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UPOD july 2025 popup nights
July 16 - Jane Friedman, publishing guru,
author of The Business of Being a Writer
3:30 pm PT/6:30 pm ET
July 30 - Alia Hanna Habib, superstar literary agent,
author of Take It From Me: An agent’s guide to building a nonfiction writing career from scratch
4 pm PT/7 pm ET
How long: 60-90 minutes
How much: $50 each or $90 to attend both
Can’t be there live? Sign up now for the full video playback
and Zoom chat transcript (same prices as live).
The price will not go down after the event so buy it now.
Jane Friedman, Publishing Guru,
Author, The Business of Being a Writer
Wednesday, July 16 @ 3:30 pm PT/6:30 pm ET
Jane Friedman is a legend in the book world. Since 2015, thousands of authors and publishing people have turned to her newsletter, The Bottom Line (formerly The Hot Sheet), for her definitive take on publishing news, pitching and querying strategies, agent thoughts, and more. She’s also the author of The Business of Being a Writer, perhaps the clearest roadmap for navigating the publishing industry. I love her plainspoken, direct advice and insights on how things really work behind the scenes in the word biz.
Now she’s coming to Upod. Join us for a live, unfiltered conversation about pitching and selling book ideas, landing an agent, building a platform and more. If you want to sell a book and grow a writing career in today’s chaotic world—navigating daily changes, figuring out money, AI, and everything else—you do not want to miss this.
We’re going to cover a lot. I’ll open with a few burning questions for Jane, including:
– What makes a query letter irresistible?
– What do perfect proposals look like?
– How do you pick the right agent for you?
– When (if ever) is AI actually okay?
– How do you build a platform when you don’t have one?
Then it’s wide open. Ask anything. Bring book ideas to test out, queries for feedback and your nerdiest, most practical questions. Jane’s seen it all.
Date and time: Wednesday, July 16 at 3:30 pm PT/6:30 pm ET via livestream for 60-90 minutes.
Hosted by David Hochman (Upod Academy) + Jane Friedman (The Business of Being a Writer)
Alia Hanna Habib, literary agent & author
”take it from me: an agent’s guide to building a nonfiction writing career from scratch”
Wednesday, July 30 @ 4 pm PT/7 pm ET
Ever since I read The Cut article in 2023 called “Start a Bidding War for a Book,” I’ve wanted featured book agent Alia Hanna Habib to chat with us at Upod. Now she’s coming.
Alia is a literary agent and Vice President at The Gernert Company, representing Pulitzer winners, MacArthur Fellows, National Book Award finalists, and more New York Times bestselling authors than you can shake a Kindle at. She also happens to be the author of the upcoming Take It From Me: An Agent’s No-Nonsense Guide to Building a Nonfiction Career from Scratch, out from Pantheon in January 2026.
Alia knows exactly how the book business works—especially for nonfiction writers—and she ain’t gonna sugarcoat it.
I love how she puts it in that Cut piece:
“If you’re the only person who could write this story, and you can prove it, then you’ve already started a bidding war.”
Alia is joining us for an AMA-type Upod livestream about how to make it as an author in 2025 and beyond. We’ll talk about:
What agents really want right now
How to write a book proposal that doesn’t get ghosted
What gets editors excited—and what’s over
How to break into nonfiction without a big platform
When to self-publish, when to walk away, and when to swing big
How advances work, how auctions start, and how to get more than lunch money for your book
How to build your author platform, publicize your book and, yep, get on the bestseller list
What a book career actually looks like (without the Instagram filter)
Bring your book ideas—there will be time for Q&A, and yes, she’s open to pitches (but don’t get weird about it, please).
This session is for journalists, essayists, memoirists, idea-driven folks, novelists and anyone who's ever thought, “I have a book in me.” Alia has helped shape important nonfiction titles (her authors include Hanif Abdurraqib, Merve Emre, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Lauren Oyler and Clint Smith) and this is your chance to learn directly from her what it takes to sell yours.
Date & Time: Wednesday, July 30 at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET
Where: Upod Livestream aka Zoom
Host: David Hochman (Upod Academy)
Guest: Alia Hanna Habib (The Gernert Company)
Upod July Popup Nights
July 16 - Jane Friedman, publishing guru,
author of The Business of Being a Writer
3:30 pm PT/6:30 pm ET
July 30 - Alia Hanna Habib, superstar literary agent,
author of Take It From Me: An agent’s guide to building a nonfiction writing career from scratch
4 pm PT/7 pm ET
Admission: $50 per session or $90 for both*
Can’t make it? Order the video playback
and Zoom chat transcript (same price as live)
ENROLL HERE
Email davidhochman@mac.com if you have questions.
*Package Discount Policy:
The $90 discounted rate applies only to those who purchase both sessions up front.
If you buy one session and decide to add the second later, each will be priced at $50.
Note the different start times.
Refund Policy:
No refunds after July 8.
Legal disclaimers: Speakers occasionally cancel. This is extremely rare but know that their participation is not guaranteed. Also, know that the sessions will be recorded and available for purchase after the weekend for those who missed the opportunity. By signing up for the workshop you are granting permission to have your name and likeness appear as part of the video library of speaker sessions. There are no guarantees that your participation will result in publishing your work or even in getting responses from the speakers. Like everything else in the realm of freelance writing, success is determined by your ability to come up with good ideas, pitch well, follow-up, etc.
Questions: davidhochman@mac.com
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