The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast

Sometimes you just have to face the facts and accept reality for what it is. Even when it hurts.

We've decided to make a major change to the Am Writing Fantasy YouTube channel and Podcast. The reasons and what this change encompasses are shared in this announcement.

Thank you so much for watching over the past three years. We sincerely hope that you'll continue supporting and find what we do helpful.

New episodes EVERY single Monday.

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LET'S CONNECT!

Closed Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmWritingFantasy/

Blog and Courses: https://www.amwritingfantasy.com/

Jesper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SchmidtJesper

Autumn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/weifarer

Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion)

Jesper (1s):

Hey there. Jesper just dropping in here, uh, up at the front of the episode. I have an excellent guest host on today, but I just wanted to drop in here quickly to let you know that we had a bit of audio quality issues, the internet on my guests and is not entirely stable and at one point about 18 and a half minute in it actually drops, which means that I cannot hear him and he keeps talking for a bit while I'm also talking on top of him to hoping, hoping that he's coming back online.

So you're going to get about one and a half minute where we accidentally talk over one another. So my apologies for that. And also when it comes to his internet connection, there is a bit static on his end and uh, unfortunately I've done everything I can to try to clean it out, but, but it's not possible to get it any better than it is now, but you can hear everything he says. So I've decided to release this episode anyway, so I hope you will get a lot out of it. And the much, much apologies for the audio quality here.

Thank you.

Narrator (1m 7s):

You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, autumn Bert and Jasper Schmidt.

Jesper (1m 35s):

Hello, I am Yesper and this is episode 43 of the amwritingfantasy podcast. And we are going to talk about reviving dead books. Meaning, how do you get books that doesn't sell to start selling again? And as you've noticed that autumn is not with me today, but instead I actually have a guest host and that's Stuart Peyman, whose books have reached international international bestseller status in the U S Australia and Canada. So we'll come to the amwritingfantasy podcast do it.

Stuart (2m 7s):

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jesper (2m 10s):

And I, I actually understood, uh, from a bit of our email conversations that they just spent a bit of time in. I was about to say my part of the world, well I think it was in Germany and I'm in Denmark, but it's close.

Stuart (2m 21s):

Pretty close. Yeah. I was in central Germany, went to college and verts Berg, so been a decent amount of time in Europe. Oh, okay. What's bird? Where's when Germany is, that is basically dead in the center of Germany. So it's a sort of a little bit to the East of Frankfurt. Probably the nearest a landmark, but not too far from you hick and yeah, honestly you can get anywhere from the center of the country, so it got to travel around a good amount as well. Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. So you were there for several years then. Yeah, for a good bit of time and really, really enjoyed it.

I love the food. I love the climate. Uh, it's just a wonderful place to live.

Jesper (2m 59s):

Oh, cool. Very cool. But uh, but I think you're back in the U S now, right? Yup.

Stuart (3m 4s):

So living in Kentucky, which is a in the Midwest of the United States. Yeah.

Jesper (3m 9s):

Right. Okay. And actually before we get into the whole conversation about reviving dead books, which, ah, which I guess you've made a bit of a specialty out of. But before we get into that, I also noticed that you writing some lit RPG books and uh, I know that that's a, a Shaundra that has been a bit there. I don't know if we can call it hot, but, uh, I, I haven't understood that it's, it's something that, um, that is selling quite well in general, but, but it's also I think a bit of a special show to write.

So I was just wondering if you could, you know, just yeah, a bit of insights about what is lit RPG and how do you g...

Autumn have been feeling quite overwhelmed and stressed out lately.

Unfortunately, she is far from alone in dealing with these feelings, yet its a topic that each writer often deals with in isolation.

It's our hope, that by putting it out in the open - with this episode 42 of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast - that others will feel more empowered to talk about their feelings.

Hopefully, Autumn also managed to be inspirational in sharing her personal story.

Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday.

SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST!

Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.

Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy.

For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going.

Read the full transcript below.

(Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Narrator (2s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need in literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self-published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Bert and Jesper Schmidt. Hello? I am, Jesper.

