Hybrid Pub Scout Podcast

In the final installment of our fanfiction series, we talk with a publishing professional and fan fiction expert who works in the business of serialized fiction. Katie Fairchild is a marketing associate who uses her expertise in the way fandom audiences read and interact to promote stories on the Radish Fiction app, which is primarily focused on a romance audience. We talk with Katie about the typ...

Claudia Rebaza from the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) joins Emily to talk about their projects—Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Legal Advocacy, Open Doors, and the Transformative Works and Culture journal—and how such a huge operation stays online. More notes on this page: hybridpubscout.com/organization-transformative-works-interview-ao3 Transcript available here: https://hybridpubscout...

Read the transcript here: https://hybridpubscout.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/62.-Intro-to-Fanfic.docx.pdf Find us on... Our website: hybridpubscout.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/hybridpubscout/ Twitter: twitter.com/hybridpubscout Instagram: www.instagram.com/hybridpubscoutpod/ Our newsletter: eepurl.com/gfajR9

In part two of our discussion of Anthropodermic Bibliopegy, Emily and Chris explore the reasons for building myths around books made from human skin, and find it could often be simplified to one or a combination of three motivators: prestige, politics, propaganda Content warnings: - Corpse violation - Medical ethics violations - Abuse of power - Objectifying the human body - Worms - Murder and Mut...

In part one of this two part episode, Chris Curran joins Emily to explore the practice of binding books in human skin (aka., anthropodermic bibliopegy). Sounds interesting, you say? Famous last words, we say. Get ready for a whole lot of "yikes." Content Warnings for: Corpse violation Medical ethics violations Abuse of power Objectifying the human body Colonialism Find us on... Our website: hybrid...

There are productivity gurus aplenty online promoting their books, but their advice often leaves the more creative-minded person in the lurch. How can writers, artists, and other creators (cough *podcasters* cough) develop their own systems to make sure they get done what they need to get done? Fortunately, there is a guide that can help creative entrepreneurs like us prioritize our projects and o...

What do you do when you need to talk to a kid in your life about a difficult subject but aren’t sure where to start? Enter A Kid’s Company About, a media company built on the belief that kids are ready to have challenging, important and empowering conversations with the grown-ups in their lives. The company has published over 50 books to date, ranging from topics like divorce, cancer, and shame to...

We are overjoyed to return from our extended hiatus just in time for our fourth annual Halloween episode! We revisit some subjects including a murderous writer story from 2018, the Twitter exploits of one Joyce Carol Oates, and spooky dramatic readings of online horror (comedy) stories. We also discuss our favorite horror books from our childhoods, the tropes that scare us most, and what terrifyin...

Imagine that you have spent years believing your father was dead, then a $15 palm reader asserts that your real father is very much alive. Now imagine discovering that this wild statement ends up being true. In her Lambda Award-winning graphic memoir and newly launched podcast, Nicole examines the fallout of making such a world-shaking discovery. Listen to Nicole's new OPB podcast https://www.opb....

If you're trying to do research as a book industry professional, you're going to hit paywalls—sometimes paywalls so large that your business is better off replacing NPD with a tarot deck and a crystal pendulum. Enter Dr. Kathi Berens and Dr. Rachel Noorda, who spoke with Emily about their 2020 research on Immersive Media & Books. Using the survey results from over 4,000 respondents, they got a...

Emily talks with horror author Nicole Wolverton about women in horror, her book The Trajectory of Dreams, and the upcoming menopause-themed horror short story anthology that she is editing with Sliced-Up Press. Our website: hybridpubscout.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/hybridpubscout/ Twitter: twitter.com/hybridpubscout Instagram: www.instagram.com/hybridpubscoutpod/ Our newsletter: eepurl.com/gfa...

The StoryGraph is a safer, quieter place on the internet where you can find your next favorite book. Founder and CEO Nadia Odunayo joins Emily to discuss developing this cozy online experience and how input from enthusiastic readers makes everything better. Our website: hybridpubscout.com/interview-nadia-odunayo-the-storygraph Facebook: www.facebook.com/hybridpubscout/ Twitter: twitter.com/hybridp...

