Here is the stack of books the winner will get:

All you have to do to enter is be signed up for the First Edition email list. At most it gets sent once per week, but rarely that often. To be eligible to win, you must be 18 or over and live in the US or Canada. One winner will be randomly selected and notified via email. Entries will be open through May 15th at 11:5pm pacific time. Simple enough.

Ready to enter? Then subscribe right here.

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If this is the first time you have heard of the The First Edition podcast, let me tell you a little about it. I am the host (Jeff O’Neal, co-founder of Book Riot) and the show focused on literary fiction and the world of publishing. This means author interviews, previews, conversations from folks in the publishing world, and honestly just whatever interests me about books. Check out the episodes here to get a sense of what it is, and I hope you will give it a go.

Good luck and thanks!

-Jeff

So this has meant more shows in a three month period than ever before. I have experimented with form quite a bit: 10 Notecards with was a blast. A solo pod where I just ran through books I am interested in was taken surprisingly well. And next week I am trying something new again, where I talk to an author (one of my absolute favorites) about every book they have written (don’t worry, it’s five. Which is a good career and a manageable number for a pod).

To say thanks to you all for listening, I am running a giveaway of bunch of the books that have been featured on the show in 2025. Check these beauts out:

If you are already subscribed to this newsletter, you are already entered and need do nothing more! If for some reason you aren’t and are reading this, subscribe right here to enter:

Subscribe now

The giveaway will be open through May 15th, 2025. Winner will be randomly selected and notified via email. Winner must be 18 or older and live in the U.S. or Canada.

So thanks for listening and hanging in there. From here on I plan to actually follow-through on another of my 2025 goals for First Edition: use this newsletter.

Thanks for listening. And as always, I love feedback, so email me at firstedition (at) bookriot (dot) com.

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When I moved to New York in the Fall of 2000, the first place I went post-luggage drop-off was The Strand. I got lost along the way and only managed to make it there about a half-hour before closing time. I didn’t make it much deeper into the store than the front area because I was transfixed by a poster of upcoming author talks. These were names that I knew, heck names I thought everyone knew, and they would be talking, for free, right here over the next couple of months. These were not the kind of names that came through my Kansas town, and I was truly thrilled.

And then I went to a few of them. The events were warm; the interviewers well-prepared; the authors generous, self-deprecating, and seemingly quite happy to be there.

I was bored out of my mind. I was perplexed at the time, assuming I wasn’t getting it somehow (my grad-school imposter syndrome followed me downtown). Maybe I needed to have read the book already or at least have read most of the author’s previous work to get the most out of 45 minutes of “here is where I got the idea for this book” and “some of the ideas I was exploring” followed by a Q&A where most of the people asking a Q (if it was indeed really a Q and not more of a C) didn’t deserve an A.

Twenty-some years later, I still rarely read, attend, or perform interviews with authors. A long profile? Yes please. A personal essay from an author on some aspect of their new book? Generally not bad. But an interview with X on their fourth novel? Keep scrolling. If you love this sort of interview, I mean it sincerely when I say that I envy you.

The damnable piece is that I am interested in hearing from writers. But if I, or the people I am writing or recording for, haven’t read the book (which 95% of them haven’t and probably won’t), it makes for a tough hang.

Reading Lives, which I produced for several years, was a way out of this contradiction. Getting writers to talk about their lives as readers told the listeners something about that person that was relatable and illuminating. Recommended, which Jenn Northington produced, came at a similar idea from a different angle: get writers to talk about some book they loved, and their enthusiasm and advocacy generally was more interesting than hearing them talk about their own work, if only because it is uncouth to show unbridled admiration for oneself.

For First Edition, I am still searching for modes of engagement that capture the excitement, interest, and expertise of writers in a way that listeners will be eager to hear. Discussions that they won’t just endure, but anticipate.

So far, I have tried two structures, both pretty successfully I think. “Reading stories” is a shorter version of Reading Lives, with just a single anecdote. (I hope to do full episodes in the shape of Reading Lives as both time and guest allow). “Insta-buys” is sort of like Recommended, but rather than have guests recommend a single title, it asks them to tell listeners what authors they will buy instantly when a new book comes out. (look for Recommended-like segments to appear before too long as well). The episode with Khaled Hosseini on the 20th anniversary of The Kite Runner I am calling a “bookography,” and while it is less generally usable, is probably the format I am most excited about.

In each case, the job is this: to make something that the audience is glad to have heard, even if they will never read the book. Of course I and the author would love them to give it a try, but unless the content stands in some way on its own, then it is just publicity, which has its place, but is hard to get excited about making or hearing.

What else is there, then? Here for your consideration and feedback are nine more ideas, some more seriously presented than others.

1. Anatomy of a Scene. Could we take one scene from the book (and maybe even have an audio excerpt of it included?) and talk about it? Would this be substantial enough for a conversation, but also provide listeners with enough material where the discussion would be stimulating?

2. Five Sentences. What if I selected five sentences, perhaps in collaboration with the author, to read closely and discuss. Maybe a sentence I thought was especially sharp or provocative? Maybe one I didn’t understand? Maybe the author could offer one they weren’t sure of or of which they were especially proud?

3. How Well Do You Know Your Book? What if I created 5-7 trivia questions about the book (what did this character eat or what time of day did this thing happen) and asked the authors to try to answer.

4. Recommend the Author a Book. Once after recording a Reading Lives episode, I had a guest ask for specific reading recommendations. It wasn’t the kind of book I knew well, but I thought that maybe there could be an audience participation angle to it. Say an author came on and explained the kind of book they were looking for, and then I asked listeners to email their recommendations. The trick here is that you do want to hear the recommendations, preferably with the author’s reactions to them as well. So maybe this is a two-parter: in one episode the ask and then a few episodes later, the answers. This involves getting the author on the horn twice, which can be something of a lift, both for them and for me. Need to workshop this a little more.

5. Inside the Writer’s Studio. I am no actor, but I loved the format of Inside the Actor’s Studio. A meander through the actor’s working life, taking stops at notable performances and moments, was revealing without being invasive. Could this work with an author? They would need to have a number of books under their belt and be well known enough that a meaningful slice of the listenership would be invested in hearing about their writing story. Worth trying, but not generally usable and would require quite a bit of work on my part. James Lipton’s little blue cards didn’t write themselves. And neither did he.

6. Character Study. Retellings and reimaginings are so common now that I wonder if taking the opportunity to talk to an author about why a particular literary character endures might be interesting. Could walk through theatrical depictions or other cultural references as well. Again, not generally applicable, but I bet there are a few books each year that this would be the right format for.

7. I’ll Read Your Favorite Book. What if I offered to read an author’s favorite book and then talk with them about it? Like a book club of two, performed for the audience. Is this better than just reading their own book? It feels like it might be, but not entirely sure why.

8. Scratching It Off. A twist on the previous one: what if an author had a book they have always wanted to read (or at least have read), and the conceit here is that they read it to discuss it with me. Did it live up to their idea of it? Why or why not? Could let the listeners know ahead of time and they could be prepped if they wanted.

9. The Debrief. In most cases, sometime after publication, perhaps a year, perhaps longer, the story of that book settles. Was the author happy with how things went? What surprised them about the publication and reception? What were the stories from the making of the book? How do they feel about the book now? Very few books will warrant a “bookography,” but quite a few more have a story worth hearing, even if it is smaller.

And so with Reading Stories, Bookography, Recommended, and Insta-Buys, that makes thirteen ways of talking to an author.

Do any of these seem markedly better or worse than the others? Do they make you think of other possibilities? All feedback welcome either via email or in the comments.

Thanks for reading and listening,

Jeff

Check out First Edition on Twitter and Instagram.

And if you have a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, please and thank you.

A few things you will learn in this episode:

1. That it is possible to start a writing career by pulling a “How to Get Published” book off the shelf at a bookstore (in this case it was Borders, RIP).

2. That you should ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK.

3. That sometimes it is hard to impress your parents even if you sell millions books.

I’ve had the idea for this kind of episode for a long time. I am thinking of it as a “bookography”: the story of how a book came to be, and what happened to out after publication. There are other important people in the story besides the author, of course; in future versions I would love to have the agent and editor chime it.

So many of the books that matter (to readers, to culture, to the industry, and to history) have a story of their own that gets lost somewhere between the story of the author and readers’ reactions to it. And these stories are best told while the people who were there are still around. It’s also true that some books become more notable than their authors. In these cases, their particular, strange, and fascinating journeys won’t get told as part of a biography or other literary history.

Here are a few books I have in mind for good candidates.

1. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Smith has become revered, and White Teeth had heat when it came out. How does Smith feel about it now? What did the editing process look like?

2. White Noise by Don DeLillo. One of the signal novels of the 20th Century, and it came a few books in for DeLillo. How much did it change his career? Or other others thought of him? Or how he thought of himself?

3. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Now, Dan Brown has taken some hits recently. But this was an absolute cultural monster. I can’t imagine what it was like to be in the middle of this hurricane.

4. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Remember how big of a deal this was? And how no one talks about it now? Even now, I can’t quite wrap my head around why and how this became so well-known as to inspire knock-offs and satirical versions.

Anyway, I’m keeping a list and hope to do more of these. If you have an idea for a book that would be a good candidate, leave it in the comments.

Thanks for reading and listening. Until next time, read something great.

Jeff

Check out First Edition wherever you get your podcasts, or Twitter, on Substack, or on Instagram. 

1. 11 Bookish Words for Book Lovers

   
   definition : one that hides away or hoards books

   We all know one (or we are one). The term bibliotaph comes from French bibliotaphe, from biblio- + -taphe, the latter of which is from Greek taphos meaning “tomb”. One famous tomb of books is that of German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. He is reported to have accumulated as many as 300,000 books.
   
   I thought I knew about damn near every weird word related to books. “Book tomb” was new to me.
   

2. Esquire’s writing about books is smart without being only for the literati
   
   Westenfeld has more stuff planned going forward, including the 2nd annual Summer Fiction Week, a “digital reinvention” of the magazine’s Summer Reading Issues of the ‘80s and ‘90s. She’s also thinking of ways to connect readers with their favorite writers and doing more unique long-form work you won’t find elsewhere.
   

   More compelling long-form literary coverage is always, always needed.
   

3. No, Taylor Swift Is Not Releasing a Memoir in July
   
   Whoever the famous person or people are that are behind the book, they have a momentary bestseller on multiple book sales sites, based on the rampant speculation. The mystery book from the Flatiron imprint is available for pre-order at $45, despite not having a known title or author.
   

   You know you look at publishing differently when it is the cover of price of $45 that jumps out at you. Rumors are that the book is actually from BTS. And I definitely, definitely didn’t have to look who that was up.
   

4. Unseen Gabriel García Márquez novel to be published next year

   
   Among the few details made public are that the book will contain five separate sections centred around Ana Magdalena and will number about 150 pages in total. An English edition has not yet been announced.

   
   Sounds like a familiar posthumous publication story: something interesting but half-done that will sell modestly and be a footnote to the career of a giant. Even so, glad to see it.
   

5. Taika Waititi to direct Klara and the Sun adaptation
   
   Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s New York Times best-selling novel, Klara and the Sun follows a robot girl created to prevent teenagers from becoming lonely. The film portrays her efforts to save the family of humans she lives with from heartbreak. Dahvi Waller (Mad Men) has penned the screenplay for the adaptation, which David Heyman will produce for Heyday Films.  Should the deal close, Klara and the Sun will likely be the next movie from Taika Waititi.

   
   I try not to get worked up about adaptations (if they turn out good, great! If not, the book is undamaged). However. Klara & the Sun is my favorite novel of the last few years, and I would love to see a good version of it. Its signal virtue is Ishiguro’s otherworldly mastery of tone. Waititi paints with much broader strokes.

6. Utah author of children’s book on grief charged with murdering her husband
   

   A Utah woman who recently published a children’s book on losing a parent has been charged with murdering her husband, the father of her three children.

   Kouri Richins, 33, of Kamas, Utah, a town outside Salt Lake City, allegedly poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, with a lethal dose of fentanyl slipped into a drink, according to authorities.

   
   I stared at this story for a good five minutes trying to figure out if what the right word for this is. It’s not irony. Shouldn’t there be a German word? Then I remembered: the Greeks are masters of terrible symmetries. How about this one: peripetei, a sudden reversal of fortune for the protagonist, often from good to bad, or vice versa.

   _________________________

Thanks for reading. If you haven’t checked out First Edition, please do! And look, a giant banner image that’s really to click on:

But this post isn’t about that episode: it is about the next one, coming out May 17th. I am doing quite a bit of prep for it, and I thought it might be fun to put some of that prep into a little anticipation building. So I am going to provide six clues to what the book central to that episode is, and you’ll see if you can guess it. I won’t reveal what the book is until the episode comes out, but if you get it right, I’ll know and you will have my unacknowledged respect, the greatest reward of all.

