Writing Podcast Episode 706: Alex Johnson explores 'When Books Go Bad'

What's more fascinating than reading actual books? Well, it's the weird and bizarre stories behind the stories themselves! At least, that's what journalist and author Alex Johnson hopes with his latest book, When Books Go Bad – exploring some of the strangest and most infamous stories about book writing and publishing experiences through the years. In this episode, Alex shares his love of writing these kinds of 'behind the scenes' industry books and how he ended up with the publishing relationship that has yielded 20 books to date. He also explains how he chooses the stories to go in his books and some of the more surprising entries. 00:00 Welcome 06:11 Writing tip: Associative triggers 11:00 WIN!: Diaries of Note by Shaun Usher 13:02 Word of the week: 'Deuteragonist' 15:12 Writer in residence: Alex Johnson 16:00 Alex explains his latest book, When Books Go Bad 16:55 Why he wrote this book 19:58 Journalistic not academic 21:51 Starting his relationship with the British Library 24:00 Compiling the material for the book 25:09 Authors and their naughty and odd tendencies 28:20 Pitching and publishing books 32:57 The editing process 36:21 Illustrations and book design 38:06 Surprising stories from the book 41:34 Publicity and social media 43:06 Upcoming projects and tips 44:39 A writing tip 46:20 Final thoughts Read the show notes Connect with Valerie and listeners in the podcast community on Facebook Visit WritersCentre.com.au | ValerieKhoo.com

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Writing Podcast Episode 706: Alex Johnson explores 'When Books Go Bad' is an episode from So You Want To Be A Writer with Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait: Australian Writers' Centre podcast by Australian Writers' Centre.

This episode is 48:41 long.

This episode was published on Mar 2, 2026.

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