Episode 108 features Eric Smith a literary agent and author, who has written books of all kinds and represented all kinds of authors.
He’s here to discuss the publishing industry, his writing process, reading habits, and much much more…
Throughout the conversation, we discuss:
- Literary Agent
- Author
- Publishing
- Traditional Media
- Reading
- Young Adult Fiction
- Decision Making
- Juggling Priorities
- The Writing Process
- Musicals
- Books
- And much more
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
–End Transmission–
–Being Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:24:07
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent palmer.com. Odds crashed the time machine reminiscent of cheerleader, eels, and cars. Rocket men defines Apollo 11 mission better than anything. And as Rob and I have proven, even if your collection is complete, you’re still not done collecting. This is The Palmer Files, episode 108 featuring Eric Smith, a literary agent and author who has written books of all kinds and represented all kinds of authors.
00:00:24:12 – 00:01:03:25
Agent Palmer
He’s here to discuss the publishing industry, his writing process, reading habits, and much, much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:03:30 – 00:01:25:17
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to The Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 108th episode is Eric Smith, a literary agent and author who’s here to peel back the mystique of the publishing industry. He’s written many books, including. Don’t read the Comment, You can go your own Way. Jagged Little Pill, based on the award winning musical and coming soon, With or Without You.
00:01:25:19 – 00:01:47:06
Agent Palmer
A modern Romeo and Juliet. But instead of rival families, they hail from rival food trucks. During the conversation, you will hear how Eric got into the publishing industry. Being an author. Traditional media. The accessibility of publishing young adult fiction musicals, juggling it all, book marketing and well, all of that and a whole lot more is coming your way shortly.
00:01:47:06 – 00:02:08:12
Agent Palmer
But first, remember that if you want to discuss the episode as you listen or afterwards, you can find all contact information for Eric and myself in the show notes. There you can find more information about my guest, Eric Smith at Eric’s site. Eric Smith rocks.com. Again, that’s Eric Smith rocks.com. Don’t forget you can see all of my writings and ratings on Agent palmer.com.
00:02:08:12 – 00:02:19:54
Agent Palmer
And of course email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s turn the page.
00:02:19:59 – 00:02:38:09
Agent Palmer
Eric, I just want to make it simple. To start, I know that you’re a literary agent and an author, and probably you wear many more hats than that. So if I had met you at a party and I was like, so what do you do? Well, what’s your first answer?
00:02:38:10 – 00:02:58:21
Eric Smith
Oh, that’s a good question. And, usually I try to skirt around what I do when I meet people at random parties. So I’ll say like, oh, I work in publishing, and I’m a dad, and that’s that’s usually it. And I try to move on from it. But, yeah, I mean, like, the real answer, would be.
00:02:58:21 – 00:03:19:05
Eric Smith
Yeah, I’m. I’m a literary agent. I’ve been an agent for, oh, goodness, about eight years now. And I’ve worked in publishing for, about 15 years. Yeah. When I’m not working on other people’s books, I try to work on my own now and again. And, you know, my 11 young adult book comes out, in November.
00:03:19:07 – 00:03:24:14
Eric Smith
So. So just, Yeah, like, next month or whatever. Someone is listening to this podcast.
00:03:24:16 – 00:03:59:13
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, I, I first of all, I’m kind of shocked. By your answer because to me, it is the YouTubers and podcasters and internet personalities that have to skirt around the topic. Yeah. Cause you you’re still in a, a traditional medium, but it’s also the reason I wanted to talk to you, because, like, I have helped edit, friend of mine’s book of poetry that I also helped him self-publish.
00:03:59:18 – 00:04:29:59
Agent Palmer
And I edited the first, go of his novel that he put on a shelf. We all know as people. And I’m helping him work on his second book of poetry, and, I’m also a voracious reader. And so the publishing industry is kind of a curiosity to me because, I think I, I followed you on the social medias for a while, before I reached out.
00:04:29:59 – 00:04:56:58
Agent Palmer
But there was a while, about a year ago, two years ago, when I really was like, I want to talk to an agent. I want to know what they do. And, I just reached out and, like, nobody got back to me, and I understand, like, everybody’s busy, but it was like the one piece of like. Like I’ve talked to, music people, like, they’re not like, I don’t know, there’s something about the literary world that still seems inaccessible.
00:04:57:09 – 00:05:19:09
Eric Smith
Now I hear you. And I mean, there’s a lot of people doing really good work to make it a little more accessible, that’s for sure. There’s lots of free virtual conferences and and all kinds of things like that that help writers kind of get their questions answered. But I do kind of get people not responding to, like, interviews and podcasts and stuff just because it can take a lot of time.
00:05:19:14 – 00:05:36:20
Eric Smith
You know, a lot of agents I know have day jobs in addition to their agent in life. So sometimes their only agent at night, sometimes their only agent being really in the day. A lot of agents with lawyers and other sort of, sort of gigs there. So it’s a time can be a little precious.
00:05:36:24 – 00:06:07:42
Agent Palmer
Is it? So it feels like that’s kind of on par with the authors like I and I. I in my experience, very few authors are just writers anymore. You know, they have a podcast or an interview show or they’re, they have a real day job, like very few people are true. Well, my job is to write, I mean, not county journalists, but like for for authors like that, that do they do they exist anymore?
00:06:07:47 – 00:06:30:48
Eric Smith
Do you know? They absolutely exist? Okay. Yeah, I have a couple of clients who are they are full time writers. That’s that’s all they do. Some of them, they’re full time writers where they just work on their books. Some of them are full time writers who work on their books, and they also do journalism, like you were saying, you know, some of them, some of the adjunct on the side as well as, as well as, right, full time to sort of supplement income there.
00:06:30:48 – 00:06:33:14
Eric Smith
But now there’s a lot of, a lot of full time writers out there.
00:06:33:16 – 00:06:53:07
Agent Palmer
Okay. All right. I, I’m, I mean, I’m, I’m all I’m, I’m a blogger. So I consider myself a writer. Yeah, I like to I like the term blogger, by the way. For, for anybody out there listening, it’s like, I don’t want to necessarily consider myself a journalist, though I guess I would be a features writer.
00:06:53:11 – 00:07:09:18
Agent Palmer
Okay. But I also don’t want to consider myself a writer writer because it is, for better or worse, fairly light fare. So, I like the term blogger. It fits right very well, right? In between those two worlds.
00:07:09:22 – 00:07:11:01
Eric Smith
And whatever works, my friend.
00:07:11:14 – 00:07:34:49
Agent Palmer
Yeah. So I, I know the, the was the literary agent thing. I just want to ask, where does this come about? Because I think, younger, our younger selves, like, we maybe we want to be authors or artists or astronauts, but nobody ever wants to be like a manager or or, you know, you know what I mean?
00:07:34:49 – 00:07:53:50
Agent Palmer
Like, we want, like, in, in sports terms, like we want to be the shortstop. We nobody wants to be the manager. Like that’s. And so I, I’m curious like the did you always want to be an author and then like was like the literary agent thing just presented to you. Like how does that come about?
