You published a book! Congrats! But… now what? How do you get your book in stores and libraries? Smoke signals? Pigeons? The answer is, as always, both simpler and more complex than you would think.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Craig Rosebraugh, author of “Burning Rage of a Dying Planet: The FBI vs. the Earth Liberation Front” sits down with us to talk about how he became the spokesperson for the ELF, the FBI faking a book deal to gain intel, and publishing controversial materials.
Check out Craig’s book on our website.
Here’s a link to a (free) NYT article about Craig and the FBI.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Boxes— they make the book world go round. Why do we have such strong opinions on boxes (and where we get them from)? Why is there a cat on ours? This week on the podcast, let us deliver the good word and show off our new boxes.
Prefer an audio experience? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Ten years later, the greatest love story every told is back. Featuring an extensive interview with Tom Neely and Justin Hall, we take a deep look at “punk rock Bert and Ernie” where our anti-heroes celebrate toxic masculinity in full color for the first time. Is that Stephen King performing a pet funeral? Is that a joke about Lemmy? How many comic sight gags can you spot in 32 pages? Justin takes a deep look at how his comic students don’t know who Henry Rollins or Glenn Danzig are but can appreciate the book’s queer themes and social commentary.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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CLASS bookstore is probably the most talked about bookseller in the U.S. in 2024. They know how to build a hype machine and get people talking about them. Publishers pressure their sales reps to get books in there. What is different about them? And the big question—how do they utilize fashion marketing to make books dope?
Check out our other interview with CLASS here.
And the rest of the Bookstore Solidarity Project posts can be found here.
Particularly when one comes from a conservative family and has many conversations where their beliefs are challenged, they tend to assume that the publishing landscape works the same way. This week, we answer a reader question about how to publish safely and sustainably despite one’s political opinions.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Jane Friedman is back!
During a recent phone call, we asked her how she defines “independent publisher” and her answer was “we know it when we see it.” “Indie” has grown to mean “dependent on Amazon” and Orwell would be proud. In the past decade, publishing has become overwhelmed by jargon. Well you might say that it goes back much further than that (and we probably wouldn’t disagree), but the jargon that is designed to intentionally obfuscate has grown considerably to the point that we have to define things like “small press publisher.”
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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It happens all the time. One of our distributed publishers got in touch, horrified and terrified that MacMillan had just published the same book that she did the week before. She thought it would cannibalize her sales. Many authors and publishers keep this stuff close to the chest. Not us. We follow the Paul Hawken school of being your best, individualized self.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Publishers often think of booksellers as our frontline marketing force; the people who we outsource our jobs to. This week, Janet Geddis of Avid Bookshop does a great job of outlining the actual role that bookstores play in a daily role. It’s more matchmaking than pushing the newest thing on some poor, unsuspecting browser. It’s a deep game of familiarity that ultimately results in hilarity of two people of disparate backgrounds relating to each other in the store at the same time. Publishers interested in taking her up on her “Hang out in my store and learn what bookselling entails” offer, get in touch!
And if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a link to Avid’s Solidarity Project interview.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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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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