DBS #115: Offending Publishers And Your Audience

Meet
Our Hosts

Caleb James K.

Caleb James K. is the former Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal, Drunken Pen Writing, and the host of the DPW Podcast. He’s also a fiction writer, poet, and aspiring novelist.

Spencer Church

A former aspiring comic book artist, Spencer is the cohost of the DPW Podcast as well as a short story writer and avid reader.


We begin the episode by discussing Cormac McCarthy and a specific scene in his novel Suttree that depicts a young man fornicating with watermelons. 

After that, we have a much longer discussion about offending publishers and your audience. We start with what big comic book creators and movie studios have been doing wrong by alienating their core audience, how that correlates with authors on a much smaller scale, and the simple fixes that can avoid many headaches. 

Around 40 or so minutes in we finally get to the heart of the episode by discussing a specific scene (or in this case, word choice) that might derail one of Caleb’s future submissions. We talk about when you should be brave and stick to your guns, and when it’s important to know when to concede and make the proper changes to a work to get it published. 

#230: Literary Masterpieces That Actually Suck Drunken Pen Writing Podcast

In today's episode, we discuss our current writing projects and how the social climate affects said projects. Such as, can white authors write a story that only has black characters? After that, we briefly read the worst lines in fiction. Briefly, because the list we found was awful. Then we move on from awful to terrible as we discuss another list about famous novels and why they actually suck, according to the list maker anyway. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @dpwpodcast You can check out Caleb's work at http://www.calebjamesk.com. 
  1. #230: Literary Masterpieces That Actually Suck
  2. A Murakami Minute: 1Q84 Book Two
  3. #229: How To Fix Bad Writing And A Secret Book Club
  4. A Murakami Minute: 1Q84 Book One
  5. DBS #141: Discussing The Best Non-Superhero Comics Of The 2020s

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