Hi, my name is John August.

If you Google me, you'll see I'm mostly a screenwriter.

I wrote Big Fish and a bunch of other movies.

Two years ago, I started writing a novel.

It was something I'd never done before and knew almost nothing about.

At the same time, I started recording interviews with authors and agents and publishers,

and everybody remotely connected to this book I was writing.

I didn't know exactly what I'd do with all those interviews, but I had questions,

and I figured I might as well get the answers on tape.

Now my book is coming out.

Two weeks from today, you'll be able to buy it in stores.

This podcast is about how that book got there, how I wrote it, how I sold it, and how publishing

works, not just as a business, but literally how books are printed and shipped. We'll be talking

about success and failure, school librarians, book tours, typefaces,

and how the shadow of Harry Potter looms over everything.

As I'm recording this, I know how it all begins, but I don't know how it ends.

Will my book get good reviews? Will it sell?

Did I make the right choices along the way?

You'll find out when I do. From Wondery, this is Launch, a podcast about making new things.

See, I've never made this kind of podcast, the kind with audio clips and music and ads.

For the last six years,

I've hosted a weekly podcast about screenwriting called Script Notes. One of the recurring bits is that my co-host Craig hates podcasts. As you know, I listen to exactly zero podcasts, including this one.

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