00:07:53:54 – 00:08:21:49
Eric Smith
Well, you know, so when I was in my undergrad and when I was in grad school, I wanted to write and I wanted to work on people’s books. That was it. I want to work in publishing. Okay. So when I moved to Philadelphia, my my first job was at Quirk Books. It’s a it’s a publisher here in my town that does, they’re pretty famous for doing, like, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the sort of quirky mash ups, and I was there for, for quite a while before I jumped into working as an agent.
00:08:21:54 – 00:08:45:09
Eric Smith
My original goal was to work as an editor. You know, I was I was looking at publishing houses, trying to get a job as an editor there. And the agent thing, you know, I worked on a couple of books for the agency that I work at now. Where? At work. I was doing some of the marketing for them, and when I saw the position open, I was like, well, you know, I’ve been in publishing for at that point.
00:08:45:09 – 00:09:01:37
Eric Smith
I’ve been in publishing for like five years. I’d done a, I’ve done marketing for, for so many books. My first book had come out already in my author life, and I kind of felt like, well, you don’t have the experience in a bunch of other places. I feel like that would make me good at being an agent.
00:09:01:37 – 00:09:19:54
Eric Smith
Like, I know how the industry works and all these other spots. And they gave me a shot, you know, and I’m very grateful that they did for sure. And I’ve been doing that sort of ever since. So. Yeah, I mean, some of us do go in, like wanting to work, sort of on the books as opposed to as person writing them.
00:09:19:54 – 00:09:36:12
Eric Smith
You know, I have a lot of agent friends who are they are firmly not writers. And they have told me again and again, even though I frequently ask them when they’re going to write something, you know, they are just they that’s not what they do. They are they are readers. They are editors. And and that’s that’s what they do.
00:09:36:12 – 00:09:36:24
Eric Smith
Yeah.
00:09:36:28 – 00:10:02:23
Agent Palmer
I think it’s I think it’s anything tangential to the writing process. Right. So I, I explained that I don’t necessarily consider myself a writer or a journalist and blog blogger. Feels nice, but you can’t be a blogger without someone being like, so when are you going to write a book? Which is not like, I’m not. It’s not like it’s not a goal of mine.
00:10:02:23 – 00:10:29:31
Agent Palmer
Maybe a long time ago it was, but it’s not a goal of mine now. Yeah. Or it’s not an active goal. Like I’m not blogging in order to build an audience with which to launch my book, because I have no idea for what I would write. Right. But, like, I get that question all the time. And so I feel like it’s kind of like, you know, you’re you’re in that industry all the time.
00:10:29:31 – 00:10:52:25
Agent Palmer
Somebody’s gonna be like, well, come on, like, you don’t have an idea. So. So I get where they’re coming from. But I also think, like, there’s got to be enough people within the industry that are like you that are kind of on both sides of it that like, oh, yeah, people are like, oh, well, they make an assumption that like, well, of course all literary agents are also authors.
00:10:52:30 – 00:11:11:14
Eric Smith
No, no, I mean, you’d be surprised at the amount of industry people who also write, like, like Amber Oliver is an editor over at Bloomsbury and is a brilliant writer. Her her debut novel comes out, I think, next year or maybe, maybe the year after. Rebecca Pothos is a literary agent who’s also an author.
00:11:11:19 – 00:11:32:38
Eric Smith
Seth Fishman, writes picture books in addition to representing some, like, huge titans of science fiction and fantasy. There’s quite a few of us. Yeah, I think figure, you know, if you’re surrounded by books and you’re surrounded by writing. Yeah, there’s that bug. It’s gotta be in there. Which is why I probably pester all my friends about the book.
00:11:32:38 – 00:11:35:39
Eric Smith
I’m convinced they’re writing in secret now.
00:11:35:39 – 00:11:44:59
Agent Palmer
I. You can’t talk about writing without reading. Is that kind of where it all starts for you? Like you were a reader as a as a kid?
00:11:45:02 – 00:12:10:23
Eric Smith
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I oh, man, I feel like I was like a maybe a pretentious little kid because of my parents. You know, they got me all those, like, children’s illustrated classics books when I was like, in first and second grade. So, like, I was this little first grader being like, I am reading Moby Dick, even though it’s, like, not written for the adults, it’s sort of written down a little bit so kids can grasp it.
00:12:10:31 – 00:12:30:49
Eric Smith
Yeah. But I read all these books when I was young and, you know, when I was at a sort of like in, in upper grade school and like, junior high, I started reading like, high fantasy and, like, big sci fi novels. And I got got really into Michael Creighton as, like an 11 year old.
00:12:30:53 – 00:13:01:53
Agent Palmer
You and I are in that same, I just, I Jurassic Park came out when I was 10 or 11, and I believe I read the novel first or around the same time I saw the movie. Yeah. And that’s not something I should have been doing. Like, I, because I reread it recently and I went, there are things in this book, that I did not understand.
00:13:01:58 – 00:13:02:07
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:13:02:13 – 00:13:22:12
Eric Smith
Because, you know, one of I yeah, I think, say one of my friends recently that there are two kinds of writers. Oh. Eric Brown said this. He’s a he’s an amazing author. He said there’s two kinds of writers, writers who read Stephen King, too early and writers who read V.C. Andrews too early. Right. And like, I think that’s like, so spot on.
00:13:22:12 – 00:13:31:39
Eric Smith
I was I was a V.C. Andrews kid. I should not have read V.C. Andrews when I was in like fifth grade, but, flowers in the attic. I read it.
00:13:31:44 – 00:13:56:15
Agent Palmer
Okay. I, I did not read either of those too early, but I did read. I want to say for me, it was it’s a weird split because I’ve not I’ve story time I, I it was for me it was Tolkien and Asimov and Clarke. Right. It was those were the My Big three. And then at a certain point, I just stopped reading.
00:13:56:15 – 00:14:21:49
Agent Palmer
And when I came back to it to reading, that is, I the fantasy came back right away, like, I was introduced to the Shannara oeuvre. And so, so I kind of I fell back into that and I, I read a ton of nonfiction because I like to mix it up, and I read a ton of spy fiction, the sci fi.
00:14:21:54 – 00:15:00:26
Agent Palmer
I only in the last year and a half or two years started reading again. That was the one that, for some reason, didn’t come back over. But I, I, I, I, I am always amazed at, at how maybe not necessarily always to writing, but how reading is, clear early on, you know, in that middle school junior high era is a clear line to being some kind of a creative later in life, even if it doesn’t happen right away.
00:15:00:31 – 00:15:01:47
Eric Smith
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
00:15:01:47 – 00:15:22:04
Agent Palmer
It feels like that. I, I want to ask, though, when you get to talk, when you get done with high school and you’re like, I’m going to go to college. What what are you what are you going for at that point? Like, is writing still the thing?
