Print Run Podcast
Books & Literature
About
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 go
Episodes
- Episode 186—Middlemen, featuring Laura B. McGrath
Laura B. McGrath discusses her book MIDDLEMEN, a historical examination of literary agents. The conversation covers her research process, her perspective as a debut author, and observations on the evolving publishing landscape.
- Episode 185—Mahjong on the Telephone
This episode explores the concept of the literary eccentric in response to a controversy surrounding the Windham-Campbell Prize. It discusses the artistic consequences of writers being online and the difficulty of pursuing genuine artistic…
- Episode 184—The Hanger Games
Episode 184 discusses the changing landscape of the politics/culture nonfiction book market, examining how publishers perceive their audience, the impact of the political horizon on book sales, and how recent events have redefined the scop…
- Episode 183—The Only Genre Is My Feelings
Episode 183 of Print Run Podcast, "The Only Genre Is My Feelings," discusses the genre classification of Karen Russell’s novel THE ANTIDOTE, which blends historical and fantasy elements but is often labeled literary. The conversation explo…
- Episode 182—Print Run Goes Nano
Episode 182 of the Print Run Podcast, titled "Print Run Goes Nano," is presented by hosts Erik Hane and Laura Zats.
- Episode 181—Tote Bag Mindset
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,…
- Episode 180—Can Agents Read?
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 submiss…
- Episode 179—The Psychologisode
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!
- Episode 178—The One About (Un)bound(less)
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…
- Episode 177—The Jimmies, The Rock, The Tariffs
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 T…
- Episode 176—Co-ops as the Way Forward
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…
- Episode 175—What We Owe Each Other
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, pre…
- Episode 174—The Subgenre is YOU
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…
- Episode 173—The Manuscript Wish List at the End of the World
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 abou…
- Episode 172—The End of the Social Media Marketing Era
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…
- Episode 171—Summer, Again
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,…
- Episode 170—A Culture of Mistrust
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 occ…
- Episode 169—We’re Just a Bunch of Guys
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…
- Episode 168—You Don’t Have To Sit There
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 y…
- Episode 167—Dread, But Make It Fashion
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…
- Episode 166—Give ‘Em What They’re Owed
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…
- Episode 165—Private Equity, AI, and the Techification of Publishing
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…
- Episode 164—Level Drain
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…
- Episode 163—The Annual Summer Vibe-isode
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 bi…
- Episode 162—Turning Over the Same Leaf
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 wh…
- Episode 161—Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss
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…
- Episode 160—What is Love
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…
- Episode 159—All the Strange Silences
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 si…
- Episode 158—The Books That Made Us
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 th…
- Episode 157—Fresh Off the Picket Line with Rachel Kambury
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…
- Episode 156—Welcome to Decembo
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.…
- Episode 155—Tweets and Strikes
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 live…
- Episode 154—Object Lessons
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…
- Episode 153--A New Achilles Heel
This week we talk about Barnes & Noble’s decision to stock fewer hardcover titles, especially in YA and MG categories. How will this affect debut writers and marginalized creators, why might they make this choice in the first place, and ho…
- Episode 152--Show Trial
This week we talk about–what else–the court case involving the DOJ vs. PRH, regarding their attempted merger with Simon & Schuster. Specifically, we analyze how the executives testifying have been talking about the industry at large, and w…
- Episode 151—The Pettisode
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.…
- Episode 150—No Thoughts Just Toucans
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 ca…
- Episode 149–Critique, Awards, and Subjectivity
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 reflec…
- Episode 148—All the Wrong Lessons
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 thi…
- Episode 147—Publishing’s Great Resignation
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…
- Episode 146—The Baby Hane-isode
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 t…
- Episode 145—RWA Madness, or: What Should Literary Institutions Actually Do?
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…
- Episode 144—The Summer To Loon-isode
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 a…
- Episode 143—Irreplaceable
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 muc…
- Episode 142—Change the Frame
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 t…
- Episode 141—Science, Fake Science, and Publishing
This week we talk about the state of nonfiction publishing amidst the changing conditions of both the industry and the wider world--how has a pandemic and political turbulence affected our relationship to “truth” and “expertise” in books?…
- Episode 140—Speculation on the Speculative
This week we take on a term we all love but can never quite pin down: speculative fiction. What do industry people--and readers--mean when they say “speculative,” and what does the distinction between aesthetics, genre, and prestige with r…
- Episode 139— Taste and Agency
This week we take a look at Laura McGrath’s fascinating paper on how literary agents shape the acquisitions landscape. It’s got a lot of insights we agree with and some things we push back on a bit, but overall the conversation ends up bei…
- Episode 138—Literary Survival
This week, we unpack a fascinating essay about the ways in which Philip Roth managed his authorial image and career, and the various questions it raises about what “success” is, how to be a good literary citizen, and what happens when an a…
- Episode 137—THE BACKISODE
We’re back! In our first episode since going on leave in late 2020, we talk about how our approach and views toward the industry may have shifted since our time of last recording. This transitions into a conversation about the public perfo…