A People's Guide to Publishing

This question is remarkably common: someone publishes something and stores don't flock to put it on their shelves. What do you need? This week on the pod, we figure out which is the cart and which is the horse and what sequence of events can put your books into stores!

One of the most exciting aspects of being a publisher is watching it grow. A little at first but compared to two or five years ago, it can often be a lot. How do you measure this? How do you keep up? What if it stops? All this and more!

2021 was a year where the old tricks didn't work. But what are the new tricks? How do we find and choose the ones that are right for us? This week on the pod, we take a deep dive into experimentation and how its best implemented!

One of the most confusing aspects of publishing is the branding. With hundreds of thousands of active publishing companies in the world, we constantly run into confusion about who is big, who is small, who is independent, who is corporately controlled, and why you have never even heard of this publisher before. Largely, this is because branding is done to the industry, rather than to the public. T...

Here is a a funny reader question that happens sometimes: your publisher pays you an advance but then cancels your book. Why? What do you do? What can you do? What should you do? 

Reader question this week is asking us to predict how the changes we've seen over the past year will take hold over the next five years and what that will mean for publishers. How should publishers prepare for this? How should publishers pivot? What can we do to set ourselves up for success?

Why do publishers make stickers, magnets, shirts, patches, buttons, and the like? What is gained? Where does this get you? This week on the pod, we jabber on about how we have leveraged these items to get our books into new and unlikely places! 

For many publishers, the bulk of income can come from licensing deals: the same book translated to Japanese, as an audiobook, or even a videogame or interactive version. An 80% share in Dark Horse Comics was sold to a videogame developer, for example. This week we look at these deals, how to do them, and why they are so important.

Generally unbeknownst to each us, we have a set of experiences that form how we see the world. These experiences form what we see as acceptable, unacceptable, normal, and marginal thoughts, ideas, values, and actions. For example, one person only wears Armani suits while another only wears second hand clothes. This point of view accepts our publishing, as it informs what kind of books appear inter...

Publishing news has been brewing over a story of a protest resignation from a board member from the American Booksellers Association (ABA) over "old" vs "new" definitions of "free speech." Personally, we hate that "free speech" has been codified to mean "hurtful speech," but this week we tackle these thorny issues and more! 

The book industry was shocked in April of 2016 when Baker & Taylor was purchased by their primary competitor in the library sales market, Follett. So imagine the surprise when they sold them off five years later. What does this mean? 

For this week's episode of the People's Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly are interviewing (live!) Sarah High from Bookshop, the new online book retailer that is pointing the way to  successful online bookselling that supports independent bookstores as well as authors and publishers. We'll talk about bookselling during the pandemic, the future of books, and positive ways to make connection...

Last week, the U.S. Federal Government sued to prevent Penguin Random House from purchasing one of their biggest competitors, Simon & Schuster. This is a stark change in federal policy after years of happily allowing Hachette, HarperCollins, and others to acquire their biggest competitors. As well, as six years ago when Penguin and Random House merged themselves. What does it mean?

After decades of U.S. manufacturing disinvestment coinciding with decades of rapid production investment in China, book publishers have largely moved to printing in China. So why have we seen a return to domestic printing this year? Spoiler alert: One Big Five publisher recently cited 18 week delays for reprints from China. This means that for smaller publishers, this delay is MUCH longer.

The past year has been plagued with U.S. labor shortages. Publishers can't get a break. But neither can workers. Conditions haven't markedly improved in decades and publishers and distributors are having huge troubles with warehouse staffing, leading to weeks of fulfillment delays. We take a look at why the same systems are no longer working and what can be done about it! 

Because of Amazon's relentless marketing campaign, one of the most common questions is "What can a publisher actually offer that self-publishing cannot?" so this week on the pod, we tackle the considerations, pros and cons of a publisher or self-publishing as well as other things to consider.

We just returned from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association show (PNBA), the first in-person trade show in nearly two years! So this week on the pod, we talk about what we observed, what we learned, and what it will likely all mean in the long term, as publishing continues to evolve from COVID!

Most books have multiple contributors in varying capacities. Some have two authors. Many have an author and an illustrator. This week on the pod, we answer a reader question about how to create fair agreements and structure them so that no one is left in the lurch no matter if the book is very successful, very unsuccessful, or the most likely scenario unfolds. We take a look at what to consider, h...

Often, when you create something and the world likes it, they have a strong tendency to use it without asking. Or conversely, people have questions about when or how they can use someone's else's writing or art in their own and what constitutes fair use or what is just theft. So this week on the pod, we tackle all this and more! 

When you create something, like writing a book or drawing an illustration, you have the power to decide who gets to use it and how. This week on the pod, we talk about the many things to consider, what standard agreements look like, and how to best make decisions about the future of your work!

We frequently hear concerns from authors about how their books are handled. They think that "signing" with a publisher is giving up their ability to handle and own their book. Nothing is further from the truth. In almost every contract, an author still owns their own work and licenses aspects of it to a publisher for the purpose of the publisher (hopefully) having greater ability to increase its v...

The past five years have become a vigilant fight to claim the word "Indie" in publishing. Who is Indie? What are they independent of? What are they dependent on? How are these terms confusing? How is this phrase used in misleading ways? This week on the pod, we have some real talk about dependence and independence! 

The gift segment of publishing is the both the largest potential and one of the fastest growing. While there are around 2,500 bookstores in the U.S., there are over 1 MILLION independent brick and mortar stores, and they are on a 10 year growth pattern and shopped at by 80% of people in one study, estimated to grow income 12% this year to over $4T (22% OF U.S. ECONOMY). This week we take a look at...

It was announced last week that Workman Publishing had agreed with a buyout from Hachette Book Group for their entire company, including seven divisions and imprints that would form a new division within Hachette. What does this mean? How will this continued consolidation of once independent publishers affect the book industry?

This week on the pod, we interview April Street, author of Women on Wheels, the fabulous story of how women shaped bicycling. Streeter had an incredible ability to jump right back into her research, recall both the executive summaries and then the most fascinating details, as well as visiting how sexism, classism, and racism were factors in cycling.