How Books Are Made

Hosted ByArthur Attwell

A podcast about the art and science of making books. Arthur Attwell speaks to book-making leaders about design, production, marketing, distribution, and technology. These are conversations for book lovers and publishing decision makers, whether you’re crafting books at a big company or a boutique publisher.


All Episodes

Who gets published?

The biggest decision in publishing is ‘who gets published?’ Whose ideas, world views, and idioms get added to the great library?

Creative publishing with smart tools

When we create machines to handle the drudgery of book-making, we free up our brains for more creative work.

Publishing with purpose

Few people have helped to publish as many children’s books, in as many different ways, as Alisha Niehaus Berger.

Going digital at hyperspeed

The pandemic has accelerated digitization in publishing to warp speed, and every book-maker in the world is wondering what that means for their business.

How to make a book in five days

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?

Publishers, libraries, sales, and community

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 book sales? Luckily, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez can help answer that question, and many others.

Plates, paper, perfecting—print!

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 this episode, Arthur speaks to Mike Jason, a long-time book-printing expert.

Measuring reading for smart marketing

Arthur speaks to Andrew Rhomberg, the founder of Jellybooks, about how publishers use smart ebooks to measure what readers think of a new publication, and to figure out whether it could be a bestseller.

Ebooks, Arabic, lions, vampires

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 whole other life, and pseudonym, as a successful novelist.

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