BookTrib is proud to present to our readers the Writers, Ink podcast, a show about the business of writing.
J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned Carrie on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and famously wrote the Toys “R” Us theme song long before becoming an author.
Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, writing a good book is only the first step in becoming a successful author. The days of just turning a manuscript in to your editor and walking away are gone. If you want to succeed in today’s publishing world, you need to understand every aspect of the business — editing, formatting, marketing, contracts. It all starts with a good book, then the real work begins.
This Week’s Episode
Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week’s entertainment news, including stories about Draft2Digital, Bookshop DRM, Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Contest, and AI Slop books. Then, stick around for a chat with Benjamin Hale!
Benjamin Hale is the author of the novel The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore (Twelve, 2011), the short fiction collection The Fat Artist and Other Stories (Simon & Schuster, 2016), and the nonfiction book Cave Mountain: A Disappearance and a Reckoning in the Ozarks (HarperCollins, 2026). He has received the Bard Fiction Prize, a Michener-Copernicus Award, and nominations for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. His writing has appeared, among other places, in Conjunctions, Harper’s Magazine, theParis Review, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Dissent and the LA Review of Books Quarterly, and has been anthologized in Best American Science and Nature Writing. He is a senior editor at Conjunctions, teaches at Bard College and Columbia University, and lives in a small town in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Show Links:
J. D. Barker
Christine Daigle
Jena Brown
James Blatch
Kevin Tumlinson
Dick Wybrow
BookTrib
JP Rindfleisch
Voice Over: Rick Ganley (recorded at Mill Pond Studio)
Today’s Episode is Sponsored By:
AutoCrit – (click this link to take advantage of our Writers Ink special offer!!!)
Check Out Writers, Ink on YouTube!
*Full disclosure: Some of these links are affiliate links.




