Episodes

Book bans are on the rise across America. With the rise of social media, book publishers are losing their power as the industry gatekeepers. More and more celebrities and influencers are publishing books with ghostwriters. Writing communities are splintering because members are at cross purposes about their mission. An all-new season of the investigative podcast hosted by world-renowned literary critic and publishing insider Bethanne Patrick. Season 2 of Missing Pages premieres on October 23rd.

Colleen Hoover created a book empire through self-publishing, in part due to the power of social media. Is her career a sign of a changing landscape where publishing gatekeepers are losing power while readers are gaining power? We speak with Laura Miller, Books and Culture columnist at Slate, Jim Milliot, Co-Editorial Director at Publishers Weekly, and Jennie Young, an Associate Professor of Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, to find out.

Are fanfiction communities becoming stronger than traditional publishers? In this episode, we’ll look at how fans, publishers, and creators are (or aren’t) working together, examining a fanfiction lawsuit between former fanfic writers Zoey Ellis and Addison Cain. We speak with Elizabeth Minkel, co-host of the Fansplaining podcast. Did we mention the fanfiction is about the highly specific subgenre of... wolfkink?

As an extension of our last episode on the paradigm shifts in the fanfiction community, we take a look at the complicated history of Dungeons and Dragons and how the game’s creators have had a rocky relationship with the game’s fans. We talk to Ben Riggs, author of Slaying the Dragon, about Dungeons and Dragons’ sordid fan history.

With Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House barred from merging, are publishers losing substantial power as gatekeepers to the industry? What is the current state of publishers, and did this decision take into account the readers or the authors?

When it comes to books, America has had the same cultural arguments since its founding. One group perpetually focused on the moral ramifications and societal threats a story poses, while another group argues that questioning morals and societal norms makes for a healthier individual, and democracy. Today, however, local has become national. Historically, what's taught in public schools has been by and large a local issue, not a crusade. But our current moment is impacting people at a grand scale. We talk to SUNY Binghamton professor Adam Laats and historian Gillian Frank to get the full perspective on America’s history of banning books.

In episode 1 of this series, we looked at the history of banned books in America. Today, we look at its current state. Is there more nuance to book censorship than is at the surface? We speak with two people on opposite sides of the spectrum: A parent, who seeks to explain why she wants more control over the stories her children are exposed to, and best selling author Jodi Picoult, who has written many books that have been banned across the country. We also speak with a librarian and a parent in Texas to round out the conversation.

If you listened to our episodes about the rise of book banning, you heard about the efforts around the U.S. to censor books on sexual or racial grounds. However it seems there's a lot more going on than that. One of the guests that we spoke with – NYTs Bestselling author Jodi Picoult – has firsthand experience with book banning. Picoult's book, 19 Minutes, has been banned in school boards across 24 states, and she was kind enough to join us for an interview. While only some of it made it into our episode, we now present the full Jodi Picoult interview.

Bans & Violence: Bonus - Gaby Wood Interview

In this episode of Missing Pages we examine the lucrative culture of non-fiction ghostwriting and all its thorny edges, with a focus on what the elusive and often secretive practice means for a publishing industry ever on the brink of combustion. We talk to ghostwriting veterans like Daniel Paisner, Jon Sternfeld, Daniel Gerstein as well as cookbook author JJ Goode to get insight into how the world of ghostwriting for non-fiction.

We explore what ghostwriting looks like for fiction. For genres like spy novels and fantasy, how does book publishing capitalize on ghostwriters to unlock lucrative IP extensions on streaming? We talk to Jeff Rovin, who has written Tom Clancy novels, and Andrew Crofts, who wrote the memoir Confessions of a Ghostwriter, to get the scoop.

How does a ghostwriter capture the subject’s voice when writing a cookbook? And for the ghostwriters behind the stories, how does ghostwriting cookbooks differ from non-fiction? We talk to JJ Goode, a Brooklyn-based food writer, to get inside the mind of a cookbook ghostwriter.

We’ve been talking a lot about ghost writing, because ghosting – that’s the industry term – is BIG business. This is a bonus episode of our series about ghostwriting. In this episode, you’ll hear from Madeleine Morel who is an agent for ghostwriters and Andrew Crofts, a successful ghostwriter.

We cover the story behind Bad Art Friend. In this episode, we plan to observe how the publishing industry is built on trust and investigate what happens when that trust is broken. We speak with Rebecca Meacham, a fiction writer who wrote about literary theft and its consequences, and Becky Tuch, a former member of the now-infamous Chunky Monkeys writing group.

We take a look at the case of Hache Carrillo, who lied about his ethnicity, and put it in context with his contributions to the communities he worked in. We talk to former colleagues Luis Bayard and Lisa Page, and Bethanne reveals her first-hand experience working with Hache on the board of the PEN Faulkner Foundation.