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The Pulp Writer Show

The Pulp Writer Show

Written by: 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.Copyright Jonathan Moeller Art Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Episode 324: 6 Lessons For Indie Writers From the Successes & Failures Of The Disney Corporation

    Episode 324: 6 Lessons For Indie Writers From the Successes & Failures Of The Disney Corporation
    Oct 12 2026
    In this week's episode, we take a look at lessons indie authors can learn from the successes and failures of the Disney Corporation. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Ashes, Book #7 in The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: FALLASHES The coupon code is valid through October 26, 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 324 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October 9th, 2026 and today I am discussing six things that indie writers can learn from the Disney Corporation, both good and bad. Before we get to 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 Ashes, Book #7 in The Ghosts series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLASHES. As always, you can get the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store in the show notes for this episode. That coupon code will be valid through October 26th, 2026, so if you need a new audiobook as we head into fall, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I am pleased to report the rough draft of Elven-Warlock is finished. That will be the seventh book in the Rivah Half-Elven Thief series. I've also finished the bonus story that I will release with it called Paladin and Commander. Newsletter subscribers will get a free ebook copy of Paladin and Commander when Elven-Warlock comes out. So I should mention this is an excellent time to subscribe to my new release newsletter since I give away free short stories quite a bit. If all goes well, I am hoping to have the book out before the end of the month. I am going to start editing immediately after I finish recording this episode, so hopefully that won't take too long. My next project once Elven-Warlock is finished will be Blade of Rifts, the seventh book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I'm currently 10,000 words into that and I'm very much hoping to have that out before American Thanksgiving, which is at the end of November, but we will see how the rest of October and November go. Quite a bit of audiobook news this week because it seems that ACX has sped up their quality assurance process. So Cloak of Summoning (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is out and you can now get it at all the audiobook stores, I believe- Audible, Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo, Chirp, Storytel, Spotify, the works. It's 13 hours long, so it should be a good nice listen if you wanted to listen to it. Also Ghost Armor Omnibus Two is now in audiobook as well. That is again narrated by Hollis McCarthy and that combines Ghost in the Assembly, Ghost in the Corruption, and Ghost in the Siege into one 37-hour audiobook bundle. So if you get it today, it should be able to tide you over for the week and you get that at Audible, Amazon, and Apple. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. 00:02:42 Main Topic: 6 Things Writers Can Learn From The Disney Corporation So now let's smoothly segue over to our main topic. Our main topic this week is six things writers can learn from the Disney Corporation. I have to admit, whenever someone mentions Disney to me, the first thing that pops into my mind is not Mickey Mouse, it's not Disneyland, it's not Marvel, it's not cartoons. It's a warning against the dangers of corporate consolidation. However, all that corporate consolidation means that Disney is the largest company in the theme park industry and one of the largest in the entertainment industry, which means there's a lot to learn about the actions of the Disney Corporation, both good and bad, especially since they have gone through some public controversies in the 2020s. Since writing is part of the entertainment industry, it's wise to learn from the successes, struggles, and outright failures of a large organization like the Disney company and apply it to our own writing careers. So today I think we will talk about six specific things that writers can learn from the successes and the failures of the Disney Corporation. #1: Be fair to the customer (or to put it more cynically, don't nickel and dime the customer). One of the things that Disney has gotten a lot of criticism for and negative publicity in the past few years for is the massive price increases to its theme parks and the Disney+ streaming service, which is at a time of, as we all know, economic turmoil when many people can't afford extras like entertainment or travel. Doing it now is especially tone deaf. Many people feel like a Disney vacation is no longer attainable or they take on a frightening amount of debt to go to Disneyland. There is a recent online ...
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    15 mins
  • Episode 323: Five Things To Consider Before Writing Full-Time

