The Book Deal

The Book Deal podcast interviews Australian literary agent Grace Heifetz about her career and advice for writers seeking traditional publication. Heifetz discusses founding A4 Literary in late 2024 with colleagues across Sydney and Melbourne to create space for new industry talent, take on more writers, and keep Australian authors primarily represented in Australia. She describes her background in arts and her long tenure at Curtis Brown, her approach to agenting as a big-picture structural reader, and the “matchmaking” of pairing manuscripts with the right publishers. She explains submission realities—capacity limits, reading time, sharing promising work with colleagues, and the importance of following guidelines, researching agents, and submitting finished, polished fiction manuscripts. Heifetz addresses market challenges, changing sales expectations, reduced international buy-ins, publisher consolidation, and the need for arts funding, while encouraging optimism, writer involvement options in screen adaptations, and emphasizing patience, perseverance, and focusing on the work over trends.

00:00 Podcast Introduction
00:43 Meet Agent Grace
02:13 Why Start A4
05:58 Taking The Leap
07:31 Defining Next Gen
08:45 Grace Origin Story
12:17 First Clients Lessons
14:40 Matchmaking Manuscripts
15:50 Reading Submissions Reality
18:48 Finding The Right Agent
20:27 Quotas And List Curation
21:23 Debut Versus Established
21:58 Sales Numbers Reality Check
24:55 Submission Guidelines That Matter
25:52 Finish the Manuscript First
27:26 Reasons for Publishing Optimism
29:49 Selling Australian Books Overseas
32:23 Economy and Publisher Consolidation
35:44 Book Adaptations and Author Involvement
38:46 Future Hopes for Publishing
40:38 Patience and Writing From Heart
42:57 Building a Long Term Career
44:05 Final Thanks and Sign Off
Don't miss tickets for The Book Deal live recording at the Emerging Writers Festival 12 September 2026 as part of the National Writers Conference at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Link for tickets here.
Submit your questions for the episode, to be answered by our Agony Aunt, Toni Jordan, at the link here by 5 Septembe
Join our Patreon community for less than the cost of a coffee per month and support the pod! Your contribution will go to directly paying our sound producer, Brogan, and to help us bring you the conversations with industry professionals you love.
Follow The Book Deal podcast on Instagram The Book Deal podcast (@the_book_deal_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos

You can find out more about Tina, Madeleine and Natasha and follow their journeys here:
Tina Strachan (@td_strachan) • Instagram photos and videos
Tina Strachan children's book author
Madeleine Cleary (@madeleineclearywrites) • Instagram photos and videos
Madeleine Cleary | Author
Natasha Rai (@raiwriting) • Instagram photos and videos
Natasha Rai | Author | Mentor
If you want to stay in the know, sign up to Madeleine, Tina and Natasha's newsletters for the latest news first.
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We've hit 100 episodes! Thank you so much for supporting us over the last two years. We couldn’t have done it without you.
In our 100th episode, we reflect on two years of interviews with authors and publishing professionals. From meditation to tax, we've covered a lot and we're excited for all the tips and tricks to come.
If you'd like to submit a question for our Agony Aunt, Toni Jordan, as part of our upcoming live episode as part of the Emerging Writers' Festival, then you can do so here. Even if you're not attending live, do submit all your anonymous questions and we'll try to get to them on the show!
Tickets to our live event are also available here.  
00:00 Podcast Intro
00:43 Celebrating 100 Episodes
02:27 Looking Back at Episode One
04:37 Edits, edits, edits
07:07 Why Rewriting Matters
12:28 Book Week 
13:08 Book Week 
14:08 School Visit Survival Tips
16:40 Emerging Writers Festival 
18:36 Patreon Favorite Episodes
22:57 Meditation, Mindfulness, Reset
27:07 Lessons From 100 Episodes
34:49 Thanks And Farewell

Don't miss tickets for The Book Deal live recording at the Emerging Writers Festival 12 September 2026 as part of the National Writers Conference at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Link for tickets here.
Submit your questions for the episode, to be answered by our Agony Aunt, Toni Jordan, at the link here by 5 Septembe
Join our Patreon community for less than the cost of a coffee per month and support the pod! Your contribution will go to directly paying our sound producer, Brogan, and to help us bring you the conversations with industry professionals you love.
Follow The Book Deal podcast on Instagram The Book Deal podcast (@the_book_deal_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos

You can find out more about Tina, Madeleine and Natasha and follow their journeys here:
Tina Strachan (@td_strachan) • Instagram photos and videos
Tina Strachan children's book author
Madeleine Cleary (@madeleineclearywrites) • Instagram photos and videos
Madeleine Cleary | Author
Natasha Rai (@raiwriting) • Instagram photos and videos
Natasha Rai | Author | Mentor
If you want to stay in the know, sign up to Madeleine, Tina and Natasha's newsletters for the latest news first.
Madeleine: Subscribe here...

