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. 

#222: Comic Book Confessions With Nick Ulanowski Drunken Pen Writing Podcast

Today, we sit down with a past guest, journalist, poet, and owner of Starving Author Press, Nick Ulanowski. We discuss his Kickstarter for his newest book, Truth Before Comfort: Confessions of a Comic Book Journalist. We dive into Nick's past working as a journalist and reviewer in the comic book industry, his views on corporate influence on art and media, the importance of separating art from the artist, and why he finds all this stuff so damn interesting. You can check out Nick's Kickstarter HERE or by looking up his book, Truth Before Comfort: Confessions of a Comic Book Journalist. You can also check out his Substack HERE or by looking up Nick Ulanowski on Substack to read his latest articles and essays. You can follow him on Instagram @cynical_but_fun
  1. #222: Comic Book Confessions With Nick Ulanowski
  2. #221: How To Get Readers Into Classic Literature
  3. #220: Books So Hard You Will Throw Them
  4. #219: Books We Want To See Turned Into Movies
  5. DBS #137: Publishing Updates And Car Crashes

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