Ben Snakepit Returns to the Snake Pit in 2025 | A People’s Guide to Publishing

May 15, 2025

Every day for 25 years, Ben Snakepit has drawn a simple, 3 panel comic about his day. There’s no overarching plot or theme, just Ben answering the question “what did you do today?” But answering that question daily for half his life (and collecting them in volumes) has led to insights about himself, the world, and what it means to live each day.

This week on the podcast, Ben joins Joe and Elly to talk about the comic, punk life, and how the scene has changed.

Check out all the Snake Pit comics here.

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How do I publish thematically? w/ Jelani Memory of A Kids Co | A People’s Guide to Publishing

May 01, 2025

Readers love knowing what to expect from a publisher. Having consistent theming in your titles can help with discovery, trust, and bringing readers back for more.

But how do you find your theme? And what happens if you want to diverge from your theme? Jelani Memory of A Kids Co is back on the pod this week to talk about it!

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How do you market a book publisher? w/Jane Friedman | A People’s Guide to Publishing

April 24, 2025

How do you market your press? It’s not just social media and newsletters. Everything from your cover design, format choices, to who is on your marketing team tells the story of your publisher. Jane Friedman is back to talk to Joe and Elly about staying true to your brand and representing your press.

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Does AI innovate books or just add noise? w/Yehuda Niv of Spines | A People’s Guide to Publishing

April 17, 2025

AI has been a topic of near-constant debate in publishing the last few years. Is it a great democratizer, making writing, editing, and publishing accessible to everyone? Or is it just adding lower-quality, uncreative slush to the pile? This conversation became even more prominent a few months ago with the launch of Spines, a company that says “harnessing the power of cutting-edge AI, Spines revolutionizes every facet of the publishing journey, including proofreading, formatting, cover design, distribution, and marketing across all major channels and platforms.” Yehuda Niv, founder and CEO of Spines, joins Joe and Elly on the podcast this week for a discussion about AI, traditional publishing vs Spines model, and whether or not data actually supports the argument that AI is the great publishing disruptor.

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What is the Impact of Book Bans? | A People’s Guide to Publishing

April 10, 2025

Book bans have seen an astronomical increase in the last few years. How are they impacting the book industry, booksellers, and publishers? We had the opportunity to check in with book professionals at a recent conference about what alarms them about book bans, their experiences, what kinds of books are banned, and what we can do to fight bans and challenges

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How Should Publishers Manage Overstock? w/ Jelani Memory | A People’s Guide to Publishing

April 03, 2025

Running out of books is a good thing, actually! Jelani Memory of A Kid’s Co is back with Joe and Elly to talk about what to do with excess inventory, donating overstock vs pulping, and how “you can’t sell what you don’t have” usually doesn’t apply to books.

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Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Is Print-on-Demand a Class Issue? w/Jane Friedman | A People’s Guide to Publishing

March 27, 2025

Print-on-demand books have been called cheap, low quality, and the publishing equivalent of fast fashion. But is that true? What are the upsides of publishers using POD? How do publishers know if POD is the right call? Jane Friedman of The Hot Sheet is back to talk about it!

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Why are bugs so cool? w/Karyn Light-Gibson (author of BUG LIFE) | A People’s Guide to Publishing

March 20, 2025

Just in time for spring, we’re talkin’ bugs! They’re everywhere, whether you like it or not. And they’re such cool little critters.

Bug Life author Karyn Light-Gibson joins Joe and Elly this week to talk about entomology, the importance of maintaining bug populations, how the book could have been much, MUCH longer, and fun insect facts.

Bug out!

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How can you teach experts to write a book in a day? w/Jelani Memory | A People’s Guide to Publishing

March 13, 2025

Jelani Memory (of DK Publishing and A Kid’s Co) is back to talk about The Workshop Method, how Kid’s Co is able to get subject matter experts to write quality kidlit, often in under a day. With over 200 books under their belt that have been created through the Method, it’s a proven successful way to get words on pages to help kids learn.

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Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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How do tariffs affect books? | A People’s Guide to Publishing

March 06, 2025

Will Trump’s tariffs affect books? Broadly—not really, especially if you’re doing a lot in house. But there are still a few things you might want to know.

Fun fact: This episode was originally recorded in 2018, and focuses more on tariffs in China, but time is a flat circle and we’ve come right around to it being relevant again.

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