Podcast Interviews

Weekly interviews with authors, self publishers and others...

SPRT #172 – Writing Fiction with Bob Mayer

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Bob Mayer is a former Green Beret and traditionally published author turned indie. He has a long backlist (and frontlist) that includes military fiction, military science fiction and historical as well as a handful of collaborations with popular romantic comedy author Jennifer Crusie. We talked with Bob about how writing military fiction, co-write with an author from a completely different genre and how to be a self-published author. This was certainly an interesting show!

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SPRT #171 – Pearl Harbor and More: Stories of WWII-December 1941

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On December 7th 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes carried out a devastating surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and changed the face of World War II.

Last month eight authors published the anthology: Pearl Harbor and More: Stories of WWII-December 1941. We invited some of those authors on to talk about writing World War II fiction and the diverse stories they included in the anthology.

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SPRT #170 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 1 December 2016

SPRT #170 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 1 December 2016

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Everyone’s favourite Romance author, Zoe York joined us on the News Roundtable Roundup to discuss:

– Didn’t Amazon do well this Thanksgiving?
– Facebook has been exaggerating the truth…
– Barnes & Noble still exists and they’re trying really hard!
– Vulnerability to WordPress has been fixed
– ZOMG The end is nigh! SPRT to end!

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SPRT #169 – Writing Amidst the Apocalypse

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Unfortunately Bob Mayer was unable to make it this week but we will be rescheduling with him. In the meantime…

The US election results are in, and just in time for NaNoWriMo!

Join us as we talk about how we’re dealing with our writing when all it seems everyone wants to talk about is politics. Does this political controversy bring out a myriad of post-apocalyptic ideas for your next dystopian novel? Or do you find yourself too lost in the aftermath too find the words to even express yourself?

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SPRT #168 – How to write clean and wholesome romance with Susan C Daffron

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Earlier in the year Amazon created a new romance category called: Clean and Wholesome. This was great news for authors of fade-to-black romances as Inspirational Romance was not working for them and they were being overwhelmed in Contemporary Romance genres. This new category helps readers who want the romance and emotion without details of intimate bedroom–kitchen / car / outdoor  / etc–gymnastics to find exactly what they’re looking for. It also means those who do want the details won’t accidentally buy a book without it. But what exactly is this new category and how does one write in it? We asked contemporary romantic comedy author Susan C. Daffron to come on the show and answer our questions.

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SPRT #167 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 3 November 2016

SPRT #167 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 3 November 2016

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Welcome to the Roundtable Roundup, our monthly podcast (first Thursday of the month) where we invite a guest or two to join us live to discuss the previous month’s news and views from the self-publishing and indie industry.

This week Zoe York joined us to discuss:

– Author Earnings: Indie eBook Market Share is down!
– Will the real Stephen King please stand up
– Reedsy launches free publishing courses
– Changes to the Kindle Publishing Guidelines
– Changes to the Amazon pre-order rules

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SPRT #166 – You have been scammed!

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Did that headline catch your attention? Good, that was the plan. No, you haven’t been scammed but a lot of authors have. This episode we talked about a devious way for how an author, such as yourself, can be scammed. You’re probably familiar with some of the more common ways, like: vanity presses wanting all of your money, people pretending to be editors / proofreaders / cover artists and taking all of your money–and perhaps your precious writing!

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SPRT #165 – How to write good crime fiction with Rosanne Dingli

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Crime fiction is not merely about crimes and their detection, or criminals and their motives. This genre is about readers’ fascination with human wrong-doing, what causes it, and how it is solved. Readers are beguiled by criminal intent and the aims to subvert it. They want to read about compelling characters (both perpetrators and the crime-fighters), find out why they do it, how they think and also about their private lives. We wanted to find out how the genre works and how to write it effectively so, we invited crime fiction author Rosanne Dingli to answer our questions

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SPRT #164 – Launching a series with Lindsay Buroker

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In October 2014 Lindsay Buroker dipped her toe into science fiction romance under the pen name Ruby Lionsdrake before returning to her name to publish an eight novel science fiction series. So far she has an impressive 10 series under her belt but what is even more interesting is that each time she launches something new her audience expands in leaps and bounds. So, of course we wanted her (back) on the show to pick her brain about her latest series, Fallen Empire.