Ok, here are the clues:

1. It was a debut book.

2. To date, it has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

3. It has been made into a movie.

4. The author has published fewer than five books.

5. The book received a special 10th-anniversary edition from its original publisher.

6. The author is alive, and you will hear from them on the podcast.

Feel free to leave guesses in the comments. Trust no one.

-Jeff

___________________

Check out First Edition on Twitter and Instagram.

And if you have a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, please and thank you!

And please do email me with feedback here: firstedition@bookriot.com

There’s much to say about this book, and we said much of it. It is deeply complex, honest, accessible, and even today strikingly relevant.

It is harder to say that for the cover. Or I should say covers. Because in the 53 year publication history of AYTGIMM, book designers have tried, with varying levels of success, to capture the spirit of the book. And it must be said: this is hard! It is a book about getting your period and romantic attraction and jealousy and religious faith/doubt and navigating friendships, and relating to your family even as they try to relate to each other. And all of this in a book for 8-? year-olds. It is an extremely difficult task. Which makes it fun to….consider. So what follows is a somewhat random selection of previous covers, along with a note about how related to anything in the book the cover is.

1. The 1970 First Edition

   

The first edition leans into “it is such a drag being a tween.” Margaret looks age-appropriate, but it’s a little more “The Yellow Wallpaper” than middle-grade. At least you get that it is going to be pretty serious, just maybe not that serious.

2. 1977 Vintage Edition

   

   Ok so we’ve livened things up a bit. We are outside and there are flowers and a suburban house. The winds of the pink sky are blowing as Margaret turns her flowing blonde hair toward us. Still seems serious but flowers mean it isn’t ALL bad. Points for that. Minus points for getting Margaret’s hair color wrong (it’s brown). I guess it is possible that this is supposed to be Margaret’s friend, Nancy, who has blonde hair. Though that’s worse than getting Margaret’s hair color wrong. Either way, come on.
   

3. 1980 Edition

   

   I don’t think there is a scene of Margaret and three other girls huddled and talking like this, but I will give it a pass because some of Blume’s strongest scenes are of girls talking, squabbling, laughing, and just in general figuring out how to be (and not be) friends. Realistic portrayals of people on book covers is a dicey proposition, though you do see it more often on kids books than on adult books. To really capture the book though, you would need to somehow indicate that they are talking about periods. I admit this is a lot to expect. Speech bubbles? No. Holding a box of Teenage Softies? No for a couple of reasons, not the least because it wasn’t until later that the period products changed from the belt contraptions of the original text. So this is indeed a little too Babysitter’s Club for this book, still one of the better efforts.
   

4. “Screw it, let’s just pick a random thing and see what happens.”

   It is totally fair to have a tween girl doing regular things on the cover. Part of the appeal of AYTGIMM is that it is normalizing things being—and feeling—weird. Margaret is not special and stuff happens and it just a lot, but it’s OK that it feels like a lot.

   
   Hearts appear on many editions, these are just a few of them. I don’t think anyone holds, mails, levitates, or in any other way manipulates paper hearts at any point. I find myself wanting to read it as a symbol for menstruation, but in all likelihood is just a generic representation of middle school feelings. And that stinks because if there is one single idea to rule them all in this book is that the feelings of sixth grade girls are not reducible to a crude heart shape.

5. 1981-2008(!) Edition

   

   As far as I can tell, this edition was in print for over 25 years, which is as long of a run for an edition as I found. And while it reads as more “Are You There God? It’s Me, Sylvia Plath,” I can get behind this one. She is sitting in her room thinking and sort of pointing herself up and out. Double-decker interior shutters are strange, and I don’t think I’ve met a kid who would actually do this, but it feels a little grown up and lived-in.

6. You Can Probably FEEL What Era This One is From

   

   If you felt radiating waves of late 1990s/Early 2000s flying at you, the congratulations. I am not sure when looking up and smirking came into our lives, but it was fully her by the time this edition came out in 2001. Part Hannah Montana, part Gilmore Girls, this cover is selling…spunky? Plucky. Maybe quirky. Not quite. You know what the word is (and I have used it already). TWEEN. The late 1990s saw the popularization of the word tween for this time of life and we all know precisely what that means. And here it is in glorious Adobe Illustrator form.
   

