The Pulp Writer Show

Jonathan Moeller
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Hosted by Jonathan Moeller (author of the FROSTBORN and SEVENFOLD SWORD fantasy series and the SILENT ORDER scifi series), the Pulp Writer Show discusses how to write, format, publish, and sell your novel. Sometimes there are jokes.

  1. 5d ago

    Episode 320: How I Learned To Write Fast

    In this week's episode, I take a look back over the last fifteen years and recount how I learned to write quickly. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Stone, Book #5 in the The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: FALLSTONE The coupon code is valid through September 28, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 320 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September 11th, 2026, and today I'm discussing how I learned to write fast. Before we get to all that, we will have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Stone, Book #5 in The Ghosts series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLSTONE. As always, we will include the links and the coupon code in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through September 28th, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this fall, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. For Blade of Visions, which is my main project right now, the rough draft is done, the first editing pass is done, and I'm hoping to start on the second editing pass as soon as I finish recording this episode. So if all goes well and nothing unexpected happens, I very much hope that the book will be out a week from when this episode goes live. So a week from whenever you listen to this, check your favorite ebook store and hopefully Blade of Visions will be there. And of course you can always listen to this podcast and watch my website and social media for other announcements. My secondary project is Elven-Warlock, the seventh book in the Rivah Half-Elven series. I am currently 16,000 words into that. As soon as Blade of Visions is published, Elven-Warlock will then be my new main project and if all goes well, I hope to have that out in October sometime. In audiobook news, as I mentioned last week, Blade of Thieves and Cloak of Worlds should now be available at all the different audiobook stores. Hollis McCarthy is currently recording Cloak of Summoning and we should have some updates on that soon. In a bit of exciting audiobook news from that or related to that, I should mention that Hollis McCarthy was announced as a finalist for Narrator of Distinction for the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association for her work on Cloak of Embers, which was Cloak Mage #10. So if you get a chance, be sure to congratulate Hollis for that if you hang out on my social media pages. So that's where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. 00:02:25 How I Learned to Write Fast Now let's move on to my main topic, how I learn to write fast. Occasionally I will see a new indie author looking with dismay at how much time it takes to write and expressing the opinion that it must be impossible to write a million words a year without the aid of generative AI. Ha, no. I should point out that I wrote a million words in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 and back then the current AI tech bros were still searching for the big scam that would one day make them rich. They tried crypto and NFTs in the interim. ChatGPT would not be inflicted upon the world until the end of 2022. Admittedly, I didn't write a million new words in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but that was from a combination of personal issues taking up time and illness. I still hit between 800,000 and 900,000 in those three years. In 2024 and 2025, I wrote a million new words. I might or might not hit a million new words in 2026, and it largely depends on how the rest of the year goes. I had to take a lot of time off in spring and summer, and that really slowed me down. I did hit 700,000 words once Blade of Visions was done, so we'll see what happens the remaining four months of the year. But yes, if you're writing full-time, a million words in a year is certainly achievable, though as with all things it takes practice and can be subject to events. With that in mind, I thought I would explain how I was able over time to ramp up to writing a million new words in a year. It was less something I set out consciously to do when I started this in 2011 and more a step-by-step evolutionary process that took several years. By the grace of God, I have been indie publishing for almost 15 and a half years now. So here's the process of how I ended up writing a million words in a year. #1: Tech Writing Back in the second half of the 2000s, I used to do a lot of tech blogging, mostly about Linux, and I also did tech support, which frequently involved writing FAQs and guides for how to connect your Blackberry or Windows Mobile device to the company email or whatever. In retrospect, Blackberry and Windows Mobile were both terrible operating systems, so it's not surprising the iPhone and later Android blew them out of the water. Anyway, tech blogging taught me the value of writing quickly. Back then, you could still make money off Google AdSense, and so if I could write quickly on a tech topic, I could post it, get Google traffic, and then make a little bit of money from Google Ads. Writing FAQs and guides also taught me the value of writing as concisely and as clearly as possible. President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said of public speaking that the best approach to public speaking was "be sincere, be brief, be seated", and that's also true of technical guides. Back then, I was working on novels as well, specifically what would end up becoming the first three Caina books, but I never wrote more than a thousand words a day of fiction unless I was bored or I was really inspired, neither of which happened all that often. #2: Soul of Serpents By the end of 2010, I had sworn off trying to get traditionally published and decided to focus on tech blogging, but then I got my first Kindle after Thanksgiving in 2010, and I realized there had to be a way to make money off this thing. This led me to discovering Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and the other early self-publishing platforms. I published Demonsouled, Soul of Tyrants, and the first three Caina books, and then I decided I'd write one more Demonsouled book to finish off the story. It always annoyed me to no end that I'd never gotten to write a sequel to Soul of Tyrants, but now that the opportunity was here, I decided that I would have a Demonsouled trilogy and Soul of Serpents would be the last novel I would ever write, which goes to show I may not be that great at telling the future. Soul of Serpents was the first book I ever wrote specifically intended for self-publishing instead of submitting it to legacy publishers. I wrote it over the summer of 2011, and I figured if I wrote 1,500 words a day, I could get the rough draft of the book done by the end of the summer, which I did, and I ended up publishing it at the end of August of that month. That was also why I made Demonsouled and Child of the Ghosts free for the first time, which meant that their sequels started to sell a little bit. I was actually beginning to make a little bit of money off my novels for the first time in my life, which was very exciting. It also meant that I wanted to continue the Demonsouled series past the third book, which leads us to the next phase of our story. #3: Soul of Dragons In the second half of 2011, I was extremely busy. I had a full-time job and I had a part-time job that required a lot of off-the-clock preparation. Despite that, I was determined to write Soul of Dragons, so I pushed onward when I could. This was when I began writing during my lunch break for the first time, but I often didn't get to my 1,500 words a day during lunch. So by the time I got home at the end of the day, which was frequently between 9:00 and 10:00 PM, I would frequently squeeze in my remaining words (sometimes all my words), before I went to sleep, only to wake up at 5:45 AM to go to the gym. This level of workload, as you can imagine, was absolutely exhausting, and I don't recommend it, but I still did it. I think it was necessary to learn to write a novel under a state of extreme strain since that was good practice for the 160 books that would follow Soul of Dragons. If I wrote only when I was perfectly calm and there was nothing else demanding my time or attention, I would never get any writing done at all. I really hate to give career advice to younger people since so much of the advice they receive these days is obsolete at best and malicious and condescending at worst. In economic terms, 2026 might well be another planet compared to 1976 or 2000, but sometimes in life you really do have to put in a maximum effort over a sustained amount of time (even if it's approaching midnight, you have to get up in five hours, and you still have 500 words to go before you can sleep). That said, if at all possible, I would advise only putting in that kind of effort if you're working for yourself and not for an employer that will lay you off the instant the stock price dips slightly. It took a while, but I did it. Soul of Dragons came out in February of 2012 and sold pretty well. By this time, the books were selling well enough that while I didn't want to go full-time, they were providing a nice cushion against the unexpected vagaries of life. My full-time employer was also heading towards trouble, so I decided to keep writing. #4: Ghost in the Storm My next book in early 2012 after finishing Soul of Dragons was Ghost in the Storm. Like with Demonsouled and Soul of Tyrants, I was always disappointed that I never got to continue Caina's story past the end of Ghost in the Blood, and so I was excited to start Ghost in the Storm. Little

