Welcome to The Newgen Pubcast, a podcast about books and publishing, brought to you by us, Newgen Publishing UK! Join us each week as our hosts Clare Owen and Phil Clement chat to someone from the book world, including booksellers, authors and publishers. So pull up your comfiest book-reading chair, listen and enjoy!
For news and updates, follow #NewgenPubcast! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook, and you can also contact us on newgenpubcast@newgenpublishing.co.uk.
Season 1
Giveaway!
To celebrate our first season of the podcast, we have put together a really exciting giveaway for you. The winner will receive:
- copies of Life in Medieval Europe: Fact and Fiction, by Danièle Cybulskie, Richard III: Fact and Fiction and Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War: Cousins of Anarchy by Matt Lewis, kindly donated by Pen & Sword Books;
- a ticket to any live event run by Our Bookshop in Tring, donated by Ben Moorhouse;
- a book consultancy session and a £10 coin-voucher that you can spend in the bookshop, donated by The Cotswold Book Room;
- and, possibly the most exciting prize of them all, some super-exciting Newgen merch!
To enter, you should email us on newgenpubcast@newgenpublishing.co.uk with the item of clothing Phil claimed he was wearing in the first episode of the podcast.
The first series of The Newgen Pubcast has come to an end – no, you’re crying – so we thought we’d put together a guide to the episodes. Our aim with the podcast was to demystify the publishing world a little bit and we hope we have achieved that. So, onto our handy lists:
(Keep scrolling for the actual episodes. You can also find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify … and pretty much everywhere else!)
If you are an aspiring author, the most useful episodes for you are:
- Episode 1: Myth Busting with Danièle Cybulskie. Danièle is an author, medieval historian, speaker and podcaster! She talks about trends and how to make sure you are discoverable as an author.
- Episode 3: Getting Commissioned with Claire Hopkins. Claire is a commissioning editor for Pen & Sword and Arc Humanities Press. She talks about her approach to commissioning.
- Episode 4: Locked in The Tower with Matt Lewis. Matt is an author, a historian and a documentary presenter. He shares his route to becoming a published author and beyond! Hosts Clare and Phil also talk through the options on how to get your book into the hands of a publisher.
Episode 6, with Alison Jones, would also be generally helpful to you.
If you are a publishing professional or you hope to become one, the most useful episodes for you are:
- Episode 1: Myth Busting with Danièle Cybulskie. In addition to being an author, Danièle also used to be an acquisitions editor.
- Episode 3: Getting Commissioned with Claire Hopkins. Claire is a commissioning editor, so talks about her role. Hosts Claire and Phil also give a whistle-stop tour of the publishing process.
- Episode 6: Staying Honest with Alison Jones. Alison is the MD of Practical Inspiration Publishing and she is a published author herself. She is also a fellow podcaster! She talks about how her business works and the books she is proud to publish.
If you run a bookshop, work in one or want to learn more about how to support bookshops, these are the episodes for you:
- Episode 2: Going Virtual with Our Bookshop. The owner, Ben Moorhouse, talks about how and why he set up the bookshop and how he has been getting through lockdown – namely through lots of virtual events!
- Episode 5: The Heart of a Community with the Cotswold Book Room. Co-owner, Gideon York, talks about opening a bookshop in lockdown and how he has been supporting his local community.
- Episode 7 (bonus): Taking on the Giants with Bookshop.org and Red Lion. Nicole Vanderbilt, the MD of Bookshop.org UK, and Peter Donaldson of Red Lion Books, talk about the unbeatable experience of shopping in an actual bookshop and the future of bookshops and other shops on the high street.
BONUS: Taking on the Giants with Bookshop.org and Red Lion
Another bumper episode for you! This week we host not one but two guests for your delight. Nicole Vanderbilt, the UK MD of Bookshop.org, and Peter Donaldson, from the award-winning Red Lion Books in Colchester, join us to speak about the recent (and hugely successful) launch of Bookshop.org in the UK. We speak about how the pandemic has changed our expectations of the high street and what more we can do to shop ethically and we also let you know how you can win our first ever end of series grand prize!
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Episode 6: Staying Honest with Alison Jones
Alison Jones from Practical Inspiration Publishing takes a break from hosting The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast and judging the Business Book Awards to chat to us. We discuss her work ethic and how she set up her company to help busy businesspeople create books that not only get their message across but help their business thrive. We share our experiences of working from home before, during and after the pandemic and imagine how the business world might look in the years to follow.
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Episode 5: The Heart of a Community with the Cotswold Book Room
Gideon York joins us this week to talk to us about how he and his wife took on the unenviable challenge of taking over an established bookshop in a small country town and explains why the children’s section of their bookshop is one of the most important spaces. He shares some of the things they’ve been doing to ensure that they remain a vital part of the community high street and how they helped a family split by geography get the kind of Christmas present that a John Lewis advert could never achieve. We’re also joined by a member of our resident bookclub to hear about their recent read.
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Episode 4: Locked in The Tower with Matt Lewis
Our guest this week is Matt Lewis, historian and author of Richard III: Fact and Fiction, who takes time out of presenting documentaries on Dan Snow’s History Hit to talk to us about being locked in the Tower of London after hours to get carried away about escapees and the infamous ‘Princes in the Tower’. He tells us about the ‘worst Christian who ever lived’, shares his route into publishing and beyond, and we talk about the upcoming Steve Coogan film about the discovery of Richard III’s bones in a Leicester car park.
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Episode 3: Getting Commissioned with Claire Hopkins
Our guest this week is Claire Hopkins, a commissioning editor with Pen & Sword and ARC Humanities Press, who stops by to let us know what she’s looking for when she’s commissioning. Claire tells us how she set a trend after watching Netflix’s The Crown, introduces us to an ‘unofficial’ Austrian resistance fighter, whose schnapps is as morish as her biography, and shares a few of the commissions she’s most proud of. To finish up, we shed some light on what happens to your book after you’ve finished with it, and you can find out more about that in our newsletter.
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Episode 2: Going Virtual with Our Bookshop
Our guest this week is Ben Moorehouse from Our Bookshop in Tring (which is in Hertfordshire). Ben talks about his relationship with Amazon, shares the secrets of his (virtual) event success and what it’s like to run a bookshop as an ‘outsider’.
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Episode 1: Myth Busting with Danièle Cybulskie
It’s Episode 1 of The Newgen Pubcast! Medieval historian Danièle Cybulskie drops in to chat to us about life as an author, her experience commissioning other authors, and truth in a post-truth world. She even offers up some tips on how ice hockey can help you to spot a trend before it’s trending.
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Trailer: Welcome to The Newgen Pubcast
Welcome to The Newgen Pubcast! Let us tell you what we’ve got in store for you in our first season.
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