Episode128
Q&A Episode – March 2022
In this monthly q & a session, the guys answer listener questions.
J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned CARRIE on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and famously wrote the Toys “R” Us theme song long before becoming an author.
Join New York Times best-seller, J.D. Barker, and indie powerhouses J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon as they pull back the curtain on some of the world’s most prolific authors. Where did they start? What is their process? The biggest names in publishing all have origin stories, all have a process, all have tips and secrets… What does it take to consistently top the bestseller lists? Get your notepad out. School’s in session. This, is Writers, Ink.
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Questions asked:
- Probably one for JD; Do you think it is easier to sell a completed manuscript or screenplay assuming the same quality and all other things being equal?
- What are the arguments you check when deciding to pitch to a publisher versus publishing yourself?
- Curiosity question: Are you writing in silence or do you listen to music or sounds? If you listen to something, is it the same all the time or do you vary? And what are you listening to?
- How do you choose the right editor?
- How do you decide your WIP is done and ready to publish?
- How does a new author determine who their target reader is?
- If you provide author services and run an author business, as well as author books, what is a good ratio of time spent on either endeavor?
- For Zach: You’ve mentioned that the past two or three years have been your most successful. What are you doing to reach readers? How many books do you have out now?
- What are the best first steps for a FT indie author looking to branch out into the trad-pub world? What are the things that traditional publishers would be looking at in terms of platform and prior sales?
Links:
J. D. Barker – http://jdbarker.com/
J. Thorn – https://theauthorlife.com/
Zach Bohannon – https://zachbohannon.com/
Proudly sponsored by Kobo Writing Life – https://kobowritinglife.com/
Music by Nicorus – https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep
Voice Over by Rick Ganley – http://www.nhpr.com and recorded at Mill Pond Studio – http://www.millpondstudio.com
Contact – https://writersinkpodcast.com/dev/contact/
*Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links.
Christopher Wills
3 years ago
Interesting questions today. I prefer to write in silence. I am lucky to be home alone most days in a housing estate in a field with the only noises being the march of the yummy mummies taking their kids to and from primary school and the roar of Amazon and DHL delivery vans racing around the estate.
Couple of good takeaways today:
Write the best manuscript one possibly can. Quality wins.
The slow build. Although the media loves the story of an unknown becoming an overnight star, the real story is usually years of failure, heartbreak and hard work. But nobody wants to hear that these days and everyone is looking for the ‘one thing’ they can use as a shortcut to success. News just in, there ain’t one, so knuckle down and do the hard work, like Zach is clearly doing. I am impressed Zach, well done.
OMG, I just complemented Zach. I must be ill.
J. Thorn
3 years ago
Complementing Zach = First sign of the apocalypse.
Chad Boyer
3 years ago
It is funny how we assume that anyone making it these days are overnight successes.
All three of you put in lots of work over the years to be a success. It never is overnight. JD says he caught lightning in a bottle on his first release but he put in the work fixing other’s manuscripts before he made one on his own.
Zack is over there cranking out books.
J…well I am sure J does something besides podcast and create a great community.
But the common thread is you have to put work in the trenches before any kind of success happens.
Thanks for another great episode guys.
J. Thorn
3 years ago
Nope. Podcast and community. Pretty much it. LOL!