Publish & Prosper

In this episode, Matt & Lauren look back on this year in publishing. We review some of our predictions from 2024 and how those trends impacted the industry in 2025, including: 

• How AI continued to dominate the conversation 
• Why more and more authors and publishers are exploring direct sales
• How traditional publishers are adopting print-on-demand solutions
• Why building community is more important than ever

Listen now, or watch the full episode on YouTube! 

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Lulu | 2025 Books & Business Insights Report
• Kajabi | State of Creator Commerce Report 2025
• Jane Friedman | The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2025–2026 

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #52 | Did Indie Authors Publish and Prosper in 2024? 
• Ep #56 | The Indie Author's Guide to Going Wide With Your Book Distribution
• Ep #68 | Maximizing Your Chances of Discoverability in Generative AI Search
• Ep #96 | Building a Landing Page for Your Book

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Author Research: What the Top 5% of Creators Do Differently
• Digital Printing for Traditional Publishers
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [18:20] “[Selling direct] has become so common and so easy that I think that not only will it continue, but I think you're really gonna start seeing a lot of major players adopting it now going into 2026.”

🎙️ [27:15] “I don't think we're gonna be living in a world much longer where it's an us versus them mentality, indie publishing versus traditional publishing.”

🎙️ [40:25] “I think that this year people really kind of had the reality check of, oh shit, we can't do it this way. I cannot put all of my eggs in this basket if I'm not the one holding the basket.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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In this episode, Lauren interviews everyone’s new favorite author…Matt Briel! Lauren & Matt talk through the experience of writing, editing, and publishing a book. Hear firsthand how Matt developed a writing practice that worked for him, what it was like working with a professional editor and beta readers, and where he found the motivation and inspiration to get his book published. 

Check out Matt’s new book Profit On-Demand: The Creator’s Guide to Building a Profitable Business with Print-on-Demand. 

Watch the video episode, streaming now on YouTube. 

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #53 | How to Create A Writing Habit That Actually Sticks
• Ep #75 | 7 Steps to Publishing Your Book
• Ep #93 | Tales from the Scrypt: Self-Publishing Horror Stories (and How to Survive Them)

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• How to Write a Book: A 6-Step Guide for Beginners
• Pre-Publishing Checklist For Your Book
• Turning Your Content Into a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creators

💡 Watch These Videos

• Lulu U Playlist | Start Here! 
• Lulu U Playlist | Publishing on Lulu 
• How to Get Started with Direct Sales
  
  

🎙️ [8:55] “When it comes to nonfiction book publishing you are inherently going to become even more of an expert in whatever it is you're talking about. Because you have to actually do research and process the thing that you're working on and become articulate about how to explain these things.” 

🎙️ [24:01] “Making progress, I think, tangible progress that you feel good about really helps you stay locked in.”

🎙️ [41:50] “But you know, a lot of it is you're making these changes because if you have trust in your editor and you have a good editor, then I mean, that's the point. You should take those suggestions and make them.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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In this episode, Matt & Lauren explore one of our current favorite industry trends: the resurgence of print magazines! We talk through the many ways creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses are using print-on-demand, and: 

• Why print magazines are making a comeback
• How creators are publishing, selling, and distributing magazines
• Different types of magazine products 

Watch this episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Learn How to Create a Magazine with Lulu

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #33 | Books You Can Create Using Your Existing Content
• Ep #58 | Creative Ways to Use Print-On-Demand to Support Your Business
• Ep #81 | Printing Money: How to Turn Subscription Content into Books

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• How to Create Print-On-Demand Magazines for Your Business
• Booklet Printing With Lulu: Fast, Flexible, and Inventory-Free
• Print-on-Demand is the Perfect Solution for Selling Backlist Titles

💡 Watch These Videos

• Lulu U | How to Launch a Print Subscription
• Playlist | Content Monetization 
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [8:32] “Magazines as traditionally or historically referenced, you would think of things like US Weekly, Time, People, Cosmopolitan, and some of the others. But what's happening in resurgence right now are more of the niche publications, things that focused on very specific topics - crafts, trades, collectibles, tech things.”

🎙️ [24:48] “It positions them as thought leaders in that space, as experts. And then secondarily acts as a lead magnet for them. So that when those businesses find themselves in the market, or have a need for what that brand offers, the first thing they're gonna think about is that brand. Because they're used to getting that content in the mail from them and looking at it as a very trusted resource.”

🎙️ [38:08] “Magazines, catalogs, things like that, they're not new, but the accessibility of them is. The idea that the average person could just print a magazine right now, that's still something that a lot of people haven't really had access to ever.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
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In this episode, Lauren & Matt simplify your website down to a single landing page with one goal in mind: selling your book. We talk through reasons why you may choose to build a landing page instead of a full website, what you need to consider before building out your page, and how to use different tools and platforms to build your custom page. 