7. Hello Fellow Kids

   

   This 2014 version was the only one to lean into the “writing to God” bit. And although of course Margaret is not texting God in 1970, it is a clever solution to a hard problem. It’s weird that God is typing and the tension of thinking about that threatens to overwhelm the book. Though even that makes sense: these days the bit about Margaret’s religious doubts is less compelling than the other parts of her life. And many people are dissuaded from checking the book out because they thought it was a book about religion. So by emphasizing the confusing nature of the title, this design does capture an element of how people encounter it. I don’t think you get points for doubling down on a misunderstanding, but at least there are no paper hearts.
   

8. Now a Major Motion Picture

   

   Hey guys, did you know this book/movie is set in the 1970s? No, well how about some swoopy letters of random sizes?
   

   Aside from the title, it’s Fortson’s expression here that works. We are still looking up, because that’s what you do on covers and posters when you are thinking or worried or generally having a feeling that can’t be rendered with a full on smile or scowl. I would assume that there are new editions coming using the movie style and actors, and I would welcome it. Would I mind Kathy Bates making some sort of Tawanda expression and Rachel McAdams looking fetchingly concerned? Of course not. But this is Margaret’s story and it is a story of how she feels and while covers are bad at representing it turns out that books are good at it. Am guessing the movie will be too.

Check out First Edition wherever you get your podcasts, or on Twitter and Instagram. 

Still, I email, bookmark, star, favorite, and otherwise notice links for myself everyday. And I thought maybe some other people would find these interesting. My thought is to send these along on at the end of the week. Let me know if you find them at all worth your time. Going to keep it to 10.

1. Scholastic, and a Faustian Bargain by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
   

   And Scholastic wanted to license the book! But only with a change to the author’s note. My offer was contingent upon it. Without even looking I knew what it was going to be. It was going to be the paragraph that inspires 1 star reviews from angry patriots, the one that sends them to my inbox with words unfit to repeat here or anywhere. And sure enough that was exactly what they wanted to remove. 
   
   I don’t know if we will get Scholastic’s side of this, but this sure looks to me like a real-world example of the chilling effect that the nationwide surge in bannings, challenges, and defunding drives can have.
   

2. Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023
   
   By my count, there are four people who are primarily writers on the list this year, but maybe the most relevant book-adjacent honoree is ALA Executive Director Tracie Hall. What a time to have that gig.
   

3. How Bookshop.org Survives—and Thrives—in Amazon’s World
   
   That night, in Berkeley, the unusual combination of evening solitude and a touch of alcohol knocked something loose in Hunter’s brain. Or maybe it knocked something together. Either way, by the morning, he wasn’t hungover and he had a proposal for how to grow IndieBound, including simplifying the logistics of buying online and integrating it with social media. Plus: “I wanted it to be better-looking,” he says.
   
   Bookshop has exceeded my expectations—and then some. I do think the most underrated thing about it is this: it is the most pleasant place to browse books online. I will be curious to see if they can replicate that experience for ebooks.
   

4. Librarians say a Missouri House proposal to eliminate library funding would have ‘devastating’ ripple effects
   
   Missouri’s Republican-led House voted to cut all funding for libraries in its version of the state’s annual budget, an unprecedented move that has angered librarians and patrons across the state who rely on the facilities for everything from books to educational programming and internet access.

   
   We must burn down this village in order to save it.
   

5. The Best Audio Storytelling: 2022
   
   The Best Audio Storytelling is a new collection of thirteen of the year’s best nonfiction audio stories from podcasters, radio journalists, authors, independent creators, and more. The stories within this anthology transport you to a lush garden, to life in prison, to a cruise ship bar, and even into outer space.

   
   Just a terrific idea, and I have pre-ordered. No surprise is it from Pushkin.
   

6. First-Quarter Bestsellers (paywalled)

   
   Prince Harry’s memoir has sold more than a million copies since its January release, making it the #1 book in 2023 so far. But the year is still young, and Colleen Hoover and Dav Pilkey are hot on Harry’s heels.

   
   A supremely uninteresting line-up.
   

7. The Ruling That Threatens the Future of Libraries

   
   By collecting and digitizing such a huge collection of works and lending them out online, the Internet Archive is making an incredible social contribution.

   
   Some interesting points in this, but this really sounds like a task for the Library of Congress.
   

8. Behind the Scenes of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists

   
   While Schultz freely admits that staff members contribute to planning the announcements and creating promotional elements like social-media graphics, he said, “these lists come from him. This is not a staff-led exercise, and I think if it was, it wouldn’t pass the smell test. These lists wouldn’t be as salient or get as much traction if it wasn’t coming from him directly.”