00:15:22:08 – 00:15:40:42
Eric Smith
Yeah, yeah. I mean, my first year of college, I was a theater major because I was convinced I was going to write plays. That was that was my my plan there. Okay. And then I had a really awesome professor who was like, hey, you should be an English major. You’ll be able to do more of that if you’re if you want to be a writer.
00:15:40:47 – 00:15:58:22
Eric Smith
And that was some tough love that I really needed. And I transferred to another college and got my bachelor’s in English, and I got my master’s in English. And yeah, about a year and a half after I finished my masters, got my first publishing job. And that’s been on that route ever since. Wow. Yeah.
00:15:58:22 – 00:16:37:49
Agent Palmer
When I first of all, I’m supremely jealous. Just because I started my undergrad and having no idea what I was going to do. And that’s exactly how I finished my undergrad. No. You know, it’s. I I’m I’m not alone. I’m aware, but, it’s just it makes me jealous of people who figured it out early. But I’m I’m I’m I’m jealous, but and I’m envious, but I’m happy.
00:16:37:49 – 00:17:00:59
Agent Palmer
I’m also very happy for you, though, because you get to kind of build, something like on that foundation as opposed to me, where I have a, like, if we’re building a pyramid, right. Like you’re on level 4 or 5, I’ve got level one and two covered for miles.
00:17:01:04 – 00:17:01:24
Eric Smith
You know what.
00:17:01:24 – 00:17:33:13
Agent Palmer
I mean? Like, I haven’t figured out what I’m building up yet. I’m just still building my base. That’s that’s what I’m doing. You you’ve written a lot of books across, I want to say genres as well as audiences. Young adult, I guess regular adult. I don’t, I don’t know, do you have a favorite or do you like jumping, back and forth or all over?
00:17:33:17 – 00:17:56:58
Eric Smith
I mean, I, I think my heart is always going to be in young adult books. Like, I feel like, you know, like you were talking about, like, figuring it out, going to college, knowing it, you’re going to do. And everything. But there’s there’s still this. There’s still this part of me. And I feel like a lot of adults who also read young adult books and write young adult books feel the same way that, you still feel like you’re 18 all the time, you know?
00:17:57:03 – 00:17:57:34
Eric Smith
Okay.
00:17:57:39 – 00:18:01:17
Agent Palmer
I got to stop yet. Is it is it 18 in your head?
00:18:01:22 – 00:18:02:50
Eric Smith
Oh, yeah. All the time. You know, I.
00:18:02:50 – 00:18:34:28
Agent Palmer
Mean, I’m younger, by the way. Like, I am forever 15 in my head. I don’t I and I have read some young adult fiction, and I think it’s probably more important for people, for older people who don’t know what they want to do to read young adult fiction, because it’s all about decision making. Like, yeah, I don’t I don’t want to pigeonhole it, but it feels like every young adult novel of any kind I’ve ever read is all about decision making.
00:18:34:33 – 00:18:35:03
Agent Palmer
No, I mean.
00:18:35:03 – 00:18:51:32
Eric Smith
You’re you’re you’re right. That’s not I don’t think that’s pigeonholing it. You know, a lot of. Yeah, the story is about the journey of figuring out who you’re going to be and what your place is like in the world. That’s the that’s the coming of age arc in, in every coming of age book. And I, I’m that’s why I love it.
00:18:51:32 – 00:19:04:24
Eric Smith
Because, you know, it doesn’t matter where you’re at in your career or your life, your family or thing like you’re still trying to figure it out. I’m 40, and sometimes I still feel like I’m trying to figure it out. You know, that’s. I think that’s normal.
00:19:04:29 – 00:19:27:43
Agent Palmer
I yeah, I think we should. Yeah, I again, I get to be envious of you, but I’m also, you know, not unhappy, not knowing like, I think there’s a, like, there’s a part of me that always thinks that. I hope I never meet anybody who’s like the Woody Allen character. That’s like, oh, I read the end of the book just so I.
00:19:27:48 – 00:19:55:23
Agent Palmer
You in case I die. I’ll always know the ending. But, like, I like the idea that I never know until I turn the last page. Like, I think it’s I think that that unknown, that that unknowing ness is important. It’s it’s why I’m comfortable, with, I don’t know. And when if you and I were hanging out right now and we came upon some kind of trivia question, I’m never going to reach for my phone to look it up.
00:19:55:23 – 00:19:59:58
Agent Palmer
I’m okay not knowing. Like that’s where I’ve become now.
00:20:00:03 – 00:20:04:50
Eric Smith
Nice. That’s good. That sounds healthy.
00:20:04:54 – 00:20:22:31
Agent Palmer
Well, I mean, we all try in little in our little ways, you know? I, I did want to ask, though. Do you have a writing process that works like, no matter what?
00:20:22:35 – 00:20:47:04
Eric Smith
Yeah, yeah. So I. Oh, goodness. And this, this drives by my poor critique partners, a little a little crazy. So when I write a book, I write a giant synopsis. So I basically write out everything that will happen in the book. Okay. It’s like a giant Wikipedia page for it, for the book. And I describe every little thing.
00:20:47:04 – 00:21:10:58
Eric Smith
So usually the synopsis can be, 15, 20 pages long of what I think the entire plot is going to be. And then I sit down and I, I madly write the book. So, so all of my books, I’m like, looking at the stack right now. At least most of them, were written between I, I mean, the fastest I’ve written a book is ten days.
00:21:11:03 – 00:21:29:52
Eric Smith
That was don’t read the comments. I wrote the book in ten days. And the longest was probably recently With or Without You, which comes out in November. And that one I wrote in, like, I think the first draft of it I wrote in like six months. And that doesn’t mean those drafts are good. Those drafts are usually terrible.
00:21:29:52 – 00:21:32:47
Agent Palmer
Well, they’re draft, but I write, you know. Yeah, yeah.
00:21:32:52 – 00:21:47:42
Eric Smith
Yeah. So I get but I get the entire story out and then I can sit there and I can take my time and I can fix it up and I can polish it. I, I go back, I reread it a million times while I’m fixing it up and putting it into better shape. And that’s what my process is like.
00:21:47:42 – 00:22:04:45
Eric Smith
I, I have a lot of friends who will, you know, they’ll they’ll write a rough draft, and then they’ll erase the draft and they’ll write another one, and then they’ll erase and write another one. And like, for me, it’s I write that first horrible draft with everything I want in it, and then I just keep going back and fixing it and fixing it and fixing it.
00:22:04:45 – 00:22:21:45
Eric Smith
Fixing it. It helps a lot with deadlines, you know? My book, you can go your own way. That book sold in like 2020, and it had to come out in 2021. And, let me tell you, that’s a rough time to be writing anything. When you have a little child running around, you’re stuck in your house.
