The Write and Wrong Podcast | Writing Tips, Book Publishing and Literary Agents
Aug 31, 2026 · 38 min · 12 segments
What does it take to find a literary agent and navigate today’s ever-shifting publishing world? In this episode, Jamie sits down with publishing veteran and literary agent Kate Barker to pull back…
Kate BarkerGuestJamieHostOkay.
Wow.
It's funny to think of how like the Bookature was at one point this like small little startup company and now it's so big.
They just, you know, I mean, it's, it wasn't just them who set the model because lots of indie authors have been doing it for themselves.
you know, 2010s, um, but they were so, um, data driven and rigorous in the way they approach things.
Doesn't fit lots of different kinds of publishing, but for the kind of commercial publishing they do, it was brilliant and revolutionary.
And one of the things I had done actually that, um, when I was, um, for various family reasons, when I was, um, at home with my kids.
I had done a postgraduate diploma in digital marketing, which actually wound up being much more difficult than I thought it was going to be.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that kind of, you know, like digital marketing and sort of content strategy, that's all good.
That's all so much more useful now for authors than it has been like, you know, 10 years ago or whatever, because authors are so at the kind of forefront of their own brand and everything now.
And it's a sort of mixed blessing because on the one hand, if you're the kind of author who likes that kind of thing, is good at that kind of thing, it's fantastic.
You can control your own destiny in a way you really couldn't 20, 25 years ago plus.
On the other hand, if you're the kind of author who just wants to write books, it's a bit of a burden to feel that you have to be out there on social media and doing all these publishing roles that traditionally your publisher would have done.
Okay.
Wow.
It's funny to think of how like the Bookature was at one point this like small little startup company and now it's so big.
They just, you know, I mean, it's, it wasn't just them who set the model because lots of indie authors have been doing it for themselves.
you know, 2010s, um, but they were so, um, data driven and rigorous in the way they approach things.
Doesn't fit lots of different kinds of publishing, but for the kind of commercial publishing they do, it was brilliant and revolutionary.
And one of the things I had done actually that, um, when I was, um, for various family reasons, when I was, um, at home with my kids.
I had done a postgraduate diploma in digital marketing, which actually wound up being much more difficult than I thought it was going to be.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that kind of, you know, like digital marketing and sort of content strategy, that's all good.
That's all so much more useful now for authors than it has been like, you know, 10 years ago or whatever, because authors are so at the kind of forefront of their own brand and everything now.
And it's a sort of mixed blessing because on the one hand, if you're the kind of author who likes that kind of thing, is good at that kind of thing, it's fantastic.
You can control your own destiny in a way you really couldn't 20, 25 years ago plus.
On the other hand, if you're the kind of author who just wants to write books, it's a bit of a burden to feel that you have to be out there on social media and doing all these publishing roles that traditionally your publisher would have done.
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