{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Future Lab with Lee Schneider Season 3","title":"Richie Billing","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/d219b34c\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2452,"description":"Fantasy author Richie Billing returns to the Future Lab Podcast to talk about The Breakaways, a dark fantasy comedy about a crew of spectacularly useless monster hunters. He and Lee Schneider discuss mixing grit with slapstick, writing a novel in weekly chapters on Patreon, and why selling books directly to readers lets authors keep up to 97% of each sale. \nAfter writing the political novella Together We Rise, Richie Billing wanted something lighter. The result is The Breakaways, a \"sitcom\" set in a dangerous fantasy world. A crew of underqualified monster hunters take on a job they can barely handle, with funny and sometimes fatal results. \nChapters:\n\n(00:43) The Breakawaysand blending dark fantasy with comedy \n(04:05) Writing in chapters and getting to know the characters \n(07:06) Meet the crew: making incompetence relatable \n(10:28) Genre rules, slapstick and schadenfreude \n(14:08) Why go direct to readers through Patreon \n(18:35) Lee's serial stories, Hollywood Extinction Event\n(20:31) Building a audio player  with AI \n(21:30) Mailing lists, traffic and the economics of selling direct \n(24:30) Marketing for introverts \n(27:53) Teaching, map-making and a book-promotion vlog \n(31:48) The \"Fixing Bad Writing\" exercise \n(34:55) Why people are reading less \n(39:19) Clear prose and shorter attention spans \n(42:54) The future of books \n(43:39) Where to find The Breakaways\nLinks:\n\nRichie's website: https://richiebilling.com \nThe Breakaways in weekly chapters, plus the audiobook on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/RichieBilling\nAlso on Amazon ","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/JuNS9A2EWrQubn2cFgLK_ySqfhbCnBcmKW4a04RZakM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85OGQ4/NGQ4MDZiNGI5NGY4/MjYxNjQwZjA2ZDU4/ZWQxMy5qcGVn.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}