  2. Sep 7

    Episode 319: Summer 2026 Movie Roundup

    In this week's episode, I take a look back at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Summer 2026 and rate them. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store: FALLARMOR The coupon code is valid through September 21, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 319 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 4th, 2026, and today I'm looking back at the movies and streaming shows I watched over Summer 2026. We will also have Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLARMOR. As always, you can get the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through September 21st, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report that the rough draft of Blade of Visions is done. It came to 99,000 words. It'd be kind of cool if it came to 100,000, but as I've learned in the 15 years I've been doing this, it's not a good idea to pad things for length. Editing is underway. I'm about 15% through the first pass of edits. I'm working on the cover design, so I'm on good track to have the book out before the end of the month. I also wrote a tie-in short story called Winter Crown and don't forget that [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of that short story when Blade of Visions comes out later this month. So this makes a very excellent time to subscribe to my new release newsletter. I am also 12,000 words into Elven-Warlock, which will be the seventh book in the Half-Elven Thief series. Hopefully that will be out in October, if all goes well. In audiobook news, I think Blade of Thieves (as narrated by Brad Wills) and Cloak of Worlds (as narrated by Hollis McCarthy) are now finally available at all the usual audiobook stores, which includes Audible, Apple, Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, Chirp, and all the others. So if you want to listen to those if you are going on a Labor Day road trip, you can check those out. A reminder that Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy (narrated by C.J. McAllister) is also available on Audible, so check that out. That's 32 hours long and that would also cover all your Labor Day travels. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:22 Main Topic of the Week: Summer 2026 Movie Roundup So let's move on to our main topic this week. Our main topic this week is the Summer 2026 Movie Roundup and I always enjoy doing those. These episodes are a little less serious than some of the other episodes and it's fun to talk about things I enjoyed and that you might enjoy as well. And I did see a lot of new movies this summer. In fact, I went to the actual theater four times for Masters of the Universe, The Odyssey, Spider-Man, and Coyote vs. Acme, which is probably more than I've gone in a single season since before COVID times. So as usual, here are the movies I saw this summer (rated from least favorite to most favorite). The grades are totally subjective and based on nothing but my own thoughts and opinions. First up is The Breadwinner, which came out in 2026. This is basically standup comedian Nate Bargatze's act come to life as a movie. If you've seen Bargatze's standup, his usual routine is to portray himself as the dumb husband and bumbling Girl Dad, which is actually quite clever from a comedic standpoint since you're unlikely to have outraged mobs calling for your head if all you're doing is making fun of yourself. Anyway, Bargatze portrays Nate Wilcox, the best Toyota salesman in Nashville. (Don't worry, this is the first of only many product placement moments.) He lets his wife Kate manage the household and do the bulk of the work with their three daughters. When Kate's invention takes off on Shark Tank, she has to go to South Korea for two weeks to oversee manufacturing, leaving Nate in charge of the kids. Comedic chaos ensues. On the positive side of this movie, I did approve how this movie showed a married couple trying to work through a rough patch and do what's right for their kids and each other in a semi-productive way rather than blowing up their lives over nonsensical trivialities in the style of Eat, Pray, Love. On the downside, there was a lot of product placement, to the point where it at times felt like an extended commercial with bits of plot jammed in between product endorsement. No doubt most of the production budget came from product placement money. Will Forte was funny as an eccentric roofing contractor and Martin Herlihy as a shifty DoorDash employee. Kumail Nanjiani was funny as Nate's rival salesman at the car dealership. So overall, I would say this was blandly amusing and inoffensive with some funny slapstick moments. Overall grade: C- Next up is Supergirl, which came out in 2026. This movie really was sort of a strange combination of John Wick and the human trafficking subplot from 2020's Black Widow. The end result wasn't quite as good as Superman from 2025, alas. I did like this movie's interpretation of Supergirl. Kara Zor-El's departure from Krypton was way more traumatic than Superman's, so she's dealing with her unresolved emotional issues by traveling from planet to planet with red suns and getting hammered since the same yellow sun that gives Kryptonians their superpowers on Earth also keeps them from getting drunk because their bodies process alcohol too efficiently. However, Kara comes to a planet where a girl named Ruthye lives. Ruthye's family has been slaughtered by ruthless brigands yet led by Krem of the Yellow Hills and she's going on a quest for revenge. When Ruthye tries to recruit Kara for the quest, she's not interested, but then Krem steals Kara's spaceship and poisons her dog Krypto. Krem carries the antidote on his person, so now Kara and Ruthye team up to get vengeance on Krem and to heal Krypto. Krem is a nasty piece of work and he and his space gang travel from planet to planet abducting women to be their wives. I think the problem was that Krem was kind of a boring but nasty villain, but he was still boring. He was basically a space thug with too many piercings. Lex Luthor from 2025 Superman, by contrast, was a really interesting villain, this malignant narcissist who knows that his obsession with Superman is over the top, but he's going to act on it anyway. Additionally, I don't think this version of Supergirl is quite capable of being a lead character on her own. She'd make a superb secondary character, but I don't think she could quite carry a movie on her own. And Jason Momoa was pretty good as Lobo. Overall grade: C- Next up is Troy, which came out in 2004. I wanted to see this either before or after I watched The Odyssey this summer and ended up watching it the day before I went to see The Odyssey. I would say this movie was slow and ponderous, but I did enjoy watching it. This is an adaption of The Iliad and has the sort of slow stateliness of epic films from the '60s. It had good performances and good battle scenes. Brian Cox was enjoyable as a scenery chewing Agamemnon and Brad Pitt worked as Achilles. Interestingly, his version of Achilles reminded me of the interpretation of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen from Dune 2 as sort of a violent psychopath with his own twisted sense of honor. Oddly, despite the fact that this was rather a long movie, the ending seems a bit rushed, like we needed to hurry up and get to the Trojan Horse. It was amusing how Achilles' relationship with Patroclus was changed to "cousin" for the modern audience, but Greek views on sexuality would definitely be unpalatable with both right-wing and left-wing versions of the modern mind, which is a good thing because while the Greeks contributed a great deal to the development of civilization, they were into a lot of unsavory stuff. So overall, I would say this was a fun, epic movie, but I think this walked so the 2026 version of The Odyssey could run. Amusing fact: Christopher Nolan was apparently supposed to direct this, but the deal fell through and he got Batman Begins as a consolation prize instead. Overall grade: B- Next up is The Dink, which came out in 2026. This is an Apple TV comedy movie about pickleball of all things. I feel like this was made because some Apple executive got made fun of by some tennis players for playing pickleball and then decided to take revenge through media. Jake Johnson plays Dustin Boyd, a washed up former child tennis star who now works at his father's tennis club. The club has difficulties because of a growing influx of pickleball players who the hardcore tennis players hate. Dustin's father decides to use the club's bylaws to force a duel match to decide the issue, in the grand tradition of wacky comedy stakes. Dustin really wants to play the duel match, but his wrist is injured in an accident. To get his wrist mobility back, the doctor suggested he play some pickleball and Dustin views this as beneath him, but he really wants to play again, so he signs up for pickleball. This ends up being a wacky sports company/buddy movie as Dustin gradually befriends an eccentric older pickleball player. Ed Harris should really do more comedic roles. He was great as Dustin's stern, yet unscrupulous father. I do admire Apple TV's dedication to making random stuff. Overall grade: B- Next up is Green and Gold, which came out in 2025, and this is a melodrama about a farmer and his granddaughter dealing with the grim economic realities of farming. This is set in 19

