How do you organize a Cat Party? w/ Katie Haegele (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

June 06, 2024

Katie Haegele has been passionate about cats for decades. They have been some of the most meaningful relationships in her life. This time around she’s organizing other people to share the most touching, heartwarming, wacky, and unbelievable stories about the behavior and emotional range of cats in her eighth book, Cat Party!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What does AI mean for publishers? (starring Jane Friedman) (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

May 30, 2024

Much hullaballoo and many predictions have been made about how AI will “disrupt” the publishing industry. Typically, with a new technology the steps are 1) fear the new way 2) figure out how to embrace it in a practical sense. How will AI affect publishers? Is the fear substantiated? What can publishers do?

(Note: We are aware that the video capture is frozen on and off for the first two minutes. Enjoy the listening experience during that time!)

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What are the Limits of What You Would Publish? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

May 23, 2024

In the dawn of a young publishers’ life, they focus on their own tastes. Gradually, they see which books are well-received and branch outward. Some publishers quickly find that the most popular books are things that aren’t exactly the reason that they got into publishing! So this week on the pod, we talk about the limits of a press’ curation and why that’s important.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What Can Your Regional Bookseller Association Do For You? with Larry Law (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

May 16, 2024

What is a regional trade association? What can they do for you as a bookseller or a publisher? This week on the pod, we feature Larry Law, executive director of the Great Lakes Bookseller Association, to learn more about this ecosystem and how it can work even better.

What Can a Publisher’s Advocacy Association Do For You? with Andrea Fleck-Nisbet (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

May 09, 2024

Corporate publishing has the distinct advantage of scale: they command more sales dollars, so they can push customers and vendors around more. This week, we take a look at options and opportunities for small publishers to band together and share resources, learn from each other, and be stronger together. Andrea Fleck-Nisbet, CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association, unpacks it all for us and more!

Bookstore Solidarity Project: King’s Coop Bookstore with Paul MacKay (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

May 02, 2024

You may know King’s Coop Bookstore as the winner of our How to Resist Amazon display contest a few years back, but they are so much cooler than just that! This week on our continuing Bookstore Solidarity Project, we bring you a deeper dive into the realities of bookselling. From attempting to rip a book in half to walking around campus and seeing everyone reading the same thing, it’s all in here!

For more on King’s Coop Bookstore, check out their Bookstore Solidarity Project interview on the blog.

Are Audiobooks Profitable? (starring Jane Friedman) (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

April 25, 2024

At the release event for this very book, the first question was about making money from audiobooks. The answer? It’s complicated. And increasingly so with Spotify joining the fray. This week we tackle best practices, best approaches, and how to sell audiobook content—with special guest Jane Friedman of the Hot Sheet!

How Can Publishers Reach Their Core Audience? with Leah Hernandez- People’s Guide to Publishing

April 18, 2024

Leah Hernandez has a story unlike that of most publishers. With a background in business, she realized that children relate better with younger authors and set out to do the thing that small presses do best: fulfill a need that big publishers cannot even detect. This week on the pod, we interview her about how she built Muse and Young Authors Publishing as well as the creative solutions that she’s created for distribution!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What Did the Funk Brothers Teach Us About Book Editing? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

April 11, 2024

The Funk Brothers, the legendary bestselling band (possibly of all time) and house band of Motown Records, wrote and performed on more tracks than you could possibly guess. This week on the pod, we take a look at how their approach informed our approach to book editing: taking an author’s expert views on a topic and expanding them into servicing the reader’s interest and needs.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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How Should A Publisher Change Distributors? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

April 04, 2024

After the recent news of Small Press Distribution (SPD) closing, we thought it would be prudent to walk through best practices for changing a distributor! A distributor is a publisher’s warehouse, sales, and fulfillment arms. It’s their to-market force, and it’s often the difference between sinking and swimming.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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