00:22:21:54 – 00:22:42:16
Eric Smith
Yeah. So having that giant synopsis like that saved my life with that book. You know, like, I was able to get it out and and sort of figure out the story. So I don’t know if anyone’s listening and struggling with getting that book done. I’m telling you, giant synopsis. Your critique partners will hate it. No one wants to read your giant synopsis.
00:22:42:20 – 00:22:44:27
Eric Smith
But it’s going to help you a whole bunch. I.
00:22:44:32 – 00:23:06:41
Agent Palmer
I see it, I, I find that I obviously blogs are on a much smaller scale, but I, I have to I’m kind of in that boat with you or I have to get it all out and I write the whole thing and it’s mainly a mess. But I have to I and I don’t know if this is part of your process.
00:23:06:46 – 00:23:31:15
Agent Palmer
I have to put it away like I, I needed at least a day and sometimes 2 or 3 where I can kind of forget what the next word is going to be when I start going back to read it. Yeah. Yeah, because I feel like that space is probably, sadly for me right now, that space is the most important part.
00:23:31:15 – 00:23:57:06
Agent Palmer
And it’s really hard to explain that to people. Yeah. Where it’s like, no, I, I can’t, I, I need to forget that this comes after that because it’s going to mess up my own editing process. That’s kind of why we want other people to look at our stuff, because they don’t know what’s coming next. But ten days, man, that’s that’s insane.
00:23:57:10 – 00:24:16:04
Eric Smith
I just yeah, yeah, that was, you know, don’t read the comments. I, I went on a writing retreat with some friends. It was a ten day writing retreat. I had the whole synopsis written, and I was like, well, what else am I going to get this kind of time to, like, sit here in the woods in a cabin with a bunch of my pals?
00:24:16:09 – 00:24:23:27
Eric Smith
So I just got done. And, I mean, that’s I think that’s probably one of my most popular books. So it was it was good that I got it out of the way.
00:24:23:40 – 00:24:30:52
Agent Palmer
I mean, it’s got a great title. I mean, and it it’s, it’s basically words to live by. It’s.
00:24:30:57 – 00:24:31:39
Eric Smith
00:24:31:53 – 00:24:38:36
Agent Palmer
Now I, I, I would be remiss if I didn’t go back and ask you, do you still want to write a play?
00:24:38:41 – 00:25:00:57
Eric Smith
I do, I do that is that is my, sort of bucket list goal. My, my best friend from childhood who I’ve known since I was six. He now has his PhD in music composition, and he’s a marching band director. And we said, you know, when we both turned 40, it’s time to write the musical. And he turned 49th July.
00:25:01:10 – 00:25:03:32
Eric Smith
So it’s it’s time I got to do it.
00:25:03:32 – 00:25:06:58
Agent Palmer
So it’s not just a play. You’re you’re going full on musical.
00:25:07:04 – 00:25:19:25
Eric Smith
Yeah. That’s what we want to do. I, I feel like I got my toe in the door a little bit already with, with Jagged Little Pill. So. So now I just have to I have to do it, I gotta we just got to come up with an idea. That’s the thing. That’s.
00:25:19:27 – 00:25:46:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah, it’s I, I, I, I, I, I want to like musicals. But I say that with an asterisk because I was it, I, you know, I, I did the stage crew stuff in middle high and college. Any time that we did a play, it was fine, like, I was, I was it was fine. Plays are fine.
00:25:46:50 – 00:26:11:34
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but any time we did a musical, I and and I knew the words better than the actors, I just, I just got frustrated because I’m not. I’m like, I’m not, I’m not a singer. I’m not really a performer. As such. But like when I’m sitting there manning the, the soundboard or or the lights and I know every word to this.
00:26:11:39 – 00:26:36:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I don’t really like I don’t, I don’t need to know every word to Shenandoah. I’ve tried to block out as much of that musical as possible, but I’m sure on occasion lines pop into my head. They will always do that. And that’s why I want to like music. I think I can watch, you know? I can still watch them once and enjoy them.
00:26:36:55 – 00:27:04:18
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but I don’t think I will ever want to watch a musical again. And that’s just the scars from having sat through those things. And, you know, to be honest, you’d think I feel the same way about plays because you see the same stuff every night. But for some reason, those musicals were written in a way that just, tickled and tortured my brain.
00:27:04:29 – 00:27:21:22
Agent Palmer
And I’m like, hi, musicals. So I, I guess I get to ask you then why musicals? Like, why not just, play? Is it is it you want to work and collaborate with your friend, which I understand. Or is it something more?
00:27:21:27 – 00:27:43:07
Eric Smith
The only collaborating with my friend is is definitely one of the things, but, Yeah, musicals and and theater were like my, my big gateway into being a creative when I was younger, you know, a fun little thing. I don’t talk about often, but when I was in sixth grade, me and a bunch of friends were cast in, Christmas Carol on Broadway.
00:27:43:09 – 00:28:01:28
Eric Smith
We were part of the. Yeah, we were part of the original cast of the Broadway production. We sing on the soundtrack and everything. And like I, I was it, man. I was just like, oh, my God, this this is something I want to make a big part of my life. I was in the high school musicals growing up.
00:28:01:33 – 00:28:17:01
Eric Smith
You know, I actively went to see them as often as I could when I was, you know, in my 20s and 30s. You know, there’s a favorite, sort of date night thing for me, for sure. And then, you know, I ended up writing the, the jagged Little Pill book, you know, tying into the musical.
00:28:17:01 – 00:28:20:14
Eric Smith
So it’s just, I don’t know, they followed me my whole life.
00:28:20:19 – 00:28:42:01
Agent Palmer
I mean, I, I, I that there’s, like, a part of me that wants to be like, I wish you all the best. Just don’t put too much pressure on yourself. And I, I feel like you you have to have been there from that other side. Right? Like, as an agent, where I presume you wear all the hats, right?
00:28:42:01 – 00:29:03:36
Agent Palmer
Like editor and psychologist and therapist and friend and like, like emotional support per human, like, I feel like you wear all the hats. So like, you’ve seen kind of like the I don’t want to say this in any other uncertain terms, but basically you’ve seen the worst of the creative process when there’s a deadline.
00:29:03:41 – 00:29:20:08
Eric Smith
Yeah. No, it’s true. And, yeah, definitely not putting any, and, pressure or expectations on the, the musical idea down the line just because I, I, I know how nearly impossible it is to make it happen. So, yeah. We’re not we’re not stressing too much.
00:29:20:08 – 00:29:36:58
Agent Palmer
So with no rush, then you have plenty of time to come up with ideas. But you’re also writing other things. I’m sure you’ve got other ideas for other books. And you’re still probably reading. Are you reading for pleasure?
00:29:37:11 – 00:29:38:21
Eric Smith
Oh, yeah. Oh, okay.
00:29:38:21 – 00:29:56:39
Agent Palmer
So you’re reading for pleasure, and you’re probably reading as an agent to understand, you know, to help out. So, like, how do you keep it all together? Like, how do you keep it all organized in your brain? And I’m asking, as somebody who literally reads one book at a time, so.
