Get smarter about your books! The BookSmarts podcast features discussions about the publishing industry and interviews with industry experts, deep thinkers, and doers, bringing you insights that will help you sell more books. Joshua Tallent is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing, and a vocal advocate for high quality book metadata. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games, playing Minecraft, and fiddling with his 3D printer.
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Episode 49: David Hetherington on Building Resilient Business Practices
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David Hetherington is the Vice President of Global Business Development at Books International, a leading provider of US and International book manufacturing, print and digital distribution services for the book publishing industry. With over 40 years of experience in the book publishing industry, David has served as a Board Member for the Book Ind…
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Episode 48: Jason Brockwell on "Distribution in the Digital Age"
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Jason Brockwell is the President of National Book Network, one of the largest independent book distributors in the United States. With titles in nearly every bookstore category, NBN has helped a broad variety of publishers with their distribution needs since its founding in 1986. Before becoming an executive at the company, Jason was a national acc…
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Episode 47: Benetech's Michael Johnson on Accessible Ebooks
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Michael Johnson is the Vice President of Content at Benetech. In this role, he works directly with publishers, conversion houses, technology platforms, retailers, and educational institutions to help them understand and implement processes that allow for fully accessible content to get from authors all the way through to the end reader. He also has…
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Episode 46: Kristina Radke on Audiobooks with NetGalley
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Kristina Radke is the Vice President of Business Growth and Engagement at NetGalley, a service that helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies and audiobooks to book advocates and industry professionals, including reviewers, booksellers, librarians, educators, media/journalists, and other book trade professionals. With over 15 years…
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Episode 45: Emily Lyman on Building Brand Trust
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Episode 44: Tyler Carey on the Modern Challenges of Publisher Workflows
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Episode 43: Beat Barblan on the Role of Bowker in the Industry
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Beat Barblan is the General Manager of Bowker, the official ISBN agency for the United States and Australia. As a senior level publishing technology and international standards executive, Beat joins us on the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss Bowker's evolving role in the publishing industry and their efforts to support authors and publishers, as well …
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Episode 42: Marika Flatt on Book Publicity
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Episode 41: Jane Friedman on Spotify Audiobooks and Author Earnings
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Episode 40: Tom Richardson on ONIX Best Practices & Standards
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Tom Richardson has been the Bibliographic Manager for BookNet Canada since 2008 and currently serves on the BISG Metadata Committee. As BookNet Canada’s ONIX subject specialist, Tom joins the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss ONIX best practices in detail, as well as some of the issues seen with how sales rights and market data is being delivered from …
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Episode 39: Kathi Inman Berens, Ph.D. & Rachel Noorda, Ph.D. on Gen Z and Millennial Survey
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According to a report released by the American Library Association, Gen Z and Millennials are visiting public libraries at higher rates than previous generations, and also prefer print books over other formats. Dr. Kathi Inman Berens and Dr. Rachel Noorda from Portland State University authored this annual survey to capture how these younger genera…
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Episode 38: Miriam Warren on International Mergers & Acquisitions
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Miriam Warren is a Director at The Fisher Company, which provides international mergers and acquisition services for print and digital publishing media and technology sectors. Her eleven years in academic publishing give her a comprehensive knowledge of a publisher’s specific needs, from acquisition and peer review process through print and ebook p…
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Episode 37: Victoria Sutherland on Reviews and Opportunities for Independent Publishers
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Victoria Sutherland is the Founder and Publisher of Foreword Magazine, Inc., and Director of Children’s Books USA. She joins the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss how Foreword Magazine can help smaller, independent publishers with their marketing endeavors. The mission of Foreword Magazine, Inc. is to help booksellers and librarians discover great book…
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Episode 36: Klaus Krogh on Sustainable Typesetting and Bible Design
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Klaus Krogh is the President, CEO, and co-founder of 2K/Denmark, a graphic design, typesetting, and type design company that earlier this year launched the Sustainable Typesetting brand of services. He joins the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss the importance of Sustainable Typesetting for publishers and the complicated process of creating bibles. Kla…
