Battles in Episode 216. Here he talked about why he changed from publishing down the traditional path to self-publish and the systems he uses to use to make more than six figures as an author.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Successful Self-publishing: Print and Ebooks

3. Ep 226 Meet true crime author Campbell McConachie.

Campbell McConachie grew up in Sydney, Bahrain and Papua New Guinea. He interviewed Lindsey Rose in prison more than 25 times for his first book, The Fatalist, a true crime biography. Lindsey Rose committed five murders in Sydney between 1984 and 1994, and Campbell was prompted to write his story when he discovered he used to drink with him at the Burwood Hotel in Sydney.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder

4. Ep 223 Sally Hepworth, author of The Family Next Door.

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives, The Things We Keep and The Mother’s Promise, and her latest book, The Family Next Door. Her books have been labelled “enchanting” by The Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publisher’s Weekly, and The New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Sally’s novels as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing”.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Novel Writing Essentials

5. Ep 237 Meet Megan Goldin, author of The Escape Room.

Megan Goldin has worked as a foreign correspondent for the ABC and Reuters in Asia and the Middle East where she covered war zones and wrote about war, peace and international terrorism. After she had her third child, she returned to her hometown of Melbourne to raise her three sons and write fiction. The Escape Room is her second novel.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Make Time to Write

6. Ep 228 Here’s the hilarious and charming Kerri Sackville, author of Out There: A Survival Guide for Dating in Midlife.

Kerri Sackville is an Australian author, columnist, and social commentator, and, according to the Daily Mail, a ‘media personality’.  She writes regularly for Sunday Life magazine, SMH online and news.com.au, on topics ranging from sex and relationships to parenting, mental health, current affairs, and whether white chocolate is real chocolate (it isn’t).

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Freelance Writing Stage 1

7. Ep 230 How to get into real estate writing with copywriter Donna Webeck.

Donna is a lover of all things literary and she is passionate about prose. As a freelance writer, she covers topics including health, parenting and property and she is a content and social media manager and a real estate copywriter.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Real Estate Copywriting

8. Ep 221 Jack Heath, bestselling author of Hangman.

Jack Heath is the pen name of a bestselling and award-winning author with 20 action-packed books for kids and one disturbing crime novel for adults, Hangman. His books have been translated into several languages and optioned for film and television.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: Write Your Novel

9. Ep 224 Meet Eliza Henry-Jones, author of P is for Pearl.

Eliza Henry-Jones’ debut novel In the Quiet was part of a three-book deal with HarperCollins Australia. It was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was longlisted in the Indie Awards and ABIA Awards. Her second novel is Ache and she has signed an additional two-book deal with HarperCollins Australia for two works for younger readers. P is for Pearl her first Young Adult novel.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: How to Write for Children and Young Adults

10. Ep 220 Behind the scenes of The Woman Who Fooled the World: Belle Gibson’s Cancer Con by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.

Beau Donelly is an author and multi-award-winning journalist with sharp news sense and experience creating stories for print, broadcast and online. Beau has had work published in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, Brisbane Times, Good Weekend, The Sunday Times, The Walkley Magazine, News.com.au, Crikey, The Courier Mail, The Jakarta Globe, APN publications, The Weekly Review magazine, and Fairfax community newspapers including The Melbourne Times.

Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.

Suggested course: How to Write Media Releases

And that’s our top 10 for this year. Thank you for your endless support.

We wish you a happy and creative holiday and look forward to spending time with you again every week in 2019.