CraftyPod #77: Publishing a Craft Book, with Christina Loff and Kate McKean

Welcome to the CraftyPod, a craft podcast all about making stuff.

Click the “Play” button at the bottom of this post to listen!

In this show:

- Interviews with Christina Loff, a publicist at Chronicle Books, and Kate McKean, a literary agent.

- Find out what really goes into writing and publishing a craft book.

- Discussion of agents: do you need one?

- And how has the blogosphere affected craft book publishing?

Bookish Links:

- Visit Chronicle Books online.

- Christina Loff has a blog and an Etsy shop.

- Kate McKean can be found online at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency website.

- Kate mentioned Publishers Marketplace as great resource for keeping track of craft book deals.

- Christina mentioned Publisher’s Weekly.

- Here’s a very thorough article on proposal writing.

- Definitely read this post on book proposals from an editor’s view, at the Chronice Books Blog.

- And read this post on knitgrrl – even more perspectives from an author of many craft books.

CraftyPod #77: Publish a Craft Book, with Christina Loff and Kate McKean: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tagged as: craft book

Angela M.

Thanks for another great podcast filled excellent advice. I'd never heard of Publishers Marketplace, so I'm definitely checking that out. And the interview with Christina sparked several ideas for self-promoting a book. I needed a kick in the seat of the pants to get me moving on this book idea, and your podcast was just the thing -- thanks!

Meaghan Mountford

Thank you so much for this great podcast! Even though I have a book published ("cookie sensations") and I went through so much of this familiar territory from proposal to agent to book, I adore Chronicle Books and dream to publish with them one day, so the interview was wonderfully informative. thank you thank you!

Heather

This was a great podcast, Diane! You rock. I would love to hear about this topic again!

Also, I will be thanking you in the acknowledgements if I ever write a craft book! :)

maryanne

Fantastic! I'm going to tell my friend who's working on a kids' cook book to give a listen.

Julee

I loved podcast. My husband is a writer, and no one really tells you what you should expect from an agent when it comes to publishing fiction. We were in the dark about it for a very long time. I'm currently unemployed and thought writing a book would be good for my mini-retirement. Now I see it is probably better to get that primary job back to support my crafting career. Sister Diane, you totally scared me, but not completely out of trying to publish a book. I've got a question if you do a part II for this podcast for crafty bloggers. How do you separate your "secret book stuff" from your everyday crafting? I've seen a bunch of crafty blogs take a hit in new material once they get a book deal. Thanks for the links too!