Print Run Podcast: Recent Episodes
LiveWriters
Print Run is a podcast created and hosted by Laura Zats and Erik Hane. Its aim is simple: to have the conversations surrounding the book and writing industries that too often are glossed over by conventional wisdom, institutional optimism, and false seriousness.
We’re book people, and we want to examine the questions that lie at the heart of that life: why do books, specifically, matter? In a digital world, what cultural ground does book publishing still occupy?
Whether it’s trends in the queries from writers that hit our inboxes or the social ramifications of an industry that pays so little being based in Manhattan, we’re here for it. Probably to laugh at it and call it names, but here for it nonetheless.
Print Run is the happy-hour conversation after a long day at a catalog launch; it’s the bottle of wine you drink most of on a Tuesday when the manuscripts are no good. We’re for writers, for publishers, for anyone who’s opened a book and wanted to know—really know—what goes into getting the damn thing made.
Join us. We’ll talk about the worst sex scene we’ve ever read and wonder aloud about how millennials will affect the books of the future. We’ll figure out why Jonathan Franzen wants to replace your child with a penguin and whether or not that penguin will be buying hardcovers when he grows up.
This week we use two recent stories–the acquisition of Simon & Schuster by the investment firm KKR and the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence usage in various book-related shenanigans–as a way of talking about something big and broad: publishing looking more and more like the tech world each day. Why might the Silicon Valley approach to business not work in publishing, and why do these recent trends alarm us for reasons big and small, aesthetic and substantive? Join us and we’ll talk through it all.
In the wake of what feels like an endless round of layoffs, restructurings, consolidations, and any other corporate terms for “good people losing their jobs,” we talk about how this constant reshuffling affects the industry as a whole and specifically our jobs as agents. Spoiler alert: it’s not great! But we talk through it and let the feelings out, and do our best to express some solidarity along the way. Join us.
We’ve had a lot of Serious Content lately and it’s a summer Friday, so come take a break with us while we chat about what we’ve got going on this summer, in terms of book stuff and otherwise. One of our more vibey episodes rather than a big heavy topic, so come hang out!
This week in the wake of a LOT of agency shakeups, we asked an extremely basic question: what if the publishing world treated writers like they were professionals? This frame lets us talk about the discourse from the past few weeks, all which shares the common theme of “treating writers really poorly.” Come vent with us, come laugh with us, come imagine a better way of doing things with us.
This week we talk about everyone’s favorite publishing topic that never gives anyone anxiety: gatekeeping and access! We explore how agents can do better jobs of creating an equitable and open playing field for writers trying to break into publishing, even while inherently positioned as a “gate” between the writers and the publishers. The conversation gets to some other places too–we call conferences scams again (oops), we talk about different approaches to finding clients, and much more.
We’ve heard it so many times in so many places: editors falling in love with books, agents loving manuscripts from the first page, deal announcements centered on how much every party involved LOVES the book and working with each other. To put it lightly, “love” as a publishing concept in acquisitions can be crazy-making to try to understand, anticipate, or even manufacture. This episode we talk through, in the realm of signing projects and getting book deals, what we talk about when we talk about love.
At many different moments in the publishing process, we are asked to stay quiet about news, or keep certain developments secret, or not post the thing we’re dying to share on social media. How come? This week we talk about the different silences in publishing–everything from etiquette during the query process to not doing a cover reveal before marketing says so. Some silences are helpful for writers, some are not, and we try to sift through what all of it means.
This week we gave each other a prompt: which books have been the most transformative or influential in shaping our book careers? It’s an open-ended question and we took it that way–in this episode we talk about books we worked on, books that changed our working categories, books we loved, hated, and more. It’s a wide-ranging show that gets into all the different ways individual titles can alter how we do our jobs.
This week we were lucky enough to have HarperCollins associate editor Rachel Kambury on the show, and we talked to her all about her union’s strike, what about their working conditions led them to this historic moment, and how the industry might change in light of this watershed moment in publishing-worker solidarity. We thought it was important for folks to hear directly from the HarperCollins workers, and we’re very grateful for Rachel joining us to talk about her experience firsthand.
Folks, it is that time of year once again. As we set off on our yearly month of holiday memes and other nonsense, we’re adding in some real reflection on the truths that a strange, volatile year of publishing and (and life) has taught us. This episode we get a little personal and talk about the year that was, and set us off on a month of taking stock of where we’ve been and where we’re headed. It’ll be fun too, we promise!