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Episode 35: Mary Carlomagno on Book Visibility
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Mary Carlomagno is a publishing veteran with experience on all sides of the business including marketing positions at Barnes & Noble and Random House. She is a nationally recognized organizing expert and author whose books have appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Program, The Today Show, and CBS News. Currently, she is the Director of Sales and Business …
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Episode 34: Laura Brady on Accessibility
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Laura Brady is an inclusive publishing expert whose priority is always to put users first. She has more than 25 years of publishing experience creating and converting eBooks, training publishers on accessible workflows, and consulting for service organizations about how to publish inclusively while worrying about everyone’s reading experience. Curr…
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Episode 33: Michele Cobb on Publishing Associations and Awards Programs
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Michele Cobb is the Executive Director of Audio Publishers Association and PubWest, publisher of AudioFile Magazine and MMB media, and a partner at Forte Business Consulting. Needless to say, she is a very busy woman and joins us at the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss what it’s like juggling so many hats at once. The Coronavirus pandemic threw a wren…
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Episode 32: Thad McIlroy on Publishing Startups
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Thad McIlroy, an electronic publishing analyst and author who writes about publishing technology at his site, The Future of Publishing, joins me to talk about publishing startups. Thad has been working for many years on a database that provides interesting details on these companies, and the list has now been published by Publishers Weekly. Thad de…
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Episode 31: David Marlin on Royalty Management and Company Security
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In this final episode of 2022, we are joined by David Marlin, President of MetaComet Systems. David has been working in the publishing industry for the last 24 years, and is an expert in royalty automation. We discuss his background and how he got into publishing, the recent move to paying author royalties through electronic payment services, and m…
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Episode 30: Emma Watson on Subscription Ebook Sales Models
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Ebook piracy is a constant struggle for some publishers, especially when their books are used in academic settings. In many cases, this can be due to the availability of the content, not an inability or lack of desire to pay for it. In this episode of the BookSmarts podcast, Joshua talks with Emma Watson, the Account Manager at Perlego, a UK-based …
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Episode 29: Angela Bole on Independent Publishing
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This episode features a conversation with Angela Bole, the current CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association, about the role of independent publishing and the work of IBPA in that community. Angela's background is deeply rooted in publishing. She worked in a bookstore in college, then went on to complete the New York University graduate pr…
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Episode 28: Charles Watkinson on Open Access
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In this episode, Charles Watkinson, the Director of University of Michigan Press and the Associate University Librarian for Publishing at University of Michigan Library, joins us to discuss Open Access ebooks and their role in the publishing community. Open Access ebooks are essentially freely available ebooks, usually for scholarly monographs, tha…
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Episode 27: Kevin Franco on Book Marketing Strategies
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Kevin Franco is a Product Manager at Firebrand Technologies with a background in digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and direct-to-consumer ebook sales. He is leading the development of some new technologies at Firebrand, and has been doing a lot of thinking about book marketing strategies that can help increase book sales. We talked about the boo…
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Episode 26: Pete Larson on the Current Supply Chain Situation
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In this episode we are joined by Pete Larson. Pete is the President and CEO of Bethany Press (https://www.bethanypress.com/), a printer based in Bloomington, Minnesota. He has been in the printing side of the publishing business for over 25 years, and has some interesting thoughts to share with us about the current supply chain issues that we are e…
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Episode 25: BISG - Future Proofing Your Workflow
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This episode features a recording of a panel discussion I led with Mary McAveney, Chief Marketing Officer at Open Road Integrated Media, at the BISG 2022 Annual Meeting. The discussion, titled "Future Proofing Your Workflow," aimed to cover some open questions about the process of becoming more prepared for the future of publishing, whatever that m…
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Episode 24: Cory Verner on the Growth of Audiobooks
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Cory Verner is the CEO of ONE Audiobooks, a publisher of audiobooks and a turnkey audio services provider. Cory has been working in the audiobooks industry for over 20 years, and has seen the changes in technology, the changes in focus, and the growth in sales as the format has taken off in 6-7 years. Cory and I talk about some of the reasons for t…
