Publishing Rodeo: The Good, The Bad, and the Bloody Ugly
Episodes
Ep 46: Honesty, Hostility, and Misinformation in Trad Publishing (with Donyae Coles)
04 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Social media is beset by a tidal wave of publishing misinformation, fuelled by bots and platform-farming and algorithms that favour outrage. With spec...
S2 E45: Post-Debut Blues & Bookish Longevity, ft. "Drake Scottford"
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are we really back? Were we ever truly gone? Who is special guest Drake Scottford, and why is he joining us today? These questions and more will be an...
E44: More Than The Text Of Our Book, ft. Greatest Author Chuck Tingle
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Famed for his highly unique fiction, and for the the pink mask that conceals his secret identity, Chuck Tingle (pseudonymous name) is a much-beloved i...
S2 Ep 43: Momentum, Worldcon, and Arguing on the Internet (ft Sunyi and Scott)
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Catch-up episode after a long gap! Sunyi and Scott both discuss career momentum, cheerfully losing at the Hugos, and the pushback they've had from Red...
SPECIAL EPISODE: The Grim World Predatory Publishers (ft. James MacDonald)
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever heard the phrase "Money flows to the author"? James "Jim" MacDonald is the one who coined it.Jim is a long-time author and anti-vanity press advo...
S2 E42: Managing Your 'Author Bandwidth', ft Suyi Davies Okungbowa
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Authors are expected to juggle many different demands on their time and energy--from social media and self-promotion, to side projects and live events...
S2 E41: Write-to-market & the Rise of Romantasy, ft. Nisha J. Tuli
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After years of mostly existing in indie space, Romantasy has finally burst onto the trad pub scene where it now reigns supreme, especially in SFF. Tod...
S2 E39: The State of the Industry, ft. Kristina Perez
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kristina Perez has lived all over the world, working alternately as a journalist, an author, and now as top literary agent. In this episode we cover a...
S2 E40 - The Downside of Blockbuster Advances, ft Ed Wilson (literary agent)
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sunyi and Scott have always maintained that "bigger is better" when it comes to book deals, and that any downsides will also apply to smaller advance ...
S2 E32 - Our Hugo Awards "Voter Pack" Compilation
21 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This audio file is a compilation of 11 clips across various episodes, and is part of our submission to the Hugo Awards "Voter Pack." Everyone who pays...
S2 E38: Taking Charge Of Your Book Launch, ft. Alexander Darwin
20 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After submitting his debut self-pub novel to the annual SPFBO (self published fantasy blog-off) competition and reaching the semi-finals, Alex Darwin ...
S2 - BONUS CLIP: Scott Versus The Elk
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Just an outtakes edit from Alex Darwin's episode 38, in which Scott shares a hunting misadventure. Absolutely no industry content whatsoever, simply a...
S2 37 - Reasons To Keep Writing, ft. David Wragg
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After solid sales for his first duology, David Wragg's next book series got caught in the infamous post-covid "midlist death spiral". After this curre...
S2 E36 - The Problem with Author Book Events, w/ Sam Missingham
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's the deal with author book events? Are they useful, do they shift books, and why do they all follow the same format? This week, we speak with Sa...
S2 E35 - AI Generation and the Future of Cover Art, w/ cover designer Steve Leard
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Lead is a freelance cover artist and industry podcaster, with many years' experience working on book cover designs in the publishing industry. T...
S2 Ep 34 - Challenging Tradpub's 'Culture of Defeatism', with Mark Stay of THE BESTSELLER EXPERIMENT
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In addition to writing bestselling novels and cofounding a viral podcast (THE BESTSELLER EXPERIMENT), Mark Stay also spent many years working with boo...
S2 E33 - The Myth of the Instant Bestseller, with JT Greathouse
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As our one and only return guest, JT Greathouse joins us for the launch of Season 2, this time in his capacity as a true-hybrid author (with a booksel...
31 - SEASON FINALE: Leverage, success, and life after Debut Year
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our final show of the season! This week, we talk frankly about author leverage--what it means, and how to use it. We also discuss when and how to pitc...
30 - Relaunching A Career, with Holly Race
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After being orphaned by multiple agents, and a COVID book launch that hamstrung her sales, Holly Race started again--querying with a fresh manuscript,...
29 - Readerships, Sales, and Discoverability with Gail Carriger
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Does Twitter sell books? Do book tours improve sales? How do readers actually find authors in the first place? Across a fifteen-year-career, NYT best-...
28 - The Art of Success, with Wesley Chu
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Against the odds, Wesley Chu's small-press debut novel became a break-out success. In the ten years since, he has published a dozen other titles, writ...
27 - Foreign Rights and the Frankfurt Book
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we chat with Anika Scott, an international bestselling author of historical fiction. After years of writing, querying, and revising, Anika'...
26 - Why Don't We Just Quit? with Kameron Hurley
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After years of rejections, Kameron's early book deals ran into problems when her publishers either folded or went bankrupt, Instead of quitting, she k...
25 - How to Write For Film, TV, and Tie-Ins (with D. V. Bishop)
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever been curious about alternate or adjacent writing careers, this episode is for you! David "D.V." Bishop got his start 30 years ago writi...
