Many publishing professionals care deeply about the health of society and the planet. Our industry faces many issues, but one that often feels too big to conquer is book publishing’s contribution to the climate crisis. Overprinting, shipping inefficiencies, deforestation—all this and more are daily realities of making and selling books. It forces us to ask … Read more
A detailed description of my process for transforming an author’s knowledge and ideas into a fully formed book A lot more goes into publishing a book than writing it. Usually, we call the finished product of an author’s labor a manuscript, because the production tasks that make it an actual book haven’t yet taken place. … Read more
The story of how some Nazi-obsessed jerks played each other, themselves, and several major publications. Guest host Chris Curran joins us again to talk about one of the major publishing scams of the late 70s and early 80s. Content Warnings The scene is Germany, April 21, 1945, in the last days of the Third Reich. … Read more
Listen to Episode 59 with Jessie Kwak, author of From Chaos to Creativity and From Big Idea to Book. When I found out that Jessie Kwak released a new book on writing books, I decided to order it straight from the source at Microcosm Publishing. From Chaos to Creativity serves as such an effective manual, … Read more
Katie Fairchild talks to us about marketing for Radish and how an expertise in fanfiction informs her work. In the final installment of our fanfiction series, we talk with a publishing professional and fan fiction expert who works in the business of serialized fiction. Katie Fairchild is a marketing associate who uses her expertise … Read more
Some say that everyone has a book in them. The more cynical say psshaw, no they don’t. A lot of that more cynical attitude has to do with the fact that not everyone writes well, including people who are desperate to get their books out of their heads. That doesn’t mean the spirit of a … Read more
Communications staffer Claudia Rebaza from the Organization for Transformative Works joins Emily to talk about the world’s largest organization devoted to hosting and preserving fanworks and history. If you are a fanfiction writer or reader, you probably know about the biggest location for fanfiction on the web: Archive of Our Own, aka., AO3. It’s a … Read more
If you’ve interacted with the book publishing process at all, you probably know there is not just one type of editing. There is line editing, which focuses on the use of language and how it flows within a manuscript, line by eponymous line. There is copyediting, which focuses on grammar and diction. However, in the … Read more
JT gives a dramatic reading of My Immortal, the world’s most notorious fanfic. For over 15 years, online smartasses content creators have been doing dramatic readings of a single, infamous fanfic—My Immortal. It features an OC (original character) named Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, Draco Malfoy, Good Charlotte, Harry Potter (who now goes by the … Read more
It’s hard to see the big picture from the ground floor. When it comes to your own book, you sometimes reach a point where you’re not sure whether readers will be able to navigate it. Maybe something feels “off” that you can’t quite articulate. Maybe you know what’s missing, but you aren’t sure how to … Read more