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Episode 23: Mark Herschberg How Books Might Escape the Page
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In this episode we are joined by Mark Herschberg, publisher at Cognosco Media, author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You, and the developer of a new app that is attempting to promote a new take on reader interaction with book content. I was a bit skeptical of Mark's approach from the offset, having seen so ma…
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Episode 22: George Slowik, Jr. on the 150th Anniversary of Publishers Weekly
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This week's guest is George Slowik, Jr., the Chairman and Owner of PWxyz LLC, the parent company of Publishers Weekly, who joins us to discuss the magazine's history, the digital archive, and more. Publishers Weekly was launched in 1872 as a bibliographic source for all publishers to list forthcoming titles. Over its 150 year history, the magazine …
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Episode 21: Thad McIlroy on Metadata Quality, the Backlist, and more
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In this episode I am joined by Thad McIlroy, an electronic publishing analyst and author based in San Francisco. Thad writes in-depth articles on publishing topics for his own website, The Future of Publishing, as well as for Publishers Weekly. We started off the conversation talking about the need to understand metadata from a strategic perspectiv…
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Episode 20: Todd Sattersten on The Magic Number
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In the first episode of 2022, Todd Sattersten, Publisher at Bard Press, discusses his research on The Magic Number: the number of units a title has to sell in the first year in order to go on to be a greater success. This conversation was inspired by Todd's insightful blog post from April 2021 on this topic, which I highly recommend you read. Todd'…
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Episode 19: Scott Miller on Publishing at FranklinCovey
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In our last episode for 2021, we are joined by Scott Miller, Former CMO and EVP of Business Development at the FranklinCovey Company, and now their senior advisor on thought leadership and publishing strategy. In addition to running the publishing program at FranklinCovey, Scott is a best-selling author in his own right, as well as the host of the …
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Episode 18: Robin Whitten on Audiobook Demographics and Quality
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In this episode, Robin Whitten, editor & founder of AudioFile Magazine, joins us to discuss audiobook listener demographics and performance quality. Audiobook sales have grown significantly in a short amount of time. With that growth, we have also seen an increase in the number of available audiobooks and a revolution in audiobook production. Robin…
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Episode 17: Fran Toolan on Cybersecurity
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Fran Toolan, CEO of Firebrand Technologies, joins me to continue the conversation about cybersecurity in the publishing industry. Fran pulls back the covers a bit on this topic, revealing that Firebrand has had four security incidents in the last two years, including two ransomware attacks. And Firebrand is not alone; there have been a number of ot…
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Episode 16: Nick Espinosa on Cybersecurity
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The month of October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this week's podcast features Nick Espinosa, an expert in cybersecurity and network infrastructure. Nick has consulted with clients ranging from small businesses up to the fortune 500 level for decades, and he's the Chief Security Fanatic at Security Fanatics, a cybersecurity and cyber warfa…
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Episode 15: Updates on Keywords and Reviews
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There are some changes happening around keywords and reviews at Amazon, so we take a few minutes this week to talk about them. Amazon recently changed their keyword requirements again. It is unclear how broad this change is, and whether it will even stay in place, but Amazon started restricting the Keywords field to 350 characters a few weeks ago f…
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Episode 14: Mary McAveney on Book Discovery
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Mary McAveney, Chief Marketing Officer at Open Road Integrated Media joins us this week on the BookSmarts Podcast. Mary has extensive expertise in marketing, strategy, and branding in the publishing industry, and now helps the Open Road team tackle marketing and discovery with data-driven tactics and a comprehensive understanding of direct-to-consu…
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Episode 13: Alessandra Torre on Indie Author Strategies that Publishers Can Use
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Alessandra Torre, CEO of Authors A.I. and BingeBooks and a NY Times bestselling Psychological Thriller and Romance author, joins Joshua to talk about various strategies independent authors utilize when marketing and selling their books, and how publishers can take advantage of these strategies. Alessandra's suggestions cover a wide range of topics.…
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Episode 12: Michael Cader on Challenges and Opportunities in Publishing
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In this episode, Michael Cader, Founder of Publisher's Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com, joins me to talk about some of the challenges and opportunities publishers are encountering. Publishers are doing great right now, with record sales and profit margins, and larger year-over-year growth than anyone could have expected. Meanwhile, the people w…