  3. Aug 31

    Episode 318: Another Bonus Short Story!

    In this week's episode, I ran out of time to record a full-length episode, so instead I am sharing THE FINAL SHIELD, written by Jonathan Moeller and narrated by Brad Wills. Enjoy! This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of  Ghost in the Storm, Book #4 in the The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: SUMMERSTORM The coupon code is valid through September 14, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we've got you covered!

  4. Aug 24

    Episode 317: Advantages Of Ebook Box Sets

    In this week's episode, I take a look at ebook box sets and the advantages they offer both writers and readers. I also explain why I haven't done an ad update post in a while. Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week! This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Night series at my Payhip store: SUMMERNIGHT The coupon code is valid through September 7, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction, Writing Updates, and a Reader Question Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 317 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August the 21st, 2026 and today we are going to talk about advantages to using box sets. We'll also have a brief discussion on why I haven't posted an ad update in a while, and we'll have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. Before we get to all that, let's start with Coupon of the Week. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Night series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is SUMMERNIGHT. As always, the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through September the 7th, 2026. So if you need a new ebook for the summer, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. As of this recording, I am 56,000 words into Blade of Visions, which I think puts me roughly somewhere in the neighborhood of about halfway through. I think the rough draft is going to end up being about 105 to 110,000 words when I get there, but we will find out. I'm also 5,000 words into Elven-Warlock, the next book in the Rivah Half-Elven Thief series. In audiobook news, recording on Blade of Thieves and recording on Cloak of Worlds is finished. As of right now, you can get Cloak of Worlds at my Payhip store, but both Cloak of Worlds and Blade of Thieves should be available on Payhip and all the other audiobook stores before too much longer (once processing is done). So if you're looking for a new audiobook to listen to this summer, we will have ones for you very soon with Cloak of Worlds narrated by Hollis McCarthy and Blade of Thieves narrated by Brad Wills. So before we get to our main topic of box sets, let's answer a reader question, which is why I haven't done monthly ad post results for a while. The reason for that is it started in October of 2025 and [I] mostly stopped using Facebook ads. Facebook ads became drastically less effective as Meta added more and more badly designed AI targeting features to the ad platform. Now, why is this a bad thing? Am I refusing to use Facebook ads because of my frequently stated dislike of generative AI? No. The reason is that the AI targeting doesn't work nearly as well as the old system and ends up being a waste of money because the AI targeting is too broad and too random. This is bad because the key to successful online advertising is to narrow your audience as much as possible. What do I mean by this? Perhaps this example will help. Let's say, for example, you sell motorcycle parts online. Obviously when purchasing motorcycle parts, you need to match up with the exact model and year, otherwise you're going to run in trouble. Say you are selling a lot of parts for the Harley-Davidson V-Rod Muscle motorcycle model from 2009 and you want to sell them online to your customers. The best way to do that would be to target your ads as specifically as possible. In the US at least, motorcycle owners tend to be a bit older and wealthier and are more likely than not male. So you'd want to target your ads to men 60 and older who have expressed interest in Harley Davidson motorcycles and potentially in that specific model from 2009. Facebook used to let you target audiences to that level of granularity. However, in the last few years, Meta has jumped on the generative AI bandwagon along with nearly every other large technology corporation. It's followed the same trajectory as every other company that has used AI. The CEO gets a brainwave that AI is the inevitable future and doesn't want to be left behind. Employees are told to implement as many AI features as possible and to use AI for everything. That inevitably becomes part of the key performance indicators on their performance reviews, so the employees dutifully stuff badly designed AI features into everything in hopes of keeping their jobs the next time the stock price drops slightly. If you've wondered why AI nonsense seems to be stuffed into everything these days, that is why. Gradually, Facebook has eliminated the ability for granular targeting like I've discussed above in favor of their Advantage AI system, which does