Autumn (32s): And I'm autumn,

Jesper (35s): this is episode 42 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and we are going to talk about feeling overwhelmed today. And, uh, in many ways, uh, today's topic is, it's a bit personal, so I, I guess he upfront, I want to thank you autumn for the fact that you agreed to share some about, uh, you know, those feelings for the benefit of our podcast listeners. So I hope we were going to create a episode here that will really help people.

Autumn (1m 2s): Yes, we're going to definitely keep this one real folks. And I promise I will not be breaking down in tears though.

Jesper (1m 11s): No, hopefully not. We'll see how and, and Hey, I also have to say, I apologize if my voice sounds a bit raw today. I'm still recovering from a cold and the actual had a bit of fever over the weekend, so that was really annoying. Uh, and I am feeling better now, but I, I'm not quite there yet. So, uh, sorry about the bit here in voice today. It's really not the how try not to cough in your ear as well.

Autumn (1m 36s): Sounds good. But yeah, that's the funny thing doing the podcast. So I can't see you if, so for all I know, you know, you've got like your pajamas and your robot and a wash cloth over your forehead, so hopefully you're not that ill anymore.

Jesper (1m 50s): No, no, no, it's not that bad. Uh, it wasn't, uh, in bed either, you know, a sleeping all weekend or anything. But, uh, I was still, I was still moving around but I really wasn't, especially Saturday. I was really feeling bad, but

Autumn (2m 7s): it's getting better. That's good. That's an important thing, you know. And it's funny cause I, I just picked up Adam from a a leave no trace master educator canoe trip. So we had this wonderful training where you went to go canoeing in the Adirondacks and the fall weather. And while he was gone, I had the camper to myself for five days and I picked him up and he absolutely had a bat. Great time. It was fantastic. He met some fantastic people. Uh, he passed obviously. So now he's a master educator. Can train other people on how to leave no trace. But what was interesting is that of all the things, he has a lingering bad back.

So he's am ever since. I think it runs in the family because his mom has the same issue, so, Oh my goodness, yes. Talking about things that are slowly recovering, he is limping around very much and it's always one of those, it's a perception. I should, we kind of talked about perceptions and stuff before, but I've always thought it was you. You look at someone and you feel people look at him and he's six foot, two broad shoulder and it's very, you know, he looks like he would be a police officer. His family, way back to his great, great grandmother was a warden at a women's prison.

So I mean he's got that physique and they're like, Oh, you're so strong you can do anything. It's like, dude, his bag is so fragile. It's like I feel so bad for him. I haven't seen him in this much pain since am Oh geez. When we probably first met 19 years ago and, but it's recovering and I think it was just the way he was sitting in the canoe and paddling. I'm like, next time you wear a brace, next time you do this and, but he's on the meds and yeah, at least he got to go out.

Some of the pictures he took during the chorus or just, I almost wish I had gone with them, but Hey, I got some time on my own and I got to exp...

Have you noticed those free ISBNs that come with distributors or with Amazon's paperbacks?

Is there a catch to using them and you should run like a maverick demon on a rampage to purchase "safe" ISBNs directly ... or are they really OK to use and might be saving you up to $125 a book?!

Join Jesper and Autumn as they lay out what an ISBN is and does as well as what the deal actually is with those free ones!

Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday.

SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST!

Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.

Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy.

For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going.

Read the full transcript below.

(Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Narrator (2s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self-published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts. Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt.

Jesper (30s): Hello. I am Jesper and I'm Autumn, this is episode 41 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and we are going to talk about ISDM ISBM numbers. I almost stumbled the same bed ESPN numbers and uh, whether you should buy you own ISBNs numbers or if you should use free once. So yeah, we'll get into explaining all the details about what ISB and numbers are and all that. But, uh, I think, can I first say that I actually had a very busy weekend here because my oldest son had his birthday this weekend.

He turned 11 Oh, vial. That's fun. Always almost a teen. It's coming up. Yeah. So, so that, that's the bat. But we had, we had the house full of guests, so that, that was great. Uh, w w we had great fun and it was nice. And uh, my brother and his fiance came already on Friday and then they stayed all weekend and then the other guests came on Saturday. Uh, and then, uh, yeah, some, some, some of them of course from left in the middle of the night and a Sunday morning, uh, my brother and his fiance had to, to go to, because they are picking up a dog, so they have to drive to pick up a dog.

