Show Notes
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 thought about our professional goals in relation to the actual fabric of our lives, and the ways we’ve tried to create sustainable ways of making sure our work and art flow from our actual life, and not the other way around. It’s a personal episode on the (potential) eve of Erik’s first child being born, so join us and let’s work through some feelings about art and life!
More from Print Run Podcast
This one… well folks we just got it all out there. We spend some time talking about publishing impersonation scams, about our upcoming trip to New York, about Dune, about the Green Bay Packers, about bad publishing advice, about god knows what else. Erik learned that some reality TV is scripted? He didn’t like that. Not at all.
This week, in response to a steady stream of questions about how to interface with literary agents either during the query process or once you’re actually working with them, we present to you: a list of Red Flags to look for with regard to agents! We get into communication styles, transparency, pressure, and much more as we try to work through whatever has you vexed about your interactions with agents. Let’s figure out what’s normal and what isn’t!
This week we catch up on two pieces that caught our eye: one on the modernization of older children’s literature to match contemporary culture, and another on how every LLM chatbot keeps telling stories featuring the same vaguely aggrieved fictional guy. It’s weird! The goblins are closing in!
This week we are thrilled to bring you an interview with Laura B. McGrath, whose new book MIDDLEMEN offers the largest-scale historical look at the field of literary agenting that we’ve ever seen. We talked to Laura about her experience talking to agents for the book, how being a debut writer herself has changed her view of publishing, and how what she has her eye on as publishing heads toward an uncertain future. This is one of our best conversations in the history of the show and we think you’ll love it.
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?