Sometimes readers forget that these cherished bound objects aren't always beacons of goodness and enlightenment in a mad world. Sometimes, in fact, they can be a medium for a 15th century incel to rain down misery and death on thousands of people for hundreds of years! Chris Curran from episode 16 returns to discuss the origins and the general repulsiveness of the Malleus Maleficarum—aka The Hamme...

Happy almost Halloween, scouts! On this episode, we’re joined by the wonderful Emily Edwards, host of the Fuckbois of Literature podcast, a podcast about the toxic characters you encounter in all your favorite books! (Apparently, Amy March is not a fuckboi (?!)) We also chat about the delightful Grady Hendrix, horror writer and author of Horrorstor and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, two books that wil...

In this power-packed episode, we welcome back Nellie McKesson, founder of book design software Hederis, and meet Liz Gorinsky, president and publisher of Erewhon Books, a small indie press dedicated to publishing speculative fiction with a literary bent. We chatted with them about the challenges of building innovations from scratch in an industry with very traditional ways of doing things, staying...

What do you do when you can’t find anything you want to read? You write it yourself. After plumbing the depths of Amazon for erotic romance featuring queer POC and coming up empty, Katrina Jackson took matters into her own hands and started writing her own. More than seventeen books later, we chatted with her about why word-of-mouth is still the best marketing tool—even for self-published authors!...

In this episode, we chatted with freelance food and lifestyle book publicist and Thursday Media founder Kimberly Escobar about the adorable perils of working from home (specifically, Zoom-bombing kittens), how both traditionally and self-published authors can make their publicists’ jobs easier, and how to do your OWN book PR if you can’t afford a pro to do it for you. We also talked about the joys...

Our guest this week is Michael R. Underwood, publishing professional, fellow podcaster, and author of the found family space opera Annihilation Aria, out now from Parvus Press. In addition to his years of writing scifi, he's also a former bookseller, sales representative who sold to bookstores across the midwest, and North American Sales & Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books. We talk about...

In this episode, we talk to Head of Publishing at Kickstarter Margot Atwell about why the community crowdfunding platform is tailor-made for authors and why more publishers should be embracing it, why the publishing industry model is broken and suggestions on how to fix it, and why decentralizing the industry is key to making sure that more perspectives are represented in both the industry and the...

You’ve self-published a book. Congrats! Now how do you find your readers? On this episode, Emily sat down with prolific romance authors Elaina Jadin and Marie Robinson to discuss just that, along with the best marketing tools you can use to to find--and keep--an enthusiastic army of fans. They also chat about how having a co-author ultimately benefits a book, how you can still love a story that yo...

In this episode, Emily chats with book marketing coach and newly installed publisher at Ooligan Press, Robyn Crummer-Olson, who works with both self-published and traditionally published authors on project management and book marketing and publicity. We talk about why it’s important for marketers to be honest with authors about just how hard it is to launch a book (very, very, very hard), why your...

Brian and Josie Parker of @believeinwonder_pub speak with Emily about creating and publishing books where all kids—particularly BIPOC kids—can see themselves as heroes and adventurers. We also talk about the difficult feelings and frustrating conversations that they've had in the wake of George Floyd's murder, the difference between brands that pay lip service and ones that take action when it com...

This week, literary agent DongWon Song provides insights on the #PublishingPaidMe discussion and why decolonizing—rather than "diversifying"—publishing, really makes a lot of sense if you think about it. He also talks about how to find an agent that is right for your communication style and a writing community that will help you navigate a tough, rejection-ridden, and often inequitable industry. H...

[PERK ALERT] Sign up for our newsletter and get access to our new free tool: The Hybrid Pub Scout Guide to Picking Your Publishing Path. This nifty tool aims to help you gear up for the frontier between traditional and indie publishing, and deciding which of the two is right for you. Get it right here: https://mailchi.mp/da9486666cc5/hps-guide-publishing-path In this episode we speak with Olivia C...

We hung out with Brian Palmer (aka B.C. Palmer) for the first time in Hybrid Pub Scout Episode 14, when he came on to talk with Emily and Marie Robinson about managing ghostwriters and writing fantasy and romance. This time, he talks about something he'd already referred to in his first appearance: freeing us all from the iron grip of Microsoft Office with his new book writing app—Scribi Writer's...