So I had to get up early to make breakfast for them and all that. So I was really, really tired. Or there's something about a group of kids, especially 11 years old with all that energy that can really make you feel tired, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And then of course when you have to wait on your guests for for like two full days, you know, I don't know for me that, I mean, I, I actually think some people enjoy doing that and I do enjoy the company and all that, but, but waiting on people is sort of not maybe my favorite activity, but uh, of course you'd do it anyway.

Autumn (2m 28s): So, but it was very, it was very nice. Oh, that sounds really good. I houseful of family is definitely fun, but I'm like you where I, you know, my parents, we were just visiting with them and sometimes it's like, Oh, you're having a party in the basement. I just, that's a lot of their friends. All their friends are, you know, they're super nice to us and they often have their kids, you know, are mostly my age to sometimes the kids tag along and it's great, but it can be so overwhelming and you know, so much time of it, I'm like, I need to go to the woods so little while

Jesper (3m 6s): w that was also why when it came to Sunday, you know, we just decided to, I'm going to relax on the couch and basically do nothing. So actually we decided to, uh, to watch the first episode of a dark crystal eight of resistance with the kids. And I believe you told me that you watched it too, didn't you?

Autumn (3m 25s): Yes. I've only watched the first one. I'm giving it a try out. I think I have to watch a second one, but it's, what did you think of it? It's okay.

Jesper (3m 34s): No, but yeah, but I think, well, first of all night, my wife noticed that it was, it's in fact a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film, the dark crystal. So that was quite interesting to me. Uh, but I think I would say that if I wasn't watching it with the kids, I probably wouldn't watch it to be honest. I mean, I think it was OK and, but there was, there was quite some info dumping going on. Like, like you can almost tell that that's because they want to make sure that the younger audience understands what's happening and all that.

Whereas as an adult, what's in that? That's a bit like OK. Uh, you could probably do that a bit better. Um, so, but, but it's OK it's, it's, it's fine, but I don't think I woul...

The character arc represents the change the character will undergo as the story progress.

Stories are all about growth.

If the character doesn’t change then there is no story.

But how do you create a character arc and what different kinds are there?

Join Autumn and Jesper as they share how to create an authentic and believable character arc.

And here's the link to the really cool (funny) map, Autumn was talking about: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2MttwuA-kW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday.

SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST!

Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.

Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy.

For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going.

Read the full transcript below.

(Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Narrator (2s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts. Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt.

Jesper (31s): Hello, I'm Jesper and I'm Autumn, this is episode 40 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and we are going to talk about character arcs today.

Autumn (44s): So yeah, I think that that's going to be an interesting conversation because character it's a pretty important they are. And well, you know, as we just were recently talking to each other and I said characters are easier to understand the most people. So I think we're going to nail this one pretty good.

Jesper (1m 2s): Yeah. And the thing would characters is that, uh, we have, we have control of what they say and what they do, right? So it's much easier than real life. People

Autumn (1m 10s): insert evil laugh here. So yes, I think this'll be really good. And it's, it's important to understand your character. So this'll be a lot of fun. I love adding depths and finding new ways to bring out different aspects of character. So we'll try not to get carried away with this one.

Jesper (1m 25s): Yeah. Who knows where we're going to end up actually, you know, speaking of, of real life people, uh, I was, uh, I was in Sweden this last week and, uh, I just, I don't understand people. I am, I think the longer I live, the more I figured out that I don't understand. So I was am, I was in the airport in Stockholm or queuing for to enter the plane to fly back home to, to Copenhagen. And then, uh, they, I don't know how they do it in the U S but at least here, you know, if you have priority seats then you're always, you're called on first.

Um, and then they, of course, they scan your boarding pass and whatnot to make sure that the UI actually a priority customer. And, uh, luckily enough, I am one of those all the time. Yeah. I fly so much that I'm a priority customer. So, so the thing is that, and this is what I don't get right, so we, I'm queuing at that airport and I need to uh, uh, bought the plane and they call priority customers. So we'd go up and we stand in the queue and of course scan the boarding costs.

Uh, and then you enter the plane, right. But there was, again, this, this is not because it's not just happened once, it happens all the time, but this time there was five people in that queue who were not priority customers who tried to skip in and get on board. And it's like, and every time it happens, I'm like, why do people do this? I don't understand. Please they can see that the boarding is getting scammed. They know that they're going to get caught and they're still standing there in the queue trying to get in.

