The Publishing Deal: Catherine Milne, Head of Fiction at HarperCollins, on Success, Bestsellers a...

The Publishing Deal: Catherine Milne, Head of Fiction at HarperCollins, on Success, Bestsellers and Writing from the Heart Catherine Milne has worked in publishing for many years, including with Penguin Books, Allen & Unwin, and since 2012, with HarperCollins, where she has been Head of Fiction since 2017.  Her list is eclectic, ranging across fiction and non-fiction, but consistently award-winning and bestselling. It includes such successes as Trent Dalton, Julia Baird, Holly Ringland, Meg Mason, Jacqueline Maley, Alli Parker, Rebecca Armitage, Jacinta Parsons, Stan Grant, Rick Morton and Ben Crowe. For more information about The Australian Fiction Prize, see here (https://www.harpercollins.com.au/thea...) . The Debut in the Spotlight this week is Sophie Stern, with her debut novel What is Left For Us (Penguin, March 2026).  (https://www.penguin.com.au/books/what...) 00:00 Welcome to Book Deal 01:50 Catherine's start in publishing 06:12 The slush pile 08:35 Approaching publishers 10:21 Pitching 17:22 Inside Acquisitions Meetings 22:30 Second Book Pressure 25:48 Writing for Love 26:55 Debut in the Spotlight: Sophie Stern 28:11 Defining Success 29:44 Advances 33:26 Marketing Myths Breakouts 36:23 Case Study Sorrow & Bliss 41:20 State of the industry 47:54 The Australian Fiction Prize 52:49 Final Tip Join our Patreon community (  / thebookdealpodcast  ) for less than the cost of a coffee per month and support the pod! Your contribution will go to directly paying our sound producer, Brogan, and to help us bring you the conversations with industry professionals you love. Follow The Book Deal podcast on Instagram The Book Deal podcast (@the_book_deal_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos (  / the_book_deal_podcast  ) You can find out more about Tina, Madeleine and Natasha and follow their journeys here: Tina Strachan (@td_strachan) • Instagram photos and videos (  / td_strachan  ) Tina Strachan children's book author (https://www.tinastrachan.com/about-ti...) Madeleine Cleary (@madeleineclearywrites) • Instagram photos and videos (  / madeleineclearywrites  ) Madeleine Cleary | Author (https://www.madeleinecleary.com.au/) Natasha Rai (@raiwriting) • Instagram photos and videos (  / raiwriting  ) Natasha Rai | Author | Mentor (https://www.raiwriting.com.au/) If you want to stay in the know, sign up to Madeleine, Tina and Natasha's newsletters for the latest news first. Madeleine: Subscribe here (https://madeleinecleary.substack.com/...) ...