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Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing.
Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcome
Today’s guest is author, writing coach, and sobriety expert Tawny Lara, the author of
Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze.
In this episode, Tawny pulls back the curtain on her publishing journey—from blogging and viral essays to finding an agent, switching from memoir to more journalistic nonfiction, completely rewriting her proposal, and ultimately selling her book. We get into querying, indie publishing vs. the Big Five, advances, audiobooks, and DIY book publicity. She also shares why every writer needs a newsletter, how she built an effective Substack strategy, the publicity tactics that landed her major media coverage, and why tapping into your existing network is often more powerful than chasing social media algorithms.
Plus, Tawny explains how she sold a sobriety card deck to Penguin Random House, why rejection is an essential part of every publishing career, and the simple writing advice that transformed her creative practice.
Subscribe to Tawny's Substack
Beyond Liquid Courage. Follow her on
Instagram @tawnymlara, and buy your copy of
Dry Humping on
Bookshop.org,
Amazon, or wherever books are sold!
Get your copy of Courtney's debut memoir Girl Gone Wild from Bookshop.org or Amazon.The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on
Instagram @courtneykocak and
Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website
courtneykocak.com.
Courtney is teaching some upcoming classes you might be interested in:
