13 - The Small Press Experience, with Nadia Afifi

04/29/23 • 38 min

Publishing Rodeo: The Good, The Bad, and the Bloody Ugly

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 through Flametree Press. A lot of listeners are curious about life outside the Big 5 / bigger midsize publishers, so we've tried to cover a number of angles! This episode also touches briefly on wholesaling versus distribution, why royalty percentages vary so much for small presses, advance sizes in that category, and short story writing as a form of signal boosting.

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12 - The Finances of a Full-Time Author, with Andrea Stewart

Today we're joined by Andrea Stewart, author of the acclaimed Drowning Empire Trilogy via Orbit. In addition to discussing her long journey to publication and her experience of debuting mid-Covid, Andrea also goes into the practicalities of managing your author finances. We look at how income works out year-by-year at this stage of publishing, talk frankly about the amount of money authors need to survive (versus what they often get), and discuss basic aspects of financial planning: taxes, savings, forming corporations, and so on. Sunyi and Scott also offer some thoughts on the dicey conundrum of whether or not to rely on your partner for financial stability, and the pitfalls of such situations.

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14 - Film Rights & Hype Trains, with Nicholas Binge

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 thrillers, ASCENSION is hot property, and has gone to auction in multiple countries--including for its film/tv options.

Today, Nick sits down to chat with us about navigating the world of film/tv options, and how it intersects with book publishing. In addition to talking about the money side, he also defines key terms, gives an overview of the process, and debunks the myth of authors 'needing' a social media platform.

NOTE: For the first time ever, we've deployed our 'alien warp' sound effect to censor a couple of names and companies that come up during the chat, as some details are under NDA. Please do not be too alarmed by the weird noise when you hear it!