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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Bookstore Solidarity Project: Charlie’s Queer Books (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

March 28, 2024

In 2013, we predicted that the bookstore model would shift to more specialized indie stores that offered a narrower offering around their own curated interests and values, with more books face-out and unabashedly clear messaging about who the store is and is not for. And here are we are in 2024, with Charlie’s Queer Books of Seattle, Washington offering a perfect example. This week on the pod, we interview Charlie, who has awesome stories about the importance of creating a safer space to demonstrate that there are, in fact, happy queer people.

Check out our other interview with Charlie here.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What Does a Publisher Need to Distribute Books? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

March 21, 2024

Most small presses use a trade distributor. What do they do? What are the components of a distributor’s function? Can you do them yourself? What does a distributor do? What does a distributor look for? This week we take a look at these things and more, as we unpack distribution! (Metaphorically, although our kickass warehouse team unpacks distribution literally almost every day.)

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Bookstore Solidarity Project: Alibi Bookshop of Vallejo, CA (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

March 14, 2024

Nestled deep in the heart between San Francisco and Sacramento lives the Alibi Bookshop! This week, in the latest of “What makes all of these cool indie bookstores tick?” we present to you, their proprietor, Karen, to unpack what publishers could do better to interface with stores like hers and the funniest things that happen when you bring back the 90s.

You can check out the other interview we did with Karen on the blog here.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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How does a book publisher deal with failure? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

March 07, 2024 — by Abby Rice

Not everything that you do will be a great success. It’s a matter of how we navigate these less-than-graceful moments that determine our ability to respond and move on with being reactive. This week on the pod, E & J walk through some of their own failures and how they could have handled them better as well as what they handled well. You are forever judged by the last thing that you’ve done, so make it count!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Why Does Publishing Create So Much Waste (and what can we do)? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

February 29, 2024

Largely due to consumer preference and obstinate legacy behaviors, the world of book publishing still operates on the same model from the 1800s. Mass production creates overprinting, and the ship and return model creates damaged books that don’t have anywhere to go. This week, we take a look at how that happened and what publishers can do about it!

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