In this case, AI has done a good job of summing things up. :)
The speaker, an experienced author and screenwriter nearing 70, reflects on recent work, including completing the third Erica Jensen mystery, expected around Memorial Day, and organizing a production meeting for a second film they will direct. They describe screenwriting as a difficult, sales-driven path in a contracting industry and note that becoming a screenwriter effectively means becoming a salesperson.
Turning to their career as an indie author, they present a mixed picture: while acknowledging positive aspects, they criticize widespread “bullshit” narratives about how wonderful and empowering indie authorship is, emphasizing the burden of making wise decisions about reaching readers and presenting oneself. The speaker prioritizes health over online activity, warning against overreliance on the internet and urging writers to engage more with the offline world—meeting people, visiting places like state parks, and simply living beyond writing and marketing.
They invite interest in building a mutual-support community for writers, including help with tasks like setting up Shopify stores and improving book promotion. Reflecting on the last decade, they contrast past commercial success—twice making the New York Times bestseller list in 2011 and achieving high Amazon rankings in the US and UK—with their current reality of earning well below the poverty level from books, a decline they partly attribute to focusing heavily on screenwriting.
Hi. Yeah. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually talked about what I’m doing. Okay. What am I doing these days? I just finished work on the third Erica Jensen mystery, which I hope will come out on May, whenever Memorial Day is. Don’t even know. Yeah, end of May, sometime around then. Around Memorial Day. And what else am I doing? Oh yeah, I’m trying to get a production meeting together for the second film that I’m going to be directing because as you may know, those of you who might actually pay attention to what I’m saying or read what I write, I do screenwriting now and have been doing that for quite a while, it feels like. Actually, it feels like a short time, but it’s been quite a while actually. I shudder to think of how much time has passed while I’ve been doing this because I got to tell you, screenwriting is no easy path to take and has become even less easy with the passage of time and the contraction of the industry.