Tina Strachan interviews award-winning children’s author Sarah Armstrong about the wide recognition of her middle-grade survival thriller Run (including CBCA, Davitt, REAL, ABIA listings and Amazon bestseller status) and why pacey, “Trojan horse” thrillers can engage both reluctant and enthusiastic readers while carrying deeper themes. They discuss boys and literacy, emphasising socioeconomic factors, reading role models (especially dads), and how gatekeepers and book covers can influence perceptions. Armstrong introduces her new novel The Wave, about 13-year-old Max facing an unexpected tsunami while searching for his dog, and weaving in local housing and tourism pressures. She shares advice on creating vivid settings, transitioning from adult fiction and journalism to kidlit, finding supportive critique groups, her upcoming online writing courses and Substack, and her key tip: embrace major rewrites and use structure tools like Save the Cat.

00:00 Podcast Intro
00:56 Meet Sarah Armstrong
01:40 Run Awards Buzz
02:29 Why Run Works
04:57 Boys and Reading
10:28 Dads Reading Idea
11:09 New Book The Wave
12:07 Themes and Trojan Horse
13:45 Writing Vivid Settings
18:27 From Adult to Kid Lit
20:37 Why Write for Kids
22:07 Publishing the Switch
22:40 Sticking With Kid Lit
23:01 Agents And Publishing Path
23:44 Switching Genres Confidence
24:08 Online Writing Courses
26:21 Self Paced Learning Benefits
27:01 Inside The Critique Group
30:21 Finding Your Own Group
32:55 Giving And Taking Feedback
36:23 What Sarah Writes Next
37:41 Rewriting Makes The Story
39:41 Structure Tools Save The Cat
41:22 Thanks And Wrap Up
Don't miss tickets for The Book Deal live recording at the Emerging Writers Festival 12 September 2026 as part of the National Writers Conference at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Link for tickets here.
Submit your questions for the episode, to be answered by our Agony Aunt, Toni Jordan, at the link here by 5 Septembe
Join our Patreon community for less than the cost of a coffee per month and support the pod! Your contribution will go to directly paying our sound producer, Brogan, and to help us bring you the conversations with industry professionals you love.
Follow The Book Deal podcast on Instagram The Book Deal podcast (@the_book_deal_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos

You can find out more about Tina, Madeleine and Natasha and follow their journeys here:
Tina Strachan (@td_strachan) • Instagram photos and videos
Tina Strachan children's book author
Madeleine Cleary (@madeleineclearywrites) • Instagram photos and videos
Madeleine Cleary | Author
Natasha Rai (@raiwriting) • Instagram photos and videos
Natasha Rai | Author | Mentor
If you want to stay in the know, sign up to Madeleine, Tina and Natasha's newsletters for the latest news first.
Madeleine: Subscribe here...

Tina Strachan interviews Madeleine Cleary and Natasha Rai about being deep in the editing trenches for their second books while juggling demanding jobs and family commitments, including tight three-week deadlines for structural and copy edits. Madeleine describes balancing edits with commuting and recharging through social outings, while Natasha focuses on long, immersed editing days. They reflect on guilt, asking for extensions, self-doubt, and how editing teaches them to improve the book, emphasising that multiple rounds mean the team cares. Tina shares children’s Book Week event prep and they announce a live podcast at the Emerging Writers’ Festival on 12 September at the Wheeler Centre with Toni Jordan as “agony aunt,” including anonymous question submissions. The episode includes a plug for Lisa Nan Joo’s debut novel Mother Waters.
Link to Emerging Writers Festival event: The Book Deal Podcast EWF Edition 
00:00 Podcast Intro
00:56 Editing Trenches Catchup
02:14 Mads Deadline Juggle
04:09 Footy Break Productivity
06:23 Tash Copy Edit Marathon
09:33 Asking For Extensions
10:33 Editing Teaches The Book
12:56 Process Doubts And Reassurance
15:24 Outside View Of The Dip
16:18 Editing Process Reality Check
16:51 Debut Novel Spotlight
19:39 Live Podcast Announcement
20:58 Submitting Questions and Tickets
23:04 Editing Tips and Mindset
25:22 Birthing a Book Metaphor
26:48 Magnetic Island Episode revisit
27:52 Wrap Up and Farewell

