Latest Episode
Why Middle Grade Books Got Too Long For Kids To Read
Harry Potter didn't just create a fantasy phenomenon — according to one Big Five editor, it quietly helped break middle grade publishing. Every book that tried to chase that success got longer, older, and harder for actual kids to read, and now imprints are shutting down because of it. In this encore episode, literary agent, bestselling children's author, and founder of At-Home Author Vicki Weber breaks down what's really happening in publishing right now — the layoffs, the imprint closures, ...
Play Latest EpisodeRecent Episodes
27
Sept. 14, 2026
Why Middle Grade Books Got Too Long For Kids To Read
Harry Potter didn't just create a fantasy phenomenon — according to one Big Five editor, it quietly helped break middle grade publishing. Every book that tried to chase that success got longer, older, and harder for actual kids to read, and now imprints are shutting down because of it. In this encore episode, literary agent, bestselling children's author, and founder of At-Home Author Vicki Weber breaks down what's really happening in publishing right now — the layoffs, the imprint closures, ...
26
Aug. 31, 2026
An Acquiring Editor Reveals What She's Buying Right Now
Most rejected picture book and middle grade manuscripts aren't turned down because they're bad — they're turned down because an editor has already seen five just like them. Susan Marston, the new editorial director of Albatros Books' US expansion (and former 25-year editorial director of the Junior Library Guild), joins us to lay out exactly what's landing on her acquisitions list right now — and what's already been done to death. We talk about why Albatros — the largest publisher in the Czec...
25
Aug. 26, 2026
AI Stole Our Books. Now We're the Suspects
AI companies are shredding rare books to train their models—and now authors are the ones being told to prove they didn't use AI to write their own. Beth and Lisa unpack the double standard rocking publishing right now. From a debut novelist's multi million dollar book deal getting pulled over AI suspicion, to writers being told to reinsert typos and kill their em dashes just to "prove" they're human, the burden of proof has landed on exactly the wrong people. Beth and Lisa dig into who gets acc
Aug. 17, 2026
The 4 First-Page Mistakes That Get You Rejected Fast, with editor Joel Brigham
Your opening pages have about 30 seconds to keep a literary agent reading — and most manuscripts lose that fight before the first paragraph ends. Developmental editor Joel Brigham returns to unpack exactly what makes an agent stop reading (and what makes them keep going): the four ingredients — tension, suspense, mystery, and unfairness — that hook a reader in the first few pages. He breaks down why agents almost universally reject prologues, the two-highlighter trick for catching your own in
23
Aug. 3, 2026
10 Years of Rejection, 40 Books Later
Wendelin Van Draanen spent 10 years collecting rejections before anyone said yes to her Sammy Keyes mystery series — she just kept writing the next one anyway. Now, 40 books and 30 years later, she's still with the same editor who finally did. If you've ever wondered whether to keep pitching a project nobody wants yet, or whether staying loyal to one editor for decades is a mistake in an industry that rewards jumping ship — this conversation is the counter-argument. Wendelin also gets candid ab
22
July 26, 2026
Tired of Waiting 2 Years to Publish? Go Hybrid
You could finish four books this year and only ever get to publish one of them. That's the traditional publishing timeline in a nutshell — and it's why more authors are quietly going hybrid: keeping one foot in a trad deal and self-publishing everything else on their own schedule, without waiting on anyone's calendar. In this episode, Beth and Lisa break down what a hybrid author actually is (not to be confused with a hybrid publisher — totally different thing), why it's suddenly everywhere i...
Sign up for episode highlights, outtakes, cheat sheets, reminders and much more!
Listen On
Recent Blog Posts
Sept. 14, 2026
Why Middle Grade Books Got Too Long For Kids To Read (Encore with Vicki Weber)
A few weeks ago, three pieces of publishing news landed in quick succession: Roaring Brook shut down, Dial Books for Young Readers closed, and Simon & Schuster laid off editors across nearly every imprint. For literary agent Vicki Weber, it was the …
Aug. 31, 2026
What an Acquiring Editor Is Actually Looking for Right Now (An Interview with Susan Marston of Albatros Books)
If you write for children, you've probably wondered what's really happening on the other side of the submission inbox. This week on Writers With Wrinkles, we got to ask an actual acquiring editor — and she didn't hold back. Susan Marston spent 25 y…
Aug. 26, 2026
Guilty Until Proven Human: AI's War on Authors
AI companies scraped and destroyed rare books to train their models — and now authors are the ones being told to prove they didn't use AI to write their own work. In this episode, Beth and Lisa unpack publishing's newest, most unfair double standard…
About the Hosts
Beth McMullen
Author
Beth McMullen is the author of the Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls series , the Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter series, and The Secret of the Storm series (Aladdin/S&S).
She is also the author of the Spy Mom series (Hyperion).
Beth lives in Northern California with her husband, kids, and very grumpy cats. She's obsessed with podcasts and might give up writing in order to have more time to listen. Could happen.
