Dear Rach & Soph

This week Rach and Soph discuss the Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey and also delve into whether or not we usually read award-winning books and why/why not. We’d love to know if you read them or do not, and why, so please let us know in the comments!Also for the comments: an answer to a question Sophie poses near the start … about the title of her 2025 novel. It was to be called one thing - a title she gave it at inception - but now it’s not. There are some options. Which should she choose? Let us know!Plus we talk about our Christmas-themed reading and viewing. Spoiler alert: Rach has a TBR stack of festive novels! And she will be covering them in her Substack this coming week. You can find that at https://rachaeljohnsauthor.substack.comOther books mentioned in this episode:Same As It Ever Was by Claire LombardoThe Bee Sting by Paul MurrayThe Editor by Sara B FranklinThe Naughty List by Jade WestThe Christmas Countdown by Holly CassidyEveryone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin StevensonThe Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally CarterThe article Soph mentions about Hallmark Christmas movies was in Vogue (not New York magazine, which is what she says on the pod) and you can find that here: https://www.vogue.com/article/what-i-learned-visiting-the-set-of-a-hallmark-christmas-movie***For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.comSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on AppleSubscribe on YouTube

From time to time on this pod and elsewhere Rachael Johns mentions her virtual assistant, Annie Bucknall. Through her business Well Creative Annie helps Rach with her social media, website and newsletter, and recently moved that newsletter to Substack.Rach and Soph have been talking about Substack, especially about the fact that there’s a lot of book coverage on there at a time when book coverage is disappearing from mainstream media. We have read some opinion pieces (on Substack) about how traditional media should no longer be the focus for book promotion. As authors who have books recently released and due for release next year, we have to think about these things, as our publishers will do some promotion but can’t do it all, and while some authors will say that they ‘just want to write’, it has never been the case, really, that authors can just write. If we believe in our books we want them to reach readers and we need to give them the best chance of doing so. However, there’s plenty authors don’t know about book promotion and don’t have time to do or learn. That’s where someone like Annie comes in. Rach has always raved about Annie, so we thought we’d talk to her about what she does for her author clients, why social media is important for authors, and also whether Substack is the right platform for newsletters. While we’re talking about Annie’s business, this is not sponsored content - we are talking about it because we want to. And thanks to this chat Soph became a client of Annie’s because there are some things she just doesn’t have time for either!For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.comSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on AppleSubscribe on YouTubeSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

We like to have a subject to speak about on this podcast, even when we have a guest. Rach raised the idea of ‘do you read your own reviews?’ and said she had one guest in mind: Sally Hepworth. Sally not only reads reviews of her books but is especially fond of the one-star reviews, as she talks about in this episode. Indeed, she is very fond of one-star reviews. And she and Rach both very much do not like three-star reviews. You’ll have to listen to find out whether or not Soph pays attention to reviews.This was the first time Soph had met Sally, although of course she was very much aware of her as the author of international bestsellers such as THE SOULMATE and THE YOUNGER WIFE. Sally is delightful - so interesting and funny - so we loved having this chat with her. Sally’s latest book is THE DARLING GIRLS. ***Writers - do you have a challenge or conundrum, or a question about process, how to get started, or anything at all to do with writing? We’d love to be your writing agony aunts.Readers - we would love to hear from you too! You can ask us questions about our books … and we’d also be happy to be YOUR agony aunts. We may not have professional qualifications but we sort out problems for our characters all the time, so if you’d like to get something off your chest/ask for some input/just see what we think about something, let us know.If you have a question for us, please email sophie@sophie-green-author.com and put ‘Dear Rach & Soph’ in the subject line.And if you’d like to actually be in the podcast with us while we answer your question, please let us know in the email.For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.comSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