And

Autumn (3m 5s): I just, I don't get it just to go and sit down. I always laugh because a, we take ferries quite a lot and the best sign ever saw was at the front of a ferry that said, do not turn on your car engine. So far. No car has reached the dock before the ferry. Like yes, they're not going to make the plane go in faster by boarding faster is not going to happen. You're not going to beat the actual airplane. No. But but it's just, I mean I did the,

Jesper (3m 32s): the thing about wanting to get on board and and I mean that's one of the things honestly I do like with B about being a priority customer because you sort of get on board and you get to sit down off of standing in the queue and there is space in the overhead compartments for your luggage because there's nobody else on the plane at that point. So that part I do like, so I...

There are so many ways to market your book from paid advertising to join promos and newsletter swaps. But does joining a free group promo really help you with sales or new readers?

Join Autumn and Jesper as they discuss the pros, cons, and possibilities out there with group promos in Episode 39 of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast.

Check out some of the links mentioned in today's show at:

https://storyoriginapp.com/

https://bookfunnel.com/

Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday.

SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST!

Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.

Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going.

Read the full transcript below.

(Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Narrator (3s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt

Jesper (31s): and hello there. I'm Jesper

Autumn (34s): and I'm autumn. This is episode number 39 amwritingfantasy podcast. Hey, we're going to talk about group promos and if they are worth it., but you know before we get there it's been a, even though we're batch recording things, we always have things going on. It's been always,

Jesper (55s): yeah, certainly. Certainly a lot of things. I mean this here in Denmark we just been hit by a complete like late Shama heat. It's a normally here by the end of August it's, well it's not cool but you know it's the summer sort of starting to come to an end, but now it's just like last couple of days. It's been 30 degrees here and a Celsius of course.

Autumn (1m 22s): Possibly 30 gosh, she's a sure there are no, Oh you mean,

Jesper (1m 29s): yeah, exactly. I mean it's really warm and it's am. It's incredible. I dunno what happened, but it's very wrong all of a sudden.

Autumn (1m 37s): That's funny cause that we've been in am, Adam and I, my husband and I don't like heat and that's half the reason we travel as we get to go up to the North, we like to be like for us to be 70 Fahrenheit. So you know that's pretty moderate. It's like a jacket might be necessary in the morning and usually when we're down in Pennsylvania and usually when we get here it's less stirring hot. But for end of August is actually perfect. Like 70s am. Beautiful, beautiful. It feels like fall, which I can't say it's really felt like fallen August in Pennsylvania since I was a little girl, so I'm not complaining.

Jesper (2m 14s): No. Wow, that's nice. I mean I actually don't mind it being hot outside, but I must admit right now in, you know, sitting inside in my little office here and recording this podcast, I'm like, it's feels like I'm sitting in a sauna or something. It's really, really well.

Autumn (2m 33s): I know the other on the other side of the Atlantic, I've got the window is open and I'm actually a little cool and capris.

Jesper (2m 40s): Yeah. Then that's the thing, right? Because if for me it's, it's late evening time now. So my problem is that if I opened the window or the insects comes in here, eh, if it was daytime it would be no problem. Right. But uh, during nighttime and you have the, you know, the lights turned on inside, then all the insects likes to come and I don't want that. So I have to sit in the sauna here and record. Oh, I will, I will. We're going to hold a few weeks. If you disappear, we know you possibly passed out. Oh shit.

Yeah. I mean, I was out the other day with my youngest son. He was playing in a, in a soccer tournament the other day and he was just as hard as this. It was 30 degrees and luckily none of the kids passed out, but it was, it was really, really, really warm. And they were playing this tournament so they will playing like eight matches or something. And it was, yeah, steaming from above and, but it was really cool. It was, uh, just as kids tournament, you know, and um, and uh, they didn't play very well for the first couple of matches.

They, they sort of draw off you and, and lost a few and maybe one one. So when once the group play was sort of done, then I was thinking, okay, we'll probably go home then because that was it. But then for some re reckless reason, they actually went to the semifinals as the last team that just made it above the cut. So, so then, okay, fine. Then there was one moment. So he played o...