Pub Crawl

On today’s episode, Dan and Ezra discuss the challenges of finding the all-important first readers for your book — getting help from friends and relatives, investing in a fee-based review, tapping into ARC services like NetGalley to distribute free copies to influential readers, and engaging with the reading community on Goodreads. Links Gary Kroeger’s essay on attending the 40th SNL Anniversary h...

For Thanksgiving, Dan and Ezra give thanks for the help they got -- and really needed -- to get their books out into the world.

Dan and Ezra dig into the process of creating eye-catching covers, and argue over whether covers make any difference. 2:34 A surprisingly generous gesture nets Dan the cover image of his dreams. 11:26 Why Amazon declined to allow Ezra to advertise his book. 15:21 What is the secret to making an iconic book cover? 30:05 Thinking about colors and fonts.

A look at the state of the self-publishing industry and book publishing at large, and the enormous challenges micropublishers face when seeking to build audiences. Dan offers some inspiration and Ezra shares a cautionary tale of a phantom fan.