Print Run Podcast

In light of the recent controversy around Helen DeWitt winning and then losing the lucrative Windham-Campbell Prize, we talk about the dying era of the true literary eccentric, the artistic costs of writers being online, and making room for genuine artistic and intellectual curiosity in an age when every idle moment is filled with an obligation to produce optimized digital marketing content. Which artists get to be offline weirdos, anymore? What happens when an “artist” is a marketing idea instead of an authentic pursuit?

This week we talk about the shifting nature of the politics/culture nonfiction book market–who do publishers imagine their readers to be? How does the broader political horizon change which sorts of books become “sellable” in this category? And most importantly, how have the last few months of violent occupation in the Twin Cities changed the way we see what a “politics book” should even be or do? If you want to participate in our Query Drive to benefit Open Market at the Zion Community Commons, send $100 to us via Paypal (printrunpodcast@gmail.com) or Venmo (Laura-Zats) and (if not a gift slot), email your query to printrunpodcast@gmail.com. If you want to claim a gifted critique, email us to let us know!

After checking for a few minutes about the ICE occupation of the Twin Cities, we answer a reader question about genre as relates to Karen Russell’s THE ANTIDOTE, a novel that has both historical AND fantasy elements but which usually only gets talked about as “literary.” Is that a slight to fantasy? Does it show us something about the creation and marketing of genre? Are Memory Witches real? All this and more! Join us.

Episode 182—Print Run Goes Nano by Erik Hane and Laura Zats

This week we evaluate the pervasive notion that “literary” or “challenging” fiction is going away, and what that means for our reading culture more broadly in age where the AI slop is only becoming more prevalent. It’s a convo about genre, category, selling versus writing categories, and much more. Join us!

This week we took a look at a substack piece (link below!) that argued that literary agents can’t or don’t read well, as a jumping-off point to discuss the big picture of the query process, the ways we sort through a high volume of submissions, when art becomes boring business emails, and much more. We can read, we promise! The piece in question is here: https://antipodes.substack.com/p/literary-agents-dont-read-how-i-proved

This week, Laura got mad enough at Erik’s approach to his creative life that she’s devoting an episode to psychoanalyzing him and his writing practices. What could go wrong!

In light of the recent revelations about Unbound/Boundless’s failure to pay their debts to their authors, we talked about what went wrong, what flawed publishing impulse these mistakes come from, and the importance of publishing companies not pursuing growth at all costs. We also yell a little bit about AI. Come unpack the horrors with us!

This week…. Well folks there’s not much to say other than that we were pretty loose, given the general state of things in both publishing and beyond. We talk about MrBeast getting eight figures for a book, Dwayne The Rock Johnson being a True Crime Girlie, and the tariffs that promise to upend the publishing industry. Come hang out and blow off some steam with us.

This week we look at the announcement of a fascinating new agreement between eight small publishers that revolves around sharing shipping costs as a way to discuss the concept of cooperation in our industry; what do co-op initiatives like this do for the survival of independent publishing–or agenting, or writing, or anything else outside the industry’s largest corporate structures? We talk about how cooperation actually exists in opposition to consolidation, and the ways moves like this can actually free up the ability to take editorial and artistic risks.

In response to an excellent listener question, today we’re talking about how writers can approach asking potential agents about how they might handle specific aspects of their lives–whether that’s gender or sexual identity, disability, pregnancy or possible pregnancy, and much more–that could affect their publishing journey. We are in an age where all of us are growing increasingly vulnerable in different ways to what feels like a genuine fascist cultural backslide–this means that we all owe each other more solidarity, that our publishing relationships must account for the different ways in which we could become exposed to risk or harm. This is a big episode on “what we owe each other”: what agents owe writers, what publishers owe writers, what anyone who works in publishing owes anyone else in terms of helping all of us stay safe and protected from an increasingly dangerous world.

This week we use one of publishing’s favorite new portmanteaus–romantasy–to talk about the fluid nature of genre and subgenre, and discuss the ways in which these endless classifications can help bring new readers into a given category of book, as well as what drawbacks occur when we get more and more specific with our book taxonomy. We arrive at a key conclusion: the thing being categorized is not the book, but rather its readers. Join us!

We don’t need to tell you that the world feels pretty dark right now. The question then becomes: as creatives, as publishing people, as writers, readers, agents, whatever–what are we looking for to get us through? This episode we talk about what we’re hoping to see from and get out of art and publishing this next stretch, when all feels lost but we’re forging ahead anyway. Join us while we look for the light in the dark!

This week we talk about the functional death of social media as a promotional tool in the publishing industry. Now that we all agree that these platforms are actively corrosive to not only our body politic but literary culture specifically, where do we go next? What forms of cultural production might actually get people excited about books again, once we detach ourselves from the Slop Machines? We explore that vision and more. Join us!

It’s time for the annual Print Run Summer Check-In, where we list out all the ways we’re both keeping it together and losing our marbles. Summer is strange time in publishing, and it leads us to a conversation on deep work versus shallow, frenetic work, how we manage our interior creative selves in relation to the job, and the chaos that is sure to come this fall. Join us!

On the heels of some recent discourse on the trust between querying writers and agents managing submission piles, we go long on the culture of trust–or lack thereof–that exists between these two parts of the publishing industry, why it occurs, and what could fix it. We talk about the nature of ideas and copyright, the structures of the modern literary agency, publishing culture, and much more. It’s a fun and fiery episode–hope you enjoy!

In light of yet another round of agent chaos over the weekend, we got together to talk about the information climate in publishing at large, the ways in which even well-intentioned agents can contribute to gatekeeping and access issues for writers. In an age when there are more agents, writers, and information about agents and writers than ever before, everyone could stand to examine whether they’re making publishing a less anxious and more transparent place that’s open to all types of people–or the opposite.

This week we get a little bit mad at the Forced Waiting that publishing imposes on all of us, and it builds to a call to arms: you–writers, agents, editors, whoever–don’t just have to wait quietly for progress to happen to you. No matter your situation in publishing, you can get out there and make something happen as a person with agency and the owner of your own career and path. We address the flipside too, of course: agents (including us!) need to adjust our habits so that there’s less silence, waiting, and wondering. The world is burning! Let’s make moves!

In our first episode of 2024, we take a look at the publishing landscape for the year ahead. We believe that there could be several culminating moments of rupture or change in the near future, in everything from AI’s implementation in the industry to how workers in publishing choose to respond to their own working conditions. We get a little rowdy and we have a good time–come join us!

This week’s theme, across multiple topics, is that workers in publishing deserve to be paid and supported in all the ways required for them to live well and do their jobs to the best of their abilities. We start with a chat about the Half Price Books Union’s contract negotiations, and finish with a look at the recent survey data from AALA. Join us!