Find the Right Illustrator + Summit soon! + Next Substack!

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Subject: Find the Right Illustrator + Summit soon! + Next Substack!

Find the Right Illustrator +

Summit soon! +

Next Substack!

** This email may show up long in your inbox, so you may need to click to expand and to read the full email. Or read online.

Friday, June 19, 2026

Hi Friend,

I’m coming up on four years of How to Write the Future, so I wanted to pop in and share what we actually do around here, and how you can get the most value with a click.

This podcast is for speculative fiction writers (sci-fi, fantasy, and especially genre mashups), and I teach from a place of what I call obstinate optimism: I truly believe stories and creativity can reshape us for the better.

Over the last 4 years, I've circled back to 5 big themes again and again:

writing craft (focused on meaning and reader experience, not rigid rules),
worldbuilding through character (so it supports immersion instead of info-dumps),
sustainable creative process and mindset (self-trust, compassion, small doable steps),
heart-centered publishing and marketing (sell books without selling your soul),
and ethical AI for writers (use tools with discernment—without giving up authorship).

If you’ve got a question in any of those buckets (or honestly, something adjacent), email me by hitting reply.

If you want to browse, there are 200+ episodes waiting for you.

❤️

Upcoming events for writers and creative entrepreneurs:

🎉 I'll be a speaker again at Rhonda Douglas's 2026 Book Finishers Summit, June 25-29, teaching how to write your author branding statement. Come to get that written! Register here.
Listen to this week's How to Write The Future podcast episode, "How To Find the Right Illustrator for You with Anna Leitensdorfer."
Our Substack Live, Monday, June 22, 10am Pacific on what to do when your characters talk to you... "Where does your story actually begin?" Click here to be notified when we goes live.
Get live feedback on your story! Plus, premium, exclusive content. And join my monthly Edit Lab. Next date: July 1, 10am PT. For science fiction and fantasy writers who feel stuck in revision. (Only $5 per month -- Founders price for only a few more weeks! Will jump to $40/month) Join here!
Read the latest Writer's Fun Zone articles

❤️

🎤 How To Find the Right Illustrator for You with Anna Leitensdorfer

How To Write The Future podcast, episode 209

“Since it was my first book cover there, I learned a lot. There was a big process involved. Lots of figuring out, print lingo, making sure things are where they should be. So it was definitely a learning process.”

– Anna Leitensdorfer

In my latest episode, I interview book illustrator Anna Leitensdorfer, who creates maps, character art, interior illustrations, and recently completed her first book cover.

Anna explains how authors can choose the right illustrator by narrowing in on style and, for covers, matching genre expectations through comparable titles

How To Find the Right Illustrator for You with Anna Leitensdorfer

How To Write the Future podcast, episode 209

Read | Listen | Watch

❤️

Happy Writing!

Best,

Beth

PS. Join the Edit Lab and get live edit support in our monthly calls -- next call is July 1st 10am PT/1pm ET, premium content, and more! Join at the Founder level, only $5/month. Price goes up after June 30th to $40/month.

🌀 Substack Lives most Mondays!

Subscribe to get the notifications.

🌟

If you find my resources helpful, please forward them to a friend who may need them too.

Help me help more writers!

Thanks!

❤️

Beth Barany
Creativity Coach for Writers

Teacher, Speaker, Workshop Facilitator
bethbarany.com

I not only teach and coach novelists, I am one too!

*Magical Tales of Romance, Mystery, and Adventure* author.bethbarany.com

Including the award-winning, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer (Book 1), and Into The Black, about Janey McCallister space station investigator (Book 1)

__________________________

❤️

Here to empower you with core principles, mindset tools, and doable roadmaps to build your sustainable, thriving, creative career on your own terms.

🚀

🐲

Passionate about supporting science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers; and creative entrepreneurs serving writers.

🎬

Filmmaker with a BIG mission: to celebrate warrior women!

Writer's Fun zone blog by and for creative writers, published by Beth Barany

Subscribe to be notified when each blog post goes live. Or wait for the weekly round-up in this newsletter. *Write for us.

Latest WFZ posts

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Support This Creative Entrepreneur

My mission is to support your adventure as a creative and step into your next best self.

If you want to support my mission, I invite you to:

📚 buy my books

☕️ buy me a coffee

🎬 support my Henrietta The Dragon Slayer short film

Or share my products or services with your friends. Thanks!

❤️

Beth Barany is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, and certified creativity coach for writers.

For the last 20 years, she's been working with writers of all kinds.

She specializes in helping sci-fi and fantasy publishing-oriented novelists experience clarity, so they can write, revise, and proudly publish their books to the delight of their readers.

Here be the legalese: In connection with the operation of this newsletter and business, Creativity Sparks includes affiliate links to trusted partners. Barany Consulting earns a commission from the Affiliate Links which commission is based on the number of sales that are made as a result of users of the Newsletter clicking over to the Affiliate Link and purchasing from the Affiliate Link a product and/or service. Thus endth the legalese.

I live in the territory of Huichin, part of the stolen land of the Chochenyo Muwekma Ohlone, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County, in Oakland, California, the San Francisco Bay Area. Northern Hemisphere. Earth.

The Solar System. → Carina–Sagittarius Arm in the Milky Way galaxy. Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Local Hole → Observable universe → Universe.

I stand with people of Ukraine and all peoples 🎗️ in their fight for freedom from oppression and the right to self-determine. Yes, all peoples. Not just some.

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