BookTok is now an entrenched part of bookselling and publishing - it is not a temporary glitch, as it may have appeared to be during the pandemic when readers were looking for escapism. The genres that are at the core of BookTok - romance and romantasy - remain popular, and may have been said to have increased in popularity. Certainly TikTok isn’t going away and nor is #booktok.Rach and Soph wanted to find out more about the phenomenon from someone who has been involved in it for a while: Sophie's colleague Claudia, who works in book marketing. Claudia was a BookToker before she started working in publishing and she is still a reader of books that are popular on BookTok, as well as making content for that audience. Therefore she is eminently qualified to talk to us about the phenomenon: what it is, what it means, who it’s for and more besides.For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.comSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

From Sophie:I met Rachael Treasure for the first time in the middle of this year on the Gold Coast, as we were both attending authors at Rachael Johns's Readers Retreat. I've read Rachael T's books, including her now-classic Jillaroo, which can be said to be the first ever rural romance (even though she wouldn't necessarily classify it as that). To say that Rachael T is a delightful human being is to seriously undersell her. She is whimsical, hilarious, astute, generous and hugely warm hearted, as well as being a (r)evolutionary in agriculture. We have some things in common - she practises yoga (indeed, she came to the yoga class I taught during the retreat) and she loves country music, and has even written some songs with fellow Tasmanians The Wolfe Brothers - but I don't like her because she's like me. I like her because she's a terrific person and a brilliant writer. Rachael J is also very fond of her, so it seemed like a very logical thing to have Rachael T on the podcast.About Rachael TreasureRachael Treasure is a best-selling author, regenerative agriculturalist, and mother who grew up and still lives in Tasmania. A graduate of universities in Orange and Bathurst, Rachael uses story to empower women and change mindsets towards healthier food systems. Drawing on her experience working on a Queensland cattle station, Rachael published her first novel Jillaroo, in 2002. In the two decades since its release, Jillaroo has cemented itself as an iconic work of contemporary fiction, changing the face of Australian publishing and opening the floodgates to a plethora of novels in the ‘rural lit’ genre. She is co-founder of Ripple Farm Landscape Healing Hub, a 100-acre regenerative farm in Southern Tasmania that showcases Natural Sequence Farming, soil health principles, ecological restoration, and holistic farming. The farm sells meat, eggs and other produce directly to conscious consumers via Open Food Networks – an online system offering an alternative to major supermarkets. Rachael has travelled widely, writing wherever she goes. She has worked a number of jobs as a jillaroo, professional wool classer, veterinary nurse, rural journalist, stock camp cook, high country cattle drover, truffle sniffer dog handler and family farm manager. Her eighth novel Milking Time was published this year. She is also the author of the memoir Down the Dirt Roads and some short story collections.***For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.comSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

Thanks to lovely reader Elaine in New Zealand, whom Rach and Soph both met at the RJ Book Club Readers Retreat on the Gold Coast this year, for this question that Rach and I answer in this week’s episode:‘Which has been the book you've written that you've most enjoyed writing, and did reader feedback reflect your own feelings?’There’s a bit in there about the one time Soph drew heavily on her own near-death experience to for a chapter in THE SHELLY BAY LADIES SWIMMING CIRCLE and then subsequently forgets details about a character in that novel (hey, it happens!) so please enjoy her correcting herself …At the start of the episode Rach talks about attending the recent Festival of Fiction in Perth, organised by @tesswoods. As the Perth Writers Festival is not taking place next year, perhaps this festival can return! Do let us know if you went to it and, if so, what you thought - and if you agree with the attendee who thought there should be ‘more memoir’ in a fiction festival …!Writers - do you have a challenge or conundrum, or a question about process, how to get started, or anything at all to do with writing? We’d love to be your writing agony aunts.Readers - we would love to hear from you too! You can ask us questions about our books … and we’d also be happy to be YOUR agony aunts. We may not have professional qualifications but we sort out problems for our characters all the time, so if you’d like to get something off your chest/ask for some input/just see what we think about something, let us know.If you have a question for us, please email sophie@sophie-green-author.com and put ‘Dear Rach & Soph’ in the subject line.And if you’d like to actually be in the podcast with us while we answer your question, please let us know in the email.For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.comSophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)