In this episode, Lauren successfully cons Matt into talking about fanfiction again. This time we explore the recent shift in the way traditional publishing approaches fanfiction, and the new trend of openly acquiring popular fanfiction like Manacled and All the Young Dudes.

Learn more about the legality of publishing fanfiction, how these practices have changed in the last few years, and what we think this says about the future of the publishing industry.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• NPR | 3 Harry Potter fan fiction authors are coming to a bookstore near you
• Wired | Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors
• Bustle | SenLinYu Reveals How 'Alchemised' & Their Fanfic, 'Manacled,' Came To Be

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #65 | How to Copyright the Copy That You Wrote
• Ep #77 | Lauren Finally Gets to Talk About Fanfiction
• Ep #111 | Plot Twist: Indie Authors are Landing More Traditional Publishing Deals than Ever

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• What Is Fanfiction and Why Does It Matter?
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [11:44] “Never have I wanted to jump out of this seat so badly in the two years that we've done this.” – Matt

🎙️ [39:55] “I just think it's all indicative of this bigger sign that, that publishing is moving in this direction of more and more – like, they're looking to indie creators for proven value, for proven audience, for like, we're not taking a risk on unknown, on people that don't have an audience base, people that don't have any kind of proof of concept whatsoever.” – Lauren

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In this episode, Matt & Lauren share strategies for how to find, research, and hire the best possible freelancers to help you bring your book to life. Whether you need help with editing, formatting, designing, or marketing, these guidelines can help you assemble your dream team for long-term publishing success!

We talk through steps like:

• Understanding different types of freelancers
• The three best places to start your search (and research)
• Narrowing your pool of applicants to a shortlist of top candidates

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Lulu’s Trusted Partners & Pros
• Editorial Freelancers Association
• Fiverr

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #8 | Self-Publishing is a Team Sport
• Ep #20 | Do You Need to Hire Professional Editors for Your Book?
• Ep #93 | Tales from the Scrypt: Self-Publishing Horror Stories (and How to Survive Them)

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Build Your Publishing Team
• How to Choose an Editor

💡 Watch These Videos

• Types of Book Editing and How to Get Them Done
• How to Build Your Publishing Dream Team
• Webinar | Take Your Story to the Next Level with Experts from Lulu and Fiverr
  
  

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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Whether you’re traditionally published or self-published, the mechanics behind distributing your book to online and brick-and-mortar bookstores are the same. But for indie authors doing it on their own, it’s imperative that you get the details just right.

So in this episode, Lauren & Matt embark on an exciting adventure through the retail distribution cycle! We talk through:

🔑 Understanding the key players in the distribution game

📚 The 4 most important stages from book publication to bookstore shelf

🎯 What indie authors need to do to set their book up for success

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #37 | How to Get Your Book Into Indie Bookstores
• Ep #59 | Mastering Book Metadata to Maximize Market Reach
• Ep #68 | Maximizing Your Chances of Discoverability in Generative AI Search
• Ep #90 | How to Get Your Book Into Libraries

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• What the Hell Is Metadata?
• Genres, BISAC Subject Codes, and You

💡 Explore These Resources from the Lulu Knowledge Base

• Global Distribution: The Basics
• Mandatory Print Book Distribution Requirements
• Common Retail Distribution Rejection Reasons
  
  
  

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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In this episode, Matt & Lauren reflect on their recent trips to two dramatically different events: London Book Fair and Sponsor Games.

One is an international event attended by over 33,000 publishing industry professionals from around the world; the other is an intimate, interactive gathering of content entrepreneurs dedicated to learning how to secure brand deals and sponsorships.

Attending these two events back-to-back highlighted the overlap and discrepancies between two types of creative audiences, so we’re asking the questions:

🤔 What can authors learn from content creators/entrepreneurs?

💡 What can content creators learn from authors?

🫱🏻‍🫲🏽 What does it look like when someone is taking the best from both worlds?

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Learn More About These Events

• Publishers Weekly’s LBF Recap | A ‘Buzzy and Busy’ Fair
• Sponsor Games
• Momentum
• IBPA Publishing University
• Lulu’s 2026 Event Schedule

💡 Learn More About These Creators

• The Maker’s Table with Jeff Sieh and Katie Fawkes
• Katie Cross
• Austin L. Church

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #63 | Beyond the Algorithm: Relationship Marketing for Authors & Publishers [Video: Live from London Book Fair 2025]
• Ep #86 | Maximizing Your First Impression in the Attention Economy
• Ep #111 | Plot Twist: Indie Authors are Landing More Traditional Publishing Deals than Ever

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
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In this episode, Matt sits down with Emily Bair, Lulu’s VP of Business Development to explore how brands, publishers, and creators are using print products. Emily shares her insights on topics like:

• Why more businesses are revisiting and rethinking print products
• The “aha moments” when print-on-demand solutions click
• What authors and creators can learn from these larger brands and businesses

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Connect with Emily on LinkedIn

💡 Learn more about Lulu’s Enterprise Business Solutions

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #80 | Scaling Up: What to Know About Bulk Book Printing
• Ep #97 | How Print-On-Demand is Fueling the Resurgence of Magazines
• Ep #102 | What the Publishing Industry Should Learn from Heated Rivalry

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• 5 Ways Large Organizations Can Benefit from Lulu's Book Solutions
• Digital Printing for Traditional Publishers
• How to Create Print-On-Demand Magazines for Your Business
  
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [6:00] “Some of these larger, like, Fortune 1000 companies, and some of the bigger brands, also are seeing a renaissance in print in and of itself… It's starting to become now one of like, the main channels that they're using to break the noise in the space as well.”