the targeting for you. There are two major problems with this. First, Advantage is a black box. You don't really see how it works and it isn't well documented anywhere online. Second, the targeting is way too broad. Advantage is really good at getting a lot of clicks on your ad, but this is the important part: the clicks on the ads don't usually convert to sales. Which is better: an ad that gets 10 clicks but results in five sales or an ad that gets 50 clicks and converts to one sale? From Facebook's point of view, the second is better, but it's not better for the advertiser. To return to the motorcycle parts example, say you're trying to sell those Harley-Davidson V-Rod Muscle 2009 parts and you try to run an ad with Advantage doing the targeting. You can't specifically target male or male motorcycle or Harley owners over the age of 60. No, you have to mention motorcycle and Harley parts in the ad text and hope that the system steers it correctly. What will happen is that the Advantage system will show the ad to a bunch of people who have no interest in Harley parts. Honda motorcycle owners will see it, as well Yamaha owners and probably people who own mopeds and e-bikes as well. Now, admittedly, in certain situations, this could work. Let's say you have a giant warehouse of motorcycle parts, which includes Honda and Yamaha parts, so there could be some overlap. If you have a big enough inventory of motorcycle parts, a broad targeting reach might work. The trouble is that books are very, very specific products and targeting ads outside of genre lines never works. Like if you're writing dark fantasy romance and the system shows your ad to someone who only reads World War II historical novels, it's not going to work at best and at worst, the reader will become annoyed and leave you a bad review. Even for someone like me who has 160 fantasy novels and a bunch of sci-fi novels, it wouldn't work. I could try advertising to fantasy novels, but Child of the Ghosts, Frostborn: The Gray Knight, Cloak of Dragons, and Stealth & Spells Online: Creation are all very different books in very different subgenres of fantasy. So I have in essence, a giant warehouse of books, but books are specific enough that trying to use Facebook Advantage to advertise them doesn't work. So now I don't really use Facebook ads. I did try again in June to boost Half-Elven Thief Omnibus One before its BookBub deal, and the results from the Facebook ads were in the bottom half of mediocre at best and outright useless at worst. The BookBub Feature Deal itself by contrast was excellent. When I have a new book out and I do the "I published a book" post on Facebook, I'll use the boost pull function, which shows it to more people based on my audience, which does increase engagement and isn't too expensive. But for the most part, I don't really use Facebook ads anywhere near as extensively as I used to. That said, I do a lot of BookBub and Amazon ads, way more than I did before Facebook ads became unusable. I'll typically run about 20 to 24 short BookBub campaigns a month advertising my permafree books on the non-Amazon stores. While I am not sure of the exact number, I think I have something like 550 Amazon ad campaigns running across about 35 different titles on Amazon. Fear not, this is less expensive than it sounds. I haven't posted much about it because it's a ton of data and I haven't figured out a way to do so in a concise and pithy way that isn't overwhelming or a giant wall of math and text. That said, there should be a way to do it, at least for the Amazon ads. Generally, Amazon ads are way more effective with Kindle Unlimited books and nonfiction, and BookBub ads are very effective for the non-Amazon stores, especially for permafree books like Frostborn: The Gray Knight and Child of the Ghosts. So that is why I haven't done an ad review roundup post in a while. Once I work out a good way to present the information with Amazon and BookBub ad data, I will probably start posting them again. 00:07:30 Main Topic: Ebook Box Sets [All prices referenced are in US Dollars] Now let's move on to our main topic this week, ebook box sets and why they're a good thing for both authors and readers. I will talk about four advantages of making an ebook box set, and then four things you should consider if you're interested in making them for your ebook series. An omnibus edition or a box set is a collection of several books in one series. They need to be books in the same series. It's not a sample of various books by one author or a collection of several books with a similar theme by different authors, which are common, especially in romance, but that's not what we're going to be talking about in this episode. For example, my Frostborn Omnibus One collection includes the first three books in my Frostborn series, and The Ghosts Omnibus One includes the first three books in The Ghosts series and a bonus short story as well. Before we get started, a note on the terminology. Although the term box set or ebook set means something much broader than omnibus edition, I will use ebook sets and omnibus editions interchangeably throughout this episode, mostly

  5. Aug 17

    Episode 316: Common Scams Targeting Indie Writers

    In this week's episode, we take a look at some of the common scams targeting indie authors and offer tips on how to detect and avoid them. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Blood, Book #3 in The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: CAINASUMMER The coupon code is valid through August 31, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 316 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August the 14th, 2026, and today we are discussing common scams targeting indie writers. We also have a Coupon of the Week and a update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Blood, Book #3 in The Ghosts series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store. That code is CAINASUMMER. As always, the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through August the 31st, 2026, so if you need a new audiobook for this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's head on to a progress update. As I mentioned last week, Cloak of Frost is done and it's published and you get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my own Payhip Store. It is doing quite well. Thank you all for that, and people seem to be enjoying it. So if you haven't checked out Cloak of Frost yet, you can get it at your favorite ebook store. Now that Cloak of Frost is done, my next main project is Blade of Visions, which will be the sixth book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I am 28,000 words into that. I think the rough draft will be about 100,000 words, but we will see. Might be a little more, a little less. I'm hoping to wrap it up early in September so that the book can be out to you sometime in the second half of September, if all goes well. In other news, my secondary project now is Elven-Warlock, the seventh Rivah book, and I am 1,500 words into that. If all goes well, I hope to have that out in October. In audiobook news, we have three things coming your way. The first one is Blade of Thieves, which Brad Wills is currently narrating and should be wrapped up before too much longer. Hollis McCarthy is narrating Cloak of Worlds, and I believe we'll be able to start proof listening to that soon, so that should be available before too much longer. I just finished uploading Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy in audiobook form. So, the entire trilogy in one audiobook comes to about 32 hours long. So hopefully that will get through ACX processing before too much longer, and then you can listen to it. So that is where I'm at with current writing and publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:22 Main Topic: Common Scams for Writers Now let's move on to our main topic, common scams to avoid for writers. Authors, especially new ones, but to be honest, all of us are hungry for praise, recognition, and professional opportunities. They also have a hunger to be the big new publishing phenomenon, ideally as fast as possible. Unfortunately, scammers are very aware of this and use it to prey upon authors. An example I use for this is if you've read the Heir to the Empire books by Timothy Zahn, the villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, makes a habit of studying his opponent's artwork to discover their psychological blind spots. Then he tailors his strategies around those psychological blind spots. Now, the reason I mentioned this is that scamming or falling victim to a scam is not necessarily an indication of base intelligence or savviness. Everyone has their psychological weak spots. If a scam hits your psychological weak spot at the right time when you're in the right state of mind when you're tired or sick or have had some additional bad news recently, that might hit. For myself, the scams I've nearly fallen victim to have been ones based around bad news because I'm essentially a very pessimistic personality, so I always kind of half expect bad news. One example was I got a fake email allegedly from Spotify saying that my tax information was wrong for my Spotify audiobooks and that needed to be fixed immediately. This was one I could have fallen for because it arrived during tax time. As we know, tax time is often very onerous and unpleasant and involves a lot of work and digging through papers. So I was inclined to believe it, but still, fortunately, I didn't click on any links in the emails. I went directly to the portal, double checked, and then realized it was a scam. Another example was that recently I got a phone call purporting to be from my local police department. I was thinking, "Oh man, this is going to be a mess." I was listening to it and then thankfully before I gave out any information, I realized that it was in fact a scam and then hung up. Just to be thorough, I called the actual local police department and double checked that it was a scam. But again, that played out my psychological weak point of being a pessimist and expecting bad news. I mention this because if you're aware of your psychological weak spots, like many writers, as we mentioned, are hungry for praise or quick opportunities, then you're more likely to be aware of scams. The other thing I should mention in sort of the introduction here is that thanks to the rise of ChatGPT and Gemini and Claude and all the other LLM slop machines, it's become a lot easier to scam people than it used to be before. I heard it said that Web 1.0 was a static content. Web 2.0 was interactive content like social media. Web 3.0 is scams in the forms of NFTs, cryptos, and LLMs. For example, as I mentioned, I just recently published Cloak of Frost. Since I published Cloak of Frost, I've gotten like 20 scam emails that for the most part read like this: "Dear Jonathan, I'm Stephanie Davis and the thing that caught my attention about Cloak of Frost was how quickly an obligation Nadia would rather avoid turns into a situation where the fate of earth is suddenly on the line. She's supposed to be attending the Winter Frost Games. Then an old friend arrives being chased by clone soldiers with a mysterious magical artifact and suddenly this isn't just another duty for the Marshall of the High Queen of the Elves. The fact that losing the game can mean earth burns gives the whole premise a wonderfully sharp sense of consequence. I partner with Around the World in 80 books, a vibrant community of readers who enjoy discovering books from different authors." It goes on and on in this vein. Since Cloak Frost came out six days ago, I've gotten 20 different emails along those lines, all of them clearly generated by LLMs. In fact, I didn't have to save that email. I just opened up my inbox, picked the most recent one, and that was it. Of course, if I responded, what would've happened would've been a few more emails and eventually they would ask for payment for attending their book festival and I would provide payment and then they would promptly disappear off the face of the earth and go on to target someone else. So you can see how that kind of scam would be dangerous. Imagine you're a brand new author who's just published your first book and doesn't know all that much about ChatGPT and the other LLM slop generators out there and you get an email like that, you'd think you'd won the lottery and you'd be very susceptible to giving payment to the scammer. So today, that's why we're going to go over a few of the more common scams out there and provide some general tips for spotting a scam. #1: Publishing Packages You will frequently be contacted by scamming companies offering to help you publish, market, and work on social media for your book. Some of them will even have official sounding names like Amazon Author Hub or Amazon Book Publisher, which are using the Amazon name but not affiliated with Amazon. It's very, very important to be skeptical of these types of publishing companies in general. At best, most of these publishing services companies greatly overcharge for basic services. At worst, they're outright thieves and scammers. David Gaughran has written about these types of publishers if you're interested in learning more. Writer's Weekly's website keeps a running list of confirmed scam publishers and publishing services, but even if they're not on a list and you find reviews that seem to be good, it's best to be extremely skeptical. It's very easy to accumulate fake Google reviews. For example, without naming names, a local business that I used to frequent recently changed owners a couple months ago. And before that, the local business had two five-star reviews. Since the new owner came in, suddenly there's like 500 five-star reviews popping up, all of them having a variety of names that do not seem like they come from the geographic region in which I live. So what he probably did was use a ChatGPT type service to automatically write a bunch of fake reviews for his business. A lot of these scammy companies can do that as well, so it's best to be very skeptical about this kind of thing. #2 Fake conference/book festival/book club speaking invitation This scam is incredibly common, but comes in a variety of types. You will be contacted by a book club/conference/book festival coordinator saying that they love, love, love your book and offer some praise or comments about it and then invite you to their event. The scam part will also come in after you accept when they will want money for this privilege. It's bad to work for free, but it's also very foolish to pay money to show up for a professional event, especially one located outside your immediate area. The email I read earlier in the show is a good example of