Don't miss tickets for The Book Deal live recording at the Emerging Writers Festival 12 September 2026 as part of the National Writers Conference at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Link for tickets here.
Submit your questions for the episode, to be answered by our Agony Aunt, Toni Jordan, at the link here by 5 Septembe
Join our Patreon community for less than the cost of a coffee per month and support the pod! Your contribution will go to directly paying our sound producer, Brogan, and to help us bring you the conversations with industry professionals you love.
Follow The Book Deal podcast on Instagram The Book Deal podcast (@the_book_deal_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos

You can find out more about Tina, Madeleine and Natasha and follow their journeys here:
Tina Strachan (@td_strachan) • Instagram photos and videos
Tina Strachan children's book author
Madeleine Cleary (@madeleineclearywrites) • Instagram photos and videos
Madeleine Cleary | Author
Natasha Rai (@raiwriting) • Instagram photos and videos
Natasha Rai | Author | Mentor
If you want to stay in the know, sign up to Madeleine, Tina and Natasha's newsletters for the latest news first.
Madeleine: Subscribe here...

Natasha Rai interview's Jasmine McGaughey, a Torres Strait Islander and African American writer and editor, about her debut YA speculative novel Moonlight and Dust (shortlisted for the 2025 VPLAs). She pitches the story of 16-year-old Zillah returning from Brisbane to Cairns after her sister is hospitalised, discovering “moon dust” that gives kids weekend-long magical powers, and investigating its link to her sister’s fate. McGaughey discusses developing the book from a short story into a novella during a creative writing master’s, challenges writing Torres Strait Islander representation in speculative fiction, fears of tokenism, and the value of editorial collaboration. She explains getting agent Alex Adsett through children’s book work, submitting to publishers, and working with Allen & Unwin, including cover design. She also reflects on the exhaustion of launch publicity, balancing freelance work, craft confidence after debut, tax issues like income averaging, trends in YA, and her advice to write what you love. 

00:00 Podcast Introduction
00:56 Meet Jasmine McGaughey
01:39 Moonlight and Dust Pitch
03:36 From Short Story to Novel
04:50 Writing in Academia
07:12 Representation and Tokenism
09:33 Finding Zillah’s Voice
13:09 Magic With Meaning
16:44 Revising After the Master’s
19:11 Getting an Agent
20:34 Submitting to Publishers
24:43 Allen and Unwin Feedback
29:07 Long Road to Publication
29:37 Editing Collaboration
30:36 Editor Turned Author
31:33 Cover Design Magic
32:47 Cover Reactions
36:23 Launch Overwhelm
40:23 Freelance Versus Craft
44:01 Money Tax Survival
46:18 Publishing Trends Talk
52:17 Writing Routine Reset
55:26 Reading Romantasy
56:32 Advice And Farewell
Don't miss tickets for The Book Deal live recording at the Emerging Writers Festival 12 September 2026 as part of the National Writers Conference at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Link for tickets here.
Submit your questions for the episode, to be answered by our Agony Aunt, Toni Jordan, at the link here by 5 Septembe
Join our Patreon community for less than the cost of a coffee per month and support the pod! Your contribution will go to directly paying our sound producer, Brogan, and to help us bring you the conversations with industry professionals you love.
Follow The Book Deal podcast on Instagram The Book Deal podcast (@the_book_deal_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos

You can find out more about Tina, Madeleine and Natasha and follow their journeys here:
Tina Strachan (@td_strachan) • Instagram photos and videos
Tina Strachan children's book author
Madeleine Cleary (@madeleineclearywrites) • Instagram photos and videos
Madeleine Cleary | Author
Natasha Rai (@raiwriting) • Instagram photos and videos
Natasha Rai | Author | Mentor
If you want to stay in the know, sign up to Madeleine, Tina and Natasha's newsletters for the latest news first.
Madeleine: Subscribe here...