This week we take a look at the HarperCollins Union’s strike for better working conditions, discuss the possible destruction of Twitter, and in general share how we navigate the strangest part of the book calendar–the holidays. It’s a lively grab-bag with a healthy dose of pro-labor sentiment to get your Thanksgiving week started right.
This week’s convo starts out as a discussion of our relationships with books as physical objects and ends up… everywhere? We talk about how we associate meaning and memory with books, our reading habits, when a book actually becomes a book and not a manuscript or a draft, and plenty else. We pick at all the seams of how people interact and place value on the concept of a book, and it ends up being one of our more personal episodes. Join us!
Pettiness! Jealousy! Stop lying, you’ve felt it as much as the next person, especially in an industry like publishing. So have we, and here we present a full, honest episode on how we process those feelings in a (hopefully) productive way. Folks, it’s time to let the darkness in–join us!
This… is one of our more loose episodes ever. We sit down and catch up on everything from what we’re reading to how Laura avoids death while foraging in the woods, from an analysis of what makes a good children’s board book to how we’re carrying on during a moment of intense national trauma. Also we talk about book advances for a minute. Also we talk about toucans for a minute. At one point we get distracted by Oreos on a shelf. Come join the vibe–you’ll like it here, we promise.
This week, in light of recent heated discourse around what awards like the Lambda are “for,” we thought we’d break down why awards and indeed all literary criticism are not meant to be objective signifiers of quality, but are rather reflections of individual critical perspectives and the context that surrounds them. To be clear: we prefer it that way! Come listen and find out why.
This week we talk about Brandon Sanderson’s wildly successful Kickstarter campaign for his next novels, a move so bold and unique that we simply have to ask: what wrong and/or inapplicable lessons will traditional publishing learn from this isolated incident? We break down why the Sanderson plan worked for him, why it won’t on a mass scale for others, and which observations we hope publishing DOESN’T make in response to it. Join us!
WOW it is nice to be back in the recording studio! In our first episode this side of Erik having a child, we talk about the recent trend of editors leaving their jobs and even outright leaving the industry. What does it mean for publishing when its talent is burning out or choosing other paths at this rate? How does it affect publishing houses, our work as agents, and writers? Join us for the beginning of a new era of Print Run–we’re here, we’re energized, and we can’t wait to get back in touch with all of you.
On the “season finale” episode before Erik goes on paternity leave for a few months, we talk about the many swirling feelings around going on leave in the publishing industry, artistic anxiety in the face of looming parenthood, how we’ve thought about our professional goals in relation to the actual fabric of our lives, and the ways we’ve tried to create sustainable ways of making sure our work and art flow from our actual life, and not the other way around. It’s a personal episode on the (potential) eve of Erik’s first child being born, so join us and let’s work through some feelings about art and life!
After another RWA mess surrounding their recent issuing of the Vivian Award, we use the occasion to ask a fundamental question: what’s the point of these organizations, and how can we make them do what we actually want them to do? We talk about how institutions like RWA--or really any big literary collective--could be used to do what we actually need: supporting writers who wouldn’t otherwise have the networks they need, get its members useful information and opportunities, and push publishing in a more inclusive and egalitarian direction.
This week, we made the whole plane out of To Loon It May Concerns. We spent the episode answering your most burning and specific publishing questions, from all corners of the writing and publishing world. Come hang out for a free-flowing advice session!
It’s summer, and in publishing that means one thing: we’re all getting each other’s out-of-offices. In this episode we talk about how, actually, that’s a good thing--it underscores that people in the industry are irreplaceable, that so much of what we do is built on real and lasting connections we have with other specific colleagues, and how as much as the powers that be would like us to believe that they could find someone else to do any of our jobs, it simply isn’t true. What would publishing look like if it acknowledged the irreplaceability of its workforce, and acted accordingly? Much different and better, we argue here.
This week we take a look at the far too slanted battlefield on which people who want change in publishing are forced to fight--and how, rather than responding to each new publishing injustice on a case by case basis, we might try instead to change the terms of engagement in our favor. On the heels of the deceptive phrase “we came to publish, not to cancel,” we argue that even in accepting the implied definitions of either word we’re ceding crucial ground. Join us for a wide-ranging episode that covers everything from appropriation to publishing’s role as a producer of culture.