Episode 110—Preorders, Crossovers, and the Ways Publishers and Readers Engage

This week we talk about how the new emphasis on preorders for book sales has changed the way books are purchased, discussed, marketed, and evaluated by publishers. It’s a self-reinforcing feedback loop between publishers and book buyers, and it’s a trend with weird ramifications. Then, we talk through the idea of “crossover” books--who creates them, publishers or readerships? In all, it’s an episode about the interactions between the people selling and the people buying books, and how that interaction ends up changing the books themselves.