Episode 18 – Getting Noticed as a Writer

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In this episode we talk about the nature of getting noticed as a writer and what are the best methods of developing a career and income as a writer.

Alan and Dave talk about short fiction sales.

Then we go on to discuss the process of short story writing. What’s involved in making a short story good and how it differs from writing longer fiction.

Alan talks about Cat Sparks, her short fiction success and her transition to novel length work.

http://catsparks.net/

We talk about self-publishing short stories on Kindle as a way of building a broader base of available work.

Alan talks about the Dead Red Heart anthology from Ticonderoga Publications and the joy of being part of something bigger, in the form of an edited anthology.

http://ticonderogapublications.com/tp/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126:dead-red-heart&catid=77:dead-red-heart&Itemid=97

Alan talks about making his short fiction available on his Dark Shorts page after its initial publication.

http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/dark-shorts

Is it better for authors to put as much work out there as possible to get noticed, or work on their profile directly? Lots of work or a lot of online noise? Or both?

Readers expect to know a bit about authors, so an online presence is essential. But an author needs a decent body of work as well.

The sudden, massive success story is not the norm! We mention Amanda Hocking and J A Konrath as examples.

The long tail and how good writing will endure. The legacy income.

Do we devalue our work if we give it away for nothing?

Feel free to comment or email with your thoughts!

Episode 17 – Lost Worlds

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In this episide we talk about Amazon rankings and April Hamilton’s guest blog on Alan’s site - http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/2011/01/03/age-publishing-guest-post-5-april-hamilton.html

We talk about the relationship between Amazon, publishers and indie authors.

Here's Alan’s blog post about Apple’s 30% cut controversy that we mention - http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/2011/02/02/apple-cake-eat.html

Dave talks about small press Seven Realms Publishing signing David Golemon, NYT Bestselling thriller author, for his new horror novel, The Supernaturals.

Dave winds Alan up about the possibility of Tom Cruise starring in the Guillermo Del Toro movie version of H P Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness.

Which leads us to lament all the great films Tom Cruise has spoiled with his presence.

We go on to talking about Lovecraft’s writing and Alan describes the basic premise of At The Mountains Of Madness.

Which leads us to talk about Lost Worlds and their popularity in thrillers and genre fiction.

We give examples of our favourite lost cities from various books and movies and discuss what drives people to write about them and why they are so compelling for readers.

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Episode 16 – The Jeremy Robinson Interview

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http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/

Jeremy talks about his latest book, Threshold - http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/books/threshold-by-jeremy-robinson.html

Jeremy talks about the nature of marketing and why he had to change the Chess Team Adventures to the Jack Sigler Adventures.

We discuss The Last Hunter, Jeremy’s previous book - http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/books/the-last-hunter-by-jeremy-robinson.html

The difference between 1^st and 3^rd person in thriller writing.

We discuss how thrillers blur the lines through straight up action into speculative fiction, and how Jeremy’s books often explore the speculative.

This leads to a discussion of Jeremy’s sci-fi novel, Beaneath, an action-adventure novel on a moon: http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/books/beneath-by-jeremy-robinson.html

Jeremy talks about his journey from self-publishing through his own small press to traditional publishing with St Martin’s Press, and how his various sales are now.

We talk about Jeremy’s efforts marketing and promoting his first self-published book, The Didymus Contingency, and the success it generated.

Jeremy talks about his future projects.

Jeremy wraps it up with his advice for new writers and what’s happening with thrillers.

http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/

Also on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=780504950&ref=ts

and Twitter - @JRobinsonAuthor

Stick around past the credits for a great out-take showing what consummate professionals Alan and David are.

Episode 015 - Writing Fighting and How Not to Fight with Reviewers

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An eclectic ThrillerCast today. We start with talk about fighting.

Alan talks about his new ebook, Write The Fight Right, about writing more realistic and convincing fight scenes.

Alan talks about his background as a martial instructor and fighter.

What’s the thing most often wrong with written fight scenes? Alan talks about the problem with writing a fight scene like a visually choreographed movie fight.

David talks about the problem of misunderstanding martial arts as some kind of magical skill. What’s really real in fighting?

How much is heart and hunger a factor in fighting?

How can we use these things in characterisation with our stories? Motivation and ability.

Streetfighting versus tournament fighting.

When Alan is talking about a great fight scene and he can’t remember which movie it’s from, it’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. The fight is between the Hugh Grant and Colin Firth characters.

You can get Alan’s ebook, Write The Fight Right, now for just $1.99 – all the details here: http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/write-fight

Alan talked about a competition to host a fight writing competition on his blog. That contest is now on and you can enter here to win free books: http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/2011/04/12/written-fight-tournament.html

From here we segue rather clumsily into a discussion about the Jacqueline Howett debacle that occurred recently, where a self-published author responded very poorly to a bad review.

The original meltdown is here: http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html

Dave and Alan discuss what the problem is with responding like this to a review and how an author should respond to any review, good or bad.

Gaiman’s smackdown – the Dunning Kruger effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect

The Adam Christopher/Angry Robot story - http://angryrobotbooks.com/2011/03/welcome-angry-robots-latest-signing-adam-christopher/

New Release: Write the Fight Right by Alan Baxter

ThrillerCast co-host Alan Baxter has releases his Write the Fight Right book. A career martial arts instructor, Alan has used his knowledge of combat to conduct a popular workshop for writers on how to write fight scenes. He shares this knowledge in his new ebook, which you can purchase on Kindle, or in multiple formats on Smashwords.

Episode 14 – Villains

Another long one this week – obviously a subject we enjoyed talking about.

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In further evidence of how far behind we are podcasting some of our previously recorded stuff, we start with Alan talking about Freecon in Sydney.

Then we talk about villains and what makes a good, believable villain.

Do bad guys perceive that they’re bad guys? The Star Wars example.

Be sure to explore your characters’ perceptions of their position and their motivations.

Can your villain justify and/or delude themselves into rationalising their actions?

The Sopranos as an example of villains excellently constructed as characters.

Your villains need to be flawed to be three dimensional, just like protagonists.

It’s easy for villains to operate if they perceive a third party endorsement from government, religion, etc.

The needs of the many and the needs of the few. The Kirk/Spock conundrum.

Can a villain have ethical dilemmas?

Harry Potter examples of villains – Voldemort vs Wormtail.

The problem with stupid bad guys. The convenient distraction or the final monologue.

The bad guys need to be as smart as the good guys to be a real threat.

Alan waxes on about Batman and The Joker.

Episode 13 – The Sean Ellis interview

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We talk to Sean Ellis - http://seanellisthrillers.webs.com/ -  author of the Dodge Dalton series and the Nick Kismet Adventures.

We talk about pulp fiction and golden age adventure stories, what makes a hero in the modern age and that people have moved on from the unstoppable heroes to be more interested in flawed heroes.

We talk about the way political thrillers and the like can age very quickly.

Sean discusses his new novella, The Devil You Know - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/32594

What next for Sean Ellis, including The Adventures of Dodge Dalton, At The Outpost Of Fate and a new series starting with Dark Trinity, contracted by Variance.