   
   This is the magazine equivalent of a scientific journal publishing a null result paper (which is good!). Until we get it straight from 44, though, people are going to wonder.
   

9. The Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf: 110 essential Los Angeles books

   
   How did we approach this daunting task? By asking writers with deep ties to L.A. to name and explain their favorites. Ninety-five of them responded with more than 500 titles, which we culled and annotated with capsule and quotes.

   
   There are lists, and then there are lists. A beautiful, extensive, whole-ass effort here.
   

10. Selling to the Strand: A Conversation with Larry Campbell

    
    People throw them out, people die. To be honest with you, the best books I’ve found are from people who died. Older people have the best shit. They have all this stuff and then the family doesn’t want it, so they throw it out.

    
    I’ve always wondered about this ecosystem. It is both totally is and definitely is not what I imagined.

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https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/finally-a-book-that-cannot-be-banned

So if you haven’t listened yet, that’s what you’re in for. Early reactions have been really supportive, and I have all the segments lined up for the next episode, which will be publishing on April 19th.

______________________

So that’s the “hey it’s up and go listen to it!” part of this email. I thought, though, those of you who have signed up to receive an email about the show might be interested in a little more. So for this send, I am going to walk through why I like the structure of the first segment (which is already the part of the show I am getting the most feedback on. The interviews were good, but people know what an interview is)

Chapter 1: The Knockout

Rebecca and I have been talking about books together for a long time. And one thing we have learned is this: books are hard to cover. A single book, or even a handful, isn’t hard. People might not be interested in that specific book or group of books, but it’s wieldy.

The world of books is not. There are just too many. The only way is to somehow narrow the field. Enter the list, the ranking, the roundup, and the best-of. These put a of bunch of books that have some shared quality together to say a little about each. And these are tried and true. But they do not of and in themselves make for a good podcast discussion.

The knockout idea forces us to talk about two books in relation to each other and evaluate them along some criteria. For the “it” book structure, we get to look at each pairing through the qualities we think can make for an it book. And since each book has these qualities for various degrees (hence their inclusion in the initial list), there’s a lot to talk about.

The second benefit is that for people that are likely to sign up to listen to a book podcast, hearing about what the “it” books might be is interesting, even if they are not interested in many (or all!) of the books selected.

This gets to my central hypothesis of what I want to do with First Edition: people want to know about books, even if they don’t have plans to read most of them. Because they can’t. Because there are so many books.

And it doesn’t even really matter if we ever get it right. We likely won’t know since the category itself is unquantifiable, and since the higher target is not the selection but the discussion, assessing our hit rate is beside the point. Though I do think coming back to our picks from time to time would be entertainingly humbling.

So that’s The Knockout. Expect to hear it monthly.

Please do let me know what you think of the show (and this email!) by replying.

Check out First Edition on Twitter, on Substack, and on Instagram. And if you have a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, please and thank you!

I’m Jeff O’Neal, and I’m the CEO and co-founder of BookRiot.com.

What is First Edition?

First Edition is my new podcast exploring the world of books. The first episode is publishing April 5th, 2023.

Why Might I Care?

I’ve been co-hosting the Book Riot Podcast for 10 years and trying to run an independent, book-centric media company for twelve. First Edition is the culmination of what I have learned about both podcasting and covering books for a general audience.

What is First Edition Actually Going to Sound Like?

I’m building the show around segments of 20-30 minutes, with 2-3 segments per episode. Any given segment could cover just about anything, but each is meant to be engaging for someone listening who might not know anything about that particular subject. These are unscripted discussions, though they are edited for length and clarity. Tone and topic will range widely, as befits such a vibrant field.

What’s the Schedule?

First and third Wednesdays for the first few months. I plan go weekly after that.

Where Can I Keep Up with the Podcast?

Instagram: @FirstEdPod. Twitter: @FirstEdPod. Substack: First Edition.

This Substack will have a weekly email. In week’s where there is a new episode, the email will have complementary material for that show. On off weeks, it will be a round-up of interesting bookish stuff: segment ideas, notable writing, the rare shareable tweet. That sort of thing.

Anything Else?

And this last bit I am serious about: I want to hear from you. Email: podcast@bookriot.com. If you do me the honor of trying First Edition, I would love to hear what you think. What works. What doesn’t. What kinds of segments you would like. People who would make good guests. That sort of thing.

And if by chance you happen to enjoy what you hear, take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. It does help. And thank you.

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