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

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

In 2022, two authors debuted in the same genre, with the same publisher, in the same year. Yet each of their books, and subsequently each of their careers, went in very different directions. That pattern repeats itself throughout the industry, over and over. Why does this happen, and what does it mean? In this Hugo-nominated podcast, we aim to answer those questions and many more, using collated experiences from ourselves, friends, colleagues, and a slew of industry professionals in an attempt to deconstruct what makes or breaks a book, along with how to build–and maintain!–an author career.

Publisher

Sunyi Dean

Category

arts · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Mar 2023

Latest episode

4 Apr 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 49 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   4 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Ep 46: Honesty, Hostility, and Misinformation in Trad Publishing (with Donyae Coles)

   Social media is beset by a tidal wave of publishing misinformation, fuelled by bots and platform-farming and algorithms that favour outrage. With special guest Donyae Coles, Sunyi and Scott talk about why this matters, and how on earth we can walk the line between being honest about industry problems, while still being positive and not fueling an atmosphere of misery.

2. 

   26 Oct 2025

   S2 E45: Post-Debut Blues & Bookish Longevity, ft. "Drake Scottford"

   Are we really back? Were we ever truly gone? Who is special guest Drake Scottford, and why is he joining us today? These questions and more will be answered in episode 45. On a more serious note, we cover a wide range of topics today: a general catch-up on where we both are, career-wise, what prompted us to record again, and how life after debut is going. (Spoiler: it's complicated and stressful.) There's been a move in the industry to talk about the problem of career longevity, which is definitely a favorite subject here, and now we're weighing in, almost 3 years exactly after our 2022 debuts. Though we have no guest other than Drake Scottford, we did collect some responses in an informal questionnaire, and share a few of those answers. Other things we discuss: the magic sales number, and an infamous AMA with a big 5 marketing person, and the absolute joy of reading commercial fiction. Link to the Reddit AMA with Marketer: https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/comments/1nw96ti/ama_big_five_marketer_umssalt/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/comments/1nw96ti/ama_big_five_marketer_umssalt/) Link to The Magic Number, by Todd Satterson: https://bardpress.com/the-magic-number/ (https://bardpress.com/the-magic-number/) Tracks of My Tears (article featuring David Headley): https://www.thebookseller.com/features/tracks-of-my-tears-where-does-the-fault-lie-when-books-fail-to-hit (https://www.thebookseller.com/features/tracks-of-my-tears-where-does-the-fault-lie-when-books-fail-to-hit)

3. 

   28 Nov 2024

   E44: More Than The Text Of Our Book, ft. Greatest Author Chuck Tingle

   Chuck Tingle shares his extraordinary journey through publishing, advocating for authors to be seen beyond their work and embracing the power of self-expression.

Inside a recent episode

Ep 46: Honesty, Hostility, and Misinformation in Trad Publishing (with Donyae Coles)

Published 4 Apr 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] Like, what are you talking about? And it's because people who are self-publishing are talking about things like we got to get our arc review team together. We have to, we have to print our arcs. We have to hunt down the reviewers. Like they're talking about all of that. That's not what we're talking about. And they don't understand that there's a difference in these things. when we're discussing. So that's just like an example that really, I think for me, like really like shows this difference. And I think that there's a lot of that confusion happening because when you get down to brass tacks, if you are self-publishing, you are not just operating as an author, you are operating as a publisher as well. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

119 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

160 ratings

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

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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