A People's Guide to Publishing

In 2006, our friend, Richard the Roadie, asked "Hey, did you ever figure out how to do health insurance?" I explained our convoluted system of stipends at length and he said "Oh, okay, so you haven't." Fifteen years later, we have! We now provide healthcare to our staff through many bureaucratic hours of wading through locating the right people and asking the right questions. This episode is how y...

This week on the pod, we answer a reader question. Anyone in the bookstore or publishing industries are very concerned about being undercut on price so the tendency is to price based on Amazon. Is this a good idea? How do we combat this race to the bottom? How can bookstores and publishers set a better baseline? 

This week on the pod, we review four new zines that fell into our laps as well as lots of tangents and nonsequitors. Autism, Tulsa, Racism, corking, bicycles, Black Lives Matter, COVID, prison, books to prison!

There's a common belief among both writers and publishers that books are written by authors and editors are more like a delivery mechanism before the book arrives at the printer. The reality is that most books receive as much contribution from editors as they do from the author. This week we tackle how that process happens and why it's so important not to let an author bulldoze their editor.

In 2011, the publishing industry was poised for ebooks to kill print. This week on the pod, we talk about why the opposite happened and how an unexpected format launched a tremendous comeback and claimed ebooks' rightful market share.

This week on the pod we review the Audio Publishers Association numbers about growing trends in audiobook listening. What do they tell us? What does it mean? How does it impact future plans to publish a title in audio?

Two PSU professors conducted extensive scientific surveying about people's book reading habits. This week on the pod, we walk you through some of what we find interesting and notable about the results.

Last week we answered how to pitch your book and this week we received a similar, though different question. Graphic novels are a bit of a puzzle with lots of moving pieces. We tackle the mysterious process of seeing these ideas onto paper!

One of the most common weekly questions that we receive, we take a different approach than most in answering the perilous journey towards showing someone the value of your work—whether that's an agency, publisher, reader, licensor, or future date! It all boils down to a few basic approaches.

This week on the pod, we field another reader question. You've got your focus and passions crystal clear. Now what do you DO? We tackle this answer through some various experiences and advice based on our combined 35 years of experience.

Over a year ago we answered a question (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPHmueANjRQ) about how a new publisher finds manuscripts. At the end of the episode, Elly mentioned that she had a lot more to say and the question asker got back in touch to request a follow-up where we discuss those things as well. So this week, we take another stab at this stuff.

Big news this week in publishing: Ingram announces that the experiment to have books from its client publishers available in all of its warehouses didn't work and those orders will have to ship from Jackson, Tennessee. We take a look at what this means and what industry changes have made this difficult.

One of the Kickstarter backers for our Gold Lyre Tarot deck is planning their own deck, and as one of the reward levels for that project, we answered a bunch of their questions about how to do it. Is it better to work with one artist or multiple artists? How do you set your deck up for print? How do you choose a printer? How do you choose paper stock? What resolution should your artwork be? How do...

Big news this week! HarperCollins Publishers bought Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's trade division! The giants gobble on each other some more as Penguin Random House's attempt to purchase Simon & Schuster proceeds and the rumors that Amazon was the other leading bidder. We tackle this news in pod style and evaluate how it impacts the industry.

At a book event in 2019, a reader asked why more publishers are not more upfront about their own mistakes. Quickly realizing the answer to his own question, he moved on. So this week on the pod we explore this matter more thoroughly and look at 25 years of crushing errors and how you can learn from them.

For a lot of publishers, their own work as an author is their primary driver for what got them involved. While this wasn't either of our motivations, we are also both authors. This week we tackle the intersection of our roles as authors and publishers.

Question on the pod this week: Where can I find a banks that will help loan me money without having to put down your house and second child? So we take a look at how to fund your publishing operation!

It can feel dizzying to muddle through the array of topics and genres that you could produce into the world. How does a publisher decide? After all, we are mostly but mere mortals. So this week on the pod, we answer the reader question of how to narrow that down in order to be effective.

This week on the pod, a reader got in touch. She's having trouble being accepted by distributors but received an offer to license her books from an established publisher. What is in her best interest?

There is a far-fetched and wrong-headed idea that distributors are like ATM machines, marketing machines, and can just infinitely ship books to stores in return for a paycheck. This is very far from the truth so this week on the pod, we are going to answer a reader question, "How do you know what a distributor specializes in?"

Almost every time, new publishers that get in touch are asking for help with variations of how to be sold into various stores or simply to get the attention of a trade distributor. So we've boiled this down, what distributors look for, and told some anecdotes about our own experiences with trade distributors.

Two years ago, this pod was just an idea: that two publishing nerds could answer reader questions for ten minutes each week since we no longer have time for consulting and do not see other human beings. But 100 episodes later, we decided to recall our favorite publishing memories!

Undeniably this has been a difficult and complicated year for publishers. But more interestingly, there are already long-term changes to the industry and account behavior that will outlast COVID. This week we take a look at how those things impact the book industry!

Amazon has manufactured a faux rivalry, driving a wedge between authors and publishers. This week on the pod, we diagnose and explain the difference between cover royalties, gross royalties, and net royalties...and how they are usually just misleading ways at the same outcome, yet Amazon's royalties are the smallest of all!

A year later, even as consumer habits resume and stores have reopened, account buying has changed their basic behaviors. This week, we look at how this affects publishers and how it will continue to change the industry even after COVID is contained.