00:29:56:43 – 00:30:26:49
Eric Smith
Okay, so, so Nora Roberts, the brilliant romance author, has this. She has this great quote, and I will messed it up a little bit. But she talks about how, you know, when it comes to her, her writing life and her family life and pretty much everything that surrounds her. She, she looks at the process a little bit like juggling and how when you’re that consumed by all this stuff, you start to realize that some of the balls you’re juggling are made of plastic, and some of them are made of glass.
00:30:26:49 – 00:30:44:50
Eric Smith
Right? Okay. So you you keep the ones made of glass in the air, and you let the plastic ones fall by the wayside. Right? So for me, you know, the glass ones are my clients, right? So the authors that I work with, they are the ones I can’t drop. They are the ones I can’t let slip. You know, they are my responsibility.
00:30:44:50 – 00:31:06:21
Eric Smith
They’re counting on me, you know, they’re they’re counting on me to help their careers flourish. You know, my my family and my friends, they also fall into the glass spills and the plastic things, you know, honestly, are my own writing. You know, like my my own creative efforts. They can get dropped. You know, nothing bad is going to happen to other people.
00:31:06:26 – 00:31:26:33
Eric Smith
If I’m not focusing on my book or I’m not focusing on that musical idea or, you know, I’m not reading, you know, a new rom com that I’ve been looking forward to because I have to focus on a client book. So that’s really how I keep it all together. You know, I think about who is glass and who is plastic.
00:31:26:38 – 00:31:37:26
Eric Smith
And my therapist would be very mad at me if I told her, hey, I’m plastic. I can get dropped. But that’s kind of the truth. You know, like, I, I gotta focus on the people who need me first.
00:31:37:31 – 00:32:02:56
Agent Palmer
Okay? I look, I, I think I may need to start thinking about that because I, I keep, you know, I’m at this point I’m a free agent, consultant jack of all trades person. Okay. I would love to have a full time job. It just doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards right now. But I’m surrounded by people with full time jobs that I am a broken record.
00:32:02:56 – 00:32:08:43
Agent Palmer
Trying to remind them when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
00:32:08:48 – 00:32:10:24
Eric Smith
Oh, yes.
00:32:10:29 – 00:32:43:59
Agent Palmer
And so I feel like this, you know, plastic and glass, dichotomy works very well for that because, you know, I, I’ve, I’ve been in marketing professionally for basically my entire professional career and in some capacity, I mean, have worn a lot of hats. I can’t tell you I’m a this or that, but, like, just if there’s a hat in marketing I’ve worn, or that I haven’t worn, I’d be shocked.
00:32:43:59 – 00:32:59:31
Agent Palmer
But, like, it is one of those weird things where people will come to you and say, this is a priority, and you’ll have five people come to you with priorities. They’re not all equal. Like, they just they just can’t be.
00:32:59:36 – 00:33:00:39
Eric Smith
So that’s true.
00:33:00:41 – 00:33:23:17
Agent Palmer
So I get that I, I’m also I was also blessed that my first boss was like, we’re we’re in marketing. No one lives or dies because this campaign is early, late on time. Like it? It’s fine. Like it. The sun will still rise. And I think.
00:33:23:19 – 00:33:25:42
Eric Smith
Yes.
00:33:25:47 – 00:34:06:23
Agent Palmer
I, I read a lot of books, nonfiction specifically about, like, the history of technology and, you know, the space race is, is a is a personal, you know, hot topic for me. It’s very weird to read that, you know, the, the development of, say, like the personal computer was life and death when you read about, you know, the space race where people could literally die, you know, and so it’s just everybody’s got their own personal priorities.
00:34:06:23 – 00:34:17:51
Agent Palmer
But like, at the end of the day, it’s up to you. And the outside is not saying, Eric Smith, this is your glass and this is your plan. Like that’s not.
00:34:17:56 – 00:34:18:22
Eric Smith
We have.
00:34:18:22 – 00:34:20:37
Agent Palmer
That control, you know.
00:34:20:42 – 00:34:21:33
Eric Smith
Yeah.
00:34:21:38 – 00:34:53:14
Agent Palmer
I like that. I think it’s yeah absolutely. I did I want to selfishly ask a question though. I, I feel like not being a full book blogger because I write about lots of different things. I haven’t really joined the community, but I know there are book reviewers out there that exist in the world as independents like myself that are just like, I, I like this book.
00:34:53:19 – 00:35:31:08
Agent Palmer
I’ll read it, and I’ll write about it. But the internet’s a very weird place. It gives and it takes, have you had, a positive, negative or indifferent experience with the, review community? Which, you know, let’s be real, over the last 20 years has changed from being just whatever the New York Times, you know, Sunday edition book, you know, club says to, you know, potentially what I say there.
00:35:31:08 – 00:35:54:50
Eric Smith
Yeah. I mean, I know I haven’t had any no, no negative or anything experiences there. You know, plenty of people haven’t like my books, but that’s fine. That’s, that’s their. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t yeah. When the book comes out it’s not mine anymore. Belongs to everybody else. So people can say whatever they want about it. That’s not my conversation to be in.
00:35:54:56 – 00:36:13:22
Eric Smith
You know, that’s that’s the readers conversation, the reviewers conversations. So, yeah. No, no, I don’t think I’ve had any, any negative experiences. I’ve had lots of positive ones, you know, people tagging me and beautiful photos they’ve taken with the books and more and more saying hi to me at a bookstore or convention. Like, that’s that’s always wonderful.
00:36:13:27 – 00:36:19:01
Eric Smith
But the negative I don’t, I don’t know, I don’t think I have any of it because I don’t go looking for it. You know.
00:36:19:01 – 00:36:46:41
Agent Palmer
I, I will say that, but I will also I will say that that’s generally probably the healthiest way to do it. But where did you. When where I don’t know which. Did you decide that, like, when the book is published, it’s not yours anymore, because I feel like that is almost words to live by for anyone putting anything out in the world, period.
00:36:46:41 – 00:37:03:25
Agent Palmer
And I think that a lot of people and I’ll say, myself included, I have a hard time letting go of like even a post when I hit publish. Like I, is was that always the case with you? Did you learn it?
00:37:03:30 – 00:37:26:42
Eric Smith
I’m trying to think when I learned it, you know, I probably learned it after book two. You know, my. So my first book was a nonfiction pop culture book, and then my second book was my first Y.A. novel. And, I like I definitely do remember, just like, scouring Goodreads when the first white novel came out and I just I quickly realized, oh, this isn’t healthy.
00:37:26:42 – 00:37:45:01
Eric Smith
What it would mind doing. Like, I did that a little bit when don’t read the comments was on its way, and I just I had to stop myself. I was like, okay, this I need to remove myself from this space because this is in the review. Space isn’t for authors, it’s for readers and reviewers to to have conversations in.