Tune in now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the episode on YouTube.

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Justin Moore’s Sponsor Magnet Landing Page
• Books.by
• Stck.me
• Kit
• Carrd
• Make

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #31 | Your 7-Step Guide to Building an Online Bookstore
• Ep #68 | Maximizing Your Chances of Discoverability in Generative AI Search
• Ep #86 | Maximizing Your First Impression in the Attention Economy

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• How to Create High-Converting Landing Pages for Your Book Marketing Campaigns
• 7 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Author Website
• Carrd Review: Simplified Author Websites

💡 Watch These Videos

• Lulu U Playlist | Selling Books Through Your Website 
• Lulu U Playlist | Direct Sales
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [14:40] “That's the beauty of a landing page, too. Oftentimes a website is really aimed at, kind of everybody, you know, you're just trying to attract everybody, to a degree. But landing pages, you can really sort of dig in at a per audience or per vertical level.”

🎙️ [45:34] “The main goal of selling direct is that you want access to your customer data. So the whole reason that you would, in theory, want to be doing this is so that you can be collecting your customer data, so that you can continue to build a relationship with them.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
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Celebrate two years of Publishing & Prospering with us! In this episode, Matt & Lauren reflect on two years of podcasting, sharing what we’ve learned since the beginning, how podcasting has changed the way we create, share, and understand content, and where we see Publish & Prosper going next. 

Whether you’re curious about how a podcast could impact your brand or just want to sneak a behind-the-scenes look at Publish & Prosper, this is for you! Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube.

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to Our Top 5 Episodes

• Ep #31 | Your 7-Step Guide to Building an Online Bookstore
• Ep #79 | How Justin Moore Sold Over 1,000 Books in 90 Days
• Ep #61 | Creating a Custom Book Business Using Lulu's Print API 
• Ep #38 | From Manuscript to Market: 5+ Tools to Help You Draft, Publish, and Sell Your Book
• Ep #10 | Marketing Your Book Pre-Launch, At-Launch, and Post-Launch

💡Show These Episodes a Little Love

• Ep #23 | How to Survive (and Thrive) at Conferences and Events
• Ep #54 | Can Books Add Value to Your Business (Beyond Just Revenue)?
• Ep #64 | Extend Your Books’ Shelf Life with Backlist Book Marketing

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at [email protected]
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.

In this episode, Lauren is joined by Lulu’s Senior Marketing Manager, Paul Hobday, for an inside look at content strategy with two content marketing nerds. We dive into:

🫱🏻‍🫲🏽 Understanding your different content channels and how they support each other

💡 How to build an effective content strategy (and why it’s essential that you do)

🧰 Making good use of the tools and resources at your disposal to design the best possible plan

And more! Listen now, or watch the full episode on YouTube. 

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Asana
• Trello
• SparkToro

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #47 | Metrics That Matter: A Guide for Authors & Creators
• Ep #74 | Paul's Pod: Your Guide to Taking Your Writing Habit to the Next Level
• Ep #86 | Maximizing Your First Impression in the Attention Economy

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Tracking Your Marketing Efforts With UTM Tags
• What Is Content Marketing for Authors and Creators?
• Recommended Writing, Planning, and Strategy Tools 
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [3:17] “People who are naturally creative are more creative when there's constraints, because it forces you to work within a constraint. It really forces you to focus on your message or what you're trying to convey or whatever. So I like to think of strategy as self-imposed, but very thoughtful constraints.”

🎙️ [19:13] “It's easy to fall into the habit if you don't have a strategy in place of just posting whatever's top of mind.”

🎙️ [36:12] “The biggest thing your strategy should do is help relieve you of the stress so that you can actually enjoy creating the content, and enjoy getting to know your audience or capturing new email subscribers or whatever it is your goal is.” 

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at [email protected]
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.

In this episode, Matt & Lauren share three chilling scenarios bound to keep you up at night and our tips for surviving your worst book publishing nightmares! Hear the horrifying tales of: 

🕸️ The Monstrous Cover Art Mockup

👻 The Proof Possessed by Problems

🔪 The Beta Reader Butcher

Listen now, or watch the full episode on YouTube…if you dare.

Dive Deeper

🕸️ Monstrous Cover Art Mockup

• Ep #21 | Cover to Cover: Getting Your Book Design Right
• The Secret to Cover Design Success
• Webinar | What Makes a Good Book Cover with Bailey Designs Books 

👻 Proof Possessed by Problems

• 5 Visual Indicators Your Book Is Self-Published
• Blog Posts on Book Formatting
• Videos on Book Formatting
• Lulu’s Free Publishing Resources

🔪 The Beta Reader Butcher

• Ep #20 | Do You Need to Hire Professional Editors for Your Book?
• 10 Errors Writers Make That Editors Hate
• Types of Book Editing and How to Get Them Done
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ “This episode is for you if you've ever woken up in a cold sweat from nightmares about a truly horrible cover design.”

