Backmatter: The Leanpub Publishing Industry Podcast

Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Mike about his remarkable career, the history of major developments in book publishing spanning 50 years, and his thoughts about the future for an industry that has been experiencing constant upheaval for some time.

This interview was recorded on December 7, 2017.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Backmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

A Note About the Leanpub Backmatter Podcast

This summer we split the old Leanpub podcast into two distinct podcasts:

Frontmatter, which is a general interest podcast where you can listen to Leanpub authors talk with Leanpub co-founder Len Epp about their books and their areas of expertise, from data science to molecular biology, to the history of labor and management. And for those interested in the nitty-gritty of what it takes to be a successful self-published author, at the end of each episode Len asks the author about how they made their book and how they are spreading the word, and other publishing shop talk.

Backmatter, a new podcast focused specifically on the publishing industry and its latest trends. In each episode Len interviews a professional from the publishing world about their background and their insider's perspective on what's happening in the huge and evolving world of book publishing.

Based in Oxford, Dan Holloway is a writer, performer, and mental health campaigner who, amongst his many other activities, writes a weekly self-publishing column at selfpublishingadvice.org.

In this interview, Dan discusses his education and career, his involvement in mind sports, the impact of AI and potential changes to net neutrality on publishers and authors, and other important issues facing writers and the book publishing industry.

This interview was recorded on December 4, 2017.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Backmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

A Note About the Leanpub Backmatter Podcast

This summer we split the old Leanpub podcast into two distinct podcasts:

Frontmatter, which is a general interest podcast where you can listen to Leanpub authors talk with Leanpub co-founder Len Epp about their books and their areas of expertise, from data science to molecular biology, to the history of labor and management. And for those interested in the nitty-gritty of what it takes to be a successful self-published author, at the end of each episode Len asks the author about how they made their book and how they are spreading the word, and other publishing shop talk.

Backmatter, a new podcast focused specifically on the publishing industry and its latest trends. In each episode Len interviews a professional from the publishing world about their background and their insider's perspective on what's happening in the huge and evolving world of book publishing.

Jane Friedman is a popular publishing industry consultant, speaker, lecturer, editor, and the author of Publishing 101: A First-Time Author’s Guide to Getting Published, Marketing and Promoting Your Book, and Building a Successful Career. Along with her colleague Porter Anderson, Jane is also the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, a leading publishing industry newsletter for authors.

In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Mirela Roncevic about her career, the publishing industry, and her fascinating Free Reading Zone project.

In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with publishing industry expert Thad McIlroy about his wide-ranging career in book publishing, the state of the publishing industry today, whether self-published authors should submit their books to subscription services, some recent controversies in the book publishing world, and the future of publishing and book publishing startups.

In this interview Leanpub cofounder Len Epp chats with Emmanuel Nataf, co-founder of Reedsy, a marketplace for high-quality publishing services that helps authors find professional editors, designers and marketers. We talk about how how Reedsy got started and about their vision for the future of publishing.