00:37:45:06 – 00:38:03:36
Eric Smith
And once you do that, it’s I don’t know, it’s, it’s it’s healthier for you. You know, it’s healthier for that space because I there are endless stories of authors who decide to go after book bloggers or Goodreads readers, and that’s that’s not good for anybody. You know, that doesn’t do anyone any good.
00:38:03:41 – 00:38:37:42
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I, I, I did want to ask you because you said you learned it after your second or around your third book is there. And obviously, look, you’re not writing the same book over and over again. So every book is different. But like as far as the process for writing, editing, publishing, going through the, the, all of the marketing stuff, you know, has it gotten easier the more and more you’ve published or everything’s changing so much, it’s just kind of the same, or it gets harder.
00:38:37:42 – 00:39:05:02
Agent Palmer
Like, what is that like, for like any potential author out there, when I think we can both be like, yeah, it’ll get slightly easier after the first, but like, I don’t know what the the rest of the process. Nobody I don’t think enough people talk about the rest of the process. Like, yeah, there’s writing and there’s editing and then there’s this book, but like then there’s marketing and publicity and all the other stuff.
00:39:05:02 – 00:39:32:37
Eric Smith
Yeah. So it’s it’s all going to change based on the publishing house that you’re at. Right? It’s all going to be different, you know. So like my, my, my first way novel was digital only. Right. So it was a digital only book, the digital exclusive of Bloomsbury. And, the hiccup there is that like, you know, a lot of reviewers only want to get a physical arc, and a lot of main trade publications don’t review books unless they can have a physical copy.
00:39:32:41 – 00:40:00:43
Eric Smith
So that book didn’t get reviewed in a lot of places. You know, and, that wasn’t the best experience. You know, I was I was a little concerned about how it was going to do and, and who was going to read it and how it was going to get to readers. So when my, my first, like, print y novel came out, The Girl in the Grove, it was a completely different experience because, you know, early copies were going out to places I could sign copies, places I can go to book festivals.
00:40:00:48 – 00:40:19:36
Eric Smith
But then that book from that book to don’t read the comments. That was also wildly different, because The Girl in the Grove was with a publisher called flux, who’s like a small sort of indie, kid lit publisher. They do great books. But they’re small, you know, like they have small print runs. They’re not in every single bookstore.
00:40:19:41 – 00:40:40:25
Eric Smith
Don’t read the comments with Ink Yard Press, who is a Harlequin and Harpercollins publishers. So suddenly I had a hardcover book. Suddenly I was going to bigger events and bigger bookstores and seeing it everywhere and going into, you know, getting especially UK editions and had a special edition in Australia. So things are going to change publisher to publisher.
00:40:40:25 – 00:41:04:46
Eric Smith
There’s no, there’s no one like uniform experience across the board. It’s yeah, it’s going to it’s going to be different. I think the thing that stays the same across the board is remembering that you as the author, you know, you are on the publishers team, you know, they’re on your team, you’re on their team. And books are only successful when you’re all working together.
00:41:04:51 – 00:41:21:31
Eric Smith
A book doesn’t just come out and things happen, right? Like you have to be out there talking to people and going to bookstores and interacting with your local librarian and just doing everything you can to make it a success on your end. The same way the publisher is, if not more so. Yeah, that’s the thing.
00:41:21:31 – 00:41:26:51
Eric Smith
That’s the same is doing the hustle and, and you have to be willing to do that stuff.
00:41:26:56 – 00:41:56:08
Agent Palmer
So when you look, at the stack of books with your name on the spine, and it’s, it’s not a small stack anymore. What is that, like? Like, you know, I know you said when you publish them, they’re no longer yours, but, like, do you look at that, you know, pile and you, you know, you think back to where you are as you look down all the spines.
00:41:56:08 – 00:42:05:26
Agent Palmer
Or is it like, I want to do more? Do you not look back like, what is that? Well, because obviously they’re in your house, you see them.
00:42:05:30 – 00:42:27:16
Eric Smith
You’re in, know. No, of course I mean, like, I have posters of my own books in my office, right? I have little, little foam boards. I have my little stack of books here. Like, I’m very proud of them, you know, like, I think about, you know, I look at my first book and I look at my most recent book, and I could see the way I’ve grown as a writer and as a professional in the industry of course.
00:42:27:21 – 00:42:43:21
Eric Smith
No, no, I, I think my, my big reaction whenever I look at them is, I hope and I hope my kid is proud of me when he gets older and he understands what I’ve been doing. You know, I hope he looks at them and he’s like, oh, wow, dad. Dad tried his best and this helped pay for college.
00:42:43:21 – 00:43:10:55
Eric Smith
You know, like, I hope there’s something in there that that he appreciates. But that’s that’s kind of it there. You know, like I, I, I look at them, I feel proud, I, I think about the writers who helped me work on them, and I look at the blurbs from those authors and I think about their books. But mostly I think about my kid and what my writing will hopefully, I don’t know what it’ll say to him when when he picks them up.
00:43:10:59 – 00:43:21:17
Eric Smith
Right now, he’s five. So right now the the extent of the conversation is him seeing my picture on the back. And daddy and I’m like, yeah, that’s that’s right. And that’s that’s it. That’s all he gets.
00:43:21:22 – 00:43:46:06
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, I have no doubt you’re going to try and, I mean, we always try. There’s no guarantees. And I’m not a parent, but like, I know that, readers always try to, encourage reading, right? And I can only imagine you’re not going to be, like, only read my books, because that’s that’s not a thing any of us do.
00:43:46:11 – 00:43:59:17
Agent Palmer
But, like, you know, is there, a part of you that’s like, I’m. I’m all right. If he never reads my books.
00:43:59:22 – 00:44:16:52
Eric Smith
Oh, yeah. That’s okay. I mean, like, my wife doesn’t really read my books. She read. She read once, she wrote Jagged Little Pill because she was sort of a little more curious about that one, but, you know, like, they might not be for him, you know, he might not be interested in those, and that’s. That’s totally fine.
00:44:16:57 – 00:44:25:07
Eric Smith
Yeah. My parents don’t read my books. They they demand a copy when they come out, but they don’t.
00:44:25:12 – 00:44:55:15
Agent Palmer
That’s. Yeah, I, I, I like to tell people, in any creative space, do not rely on your closest circle. Oh, no. Really, like, I, I, I talked to somebody in podcasting, and I don’t remember if it was on the episode or not. It might have been during, like, the in-between parts, but he was like, I don’t understand, why strangers will listen to be.
00:44:55:15 – 00:45:18:49
Agent Palmer
But people that I know don’t. And I was like, that’s just the internet. Like, I think that’s just the nature of everything, really. Like with the exception of, like, movie premieres where like, there’s a big event and you can invite people and people want to be seen. And I’m sure we, we could say the same thing about book premieres.
00:45:18:49 – 00:45:30:50
Agent Palmer
When there’s an event, people will be there. The difference being that at a movie premiere, most people stay to watch the movie. And at a book premiere, it’s not like, okay, everybody sit down and read.