24 - The Pervasive Joy of Writing, with RJ Barker
20 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Because it's NOT bad, not all the time ;-) After Dr. Kerry's brilliant but hard-hitting previous episode, we wanted to return after summer with someth...
23 - The Minimum Viability Threshold: Why Some Books Don't Sell (w/ Dr. Kerry Spencer Pray
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2008, Dr. Kerry Spencer Pray watched her book die on submission after the financial crash halted publishing acquisitions. She then decided to do a ...
22 - The Mayonnaise Buffet
09 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the wise and witty Ella McLeod sits down to talk with us about the hard-hitting, ever-prevalent topic of whiteness in publishing, including...
21 - Against All (g)Odds
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After 25 years, 47 books, and at least 4 different genres, Miles Cameron (aka Christian Cameron) has seen and survived a lot in publishing. In additio...
20 - When Passion Meets Business, with Daphne Tonge
24 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, Daphne Tonge started a small "book crate" subscription service out of her London living room, with a tiny pool of subscribers. Today, Illumic...
19 - The 50k Download Special: My 600-Rejection Life, with R.R. Virdi & Wayne Santos
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Huge thanks to our listeners for helping us hit 50,000 total downloads! We are incredibly humbled by the interest and support so far. This episode was...
Bonus clip: Ep18 Outtakes (with Sunyi, Scott, and Julia)
11 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A little bit of bonus chatter, extra Scott jokes, interruptions from small children, and general background chaos that was cut from episode 18
18 - A Song of Contracts And Unions, with Julia Vee
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
So you've signed a book deal, and the book contract has arrived. What does it mean, what can you ask for or changed, and how involved should you be? W...
17 - Burnout And Other Bullsh*t, with Premee Mohamed
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist, and speculative fiction author, with a prolific list of ...
16 - Surviving a Series 'Death Spiral' with Peter McLean
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're joined by Peter McLean, a fantasy writer who clawed his way to authorhood through an indie publisher slush pile, despite not being agented...
15 - Reviews, lists, & other media circuses, with Daniel Roman
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do bloggers hear about books, curate lists, and choose what to review? Why does it feel like every list has the same books? Do physical arcs matte...
14 - Film Rights & Hype Trains, with Nicholas Binge
05 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After years of unsuccessful querying and one small-press book, Nick finally hit it big with a break-out novel. Billed among this year's top sci-fi thr...
13 - The Small Press Experience, with Nadia Afifi
29 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we sit down with Arab-American author Nadia Afifi, for a concise and chilled-out chat about her experience of publishing a scifi trilogy th...
12 - The Finances of a Full-Time Author, with Andrea Stewart
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're joined by Andrea Stewart, author of the acclaimed Drowning Empire Trilogy via Orbit. In addition to discussing her long journey to publica...
11 - Letting The Good Times Roll, with Nicholas Eames
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're joined by Nicholas Eames, author of cult favorite KINGS OF THE WYLD to discuss his publishing experience in a wide-ranging interview. Eame...
10th Episode Special: Q&A with Sunyi Dean and Scott Drakeford
09 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In celebration of making it to 10 episodes, Scott & Sunyi answer some of the host-specific and/or personal questions that listeners have submitted...
9 - Launch Day Damage, with Sunyi Dean & Scott Drakeford
07 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You know the drill: same genre, same publisher, same debut year--but very different deal sizes, and very different publisher treatment. But how does t...
8 - Taking Publishers to Task, with Robin & Michael J Sullivan
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Off the back of episode 7, we sit down to throw some complex industry questions at Robin & Michael J Sullivan, in exchange for some very detailed ...
7 - An Epic Journey Through Self-Pub and Trad, with Robin & Michael J Sullivan
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Indie vs trad is an ever-green career debate, and is one of our most common listener questions. Authors wrestle frequently with which route will suit ...
6 - Defining Success, with Michael Mammay
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Show notes and topics covered:how to define success for you, personallythe importance of audio, and the commercial impact of a good narratorcommercial...
5 - ANATOMY OF A BESTSELLER, PT 2 with Richard Swan
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Both Richard and Sunyi hit the Sunday Times list right out the gate in the UK. How does that happen? Who gets to decide, and what does it mean? We exp...
4 - ANATOMY OF A BESTSELLER, PT 1 with Richard Swan
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Swan, Sunday Times bestselling author of JUSTICE OF KINGS, talks to us about the role that luck and timing play in publishing, and the polar o...
3 - MIDLIST VS MID-SIZE, with Clay Harmon
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Big 5 midlist vs midsize author: which is better, which is worse, and what are the pitfalls of going on way or another?This week, we’re joined by Cl...
2 - THE SECRET WORLD OF BOOKSELLING, ft J.T. Greathouse and Auntie's Bookstore
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The trade publishing industry relies heavily on bookstores and their booksellers for a successful business model. But what do booksellers actually do ...
1 - PUBLISHING IS NUTS, with Sunyi Dean and Scott Drakeford
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we will explain who we are, why we’re doing this, and give a quick overview of our paths into publishing. Topics include: trad vers...