Publishing Demystification

Thoughts on Publishing a Novel in 2025

Plus, the Counter Craft Year-End Round-Up

Dec 23, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

Interview: Fisher the Bookseller Explains How Bookstores Decide Which Books to Sell

The ins and outs of how books are bought and sold in bookstores

Nov 6, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

To Understand What Books Are Published, You Must Understand How Books Are Sold

Plus cyborg baseball and the Anthropic AI author settlement info

Oct 2, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

The Book Club Industrial Complex, Speculative Detectives, Remembering Maxine Clair, and Other Sunday Sundries

A Sunday roundup of writing-related things from the past week.

Sep 28, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

Scattered Thoughts on the State of Book Reviews

rainy day thoughts on a rainy day

Sep 10, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

Brooks, Books, and the Imagined Realties of Publishing

One last post on "decline of literature" discourse...

Jul 16, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

The Forever Dying and the Always Dead; or, Literary Fiction and the Novel

A long post on the state of "literary fiction," book sales, and the culture at large

Jun 24, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

Interview: Editor Sean deLone on How Modern Publishing Actually Works

A conversation about the evolving role of editors, how books get "into shape," and the good and bad of publishing today

Jun 19, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

The Writer as Chimera (and Where Substack Fits In)

Or MFA vs. NYC vs. Streaming TV vs. Substack Feed vs...

Jun 3, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

The Age of Genre Bending, Blending, and Juxtaposing

Thoughts on the most important literary trend of the last 25 years, and novels that juxtapose different genres side by side.

May 6, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

How to Read a Royalty Statement

The ins-and-outs of getting paid for publishing a book

Apr 18, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

Is the American Bibliography Shrinking?

Writers don't seem to be writing, or at least publishing, as much as they used to

Mar 12, 2025 • Lincoln Michel

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