  6. Aug 10

    Episode 315: Tips For Writing In A Coffee Shop Or Other Public Place

    In this week's episode, I share a few tips for writing effectively and politely in a public space like a coffee shop, library, waiting room, or similar location. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Exile series at my Payhip store: SUMMEREXILE The coupon code is valid through August 24, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 315 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August the 7th, 2026 and today I am sharing tips for writing while in public in places such as a coffee shop, a waiting room, or a library. We will also have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. First off, let's start with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Exile series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is SUMMEREXILE and this coupon code will be valid through August the 24th, 2026, so if you need a new ebook to read this summer, we have got you covered. And as always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. Now for an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I am very nearly done with Cloak of Frost. In fact, I'm so close to being done with Cloak of Frost, I am hoping (if all goes well and the creek doesn't rise), to finish it this afternoon after I finish recording this episode. So after you finish listening to this episode when it goes live, go check out your nearest ebook store for Cloak of Frost because hopefully it should be working its way through the platforms and be available then. Once Cloak of Frost is finished and published, my next main project will be Blade of Visions, the sixth book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I am currently 17,000 words into that. If all goes well, I am hoping to have that book out sometime in September. I'll need a new secondary project since Blade of Visions is getting promoted from secondary project. So my new secondary project will be Elven-Warlock, the seventh book in the Half-Elven Thief series. That hopefully will be out sometime in October, again, if all goes well. In audiobook news, we have a couple different audiobook things to discuss. Dragon-Mage, the sixth book in the Half-Elven Thief series (as narrated by Leanne Woodward) should now be available at all audiobook stores. Stealth & Spells Online: Final Quest (as narrated by C.J. McAllister) should be at my Payhip store, Google Play, and Kobo as of right now, and it should be working its way through the other audiobook platforms before too much longer. Cloak Mage: Omnibus Four, which is a three-book bundle containing Cloak of Illusion, Cloak of Dragonfire, and Cloak of Embers (as narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now available in audio as well. It's 38 hours [long] and you can get that at Audible, Apple, and Amazon. As for upcoming books, Brad Wills is working on Blade of Thieves and as of this recording, he's about halfway through it. Hollis McCarthy is working on Cloak of Worlds and I believe she's done with main recording and doing edits right now. So before too much longer, if all goes well, we'll have a bunch of new audiobooks for you. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. 00:02:57 Tips for Writing in Public Spaces Now let's move on to our main topic this week, writing or working in a coffee shop, waiting room, library, or other public space. People often romanticize the process of writing and imagine that writers spend all day in a cozy cafe with a leather notebook and a fountain pen, sipping espresso with [chuckles] acoustic guitar music playing faintly in the background. In reality, most full-time writers don't regularly work that way. For myself, I don't generally like working in public, and I prefer either to work in my office at home or with my laptop on my couch (also at home). I only work in public spaces like coffee shops, libraries, and waiting rooms when I'm waiting for someone or don't have any other option. Because of course, real life has its demands, I do that a fair bit. I've written large chunks of most of my books in various waiting rooms while waiting on various appointments. But again, it's not my first choice. If I had total freedom to pick where I was going to work today, I would not pick a coffee shop. I would not pick the library. I would probably pick either my office or my couch with my laptop, depending on how hot the day happened to be. However, just because I don't like working in a public space doesn't mean that other people do not, and many people do love to work in public spaces like coffee shops or find it a necessity for a variety of reasons. So today we're going to go over what you should consider when working in these kinds of spaces. For many people, the benefits of working in a space like a coffee shop or a library are significant. Let's go over a few of the reasons that people might benefit from this working arrangement. Some people don't have much control over the noise or activity levels in their home environment or are experiencing a temporary issue like a power outage or home renovations. For example, this morning at about seven o'clock, a tree trimming truck pulled up directly in front of my house, so I was worried that I would not be able to record this podcast today due to chainsaw noise, but for whatever reason, they haven't started yet, so I'm hoping I can actually finish recording this episode before any chainsaw noise begins. Many people also like having a change of scenery or like getting out of the house if they primarily work from home. Some people find this helps them to feel more creative or interested in their work or feels like a reward for doing the work. Another reason is that some people also miss the social aspect of working in person and enjoying making small talk or working alongside a friend in these types of spaces. Some people, especially those who've been diagnosed with ADHD, benefit from being in a space where others are also working, even if they're not interacting with those people. It actually helps them to focus and be more productive when they can see others working. If you're interested in learning more about that, you can read about the concept of body doubling, which describes this in more detail. So with those reasons in mind, let's go over some of the appropriate etiquette for working in a public place. You might think these etiquette tips about working in an American public space are obvious, but after you spend a fair amount of time in a coffee shop, you'll see that many people never get this advice or blatantly ignore it. So let's spend some time stating what feels like the obvious, especially for people who might not be familiar with American customs and behaviors. First, if you're spending time in a business, you need to order, and if you're in America, you should at least leave a small tip. If you're staying more than an hour or so, you should probably order more than once. For example, if you're spending an afternoon working in a coffee shop, you can start with a plain coffee and then after a couple of hours order another cup or a snack. You're essentially renting their space at their expense, so you shouldn't be there all day after buying only a $2 cup of coffee (or worse yet, nothing at all). Another important factor is to have realistic expectations. Coffee shops are primarily places for people to eat and gather, so you can't be upset when people do just that. These spaces are not designed to be workspaces and you have to adjust your expectations about the noise and activity level. It might be tempting to ask that table of high school girls to be quieter or the toddler across the room to stop running about, but that's not your job and it's not appropriate of you to ask that of strangers in a place where people come for conversation. If you truly need quiet space, many libraries have designated quiet areas and larger cities usually have rentable coworking spaces designated for just working. And if you are going to the library, remember that the library doesn't cost you anything as opposed to a coffee shop or a coworking space. Also, don't hog space. If the establishment is absolutely packed and there are no available tables, it's not good etiquette to take up an entire table for hours on end. Try to choose a lower traffic shop if this is something that you regularly observe happening in your preferred one or come in outside of peak hours. Likewise, it's generally considered impolite in America to use your belongings to hold the table more than a minute or two. And if, depending on where you are in the country, if you leave your belongings at the table for too long without being there to attend them, there's a fair chance that something's going to get stolen. It's also a good idea to have some situational awareness about cords and not being a tripping hazard. If you're using a charger, make sure the cord isn't going into an employee space like the condiment bar or causing a tripping hazard for others. Likewise, make sure that your bags are also situated on the floor in such a way that others won't easily trip on them or have to step over them. Another point is no pacing. Many of us like to pace while working or thinking, but that's generally considered annoying or even unsettling and threatening in a public space like a coffee shop or a library or a waiting room. [As for] making noise, how appropriate it is to take a video or a phone call will depend greatly on your environment. Some coffee shops have many people working and it's normal there. In a small town coffee shop where the locals gather to talk about the forecast or local news or the local parade at great length, it's most likely going to be inappropri

