Print Run Podcast

This week we take a look at one of the more intriguing new innovations in publishing tech, Audible’s Romance Package. It’s an example of a company directly responding to the specific needs of a specific readership, and perhaps it’s a sign of cool new things to come. Also in this epi: the politicization of jacket blurbs, a look at 2017’s biggest book deals, and an FBI-themed writing prompt!

Now a year removed from the 2016 presidential election, most everyone is feeling distracted, addled, preoccupied, and often worse. No surprise, then, that this has extended to the sorts of books writers have been pitching over the last year. We discuss how a volatile year has affected our queries, and speculate on what an enduring “Trump novel” from this period might actually look like, years from now. Then, we discuss the AAR and proffer a tweak to its guidelines that could better reflect the modern state of agenting. Join us!

With November right around the corner, we set our sights on National Novel Writing Month, debating the “rules” of the crazed month of writing while offering up some of our own, along with a vision for the month that follows it. We also address Colin Kaepernick’s book deal, and make some stabs at book-themed Halloween costumes. It’s a regular cornucopia (seasonal image) of #content.

We’re back! After three weeks away, we kick off season two of Print Run by catching up on all the book news from the past few weeks, including the embarrassing Amazon beauty pageant happening across America, the ongoing (and misguided) debate about white authors’ place amongst publishing’s push for diverse voices, the Man Booker, and much, much more. Also, Joyce Carol Oates still hasn’t logged off. She should, uh, think about that.

We got a little bored of the standard literary award categories, so we decided to make up some new ones and hand out some hardware. Along with our fake award show, we also ended up litigating a copyright fight about baseball books, and recap a recent author reading Erik attended.

It’s awards season in the book world, so this week we break down the longlists for the four National Book Award categories, as well as the shortlist for the Man Booker. What do award lists say about the year of publishing, in retrospect? We sift through all of it, and also point out that awards season means Print Run turns one year old! Thanks, dear listener, for joining us in our first year.

Most writers think of their book titles as a craft element, but is that how the publishing industry treats the names of its books? We talk about the many considerations that go into picking and tweaking book titles, many of which have nothing to do with what’s in the book itself. Trends play a factor; so do genres/categories, cover designs, and lots more. Join us!

This week’s show takes a look at one of the zanier schemes the book world has seen in a while, in which a book almost no one had ever heard of debuted at number one on the NYT bestseller list. How’d she do it, how did the scheme get discovered as fraudulent? There’s plenty to laugh at there, and same with our other featured grift of the week, the YA writer who faked nearly everything about his life including his ancestry, his writing credentials, and even the existence of agent.

We recently heard it said as advice for writers: “be careful with your opinions online.” It raised our eyebrows, and so on this week’s show we debate whether or not this is a truth writers should take to heart, or whether it reveals certain political attitudes held by the publishing industry that need to be unpacked. We discuss why this sort of advice often gets delivered to writers, and why it can often be problematic. Also included is a quick discussion about a recent trip to New York and the geographic dynamics of American publishing.

This week, we walk through the many junctures in the publishing process—both within a publisher’s control and not—that lead to a book becoming a breakout bestseller. Every book is different, of course, but what are the necessary steps to having a book reach true commercial success? Beyond that, we cover the strange case of a Russian publisher cutting an LGBTQ plotline in their edition of an American book, and a very, very special JP book of the week.