E.34 Do Something with Miranda West, Founder of The Do Book Company

In this episode, I’m joined by Miranda West, publisher and founder of the Do Book Company and the person responsible for turning the world’s doers into authors.

Miranda spent nearly three decades in publishing before a family move to Switzerland, a rabbit hole online and an email to a small festival in West Wales led her to start something entirely her own. Since 2013, the Do Book Company has built a collection of over 50 compact, practical guides - from sourdough to knife sharpening, improvisation to loss - stocked everywhere from independent bookshops to the Tate.

Together we explore:

• How a cold email to the DO Lectures became a publishing partnership

• The alchemy of commissioning - why some incredible talks will never become Do Books and a guide to knife sharpening sold out by Christmas.

• Handing full creative control to designer James Victoria and why those white covers became iconic.

• Do Pause, the book that found its moment twice: first on publication, then again when the entire world came to a stop.

• Miranda’s take on AI, where she draws a firm line and why she thinks transparency is the only way through.

• The new series she’s exploring - practical guides for teenagers, written for them to buy themselves.

Miranda also walks us through what’s coming next from the Do Book Company including Do Loss, Do Blue and Do Curate by DO Lectures co-founder Claire Hieatt and a beautifully witchy October release on ancient wisdom and folklore. 

You can explore the full collection at thedobook.co and find the DO Lectures at thedolectures.com.