✍️ New on the Substack: I've turned my conversation with Warren Rankine into a full written piece — for anyone who'd rather read than listen (or wants to come back to the parts worth underlining).

Warren is the author of Fifteen Feet Tall, and our chat covered two threads I keep circling back to as a memoirist and an indie author.
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The first is the unsettling gap between memory and fact. Warren accessed his childhood welfare file through Freedom of Information, and what he found didn't always match the story he'd been told — or the way he remembered feeling. When it came time to write the book, he had to catalogue that entire file and calibrate, line by line, between what he recalled and what the records proved. It's the quiet, uncomfortable discipline at the heart of memoir.

The second is the business of being an author *after* the book is done. Warren has run his own business for 21 years, and he doesn't sugarcoat it: the launch isn't the finish line — it's the starting line. A brand image, however polished, doesn't make a single sale on its own. The work that matters comes next: showing up, connecting, and (his words) never sitting down doing Sudoku at your book-fair table.

I've pulled all of it together — the memory work, the marketing truths, the book-fair rules — into one piece.

📖 Read it now (link in bio). And if it resonates, I'd love for you to share it with a writer who needs to hear that the book won't sell itself. 💛

https://amrasarmchairanecdotes.substack.com/p/af54e27c-a009-42cb-a393-60eafc0f8c6f?postPreview=free&updated=2026-06-21T05%3A01%3A42.468Z&audience=everyone&free_preview=false&freemail=true

Everyone in Australian publishing agrees on the same thing right now: too many books, too fast, quality dropping. What nobody agrees on is why.
Buried in recent reporting is a detail that should be the headline: official counts of Australian books published each year don't even include self-published ebooks — "an area of huge growth." There's an entire population of working authors making a real living who aren't part of this conversation at all.
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I wrote about what gets lost when the "fewer, better books" debate only ever proposes fixing traditional publishing from the inside — and never asks why authors need a Big Five's permission to be treated well in the first place.

Read on Substack.

Show notesWarren Rankin, author of '15 Feet Tall,' shares his journey from business to authorship, the emotional process of writing, the decision to publish, and the challenges of vulnerability and cultural representation in memoir writing. He discusses the role of editors and the response to his memoir from men and women, highlighting the growth and evolution experienced through the writing process. The conversation delves into the themes of compassion and connection, revisiting personal records, institutional trauma and freedom of information, separating craft from product, persistence in marketing and promotion, and belief in self and value creation. Warren's experiences and insights provide valuable lessons for aspiring authors and individuals navigating personal challenges.


Takeaways

• The journey from business to authorship
• The emotional process of memoir writing Compassion and empathy build trust
• Revisiting personal records can reveal discrepancies and confrontational surprises
• Persistence and belief in self are crucial in marketing and promotion

Chapters

• 00:00 The Journey to Authorship
• 06:31 The Decision to Publish and the Editing Process
• 13:46 Writing About Family and Vulnerability
• 25:50 Vulnerability and Growth in Memoir Writing
• 32:04 Compassion and Connection
• 37:23 Institutional Trauma and Freedom of Information
• 46:03 Persistence in Marketing and Promotion
• 52:16 Belief in Self and Value Creation

Connect with Warren RankineWarren Rankine is author of Fifteen Feet Tall — a memoir written by a Ngarrindjeri man exploring childhood abandonment, foster care, trauma, identity, survival, and what it means to rebuild a life after growing up without stability.
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Warren’s story isn’t just the memoir itself, but the way he’s approached authorship. He’s not coming from a literary or academic background. He built a business first, then turned to storytelling, and has approached publishing with a really direct, entrepreneurial mindset.
We’re talking about writing trauma honestly without becoming trapped by it, the emotional cost of memoir, masculinity and vulnerability, and the realities of marketing and direct-selling your own story in a crowded publishing landscape.

Website: https://www.fifteenfeettall.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fifteen_feet_tall/

🎙️ I sat down with two insiders from IngramSpark — Chris Munnery and Madeline Bush — and we covered everything indie authors need to know but often find out the hard way.

The biggest misconception? That IngramSpark will market your book for you. It won't. But what it will do is give you access to 45,000+ global retail and library partners — if you know how to use it properly.

We talked about:
📚 What actually gets a book stocked in a bookstore
🔍 Why metadata is your first act of marketing (and the free tools to help)
💸 How wholesale discounts really work — and how it compares to traditional publishing royalties
📖 Why skipping your proof copy is a mistake you only make once
​✨ Exciting new features coming — printed edges, direct e-commerce, format conversion, and translations
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Whether you're on your first book or your tenth, there's something in here for you.

Read the full article on Substack or at the link below 👇

https://amrasarmchairanecdotes.substack.com/p/19b5bc19-915c-43b3-9429-e5afcee85132​