[3:23] 🎙️ The Monstrous Cover Art Mockup → You get your cover art back from your designer and you absolutely hate it. Now you have to figure out how to share that feedback with your designer, and how to better make your dream cover a reality.  

[16:18] 🎙️ The Proof Possessed by Problems → You order a print proof and it comes back riddled with cover or interior errors. Now you need to figure out where it all went wrong, and what you need to do in order to fix it. 

[30:19] 🎙️ The Beta Reader Butcher → You asked a few friends to beta read your book and they tore it to shreds. Now you need to figure out how to process that critical feedback…and maybe how to save your friendship. 

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at [email protected]
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.

In this episode, Lauren & Matt share their strategies for providing top tier support for your customers. Whether you’re taking preventative measures, planning a proactive approach, or providing solutions to unexpected problems, we’re here to help you help your customers. 

Watch this episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Preparing Your Site for Holiday Book Sales
• Joanna Penn’s Bookstore FAQ Page 

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #39 | Pain Point Solutions for Your Ecommerce Store
• Ep #40 | Getting Your Bookstore Ready for the Holidays
• Ep #70 | How Does Selling Direct Actually Work?

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Customer Service and Your Ecommerce Business
• 5 Ways to Get Your Lulu Direct Store Ready for the Holidays
• Direct Sales Basics for Selling Your Book with Lulu

💡 Watch These Videos

• Customer Service Tips for Your Ecommerce Business 
• Onboarding Customers for Your Ecommerce Business 
• The Life of a Book 

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [2:42] “I think these things will help anybody who is operating their own digital storefront and finds themselves in a situation where they are selling something to somebody else online.”

🎙️ [21:21] “We've gotten so Amazon lately where we just expect everything overnight and not even they can fulfill that half the time anymore. So putting a very human element to your product, the production time that it takes, that really helps temper people's expectations.”

🎙️ [35:07] “I think oftentimes as creators, solopreneurs, small business owners, we think we have to be everywhere at all times, not only for creating content, but also for supporting people. And that's just not true. It's not true. And it's not sustainable.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at [email protected]
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.

In this episode, Matt & Lauren debate and discuss a variety of writing, publishing, editing, and marketing prompts. Hear their insights, opinions, and ideas on topics like: 

• Exclusively Selling Direct vs. Going Wide with Your Book Sales
• Which Social Media Platform Would You Use to Promote a Book? 
• What Would You Use to Entice New Email Subscribers? 

And, of course, a few tangents too. Listen now, or watch the full episode on our YouTube channel! 

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #56 | The Indie Author's Guide to Going Wide With Your Book Distribution
• Ep #74 | Paul's Pod: Your Guide to Taking Your Writing Habit to the Next Level
• Ep #82 | The Email Marketing Podcast with Laurie & Lauren

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Editing Best Practices
• Social Media Marketing 101
• The Publishing Journey: Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [9:16] “You cannot control that part of the customer experience if you're selling on a third party website, but you can if you're selling direct. And I think that's really neat.”

🎙️ [19:30] “It's such an important part of launching a book. I think, and the people that we've talked to that have made that part of their launch process, you know, their marketing plan, they tend to have really good success with it.”

🎙️ [36:59] “I think no matter what you write, whether it's fiction or nonfiction or how to manuals for lawnmowers, your goal shouldn't be transactions. It should be relationships.” 

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at [email protected]
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.

In this episode, Lauren & Matt want indie authors to see their books on library shelves! Whether you dream of your hardcover on display in your local public library or hope to find your ebook in digital catalogs nationwide, we’re here to help make it happen. 

Watch this episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• OverDrive | Libraries Break Digital Lending Records in 2024
• Library of Congress | About the CIP Program | Cataloging in Publication
• Library of Congress | Understanding MARC Records
• How To Get Your Self-Published Book Into Libraries 

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #37 | How to Get Your Book Into Indie Bookstores
• Ep #59 | Mastering Book Metadata to Maximize Market Reach
• Ep #65 | How to Copyright the Copy That You Wrote

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• How to Get Your Book Into Libraries
• Selling Your Book on Consignment with Indie Bookstores
• 5 Visual Indicators Your Book is Self-Published

💡 Watch These Videos

• Distributing Your Book With Lulu  
• What the Hell is Book Metadata?
• What is an ISBN?
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [14:00] “The discoverability that we often talk about is lacking on so many other distribution or retail options is still very much active in libraries in both digital and physical libraries.” 

🎙️ [27:09] “You need to be where librarians are going to be. Besides the library.”

🎙️ [45:30] “You’re fostering relationships in your local community, which can only ever be a good thing for your brand and your career.”  

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at [email protected]
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.