In the debut episode of The Publishing Playbook, host Sarah Russo of Page One Media sits down with publishing veteran Erin Cox to unpack one of the industry's most overlooked opportunities: libraries. With a career spanning publicity at Scribner and HarperCollins, agenting, and her current role as publisher of Publishing Perspectives and co-founder of Words and Money, Erin brings rare, 360-degree expertise to the conversation. Together, Sarah and Erin break down how libraries actually buy books, why they're a powerful (and underutilized) marketing channel for authors, and the misconceptions that are costing publishers real money. Whether you're a debut author, a seasoned writer, or publishing-curious, this episode will change how you think about getting your book into readers' hands.
Words & Money: https://www.wordsandmoney.com/
Publishing Perspectives: https://publishingperspectives.com/
Essay by Auyon Mukharji, author of HEARTLAND MASALA: https://www.wordsandmoney.com/for-our-book-tour-we-ditched-the-social-media-we-chose-public-libraries-instead/
PageMatch by Spotify: https://authors.spotify.com/blog/page-match
0:00 - Libraries Are Selling Books 📚
Erin explains why libraries aren't the enemy of book sales — they are book sales.
1:56 - Meet Erin Cox 🎙️
Host Sarah Russo introduces her guest: a publishing lifer whose career spans Scribner, HarperCollins, The New Yorker, literary agenting, and beyond.
7:28 - Words and Money 💡
Erin shares the origin story of her new venture with Andrew Albanese, a digital media platform shining a spotlight on libraries' overlooked role in publishing.
8:19 - The Library Misconception 🏛️
Sarah and Erin bust the myth that libraries hurt book sales and explain why those purchases are some of the best a publisher can get.
14:24 - The Hold System Trap ⚠️
Erin reveals why encouraging fans to place library holds can actually backfire — and hurt smaller publishers in the process.
21:23 - Reasons to Be Excited 🎧
Erin shares the publishing news she's genuinely buzzing about, including Spotify's surprising new moves that are bringing print books and audio together in a whole new way.
We encourage you to check them out at the library, buy them from your local independent bookstore or from Bookshop.org:
My Antonia by Will Cather
Richard Powers’s The Overstory and Playground
Justin Cronin's The Ferryman
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
Judy Bloom
Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire (and the book I read the manuscript of at my very first job in publishing was Merrick)