S5 Ep. 28: The Prose Version of That Blue Steel Look From Zoolander: V.V. Ganeshananthan Dishes on Blurbs, Jacket Copy, Cover Art, and All the Dark Arts of Publishing a Book

fiction/non/fiction

Novelist and Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan talks to co-host Whitney Terrell about what happens to a book between writing and publication. Ganeshananthan’s second novel, Brotherless Night, about a young woman in the early years of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, will be released by Random House in January of 2023. Ganeshananthan describes the editorial process, selecting and approaching other writers about writing blurbs, selecting jacket art, and writing cover copy.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

V.V. Ganeshananthan

• Brotherless Night
• Love Marriage

Others:

• Celeste Ng
• Sara Nović
• Brit Bennett
• Danielle Evans
• Marilynne Robinson
• Ann Patchett
• Emily Barton
• Jonathan Escoffery
• Thomas Pynchon
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan
• Granta
• New York Observer
• “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
• The Land Before Time
• Reese Witherspoon Book Club
• Zoolander
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• “Writers, Protect Your Inner Life,” by Lan Samantha Chang, Literary Hub, August 7, 2017

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