Drive time to Workshop? Here's a listen...
Jon Yaged runs Macmillan, one of the five biggest publishers in the world, so I asked him to explain the book publishing industry to me.
My main question: why should authors work with a traditional publisher, especially when self-publishing is taking off?
What I got was a full tour of how book publishing works. Everything from how authors make money, to how publishers choose which books to back, to the traditional vs. self-publishing debate.
Timestamps:
2:01 Consolidation in book publishing
4:01 Celebrity books
7:57 The scale of the publishing industry
9:48 How to get your book published
14:15 New York
16:25 Using data to find great books
29:33 How to work with a publisher
31:11 The economics of a book deal
36:42 How sequels work
42:21 Children's books
48:42 Books in Europe vs. America
50:25 Should writers use AI?
1:00:57 How printing works
1:04:52 Book marketing advice
1:09:48 What a publishing CEO does
1:11:06 Audiobooks
1:15:17 Are people getting stupider?
1:18:20 The publisher business model
1:19:08 Macmillan
I've shared the full interview with Jon Yaged below. If you'd rather watch or listen to the interview somewhere else, check out the first reply tweet where I've linked to the interview on YouTube, and also on Apple / Spotify.
Enjoy!