Publish & Prosper

Publish & Prosper is Lulu's podcast covering the intersection of book publishing, ecommerce, and direct-to-consumer sales. Produced by Lulu.com and active since 2023, it's one of the few author podcasts focused specifically on what happens when authors stop relying on Amazon as their sole retail channel and build their own sales infrastructure.

Matt Briel (VP Marketing & Communications at Lulu, 15+ years in publishing) and Lauren Vassallo (content strategist, former Lulu social media manager) host the show. Briel brings a publishing platform perspective — operational knowledge of print-on-demand, bulk printing, and book distribution that most author podcasts don't have access to. Vassallo anchors episodes in practical content marketing and community-building for authors.

What You Get#

• Direct sales mechanics: How to build and run an author storefront on Shopify, Payhip, WooCommerce, or Lulu's own checkout — from setup through conversion optimization
• Ecommerce fundamentals: Email list integration, customer lifetime value, bundle pricing, signed editions, and the operational logistics of fulfilling direct orders
• Platform technology: Unlike most author podcasts, Publish & Prosper regularly covers publishing APIs, print-on-demand fulfillment, and tools for scaling book operations beyond manual processes
• Author business models: Episodes cover subscriptions, books as lead magnets, bulk printing for speakers and coaches, and the content entrepreneur framework
• 120 episodes: Consistent weekly output since 2023 with a focused scope; latest episode "Marketing Your Book to Humans by Optimizing for Robots" published May 13, 2026

Who It's For#

• Authors building direct storefronts: The specialized ecommerce content here doesn't exist at scale anywhere else in author podcasting — if you're exploring Shopify, Payhip, or Lulu storefront, this is the primary audio resource
• Non-fiction authors and content entrepreneurs: Speakers, coaches, and creators who use books as business tools will find the direct sales and lead-gen angle highly relevant
• Lulu users: Authors publishing through Lulu get platform-specific tips, early notice of feature updates, and use cases grounded in actual Lulu data

Pricing: Free. Available on Apple Podcasts (4.6/5, 21 ratings), Spotify, Amazon Music, and the Publish & Prosper website.

Strengths#

• Unique niche: Direct-to-consumer ecommerce for authors is significantly underserved in podcast content — Publish & Prosper occupies this niche with focused, consistent coverage that has no direct equivalent
• Platform insider access: Briel's role at Lulu means episodes can reference internal platform data, distribution trends, and product context that external hosts couldn't provide
• Practical co-host dynamic: Briel and Vassallo approach episodes from different angles (strategic vs. tactical), which produces more rounded coverage than single-host shows

Limitations#

• Lulu-sponsored perspective: The show is produced by Lulu and will not criticize Lulu products or recommend competing print-on-demand platforms (e.g., IngramSpark, Bookvault) even where they might better serve a specific author's needs
• Smaller audience: With 21 ratings on Apple Podcasts versus thousands for larger shows, the listener community is smaller — fewer author communities discuss specific episodes or build on the content
• Direct-sales assumption: Authors exclusively publishing on Amazon KDP with no interest in direct sales channels will find most episodes outside their immediate use case

Alternatives#

The Self Publishing Show (James Blatch & Cissy Mecca) covers the broader paid advertising approach to scaling book sales. For Amazon-specific distribution strategy, The Sell More Books Show covers that channel in more depth.