A few weeks back I recorded an episode as a guest on The Publishing Rodeo Podcast, a fantastic podcast hosted by authors Sunyi Dean and Scott Drakeford which discusses the nuts and bolts of the traditional publishing industry. It was such a blast to record the episode, and as of today it’s out in the world and available to listen!
The Publishing Rodeo
If you’re a writer pursuing publication for novels and aren’t familiar with The Publishing Rodeo, it is absolutely worth checking out. Sunyi and Scott both released their debut novels, THE BOOK EATERS and RISE OF THE MAGES respectively, during the same year with the same publisher, yet have had wildly different experiences. I’ve been listening to publishing podcasts for years, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard one which breaks down the author business experience with this level of transparency. Publishing does love its secrets, and this podcast is saying the quiet part quite loudly.
The Publishing Rodeo is an invaluable resource for anyone walking the writing career path with an eye toward publication. Plus, Sunyi and Scott are really great hosts with an entertaining and informative interview style (as well as just generally wonderful people). We discussed what publishing PR looks like from the media side of things, mainly drawing on my experience at Winter Is Coming where I handle a lot of the site’s fantasy and science fiction book-related coverage. We went over reviews and lists, how to conduct yourself when reaching out to media people and book bloggers, social media, marketing, and a ton of other stuff.
One of the things I really loved about this interview was that it let me wear both my journalist/editor hat as well as my fiction author hat. I have some experience in both of those areas, which means that often when I’m doing my job as a journalist, there’s still a part of my brain that’s thinking about stuff from a fiction author’s perspective as well. I like thinking about why publishers make the choices they make, and how that fits together with the rest of the book publishing and media ecosystem. It’s hard to understate what a total pleasure this discussion was! I hope that if you’re an author or publishing professional, you find it helpful.
You can listen to the episode of The Publishing Rodeo here, as well as in all the usual podcast places. And of course, don’t forget to follow The Publishing Rodeo on Twitter to stay up-to-date with their latest episodes!
Daniel Roman 