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Episode 11: Recent Kindle Changes: A+ Pages and the Death of the MOBI Format
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Amazon has recently made two big changes to their publishing systems, and both of these changes will have an impact on publishers of all sizes. The first change is that Amazon now allows publishers using the Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) platform to set up A+ Content for their book product pages. The A+ program has historically only been availabl…
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Episode 10: The Need for Standards
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Standards are an important driving force in every civilization. Standards help us all agree on how we define things, and provide opportunities for us to more effectively engage with each other in trade and in other ways. There is an interesting article in Science Magazine about how traders in the ancient Near East and Europe, during the Bronze Age,…
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Episode 9: Erik Nelson on Branding and Marketing
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In this episode, Joshua talks with Erik Nelson, a friend and marketing consultant, about how publishers can approach rethinking their own branding, and develop a more powerful approach to marketing based on their passion and mission. Publishers, like other businesses, will fit broadly into three categories: 1) Those who are starting from scratch, h…
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Episode 8: Everything You Wanted to Know About Keywords
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Keywords are a popular topic among book metadata experts and book marketers, and publishers reach out to me all the time to ask for clarification and advice on how to effectively deal with them. So, in this episode of the podcast, we are going to break down the topic of keywords for you in depth. Why do keywords matter? What are the best sources of…
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Episode 7: Andy Hunter on the Role of Independent Bookstores and the Need for Innovation
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In this episode, Joshua talks with Andy Hunter, Founder & CEO of BookShop.org. Andy started BookShop out of a concern for the future of independent bookstores. As Amazon has grown and taken a larger share of the online book selling market, publishers have become more dependent on that one store. BookShop aims to give more power back to indie bookse…
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Episode 6: Clay Tablets and Metadata Overwriting
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This episode starts with a story about clay tablets and builds a connection all the way up to a modern metadata issue. The story is about how a team of researchers utilized cutting edge mathematics to trace the trade itineraries and sales transactions left behind by Assyrian merchants 4,000 years ago. Using this information, the team was able to de…
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Episode 5: Ian Lamont on Advertising and Direct-to-Consumer Sales
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In this episode of the BookSmarts Podcast, Joshua talks with Ian Lamont, founder of i30 Media Corporation, about advertising on Amazon and Facebook, utilizing his website to build community, and building direct to consumer sales. Amazon advertising offers some excellent opportunities to advertise your products and your brands, and has put a lot of …
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Episode 4: Drs. Rachel Noorda and Kathi Inman Berens on Book Discovery
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In this episode Joshua speaks with Dr. Rachel Noorda (@rachellynchase), Director of Book Publishing and Assistant Professor in English, and Dr. Kathi Inman Berens (@kathiiberens), Associate Professor of Book Publishing and Digital Humanities, at Portland State University. Rachel and Kathi are the lead researchers on Panorama Project's Immersive Med…
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Episode 3: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez on Being Data-Informed
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This week, Joshua talks with Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Chief Content Officer at LibraryPass, about how publishers can become more data-informed and avoid the pitfalls of being too data-driven. The data-driven approach to publishing can lead to myopic thinking and decision-making. When a publisher only makes decisions based on Amazon sales numbers, th…
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Episode 2: Brian O'Leary on the Future of Publishing
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In this episode of the BookSmarts Podcast, Joshua interviews Brian O'Leary, Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), the US book industry's trade organization. Brian and Joshua talk about three areas where Brian sees the industry struggling now and with space for continued growth in the future. First, Book Publishing is a small i…
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Episode 1: Publishers Are in a Moneyball Situation
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In this episode, Joshua discusses how he sees some similarities between the state of the publishing industry and the story of the Oakland A's baseball team as told in the movie Moneyball. Competition is fierce, and solid data practices can be the key factor between success and failure. Music by Timmoor from Pixabay…
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Episode 0: Introduction to the BookSmarts Podcast
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This short episode will give you some information on my background, why I started the BookSmarts Podcast, and what you can expect from future episodes. Music by Timmoor from Pixabay
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