Today we chat with Adam O’Brien, an editor at Sterling Publishing. Adam specializes in editing nonfiction of many kinds, particularly memoirs and essay collections—we’ve linked several of them below. While editing is his ultimate passion, Adam’s background is a journey through different aspects of the publishing and bookselling industry. This has included detours into production and work in retail. This past adventure featured a job as music lead at Barnes & Noble, which opens him up to Corinne’s burning question: Why the hell did B&N get into the business of selling vinyl?
Some books Adam has worked on as lead editor:
- 8-Bit Apocalypse, the book that Adam is most excited about bringing to life.
- The Human Superorganism by Rodney Dietert, PhD
- Secret Service Dogs by Maria Goodavage
Books Adam has worked on under other editors:
- Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, who is everything you’ve hoped she is.
- We Do Things Differently: The Outsiders Rebooting Our World
- Nick Offerman’s (best-selling!) woodworking book: Good Clean Fun
Also, go ahead and take a gander at the books that Sterling Publishing produces.
At 34:17 we sound off on distributors
Tara Lehmann (interviewed in episode 8) also dropped by for some discussion of the fallout from Baker & Taylor’s exit from the indie book market. We review some of their terms, and Tara breaks down for us how they benefit the booksellers vs. the publishers (cue major side-eye). Also, we’ve said that monopolies suck, but Emily wants to point out that the game Monopoly ALSO sucks.
What we’re reading:
- Tara is reading Red, White, and Royal Blue
- Corinne is reading I Can Barely Take Care of Myself
- Emily is reading The Kiss Quotient
