Long Overdue Newsletter - Fall 2026
I think it's just now hitting me how busy September and October were...
For this newsletter, I recommend checking out the photos and short recap below about an amazing time at Chicago’s Printers Row Lit Fest. And then I have a few updates from the last 8 weeks, some exciting new initiatives, and a few things I've been thinking about. Let's dive in!
Printers Row Lit Fest 2026 -
The First Ever Long Overdue Books Tent
A few days after Lit Fest, I was off to Tecumseh, Michigan, driving a rented pickup truck. That was a first for me. In the last four years, I've now driven a pickup truck, an RV, and a Jeep Wrangler. Not bad for a city kid... whose high school car was a Ford Focus.
Tecumseh, Michigan, is the headquarters of Diggypod. Quick recap: Diggypod is a book printer that I've been using since 2020. Earlier this year came the exciting plot twist: Diggypod's parent company (Everbrook Holdings) acquired Long Overdue Books, which is why you'll see the Diggypod and Long Overdue logos in the photo above. And I went from working on Long Overdue Books on the side to being full time books guy.
Let me tell ya, I was a kid in a candy shop walking into the printing press. Books! Hundreds and hundreds of books. Coming off the presses. Stacks of paper everywhere. And all of this in my home state, two hours south of my hometown. I walked around the floor with this feeling of contentment. I'm working on exactly what I've always wanted to be working on.
A week later, it was off to Atlanta to support Jacqueline Boatwright-Daus, an author who has printed with Diggypod. She was launching a brand new book festival that she built from scratch. Called the Juanderful Book & Culture Experience.
Like driving a pickup truck, this was another new experience for me: a round-trip flight in a total of about 14 hours. McDonald's breakfast at O'Hare airport, 6 AM. Book booth packed in a duffle bag. Arrive. Meet authors and readers. Talked about books. Back on the plane.
Got home, and I think between that trip and everything else in September, and all of those boxes carried up and down stairs, I was exhausted for a week. Maybe two weeks. Ashley was a saint for taking care of the kids on those trips and I've been enjoying some catch-up time this October with Ashley, Caleb, Addison, and Crash.
So here's what I've been thinking about
One thing that was really cool about the tent is we had books published by Long Overdue Books and then another 30 or so titles from self-published authors or authors represented by other small publishers who all printed with Diggypod. This made me rethink my entire approach to the Long Overdue bookstore.
For example, if you go on Netflix, there’s the Netflix originals (Stranger Things, Squid Game, KPop Demon Hunters) and then all of the shows and movies that they are essentially renting from other studios.
Why not do the same in our online bookstore? We'll highlight our published titles year-round, but also have special profiles of other books that fit the Long Overdue criteria -- a book we really like from an author who was working on the idea for a long time. Like this calendar example below from the Book Cellar here in Chicago, we'll start posting a monthly calendar showing featured books, author interviews, and more in-person events like Lit Fest and the Texas Book Festival.
I'm really excited about this idea, because I think we'll bring in more readers as the number of books grows, which will benefit all of the authors. Plus I love the prospect of growing a reading community to pair with our writing community.
But it won't just be on Long Overdue Books dot com. We've also launched a TikTok Shop.
"BookTok" on TikTok has an unbelievable amount of activity, and I'd say it's the most popular books-related audience on all of social media. Go into many bookstores now and they have a section labeled “Recommendations from BookTok.” Anica John and I have launched this TikTok shop as a way to put our authors in front of this crowd and grow their audience.
Cool thing about this, when someone places an order, these books are actually stored in Tecumseh (no longer in the O'Brien living room! Ashley is very happy about this development) and shipped right out of the Diggypod HQ.
I like to think of this all as a David vs. Goliath story. Amazon, obviously, playing the role of Goliath, but here we are, Diggypod and Long Overdue Books, offering a friendly roadmap to go from idea to published book. And a printing solution. A warehouse. Online orders and shipping.
Don't check the score right now, but give us a couple of years and I think we're gonna start closing that gap between us and Amazon. And it will all be supported by a team who loves books and loves seeing authors bring their stories to life.
Next Up: Texas Book Festival in Austin, TX -
Nov. 14 and Nov. 15
Just a table for this one, but for anyone in the area, stop by Tent 1. Look for "Long Overdue Books." Would love to connect in-person.
"Uh oh. I don't have to become a
TikTok dog influencer now... do I?"
-Crash, Team Dog
Best place to keep up with all things Long Overdue Books is a tie between our monthly newsletter and our Instagram page. And now TikTok, too! We've got our TikTok Shop and you can also follow Long Overdue Books, Anica John, and myself (Chris O'Brien).
If you enjoy this newsletter and know someone who might enjoy it as well, let us know, we'll make sure to add them to our subscriber list. We also got back on Facebook recently, you can follow us here.
And check out our website - Long Overdue Books. Long Overdue Books is a community for creating books. It's a place for authors (and soon-to-be-authors), readers, editors, artists, and designers to come together and move their stories from ideas to finished books.
Also, if you have any questions, ideas, stories to tell, you can reach Cal the Librarian at - library@longoverduestories.com
Comments