🎙️ [16:46] “Right now when it seems like AI, it's just accelerated everybody's path to market. If you're not, you know, a first mover in certain things, like, that can be a big deal. That can be a make or break moment for you. So having more speed and more flexibility, I think, is super important right now.”

🎙️[9:14] “It's funny, earlier you said, you know, this, this whole shift to digital, but it's, it's somewhat ironical that, you know, it's a shift to digital to go back to analog.”

💡 Ironical → The irony of pointing out someone else’s derivations while also making up your own words (as coined by Matt)

🎙️ [26:26] “We've also had larger organizations, like that do, like, electricianal... like recertifications and things like that.” “Electricianal. Is that a word now?” “I made it up.”

💡Electricianal → Of or relating to the work, practice, and training all electricians do (as coined by Emily)

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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In this episode, Matt & Lauren explore the rapidly rising trend in indie authors signing major traditional publishing deals. The real plot twist? These days the authors are the ones with the negotiating power and leverage. We talk through:

🔮 How media influences publishing trends

💡 Outdated self-publishing stigmas (and what publishers are actually interested in)

🤔 Why indie authors would want to secure a publishing deal

And answer a few key questions to help indie authors interested in securing traditional publishing deals! Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube.

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #36 | The Indie Author’s Guide to Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing
• Ep #65 | How to Copyright the Copy That You Wrote
• Ep #71 | International Book Rights for Indie Authors

💡 Explore These Resources

• Wall Street Journal (Paywalled) | Interview with Hugh Howey
  • Wired (Archive) | Interview with Hugh Howey
• Publishers Weekly | Book Deals Feed
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ “This is an opportunity for you to have a team of people that are helping you with your brand expansion, or with getting you in front of new audiences or licensing your, your foreign rights or your media rights and handling all that for you.”

🎙️ “The point is, you have leverage and you can use that to get a more flexible contract and something that works better for you.”

🎙️ “Anytime you can break norm, anytime you can affect, you know, some mundane, archaic practice that's been in place for hundreds of years? Do it. And this is just another example of that. And whether you want to chalk that up to they're just a business and they're following the dollars, who cares? There’s evolution happening.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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In this episode, Lauren & Matt have a conversation exploring why print needs to be part of your creator strategy. We consider the current state of digital content, influenced by algorithms and AI, and how content entrepreneurs can use print books to better establish their brand longevity and legacy (and, of course, to make money).

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #33 | Books You Can Create Using Your Existing Content
• Ep #58 | Creative Ways to Use Print-On-Demand to Support Your Business
• Ep #79 | How Justin Moore Sold Over 1,000 Books in 90 Days

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Creators’ Guide to Monetizing Your Content
• Turning Your Content Into a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creators

💡 Watch These Videos

• How to Launch a Print Subscription
• 6 Unique Ways to Use Print-on-Demand
• Ep #105 [Video] | Are You Selling Books or Selling with Books?
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [8:34] “How do you make that content last? How do you make it tangible? And how do you use it to reach people in a way that isn't going to immediately disappear?”

🎙️ [33:47] “'I’ve yet to ever receive a book or a piece of printed content or something where I was as quick to toss it as I am 90% of the emails that come into my inbox every day.”

🎙️ [51:21] “I think, honestly, in an age where everybody's attached to devices, the obvious play is to do something different. And that's print.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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In this episode, Matt & Lauren explore three different ways creators can get started selling direct, and the tools you’ll need along the way! Learn about:

💡 Using direct assisted platforms like Books.by to build a website for you

💰 Selling on marketplaces like Etsy for a hybrid sales approach

📚 Connecting Lulu Direct to your site for true direct-to-consumer sales

🧰 Stocking your toolkit with some of our favorite sales and marketing solutions

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Learn More About Lulu Direct
• Learn More About Books.by and Stck.me
• Buy Matt’s Book Profit-on-Demand

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #31 | Your 7-Step Guide to Building an Online Bookstore
• Ep #70 | How Does Selling Direct Actually Work?
• Ep #96 | Building a Landing Page for Your Book

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Choosing the Right Direct-to-Consumer Solution for Selling Your Books
• Shopify vs. Wix vs. WooCommerce: Which Ecommerce Platform is Right for Your Book?
• Licensing Your Foreign Book Rights with DropCap Marketplace

💡 Watch These Videos

• Direct Sales Playlist
• How to Get Started with Direct Sales
  
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [4:47] “So for those of you that are interested in selling direct, but you don't have the time or the experience, or you just want to give it a quick try and you don't want to invest too much in it… These direct assisted platforms, I think, are really great for that.”

🎙️ [23:41] “There's no better way to control the customer experience from beginning to end and grow your business and capture all that data.”

🎙️ [38:23] “If your goal is long term growth and scalability, that should be a factor that you consider while you're deciding on your solutions.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
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