    Episode 323: Five Things To Consider Before Writing Full-Time
    Oct 5 2026
    In this week's episode, I take a look at five potential problems to consider before becoming a full-time writer. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobooks in The Shield War series, (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store: FALLSHIELD The coupon code is valid through October 19, 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 323 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October 2nd, 2026, and today I am discussing five things to consider before becoming a full-time writer. We will start off with Coupon of the Week and then a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off all the audiobooks in The Shield War series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLSHIELD. As always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be included in the show notes for this episode. The coupon code is valid through October the 19th, 2026, so if you need a new audiobook this fall, we have got you covered. Now let's move on to an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. It was not as productive a week as I hoped. There's a lot going on and I went onto my porch and my foot went through a deck board, so I will be buying lumber later today. Despite that, I am up to 59,000 words of Elven-Warlock, which I think puts me about three quarters, maybe 70% of the way through. I'm very much hoping I can finish it this coming week, if all goes well. My secondary project right now is Blade of Rifts, which will be the seventh book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I am currently 6,500 words in it, so that'll take over as my main project once Elven-Warlock is complete. In audiobook news, some exciting news: Cloak of Summoning is out. You can get it at Audible, Amazon, Apple Books, and as of right now, Google Play, Kobo, and my own Payhip store. It went live a lot faster than I anticipated, which is a good thing, so the links to the various stores are still going live, but you should be able to get it at all your favorite audiobook stores before too much longer. So that is where I'm at on my current audiobook, publishing, writing, and ebook projects. 00:02:02 Main Topic: Things to Consider Before Becoming a Full-Time Writer So with all that in mind, let's now proceed to our main topic. So as of September 2026, I have now been a full-time writer for 10 years. And in honor of that, I thought I would do an episode today on five things you should consider before becoming a full-time writer. First of all, I am so thankful for all of my readers and all my listeners who make it possible for me to write full-time and even hire on other people as needed, like my transcriptionist, my narrators, and my accountant who all do things that I would not be able to do by myself. I'm very grateful to them and more importantly, I am very grateful to all of you who have read the ebooks and listened to the audiobooks because you make all of this possible. So with that in mind, here are five things you should consider before going full-time as a writer. #1: Your larger financial picture In his memoir Sometimes the Magic Works, epic fantasy author Terry Brooks recounted a conversation he had with his editor, the legendary Lester Del Rey, told him that before he would even consider going full-time, he needed to make sure he had a year's worth of salary in the bank and since Terry Brooks (before he became a full-time writer) was a lawyer, that was a significant amount. So he did that and he decided it was time to start thinking about writing full-time. This is something that's going to be unique for everyone and everyone's situation is different. Before you consider writing full-time, you need to think about your larger financial picture. This is a decision that shouldn't be made from the heart, but from the brain and specifically with a spreadsheet in mind. Since changing jobs is a very heavily financial decision, you need to take a hard look at your finances. Are you carrying a significant amount of debt such as student loan debt, housing debt, medical debt? Do you owe a lot of money on your car or cars? Things of that nature. Do you have large fixed expenses every single month that you have to meet such as rent, car payments, student loan payments, insurance payments, and so forth? Do you live in a high cost of living area? Are you financially responsible for children or other relatives? Do these children have medical conditions that require a lot of care and therefore are expensive? As I always mention when I talk about financial and legal stuff, I am not a lawyer and I am not a financial planner. You obtain legal advice by hiring a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction and you obtain financial advice by hiring a licensed financial ...
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    20 mins
  • Episode 322: BLADE OF VISIONS, Rhamnousia Pendragon, and Bad Leadership

    Episode 322: BLADE OF VISIONS, Rhamnousia Pendragon, and Bad Leadership
    Sep 28 2026

    In this week's episode, I take a look at the characters of Rhamnousia and Zelos Pendragon in BLADE OF VISIONS, and what they say about bad leadership.

    This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Forge, Book #6 in The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store:

    FALLFORGE

    The coupon code is valid through October 12, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this fall, we've got you covered!
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    10 mins
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