Publishing Rodeo: The Good, The Bad, and the Bloody Ugly

In 2008, Dr. Kerry Spencer Pray watched her book die on submission after the financial crash halted publishing acquisitions. She then decided to do a PhD, focusing her research on what makes books sell. After studying hundreds of factors, Dr. Kerry Pray zeroed in on a handful that seemed correlated with book sales in some way. All of them were marketing related, and often linked to a book’s advanc...

This week, the wise and witty Ella McLeod sits down to talk with us about the hard-hitting, ever-prevalent topic of whiteness in publishing, including in our own podcast (!) and dissecting the dreaded Diversity Tick-Box. (And if you're curious about that title, we do explain it in-episode!) But first, we also chat about some of the differences between YA and adult publishing, and her experiences a...

After 25 years, 47 books, and at least 4 different genres, Miles Cameron (aka Christian Cameron) has seen and survived a lot in publishing. In addition to being an author, he is also a US Navy officer, trained historian, and martial artist. But when the thriller market changed and sky-high advances evaporated, Miles moved on to historical, fantasy, and even science fiction. Today, we talk about su...

In 2015, Daphne Tonge started a small "book crate" subscription service out of her London living room, with a tiny pool of subscribers. Today, Illumicrate is a well-known specialist retailer, with a thriving fanbase and strong industry presence, which has laid the groundwork for Daphne's next co-current venture: Daphne Press, an independent publishing imprint run on the same values and with the sa...

Huge thanks to our listeners for helping us hit 50,000 total downloads! We are incredibly humbled by the interest and support so far. This episode was recorded during the week while Scott was off for paternity leave, and only features Sunyi as host, with R.R. Virdi (author of THE FIRST BINDING) and Wayne Santos (author of THE CHIMERA CODE) as dual guests, and is more wide-ranging and conversationa...

A little bit of bonus chatter, extra Scott jokes, interruptions from small children, and general background chaos that was cut from episode 18

So you've signed a book deal, and the book contract has arrived. What does it mean, what can you ask for or changed, and how involved should you be? What organisations can help, if any? Also, why don't we have a writer's union / writer's guild, and how might we get one in future? Today, we sit down with Julia Vee, who is an established indie author with a forthcoming trad title, Ebony Gate, via To...

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist, and speculative fiction author, with a prolific list of titles and publications to her name. Today, she joins us to talk about the realities of burnout in publishing, and the mental health burden that many authors labor under. It's a heavy topic, but hopefully addressed with plenty of humor, and we hope y...

Today we're joined by Peter McLean, a fantasy writer who clawed his way to authorhood through an indie publisher slush pile, despite not being agented at the time. Pete talks to us about his publisher imploding, his first series getting canned, and the perseverance that saw him land another book deal--this time with one of the Big 5. Seven books and ten years later, he's still in the game, with a...

How do bloggers hear about books, curate lists, and choose what to review? Why does it feel like every list has the same books? Do physical arcs matter when it comes to getting reviews, and how does author platform intersect? This week we're joined by Daniel Roman, the Associate Editor at the thriving and enormous "Winter Is Coming" sff fansite, to talk about all those topics and more--including s...

After years of unsuccessful querying and one small-press book, Nick finally hit it big with a break-out novel. Billed among this year's top sci-fi thrillers, ASCENSION is hot property, and has gone to auction in multiple countries--including for its film/tv options. Today, Nick sits down to chat with us about navigating the world of film/tv options, and how it intersects with book publishing. In a...

This week, we sit down with Arab-American author Nadia Afifi, for a concise and chilled-out chat about her experience of publishing a scifi trilogy through Flametree Press. A lot of listeners are curious about life outside the Big 5 / bigger midsize publishers, so we've tried to cover a number of angles! This episode also touches briefly on wholesaling versus distribution, why royalty percentages...

Today we're joined by Andrea Stewart, author of the acclaimed Drowning Empire Trilogy via Orbit. In addition to discussing her long journey to publication and her experience of debuting mid-Covid, Andrea also goes into the practicalities of managing your author finances. We look at how income works out year-by-year at this stage of publishing, talk frankly about the amount of money authors need to...

Today we're joined by Nicholas Eames, author of cult favorite KINGS OF THE WYLD to discuss his publishing experience in a wide-ranging interview. Eames is a debut success story, and we hope you find his conversation as funny, uplifting, and engaging as we did (a welcome change after last week's grim deconstruction!) Other topics addressed: -- the creative process of working with a trad editor-- li...

In celebration of making it to 10 episodes, Scott & Sunyi answer some of the host-specific and/or personal questions that listeners have submitted. This is not really an official episode, just a fun, rambly, probably-too-opinionated extra for them who are interested.

You know the drill: same genre, same publisher, same debut year--but very different deal sizes, and very different publisher treatment. But how does that actually translate to a book's performance, and what impact does it REALLY have? With the help of some Captain Morgan rum, Sunyi and Scott talk about the months surrounding each of their launch dates, and how their books did, or didn't, perform s...

Off the back of episode 7, we sit down to throw some complex industry questions at Robin & Michael J Sullivan, in exchange for some very detailed answers. Questions have been marked with rough time stamps for your convenience! QUESTION 1 00:58 What kinds of changes did you make specifically to the Orbit contract that defanged the noncompete to the point that you still had flexibility? As part...

Indie vs trad is an ever-green career debate, and is one of our most common listener questions. Authors wrestle frequently with which route will suit them best. But the real question is—why pick between them, when you can do both? Today, we are joined by Michael J Sullivan (a New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post bestselling American writer) and Robin Sullivan, a powerhouse industry exper...

Show notes and topics covered: how to define success for you, personally the importance of audio, and the commercial impact of a good narrator commercial versus artistic decisions what happens when a book underperforms, and what you can do about it navigating option clauses for future books how sales track-records can impact future contracts using leverage (when you have it!) What you can argue fo...

Both Richard and Sunyi hit the Sunday Times list right out the gate in the UK. How does that happen? Who gets to decide, and what does it mean? We explain how the Sunday Times lists work in the UK, the importance of crates (and other independent gatekeepers), and why the list is both hard to hit without orchestrated support. Additionally, we discuss what authors should be most afraid of, and what...

Richard Swan, Sunday Times bestselling author of JUSTICE OF KINGS, talks to us about the role that luck and timing play in publishing, and the polar opposite approaches that Sunyi and Richard take to writing. We also deep dive into publishing contracts and clauses that debuting authors should be looking at (Richard used to be a lawyer in his dayjob). Other topics covered: marketing plans (or the l...

Big 5 midlist vs midsize author: which is better, which is worse, and what are the pitfalls of going on way or another? This week, we’re joined by Clay Harmon, author of Flames of Mira, to answer exactly those questions as we discuss his publishing journey. As usual, we go hard on the facts: details, money talk, gentle honesty, and bleak statistics. Authors who are querying, on submission, or unde...

The trade publishing industry relies heavily on bookstores and their booksellers for a successful business model. But what do booksellers actually do for authors, and how do they fit into the publishing ecosystem? We hope that this episode will illumiate some of those questions, and provide an ongoing deep-dive into how this industry functions. Today we are joined by 3 guests: Jeremy, Claire, and...

In this episode, we will explain who we are, why we’re doing this, and give a quick overview of our paths into publishing. Topics include: trad versus indie, our publishing journeys, is publishing worth it, how much publishing experiences vary, and groundwork basics about the industry. Among others!