00:45:30:55 – 00:45:44:16
Agent Palmer
Which which I think would be wonderful, actually. But, you know, it’s there that there are always going to be strangers that are closer to your work than the people that are closer to you.
00:45:44:21 – 00:46:15:33
Eric Smith
But no, I, I definitely agree. Yeah. I love all my friends terribly, but like, my, my closest friends, you know, my, my childhood friends who, like, have characters named after them in my books. They, they all read them, but they’re also not readers, you know, they’re not big book nerds the way I am and I don’t I don’t really expect them to, you know, I whenever I send one of them, one of my books I like highlight the part where I give them a shout out or a post-it note to like, point to the acknowledgments so they see it.
00:46:15:38 – 00:46:18:15
Eric Smith
But it’s okay that it’s not for them, you know?
00:46:18:20 – 00:46:44:19
Agent Palmer
How do you handle not being, surrounded by readers like I, I’m lucky in that I kind of am. I think my friend circle is now readers. For a while, I was the only reader, which I, I don’t know about you, but, like, it always frustrated me because, like, now I can just be like, here’s a book, read it.
00:46:44:19 – 00:46:59:26
Agent Palmer
And I know he will get to it eventually, or my partner will or somebody will write, but when I was alone, it was like, oh crap, I have nobody to talk to you about this.
00:46:59:31 – 00:47:20:47
Eric Smith
I mean, my friends, like a lot of my friends who aren’t big readers like most of my closest friends, they still they don’t mind hearing about the books that I’m reading. Like, they they have no choice. Like I will gush about something I’m reading and and that’s fine. You know, and I do have, you know, a lot of buddies here in Philly who are readers, but they don’t read my books and they don’t read romcoms.
00:47:20:47 – 00:47:40:20
Eric Smith
My my closest dad friend who lives a couple blocks away from me, only reads nonfiction. That’s it, you know, and we’ll go to the library together and he will pick up the most boring book about, like, the The History of Salt or something. And I’m like, well, how do you read that? What is that? I want to read about this rom com.
00:47:40:20 – 00:47:59:38
Eric Smith
You know, I want to read this on read that. But I don’t know, like, having people that like things that are so different from what you are drawn to. It makes life interesting, you know, like, now, now I know more about the history of salt because of him. He, he read a book about how paper is made, and I, I don’t care about how papers need.
00:47:59:38 – 00:48:06:18
Eric Smith
I care about the books being made. But now I know more about that because he he’s going to tell me.
00:48:06:23 – 00:48:32:00
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, that’s fair. I, I’ve kind of taken it upon myself to diversify my own reading. Yeah. So it’s like I’ll alternate between fiction and non, and I try not to read the same thing like within like a four book cycle. So even if I’m reading through an author or a series like, there’ll be a few books in between.
00:48:32:00 – 00:48:52:05
Agent Palmer
And that’s just because I want to challenge myself. I don’t I feel like I’m alone, though. I feel like there’s a lot of people, and my partner is one of them who’s like that? She’s like, this is what I want to read. And I will read like four of these books in a week, but they’re all kind of the same.
00:48:52:10 – 00:49:02:47
Agent Palmer
I just can’t do.
00:49:02:52 – 00:49:25:56
Agent Palmer
Eric and I had a great discussion, and while I enjoyed talking about post publishing, ownership and the importance of young adult fiction, there’s one piece that’s truly worth revisiting the idea of not knowing as a person old enough to remember a time before Google. I can also remember that while the internet existed, search results were sometimes murky at best.
00:49:26:00 – 00:49:47:41
Agent Palmer
We did the best with what we had, but it often resulted in contacting the person in your friend group with the most knowledge about the subject in question. Now, most of us pick up our phones. I have decided not to do so. If I don’t know the name of an actor or the year something was founded and I’m not doing anything productive with that information, I let it be.
00:49:47:46 – 00:50:14:41
Agent Palmer
I’ve learned to become comfortable saying, I don’t know. It’s a skill most people lack today. Are you willing to learn it? Maybe, but we’ll, knowing the year that a certain movie was released, really enhance your life odds are it won’t. So learn to be comfortable not knowing things. And the next time you think you need to look up that piece of inane trivia that comes up in a conversation, let it be.
00:50:14:46 – 00:50:35:00
Agent Palmer
I promise you won’t be missing anything at all. Thanks for listening to The Power Files episode 108. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can find all related ways to contact myself and my guest, Eric Smith, in the show notes.
00:50:35:05 – 00:50:55:42
Agent Palmer
There you can find a link to Eric’s website. Eric Smith rocks.com for access to all of his books, plus information on query tips and much, much more. Again, that’s Eric Smith rocks.com. The music for this episode was provided by Henno Heitur. Her email can be sent to this show at The Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things.
00:50:55:42 – 00:51:01:53
Agent Palmer
Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:51:01:58 – 00:51:08:31
Unknown
And.
00:51:08:36 – 00:51:16:27
Unknown
You.
00:51:16:32 – 00:51:34:30
Unknown
Need.
00:51:34:35 – 00:51:43:47
Unknown
Me.
00:51:43:52 – 00:51:46:11
Agent Palmer
All right. Eric, do you have one final question for me?
00:51:46:11 – 00:51:58:37
Eric Smith
You know, so, you know, we talked a little bit about you diversifying your reading and everything. Like, what are the two books you’ve read recently that are spectacularly different from one another?
00:51:58:42 – 00:52:32:43
Agent Palmer
Oh, boy. Two books that are spectacularly different from one recently. Well, I mean, I will say, I just finished reading, Fumbling the Future, which was the history of the Xerox Parc facility, which is kind of like the, Bell Labs of the 1940s and 50s, but was out West and basically created the personal computer before any 5 or 6 years before anybody else did.
00:52:32:56 – 00:52:57:20
Agent Palmer
And the just one Xerox didn’t market it properly. And having read the history of technology right. This book, I wasn’t sure what to make of this book, but this is always the book everybody refers to. And, you know, it the book was published in 1988. So like it it’s very close. Those people are still working in that industry, right?
00:52:57:25 – 00:53:18:31
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Apple and Macintosh are big. The IBM PC and clones are all over the place. And by 88. But really the explosions just still kind of going up. But I didn’t know what to expect from the book other than it’s been mentioned in a lot of other books I’ve read. So I read it and it was, very business oriented.
00:53:18:36 – 00:53:46:43
Agent Palmer
It was a lot more on the corporate side of decision making than it was on the science end, which makes it very different than most of the things I read before that. I had read, a spy fiction, piece about the Cold War. So those things are, well, it was actually about the end of the Cold War.
00:53:46:43 – 00:54:15:05
Agent Palmer
So technically both books happened within the same decade or two. But they are so vastly different. And I think that’s I enjoy that a lot, actually, in fact, that that’s actually them being in the same decade actually puts them oddly more together than the usual because it’ll, you know, like my I’m actually in between books right now.