  7. Aug 3

    Episode 314: A Second Bonus Audiobook Short Story!

    In this week's episode, I share the audio version of my short story SOULBLADES, as narrated by Brad Wills. I also provide updates on my current writing and publishing projects. If you want to listen to the complete short story collection, it is available here: https://www.audible.com/pd/Tales-of-the-Shield-Knight-Audiobook/B0D68C3S22 This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Flames, Book #2 in The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: FLAMES50 The coupon code is valid through August 17, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we've got you covered!

  8. Jul 27

    Episode 313: Worldbuilding Questions From Andomhaim

    In this week's episode, I answer worldbuilding questions about my setting of Andomhaim, and discuss the future of THE GHOSTS series. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store: JULYGHOSTS The coupon code is valid through August 10, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 313 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July the 24th, 2026 and today we're answering world-building questions about Andomhaim, which is the setting of my Frostborn, Sevenfold Sword, Dragontiarna, Dragonskull, Shield War, and Blades of Ruin series. We also have one bonus world-building question about the Caina series. Before we get into all that, we will have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. Let's start with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store. That code is JULYGHOSTS. As always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through August the 10th, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report I am done with the rough draft of Cloak of Frost. It was just slightly over 100,000 words. Now I am writing a bonus short story called Metal Soldiers, and [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of Metal Soldiers when Cloak of Frost comes out, which if all goes well, should be sometime in August. So I think this is an excellent time, therefore, to subscribe to my new release newsletter. My secondary project is Blade of Visions, and I am 11,000 words into that. There's also a good deal of news about audiobooks. Dragon-Mage, as narrated by Leanne Woodward, is finished and is rolling out to the various stores right now. As of this recording, you can get it at my own Payhip store, Google Play, and Kobo (with more stores soon to follow). Recording on Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest is very nearly done, and I hope to have more news on that soon. Brad Wills is currently working on Blade of Thieves and Hollis McCarthy is recording Cloak of Worlds. So we should have a wide variety of audiobooks coming for you soon. 00:02:00 Questions about Caina Before we get to our main topic, we have a bonus question about Caina. When I said my next project was going to be Cloak of Frost, I got a couple of questions like this: Just wondering when/if there will be another Caina novel to look forward to? The answer is not right now, but maybe later. I am glad and appreciative that people want more Caina books. That said, I don't want more than three unfinished series at any one time, and I've got three right now with Blades of Ruin, Cloak Mage, and Half-Elven Thief. So I'm not starting anything new until one of the three is done. If you reach the end of Ghost in the Siege, which is the latest current Caina book, you know that the series was at a pretty significant stopping point. If I want to keep going, I need to think long and hard about how to do it right. I do have a couple of ideas, but I need to think about them some more. It's almost like we'd have to shift to a slightly different genre of fantasy than the Caina books have been previously. The tricky part is Caina has changed a great deal since Child of the Ghosts. The tricky part in that is that sequels in a long-running series need to be more of the same, but also something different. There have been 35 Caina novels. So I've done that quite a bit. But Caina has had some experiences that have very much changed her life. To use a rough comparison, it's like she became a justice on the US Supreme Court or the governor of one of the five largest US states in the sense that once you've had change in your life that significant, your life will never be the same afterwards. And without spoilers, Caina had a shift that big at the end of Ghost in the Siege. So more Caina is definitely a possibility, but I need to think about it some more and it definitely won't be before 2027 until I finish one of my three currently unfinished series. 