Audio available for download or watch on youtube ?

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SPRT #163 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 6 October 2016

SPRT #163 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 6 October 2016

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Welcome to the Roundtable Roundup, our monthly podcast (first Thursday of the month) where we invite a guest or two to join us live to discuss the previous month’s news and views from the self-publishing and indie industry.

We were joined by Supernatural Thriller and Post-Apoc author, John L. Monk and discussed:

– Amazon bans incentivised reviews
– KU page reads missing
– Harlequin Lawsuit finally sorted
– Ellora’s Cave is closing, but…

Audio available for download or watch on youtube 😀

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SPRT #162 – Absurdist fiction, YouTube and teaching future writers with Jessica McHugh

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Jessica McHugh isn’t just an author of speculative, absurdist and young adult fiction. She’s a huge personality who gives of herself online, especially on her YouTube channel the McHughniverse as well as teaching children how to write fiction. Jessica’s hair is also way better than Erica’s!

Audio available for download or watch on youtube 😀

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SPRT #161 – Forming Good Habits and Banishing Negative thoughts as a Writer

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Steve Scott and Barrie Davenport from the Authority Self-Publishing podcast join us this week to help us form good habits and banish those pesky and soul-destroying negative thoughts that we sometimes–often–have as writers. We hope that they can teach us how to declutter our minds of the evil phunk so we can fill it up with what’s important and more helpful to us as indie authors and publishers.

Audio available for download or watch on youtube 😀

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SPRT #160 – Let’s talk Superheroes with author Lucas Flint

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Audio available for download or watch on youtube 😀

Lucas Flint does not exist. Well, not really. He’s the pen name of author Timothy L. Cerepaka. By day Timothy writes fantasy novels but at night his alter-ego writes and publishes Young Adult Superhero fiction. Why did Timothy decide to take on an alias? What inspired him to write superheroes and why YA? Is the combination a market worth writing in? We found out all that and more on this episode!

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SPRT #159 – Justin Sloan: video game writer, novelist and screenwriter

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Audio available for download or watch on youtube 😀

Justin Sloan’s writing credits are a little eclectic. He’s written video games including Game of Thrones and Minecraft. He also writes children’s fantasy and supernatural stories as well as military fantasy. Then there’s the screenplay he wrote that one time. And last, but by no means least, the non fiction series on creative writing–a number of them with an emphasis on military veterans breaking into the creative industries. Obviously the man has a lot to talk about and we’re going to pick that large brain of his on the podcast.

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SPRT #158 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 1 September 2016

SPRT #158 – Roundup of Indie Publishing News and Stuff – 1 September 2016

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Welcome to the Roundtable Roundup, our monthly podcast (first Thursday of the month) where we invite a guest or two to join us live to discuss the previous month’s news and views from the self-publishing and indie industry.

Romance author Zoe York joined us tonight to discuss:

– Penguin Random House still claiming that subscription services are hurting authors
– Joanna Penn’s strategy for getting on a bestseller list
– Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author taken to court by Hachette

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SPRT #157 – Jasmine Walt did it! Her Multi-Author Boxed set made the USAT and NYT Lists and here’s how…

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Audio available for download or watch on youtube ?

It was 30th June when we last talked with New Adult and Fantasy author Jasmine Walt. She told us she was gunning for both the New York Times and the USA Today’s Bestsellers lists and… she did! Her and several other authors in the multi-author boxed set she put together–and then Shadow Born made it on there too!. So of course we asked her to come back on the show and share how. From approaching other authors to bundling them together and setting up a pre-order, right through to finding out the good news.

Not too shabby for an author whose first book was published on Christmas Eve 2015, huh?

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