00:54:15:09 – 00:54:35:18
Agent Palmer
And, and so it’s, I don’t, I don’t know actually what’s next. I’ve actually before we got, on to record, I was wandering around my house looking at my bookshelves, going like, what’s the next book going to be? Because I am, I, you know, I, my, my listeners are sick of hearing this, but I’m reading every book in my house.
00:54:35:23 – 00:54:37:35
Eric Smith
Nice.
00:54:37:40 – 00:55:17:14
Agent Palmer
I’m I’m there are going to be some books that are going to be slogs, but like, it also means like, well, what’s it going to be? What’s next? And I, I basically give myself maybe, 48 hours to decide before I just pick up whatever I feel like or whatever’s there and just keep going. Yeah. It’s I don’t know, I part of it is kind of selfish in that I read two spy fictions back to back, and when I finished the second one, I couldn’t remember what happened in which book, and I, I needed the palate cleanser to be able to review both of them.
00:55:17:19 – 00:55:52:13
Agent Palmer
But also, I was kind of like, I don’t know if I want like, I know people that just read the same thing, but there was a part of me that was like, I, I just need a change. I just need, to expand it a bit. Kind of like I’m. I don’t think I’ll ever go back for a master’s degree, but I can educate myself in my own curriculum if I’m, you know, look, I, I’m 40 and I grew up in an era where being well-rounded was the thing to be.
00:55:52:17 – 00:56:15:26
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Which is weird, because as I look for a full time gig, people are like, now you’re well-rounded. We don’t want you. You don’t have a specialization. And then when I try and be specialized, they’re like, well, you’re not that well-rounded. I’m like, I yeah, wow. Oh, you can’t win it all here. But I, I feel like I get better perspective overall.
00:56:15:31 – 00:56:20:57
Agent Palmer
By just diversifying what I’m intaking.
00:56:21:02 – 00:56:23:21
Eric Smith
That makes sense to me.
00:56:23:26 – 00:56:47:33
Agent Palmer
And young adult is part of it. Like, I have a bunch of them. I just, you know, I it’s weird. I have these, really. I end up with relationships with authors like yourself and, you know, I’m not. I’m. First of all, I’m not asking. But, like, occasionally they’ll be like, hey, I just wrote this thing.
00:56:47:44 – 00:56:57:49
Agent Palmer
Do you want to take a look as an advance or, you know, do a review? Yeah. And I’ve gotten to a point now where I don’t ask what the book’s about anymore.
00:56:57:54 – 00:56:58:54
Eric Smith
00:56:58:58 – 00:57:21:05
Agent Palmer
Because it’s something new. And obviously, if I have a relationship with you, I’ve probably read something you’ve already. So I’ve. I’m already familiar with your style. Even if you change it. So it’s really just. Okay. All right. Eric sent me a book that’ll go on the list, right? Like, I don’t have to. I don’t have to worry about, like what?
00:57:21:05 – 00:57:46:33
Agent Palmer
What is it like? I’ll figure it out. I, I talk about this all the time, but I read, the mages by John Fowles, and a third of the way through the book. I didn’t know what I was reading. Yeah, I read like. Yeah, it’s like it’s like 800 pages, so like 200, 300 pages in. I was still not sure what I was reading, and then it all just clicked.
00:57:46:38 – 00:58:11:41
Agent Palmer
But you have to go along for that ride. So I feel like, well, I have limited my book purchasing because I still have weight. I’m still not at 50% of reading through my house. Because I’ve been a collector and, an aggregator, like, as my grandpa, as my grandparents generation has died off. I’ve also inherited a lot of books.
00:58:11:46 – 00:58:17:25
Agent Palmer
But before I get rid of them, I want to read them to make sure they’re worth. They’re not worth keeping, I guess.
00:58:17:30 – 00:58:18:07
Eric Smith
Worse. Yeah.
00:58:18:07 – 00:58:47:37
Agent Palmer
Yeah. So again, the, the new books, I’m reading a lot of older things, but you know, I it it I’m, it’s the diversification. And I think that that perspective is important as I, you know, actively try and spend less time on my phone and on algorithm based media where it’s like, all right, well, no, this would have never been suggested to you.
00:58:47:42 – 00:59:03:13
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but I liked it, you know, and I think that’s that’s kind of where I’m at. It’s weird, but it’s good. I think, I mean, what about do you, do you attempt to diversify or is it just. I’m interested in this.
00:59:03:17 – 00:59:38:47
Eric Smith
Yeah. So like, I read what I think will inform my writing and my job, you know, but a lot of that stuff is still for for pleasure. You know, it’s still makes me really happy. Like, I read a lot of adult rom coms, not just because I want to work on them, but because I think the dialog in romantic comedy can teach you so much about how to write people talking in a way that sounds really natural and organic and like, and just real, you know, romance authors are just unbeatable when it comes to that.
00:59:38:52 – 01:00:02:46
Eric Smith
Because people just talk because they’re they’re talking and they’re getting to know one another. That’s how that’s how romance novels work. You know, I read a lot of well, I actually no, I don’t I don’t read read the books, I, I do, I do audiobooks, which of course is still reading. I do a lot of, memoir on audio, a lot of, like old true crime on audio.
01:00:02:50 – 01:00:22:59
Eric Smith
God, I just did, the indifferent stars above on audio, which was just incredible. Oh, my God. Although the whole history of the Donner Party and what happened to them going out west. Oh, geez. The narrator has, like, the kind of voice that makes you want to fall asleep while you’re listening to it. But you shouldn’t because it’s a horrible story.
01:00:22:59 – 01:00:26:20
Eric Smith
And you don’t want that. Yeah, you don’t want that. Its way into your dreams.
01:00:26:20 – 01:00:29:46
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, definitely not.
01:00:29:51 – 01:00:54:53
Eric Smith
But like. Yeah, like I just finished that recently. And I also just finished, Sammy Espinosa is final review by Taylor K Maria, which was like a really lovely romance about a, music journalist who ends up falling for the guy she’s on a mission to cover, and has to hide the fact that she’s a journalist, and it’s so good and so funny.
01:00:54:57 – 01:01:11:26
Eric Smith
So, yeah, I read read a little bit all over the place, but, like, it’s always stuff that’s going to also inform my own writing and my job, even if it’s for pleasure. Because I don’t know, I don’t I don’t have time to read like, like I’m trying to think of something that I would maybe read just for fun.
01:01:11:26 – 01:01:30:23
Eric Smith
Like, I really like a lot of my friends read a lot of literary fiction. I don’t really work on it. I don’t necessarily want to read it for fun because I, I don’t know, does it entertain me as much as, as more traditional and like, upmarket or like genre blending fiction does the sort of stuff that I do work on.
01:01:30:28 – 01:01:35:59
Eric Smith
So yeah, yeah, I read diversely. As long as it’s like that it sounds selfish, but as long as it’s helping me.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).