Holiday Message 2019: On Publishing Books

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: In this year-end Mindscape special, Sean Carroll reflects on the podcast’s successful first full year, highlights favorite episodes that pushed beyond physics, and argues for keeping politics and intellectual exploration in the mix. He also gives a detailed behind-the-scenes account of writing and publishing his book Something Deeply Hidden, emphasizing the role of agents, proposals, advances, editing, publicity, and the long timeline from manuscript to market.

Main Topics: Mindscape’s 2019 growth and editorial goals (Priority: 5/5): Carroll assesses the podcast’s first full calendar year as successful, praises the guests and audience, and sets a goal to become a better interviewer by asking less obvious, more generative questions. Favorite episodes and the value of interdisciplinary topics (Priority: 5/5): He singles out episodes on murder chemistry, news media, ancient mythology, Roman democracy, hell, wine, games, memory palaces, polarization, music, and Shakespeare as examples of the podcast’s broader intellectual scope beyond physics. Politics as a legitimate intellectual subject (Priority: 5/5): Carroll argues that politics should not be treated as contaminating; instead, it should be examined carefully through scholarly and intellectual lenses, even when the topic is emotionally charged. Science and research ambitions for 2020 (Priority: 4/5): He describes a slow year for publishable science output, notes work in cosmology and quantum mechanics, and sets an ambition to expand into statistical mechanics, complexity theory, and causation. Writing Something Deeply Hidden (Priority: 5/5): Carroll explains the book’s structure: quantum mechanics introduction, many-worlds and alternatives, and speculative quantum gravity/emergent spacetime material, while acknowledging the final section is necessarily less settled. How popular books are published (Priority: 5/5): He provides a detailed, practical guide to agents, proposals, publisher negotiations, advances, editing, copyediting, proofreading, blurbs, preorders, and publicity, stressing that publishing is a collaborative but highly selective process. The realities of book marketing and public impact (Priority: 4/5): Carroll discusses bestseller dynamics, preorders, media promotion, bookstore placement, and the emotional payoff of hearing that a book influenced readers, while also noting the inevitability of rejection and short public attention spans.

Key Arguments: The podcast’s best episodes often come from topics outside Carroll’s core physics comfort zone, because experimentation yields more surprising and intellectually rich conversations. Good interviewing requires letting conversations wander enough to discover new ideas, not just hitting obvious questions. Politics should be analyzed, not avoided, because understanding polarization, democracy, and institutions is too important to leave out of intellectual life. A popular nonfiction book is not mainly a solitary act; agents, editors, publishers, marketers, and copy editors all shape whether it exists and how well it succeeds. A strong book proposal matters more than a finished manuscript for trade publishing, and an agent is essential because publishers generally work only through agents. Most nonfiction books are not fact-checked by publishers in the way magazine articles are, so the author bears primary responsibility for accuracy. Preorders and early publicity can materially affect bestseller performance and bookstore visibility, making timing and promotional strategy crucial. Carroll’s scientific future goal is to broaden his research beyond his established areas, even though doing so is riskier and can lead to mistakes.

Data Points: Podcast year: 2019 was the first full calendar year of the Mindscape podcast - Carroll frames the episode as a year-end reflection on the show’s second year of existence and first complete calendar year Book publication year: Something Deeply Hidden was the big personal news of 2019 - He identifies the book as the main life event for that year Planned podcast downtime: A couple of weeks off for the holidays - Carroll explains the show’s annual holiday schedule Typical book length: Roughly 80,000 to 100,000 words - He describes the standard size of his popular science books Longer book length: Closer to 150,000 words - He says From Eternity to Here and The Big Picture were his bigger books Advance size: Five-figure advance for a regular first-time author - He gives a rough range and notes exact advances vary widely Book production time: Between 1 and 2 years to write - He describes the writing timeline for a book-length project Post-submission lag: Roughly another year from hand-in to print - He explains the publication pipeline after manuscript delivery Book sales milestone: New York Times bestseller for one week - He notes Something Deeply Hidden briefly appeared at the bottom of the list Hollywood comparison sample: $100 million vs. $1 million movies - He references prior research on movie economics to contrast with publishing

Pivotal Quotes: "I think I have to breathe a little bit and let it be okay to have a conversation that just rolls wherever it goes." — Sean Carroll: On becoming a better podcast interviewer and moving beyond obvious questions "I think that politics is just absolutely crucial to everything." — Sean Carroll: On why political topics and their intellectual foundations should not be avoided on the podcast "The most, most, most important thing you need if you want to write a popular book is you need an agent." — Sean Carroll: On the publishing process and why intermediary representation is essential

Implications: Listeners get a clear view of how Mindscape will broaden intellectually, while aspiring authors gain a realistic roadmap for publishing. The episode also reinforces Carroll’s view that serious inquiry should embrace politics, uncertainty, and interdisciplinary questions.