Tina Strachan, Madeleine Cleary & Natasha Rai
109 episodes listed below
Writerly chats from manuscript to book deal.
The Book Deal follows writers and publishing people through the messy road from manuscript to book deal. Its interviews and roundtables mix encouragement with useful specifics: competitions, feedback, drafting routines, launch days, agents, assessments, and the long wait for a book deal.
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The Book Deal is built for writers who want publishing to feel less mysterious and less lonely. It moves between author interviews, industry conversations, and recurring roundtables with Tina Straughan, Madeline Cleary, and Natasha Rye. The tone is warm and conversational, but the subject matter is practical. Manuscripts, competitions, feedback, agents, assessments, drafting, launch days, publicity, and second-book nerves all sit in the same room. Rebecca Armitage's episode shows the show's range: the conversation reaches from rejection and writing sprints to pre-empts, Reese's Book Club attention, and a TV adaptation on the way. Tina Clark's CYA Conference episode is more directly instructional, with clear discussion of competitions, assessments, networking, entry fees, and the value of judge feedback. Bridie Blake's appearance brings another kind of persistence story, shaped by romcom writing, a long wait for a book deal, and the imminent release of The Boyfriend Clause. The roundtable episodes are looser. They sound like writers checking in with one another after a month of real life, creative uncertainty, launches, workshops, reading, and whatever routine is currently working. That informality is part of the point. The show does not flatten writing into inspiration or hustle. It keeps returning to the actual texture of the work: sitting down, taking breaks, walking through a problem, listening to the book, tracking small wins, and accepting that early drafts can be deeply rough. There is plenty of encouragement, but it usually comes with a concrete example attached. A tip about writing sprints becomes a conversation about attention and creative limits. A note about competitions becomes a reminder that feedback can change a manuscript's direction. A chat about publicity turns into a reason to keep a writing diary before the details disappear. The result is a useful, chatty, publishing-aware show for people trying to keep going. It respects the ambition of getting a book deal while making room for uncertainty, delay, and jokes at the draft's expense.
Made for: Emerging writers, debut authors, and book people who want candid publishing stories alongside practical advice on writing, competitions, feedback, and perseverance.
What sets it apart: The show blends author interviews with the intimacy of recurring writer check-ins, so industry advice lands beside real-time uncertainty, routines, self-doubt, and small creative wins.
Motivation and inspiration for emerging writers, helping them pave their own pathway to publishing success.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Book Deal turns publication stories and working-writer conversations into specific, usable guidance about craft, persistence and getting a manuscript into the world.
The Book Deal keeps the path to publication close to the writing desk. Tina Straughan, Madeline Cleary and Natasha Rye alternate author and industry interviews with roundtable conversations about their own work, turning publishing milestones into practical questions about…
A blank page gets publishing reality, writing routine, and permission to embrace your inevitable pile of poo.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A tight author interview that blends publishing context with plain, useful writing advice.
Rebecca Armitage's debut, The Heir Apparent, lands with a clear sense of where it sits: part royal reporting, part publishing story. She is a Tassie based author and ABC journalist, edits the ABC's International Desk, and has spent enough time on royal coverage for that interest…
A grounded look at competitions, feedback, and how conferences can help writers move toward publication.
The conversation treats writing competitions as one workable route toward publication, with Tina Clark's role as coordinator of the CYA Conference for Writers and Illustrators giving the discussion a practical frame.
A warm catch-up that turns writing habits and self-care into something useful.
Tina, Madeleine, and Natasha settle into a monthly catch-up that quietly makes the case for paying attention to the work of being a writer while it is still unfolding.
A loose, warm chat about routine, risk, and the pressure of doing the next book differently.
The Book Deal stays close to the awkward middle of writing, where routine, second-book nerves, and the pull between safety and risk all sit in the same room.
Craft talk from the working writer trenches.
Screenwriting shop talk from working writers.
Practical fiction craft, down to the sentence.
On The Book Deal, Jessie Tu discusses The Honey Eater, a novel about a young Asian-Australian translator who has an intense falling out with her mentor.
Rebecca Armitage's path looks glossy at first.
Tina Clark makes writing competitions sound manageable.
Mid-March comes round quickly.
This episode features an interview with author Bridie Blake about her journey to publishing her debut romcom novel 'The Boyfriend Clause' after 20 years of perseverance, discussing writing practice and the publishing process.
Routine is the first puzzle.