00:03:35 Main Topic of the Week: Andomhaim Worldbuilding Questions Now onto our main topic, which is I had some world-building questions about Andomhaim from Frostborn come in lately. So I thought I would answer them here. Question #1: Why hasn't the Heptarchy invaded Andomhaim again? The answer is money, basically. Remember that the ultimate purpose of the Heptarchy is to provide an endless supply of sacrificial victims for the Seven Temples' altars so the seven urdmordar who rule the Heptarchy can endlessly feed. These seven urdmordar don't have much interest in the day-to-day governance, so their spiderling priestesses essentially run the Heptarchy as an exceptionally malignant theological bureaucracy. However, while the priestesses are evil, they're efficient and very good at their jobs. In practice, the Heptarchy tends to operate more like an imperial confederation or a very loose federal government than an actual empire. Kingdoms, tribes, and city states have a great deal of autonomy so long as one, taxes are paid in time and two, sacrificial victims are taken to the temples on time. To help encourage this, all the various local rulers in the Heptarchy tend to have priestess advisors who make sure that the rulers make the "correct" decisions. So when things go awry, the Seven Temples have a wide array of tools to deal with difficulties, from assassinating and replacing truculent rulers with more tractable successors all the way up to exterminating entire populations and settling new colonists upon the depopulated lands. The difficulty of the Heptarchy is that the seven urdmordars are gluttons and gluttony is impossible to satiate. So when the Heptarchy learned of Andomhaim and the possibility of an entirely new land to conquer and feed upon, of course they had to conquer it. The priestesses built an enormous fleet and gathered a vast army and sent it three and a half thousand miles across the ocean to Andomhaim. Of course, if you've read the Dragontiarna series, you know that this didn't go well. The Heptarchy seized the Isle of Kordain and had early successes in Andomhaim, but Agravhask, the commander of the invasion force, was secretly a disciple of the Warden of Urd Morlemoch, and he seized control of the Heptarchy force and used it to further the Warden's goals. The Visionary foresaw this happening, but didn't care because it gave her an opportunity to try and capture her old enemy, Tarmyntir. So the Heptarchy didn't conquer Andomhaim, and then 10 years later they lost control of the Isle of Kordain, their only stronghold near Andomhaim. To put this situation in contemporary terms, this is a significant geopolitical setback or to put it in popular vernacular, it's "taking a massive L." The Seven Temples spent a colossal fortune on the invasion force and in return got back exactly nothing. Even evil sorcerous empires are bound to the laws of economics. In The Ghosts books, the Umbarian Order failed to figure this out. And it would take a while for the Heptarchy to pay for and assemble another invasion force of that size. And since the first invasion force had failed, there wasn't much appetite for pulling together a second one. So now the official policy of the Heptarchy towards Andomhaim is quiet CIA-style subversion. The Spider Cult was founded to secretly bring nobles and wealthy merchants to the worship of the Seven Temples. It might take a century or so, but the plan is to eventually place a spider cultist on the throne of Andomhaim and then send a sympathetic ruler an army to back him or her up. Of course, the Brotherhood of the Ravens is aware of this and has been fighting the Spider Cult in the shadows. So that is why the Heptarchy hasn't tried to invade Andomhaim again- it costs too much, the outcome is uncertain, and the priestesses have decided a careful subversion (which costs much less than an invasion) will work out better in the long run. Question #2: Is Blades of Ruin really inspired by the English Civil War of 1138 to 1153 AD? Yes. Why? Because alcohol and boats are a very bad combination. In the 12th century, the Kings of England were also the Dukes of Normandy and were more interested in Normandy than in England, so they spent a great deal of time on both sides of the English Channel. In November of 1120, King Henry I wanted to return to England, but allowed much of his retinue to travel on another ship. That included his heir and only legitimate son William, several of his bastard children, and numerous high ranking members of his court. Everyone on William's ship was quite drunk, including the crew, and decided it would be a good idea to try and overtake King Henry's ship on the English Channel at night in November. Remember how I said alcohol and boats were a bad combination? William decided that he wanted to overtake his father's ship, and since a significant portion of everyone on his ship was drunk, they ended up crashing into some rocks, the ship sank, and most of the passengers and crew drowned, including William. For Henry, this was an absolute disaster since he had put a lot of work into setting up William as his heir. Henry then settled on his daughter Matilda as his heir and forced his vassals to take oaths so they would support her as his successor. When Henry died in 1135, Matilda assumed the throne, but her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the crown instead. Many of the lords of England were leery at the idea of a female monarch and Stephen was amiable and well-liked. Matilda was also imperious and had a knack for offending people at the worst possible time

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About

Hosted by Jonathan Moeller (author of the FROSTBORN and SEVENFOLD SWORD fantasy series and the SILENT ORDER scifi series), the Pulp Writer Show discusses how to write, format, publish, and sell your novel. Sometimes there are jokes.

Information

  • Creator
    Jonathan Moeller
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    321
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Jonathan Moeller
  • Show Website
    The Pulp Writer Show