How Books Are Made
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
To self-publish well, whose help do you need?
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re writing and self-publishing a book, where should you start? And who do you need on your team?This episode, we’re changing up our usual f...
What does it take to crowdfund a book? – with Aaron A. Reed
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The allure of crowdfunding is that you can sell your book before it costs you any money. But that’s harder than it looks!To find out what it takes t...
How Book Dash makes beautiful books in a single day – with Julia Norrish
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Children's publisher Book Dash makes beautiful books in a single day, then gives them away. And their method is catching on around the world.Book Dash...
The fine-press printer’s art of not forgetting – with Graham Moss
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the heart of everything book-like is a printer, standing at a hand-powered press, turning paper into pages.When you hold a book that’s been types...
Fine lines in type design – with Thomas Jockin
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Everything we read is coloured by its typeface. And humans read a lot, so font choices probably affect more people than any other field of design.In o...
Risk, reward, and reality for indie bookstores – with Griffin Shea
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is no place more universally loved than a good bookstore. For its owner, achieving that is not as simple as it seems.The best book shops are muc...
How editors and ghostwriters make books better – with Tim Phillips
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Behind every great author is a host of unsung editors. By convention, they don’t get their names on books. What are they doing behind the scenes?A g...
Building tools for creative communities – with Hugh McGuire
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Creative communities can be a powerful force for good. Online, they grow around tools that let people be creative together. What comes first, the tool...
Managing metadata for drama-free publishing – with Emma Barnes
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We take for granted that books contain no mistakes, but the absence of mistakes is no small achievement. It takes care, commitment, and very, very goo...
How do ebooks work at all? – with Dave Cramer
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Would you believe that the entire ebook marketplace – including Kindle, iBooks, and thousands of ebook stores – depends on the volunteer work of a...
'Books beg to be discussed' – with Anderson P. Smith
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why are book clubs so transformative, and can they change the world?When we read a book we love, no matter how outlandish or challenging it is, we rec...
What is an agent and how do I get one? – with Aoife Lennon-Ritchie
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Good agents are the fairy grandparents of page and screen. They get writers; and they get writers paid.Most jobs in publishing are done by humans flyi...
Innovation and impact in open-access publishing – with Frances Pinter
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Open-access publishing models are so ubiquitous today that we forget they had to be invented first – by bold, generous publishers.In this episode, A...
Making infographic books with love – with Andrés Barragán
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are so many interesting people in book-making; people who cross boundaries and live for the thrill of making art with other people. People like ...
Who gets published? – with Anasuya Sengupta
28 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest decision in publishing is ‘who gets published?’ Whose ideas, world views, and idioms get added to the great library?Anasuya Sengupta i...
Creative publishing with smart tools – with Nick Barreto
21 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we create machines to handle the drudgery of book-making, we free up our brains for more creative work. Fiction publisher Canelo has just been s...
Publishing with purpose – with Alisha Niehaus Berger
17 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Few people have helped to publish as many children’s books, in as many different ways, as Alisha Niehaus Berger.Her career has spanned New York publ...
Going digital at hyperspeed – with Raghunandan Malik
07 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has accelerated digitization in publishing to warp speed, and every book-maker in the world is wondering what that means for their busine...
How to make a book in five days – with Barbara Rühling
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When we really need to get a book written and published quickly, and can rally a dedicated team around it, how fast can we move?Book Sprints are the l...
Publishers, libraries, sales, and community – with Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We all love libraries, but maybe we could love them a little more. Some money-minded publishing folk even wonder: what effect do libraries have on boo...
Plates, paper, perfecting—print! – with Mike Jason
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even in our digital world, despite the insight of editors and the wonders of design, printing is really where the book-making magic culminates. In thi...
Measuring reading for smart marketing – with Andrew Rhomberg
01 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur speaks to Andrew Rhomberg, the founder of Jellybooks, about how publishers use smart ebooks to measure what readers think of a new publication,...
Ebooks, Arabic, lions, vampires – with Ramy Habeeb
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur meets up with an old friend, Ramy Habeeb, to share some fascinating, hilarious book-making stories. And he discovers that his friend has a whol...
International excellence, local twist – with Jeremy Boraine
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For many of us, the role of ‘The Publisher’ is almost mythical: a distant, unknowable keeper of dreams. Somehow, we grant publishers enormous cult...
Pages, proofs, and possibilities – with John Pettigrew
13 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Books are enormously complex creations, and clearing them of errors takes the immense, repeated effort of editors and proofreaders. Proofreaders are u...
The book-production process, a whirlwind tour – with Klara Skinner
06 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur and his colleague Klara Skinner describe the entire book-making process in forty-five minutes. This is an episode especially for process junkie...
Children's illustration, skills, and tools – with Jess Jardim-Wedepohl
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since 2014, children’s book publisher Book Dash has printed over a million free books for children, including tens of thousands illustrated by Jess ...
Marketing, collaboration, and creative freedom – with Sam Beckbessinger
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
People who can build book brands and inspire fans are rare and amazing, even more so when they write their books, too. One of those people is Sam Beck...
Trailer: Books, love, and family
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How Books Are Made is a podcast about the art and science of making books. It’s for book lovers who believe that details matter, on paper and on scr...