Hybrid Pub Scout

28/09/2022

A collection of personal essays about q***rness and horror movies. Sounds like something you've read already, right? However, when Joe Vallese set out to find one, he came up empty. Thus began a five year journey to create It Came from the Closet, freshly out from Feminist Press. Joe talks with us about the journey of creating it, teases some of the scarily creative pieces and the movies that inspired them, why Mother! is pretty compelling actually, and how people who think horror doesn't make room for q***r rights and feminism just aren't paying attention. Corinne and Joe also bond about both being Tori Amos-loving Virgos, and Emily loves that for both of them!

Joe Vallese, editor of the personal essay collection It Came from the Closet, talks about q***rness and horror movies.

31/08/2022

One thing that doesn't occur to folks right away when they think of self-publishing their book is that the author isn't just a writer. If you're going it alone, or even if you have help, you also need to have the organizational skills to operate your book release like the business it truly is. To see an example of an author who manages her writing career with the precision of a professional project manager, this is the episode for you.

In episode 70 of the Hybrid Pub Scout podcast, Sierra Elmore shares how she wrote, handled production, ran a Kickstarter campaign, marketed, and pre-sold copies of her debut Death By Society all on her own. She also shared her ultimate Authorpreneur Business Plan Template with us, which is linked on our website.

Hybrid Pub Scout Podcast · Episode 70: YA Author Sierra Elmore Debut author Sierra Elmore talks about self-publishing her Mean Girls remix, Death by Society. My biggest piece of advice is not to give up, because there are people in this world who want to see your stories. They want to see you succe...

16/08/2022

ICYMI—Be sure to check out episode 69 for insights on screenwriting, book writing, fanfic writing, and pirates!
https://hybridpubscout.com/episode-69-nice-author-and-screenwriter-ruthie-hanson/

11/08/2022

In our nicest episode yet ;-), Hybrid Pub Scout focuses on author and screenwriter Ruthie Hanson. She speaks with Emily about writing in multiple genres for books and the screen, how optioning works, and why she decided to come out as a fanfiction writer on Twitter (respect!). They also talk about Ruthie's upcoming TV pilot, Ladies of Fortune, and how "Our Flag Means Death" helped her Kickstarter campaign get the traction it needed to succeed.

Emily talks to Ruthie Hanson about her upcoming TV project, Ladies of Fortune, as well as writing books, screenplays, and fanfiction.

28/07/2022

[NEW BLOG ALERT] I just finished up a book writing and production project and discuss what I evaluate after the fact to improve.

“It’s not always easy to look at all the data. Collecting it and organizing it can be daunting and even a bit of a pain. Beyond the challenges of keeping details in order, reviewing the mistakes I made can also be a little embarrassing. I mean, the answers seem so obvious now! However, acknowledging those facts means I’ll do even better next time.”

(The fact that I get to make so many ghost references in these blogs is so much fun! 👻)

20/07/2022

Stephanie Argy (she/her) is an editor at the International Society for Technology in Education, where she manages books that help educators use edtech to incorporate art, creativity, and social good into the lives and work of their students. She also freelances as an editor for other publishers and organizations, and especially loves working on books about art, drawing, and painting, even if they often inspire her to spend her entire fee on art supplies. In addition to being a book editor, she has made award-winning movies, written about the art, craft, and technology of filmmaking, and angel-invested in women-owned social ventures. She has a BA in History from UCLA, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, and an MS in Writing with a specialization in Book Publishing from Portland State University.

ISTE creates books and resources for K through 12 educators to inspire and instruct them in ways to use technology to its fullest potential in their classrooms. It's the kind of place that reminds us the digital world isn't all about doom and gloom social media, and that a good, ethical publishing company can make an enormous positive impact on the future. Editor Stephanie Argy educates us on their acquisitions process, the subjects that are covered in their books and jumpstart guides, and her role in bringing these resources to life.

Stephanie Argy of the International Society for Technology in Education reminds us that learning through technology is cause for optimism.

12/07/2022

HPS first biz travel aaaayyyyy. Up at late (early) o’clock to head to CO for a conference I helped write! Let’s goooooo!!!! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

05/07/2022

I did enough laundry, dishes, and upholstery cleaning (for real!) to have finished the 16-hour audiobook “Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie & Clyde” by Jeff Guinn. After reading his book “The Road to Jonestown,” I have a lot of confidence in Guinn’s ability to tell a long, complicated story without losing my attention. Turns out I was right! I’m trying to get away from the whole monster-killer-hero-cop true crime narrative, and I found this story to be much more morally complex and interesting. If you’re into reading about scams, heists,
car chases (so many car chases), almost comical criminal screw-ups, jailbreaks, and notorious 20th century personalities (who doesn’t?), this should be on your list.

