[Corrected] Full Transcript: The Business of Nonfiction with Hollis Heimbouch
Harper Business publisher Hollis Heimbouch on proposals, positioning, platform, and the realities of nonfiction publishing in 2026.
It’s tough to be a nonfiction author these days. People are overwhelmed with nonfiction content, most of it free, and almost all of it engineered to be as enticing as possible: podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Substack, online courses… not to mention AI models that will instantly answer any question you have. With omnipresent options, and all of our attention spans shrinking like mushrooms in a hot saute pan, what would make someone still want to spend 10 or 15 hours reading a book?
To talk about this new landscape, I sat down with Hollis Heimbouch, publisher of Harper Business and Harper Edge, whose authors include Jim Collins, Chris Voss, Satya Nadella, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Clay Christensen.
During our hour-long Q&A, Hollis spoke candidly about a host of topics, including:
Why nonfiction publishing has become more challenging post-pandemic
The difference between having an audience and having a book-buying audience
What makes editors immediately pay attention to a proposal
How authors should think about platform, publicity, and positioning
What makes an author difficult to work with (and how to avoid it)
Why large advances can sometimes become a liability
The publishing myths she wishes authors would stop believing
Below is the (lightly edited) transcript from our live Author Insider conversation.
