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 terrifying things we like to read now. You will also hear one of our spiciest hot takes yet on the subject of Coulrophobia.

Visit our website post for a transcript: hybridpubscout.com/episode-57-halloween-return

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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.org/show/relativefiction/

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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 multitude of insights about how Americans of all ages and ethnicities engage with books. The best part? All of us have access to it. Listen to find out what some of the implications might be for industry professionals, librarians, booksellers, and readers.

Learn about their study through the Panorama Project:

https://www.panoramaproject.org/news/2021/2/10/panorama-project-releases-immersive-media-amp-books-2020-research-report

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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.

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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

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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 Hammer of Witches, aka the Witch Hunter's Manual—with Corinne and Emily.

"The swift propagation of the witch hysteria by the press was the first evidence that Gutenberg had not liberated man from original sin." (Russel)

[PERK ALERT] Sign up for our newsletter and get access to our free tool: The HPS 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: mailchi.mp/da9486666cc5/hps-guide-publishing-path

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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 will make you laugh, cry, and gasp in horror, sometimes at the same time! We also discuss our experiences with supernatural phenomena, why Edgar Allan Poe was a real son of a gun to be married to, and, of course, Dear David, one of Twitter’s most important—and scariest!—contributions to social discourse.

[PERK ALERT] Sign up for our newsletter and get access to our free tool: The HPS 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

Check Emily's Fuckbois of Literature Podcast at: https://www.fuckboisoflit.com/episodes

And on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/fuckboisoflit

Our website: hybridpubscout.com/episode-51-grady-hendrix-fuckbois-of-literature

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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 afloat as a very small company during a global pandemic, and starting that small company right when the entire world shut down. We also talk about how both Nellie and Liz’s very different career paths prepared them for their current work, how software like Hederis can help publishers retain staff and offer personal attention, and why Erewhon has been the perfect partner for Hederis as they’ve used the software to build the first few titles on their list.

[PERK ALERT] Sign up for our newsletter and get access to our free tool: The HPS 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

Our website: hybridpubscout.com/episode-50-liz-gorinsky-nellie-mckesson

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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!—why publishing her work on platforms besides Amazon allows her to reach a much wider international market, and why cats (!) have been crucial to her books. We also discuss the revelation that Amazon may not be the actual devil, inasmuch as it allows work by historically overlooked and marginalized groups to find an audience, something that traditional publishing has emphatically not been able to do, and the importance of self-reflection when it comes to building your personal library.

Katrina wants to remind you to check your voter registration and vote!

https://www.usa.gov/voter-registration

Donate to a bail fund (we pick PDX for obvious reasons):

https://www.gofundme.com/f/pdx-protest-bail-fund

And support the USPS (um, you can buy a mail carrier costume for your dog for Halloween??)

https://store.usps.com/store/results/gifts/_/N-nnxamr

[PERK ALERT] Sign up for our newsletter and get access to our free tool: The HPS 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

Our website: hybridpubscout.com/episode-49-historian-and-romance-author-katrina-jackson

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