30/06/2022

https://hybridpubscout.com/how-to-work-with-someone-with-they-them-pronouns/
You may have noticed that I (Emily) include they/them in my social media profiles, email signature, and other public-facing places. Despite all the recent (sometimes very negative) coverage of non-binary people, there are plenty of people who still look at those pronouns and think, "What's that? I'm scared to try it." To make things a little easier on listeners and clients, I've put together a little guide on how to work with someone with they/them pronouns. Topics covered include:

- The grammar of singular they and all the major style guides that have accepted it into common usage
- How to use singular they in a sentence and address more than one person in an inclusive way
- What to do if you use the wrong pronoun
- How to respect LGBT+, including closeted, peoples' privacy while still respecting their identity
- My personal boundaries when it comes to who I work with as a non-binary person

There is plenty of hate out there, but there are also a lot of people who are just scared to mess up. Hopefully this little primer helps give folks the confidence to use more respectful language with non-binary and gender non-conforming colleagues.

Many people who use they/them pronouns, including me, identify as non-binary. Here's a quickstart guide to working with someone like me.

18/05/2022

Content warning: If you are not in the mood to hear about neo-N**is due to the rampant and ongoing white supremacist violence in the United States, this might be one to skip. That said, there is no overt violence described in this episode.

In 1983, the Stern news magazine announced a discovery that they were certain would transform the way we understood one of history's infamous mass murderers—sixty-two volumes of Hi**er's formerly lost private diaries. A few days later, the same magazine retracted their announcement after learning they had been duped by an elaborate forgery scam. Guest host Chris Curran joins Corinne and Emily to talk about how a pathological, N**i-loving liar flim-flammed so many journalists and historians, how an embarrassing fixation on the Third Reich and a rush to publish allowed misinformation to flood news stands, and how the scam was eventually sniffed out.

A discussion of how a German publication fell for a forgery scam carried out by a reporter and a N**i memorabilia dealer.

21/04/2022

In the final installment of our fanfiction series, we talk with a publishing professional and fan fiction expert who works in the business of serialized fiction. Katie Fairchild is a marketing associate who uses her expertise in the way fandom audiences read and interact to promote stories on the Radish Fiction app, which is primarily focused on a romance audience. We talk with Katie about the types of campaigns she runs, how serialized fiction fans interact with stories, and how her expertise informs that work.

Some points of conversation include:

Favorite ships (naturally!)
Techniques to get people reading chapter after chapter of a serialized fiction
The intersections of fandom behavior in derivative works vs. original fiction
Harry Styles fanfic
"Filing off serial numbers"
How "spiciness" affects the reader's experience on the Radish app
Ways authors can promote themselves on a serialized reading platform vs. the way it's done in traditional publishing

We talk with marketing professional and fan fiction expert Katie Fairchild, who works for digital publishing startup Radish Fiction.

11/04/2022

Aaaaaahhhh this was such a delightful morsel! As soon as I found out a PNW author had written a romance featuring a nonbinary protagonist in a cooking competition, I knew I needed to read it! Let me tell you—it did not disappoint. It’s sweet, sexy, fun, and features an MC, London, whose thought processes and feelings were relatable in a way that totally disarmed me. Dahlia, the other MC, has a huge, quirky personality that I found incredibly endearing, and I think a lot of readers will see their creative, driven selves in her too. I highly recommend it to romance and food lovers. (P.S., London does face some transphobia here and there—because of course they do—but I didn’t find it to be too much as to detract from the fun.)

30/03/2022

If you are a fanfiction writer or reader, you probably know about the biggest location for fanfiction on the web: Archive of Our Own, aka., AO3. It's a free, open source, multifandom archive where people can post, read, and comment on fanfiction. (In case you missed it, we talked about it a bit in episode 62.) What you might not know is that it's under the umbrella of a nonprofit organization called the Organization for Transformative Works that does…well, a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Emily was fortunate enough to get to speak with Claudia Rebaza from OTW's communications department about how such a large, multilingual organization, with a worldwide network of volunteers, has kept itself running for nearly fifteen years!

We talk with communications staffer Claudia Rebaza from the Organization for Transformative Works, umbrella organization for fanfic site AO3.

24/03/2022

Developing a nonfiction book isn't linear, but it should be organized and systematized. Many look at writing a book as a journey; writing a nonfiction book can also be compared to weaving and layering something with internal integrity that entices an audience into its center. This blog goes into that process through the lens of intersections between developmental editing and developing a book from scratch alongside its author. I also include some lessons learned from Scott Norton's great handbook "Developmental Editing." Link to both the blog and the book in our bio!

A discussion of the definition of developmental editing for nonfiction and how it intersects with writing and ghostwriting books.

10/03/2022

For over 15 years, online smartasses, er, content creators have been doing dramatic readings of a single, bonkers fanfic—My Immortal. It features an OC (original character) named Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, Draco Malfoy, Good Charlotte, Harry Potter (who now goes by the name "Vampire") and a whole lot of very bad spelling.

The ever-talented JT joins Emily to do something that, frankly, I am surprised we haven't done yet: indulge in the age-old tradition of reading the fic, then speculating about whether or not it was just one very clever troll. Emily also tells a story of a moment in time that the mystery was thought to be solved, and how that story heavily involves traditional publishing taking on, then canceling, a pertinent memoir.

JT joins Emily for a dramatic reading of the most notorious fanfic of all time: My Immortal.