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Print Run Podcast — Arts
Print Run Podcast

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 goes into getting the damn thing made.

Join us. We’ll talk about the worst sex scene we’ve ever read and wonder aloud about how millennials will affect the books of the future. We’ll figure out why Jonathan Franzen wants to replace your child with a penguin and whether or not that penguin will be buying hardcovers when he grows up.

Copyright: © All Rights Reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 149–Critique, Awards, and Subjectivity Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

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 reflections of individual critical perspectives and the context that surrounds them. To be clear: we prefer it that way! Come listen and find out why.

Episode 148—All the Wrong Lessons Mar 14, 2022

Show notes

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 this isolated incident? We break down why the Sanderson plan worked for him, why it won’t on a mass scale for others, and which observations we hope publishing DOESN’T make in response to it. Join us!

Episode 147—Publishing’s Great Resignation Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

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 when its talent is burning out or choosing other paths at this rate? How does it affect publishing houses, our work as agents, and writers? Join us for the beginning of a new era of Print Run–we’re here, we’re energized, and we can’t wait to get back in touch with all of you.

Episode 146—The Baby Hane-isode Sep 27, 2021

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!

Episode 145—RWA Madness, or: What Should Literary Institutions Actually Do? Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

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 about how institutions like RWA--or really any big literary collective--could be used to do what we actually need: supporting writers who wouldn’t otherwise have the networks they need, get its members useful information and opportunities, and push publishing in a more inclusive and egalitarian direction.

Episode 144—The Summer To Loon-isode Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

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 advice session!

Episode 143—Irreplaceable Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

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 much of what we do is built on real and lasting connections we have with other specific colleagues, and how as much as the powers that be would like us to believe that they could find someone else to do any of our jobs, it simply isn’t true. What would publishing look like if it acknowledged the irreplaceability of its workforce, and acted accordingly? Much different and better, we argue here.

Episode 142—Change the Frame Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

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 to change the terms of engagement in our favor. On the heels of the deceptive phrase “we came to publish, not to cancel,” we argue that even in accepting the implied definitions of either word we’re ceding crucial ground. Join us for a wide-ranging episode that covers everything from appropriation to publishing’s role as a producer of culture.

Episode 141—Science, Fake Science, and Publishing Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

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? We talk through the new moment of popular science publishing, as well as how it might follow the arc we saw over prior years in more explicitly political publishing. Then, to finish, a To Loon It May Concern about how to manage trope fatigue in genre fiction, especially as an author of a marginalized identity.

Episode 140—Speculation on the Speculative Apr 06, 2021

Show notes

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 regard to the term say about the market at large? What are we talking about when we, as book people, talk about speculative fiction? Come help us work through it.

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