Episode 153: Writers & Generative AI

In this week's episode, I take another look at generative AI tools and consider what they might mean for writers. I also take a look at March's ad results and discuss the very excellent board game HEROQUEST. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Reader Updates Hello everyone. Welcome to Episode 153 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is April the 6th, 2023, and today we're going to talk a bit more about generative AI and writers. We're also going to see how my ads did for the month of March and talk about a board game I've been enjoying lately. I'm recording this a few days earlier than usual because I want to take a couple days off for Easter, though the show stood still should still come out at the usual time. First up, writing progress. As of this recording, I am 72,000 words into Cloak of Dragonfire. I think it's going to end up around 100 to 110,000 words long, so not too much left to do in the rough draft. If all goes well, I'm hoping to have that out in the first or possibly second week of May. I passed the 10,000 word mark of Silent Order: Thunder Hand, and I also finished writing the first chapter of Sevenfold Sword Online: Leveling, which will be the second book in that series and Silent Order: Thunder Hand will be the 13th book in the Silent Order series. Both those books will probably come out sometime this summer once Dragonskull is finished, so I only have two more books to write in Dragonskull and I want to do that and finish that series before I really do anything else. In audiobook news, Dragonskull: Sword of the Squire is out and you can get it at Audible, Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo, Chirp books, Scribd, and probably a few others that I am forgetting off the top of my head. Oh, my Payhip store as well. Initial reviews are good and I'm glad everyone is enjoying that. In other audiobook news, I uploaded Ghost Exile Omnibus Three which will be a combination of the audiobooks of Ghost in the Throne, Ghost in the Pact, and Ghost in the Winds. And if you've read those books or listened to the audiobooks, you know they're long and the combined omnibus version of those three books will be over 45 hours long. So that is good value for your Audible credit. That should hopefully be out sometime before the…excuse me…sometime before the end of April. 00:02:12 Reader Questions/Comments Before we get into our main topics for the week, let's have a few questions and comments from readers. Our first comment is from Scott, who says: I've just started reading your Dragonskull series. I must say they are brilliant. I've just read the latest, Wrath of the Warlock, and finished it in three nights. Love your characters in these books and can't wait until summer when you bring the next episode of this amazing story. Love your work and really looking forward to your next book. Thanks, Scott. I am glad you're enjoying the Dragonskull series and if all goes well, hopefully the next Dragonskull book, Dragon Skull: Doom of the Sorceress will be out in June, if all goes well. Our next question is from James, who asks: How many words in all the books you've published? I had to look at some spreadsheets and figure it out, but I believe for all my 139 novels combined (Cloak of Dragonfire will be the 140th), I have published 12.1 million words of fiction in novel form. I don't know how many in short stories, but assuming roughly 5,000 words is a short story for an average, it would probably be another half million. So we know for sure, it's at least 12.1 million words of fiction I have published in novels in the last almost 12 years. Our final comment of the week is from Wayne, who says: Concerning the fact that I'm going to be publishing Cloak of Dragonfire soon and I am hoping to write another Caina novel before the end of the year, Wayne says: This is great news, really looking forward to more of Nadia Moran's adventures. I have read all the Cloak books and I'm on Ghost in the Ashes now. Nadia is my favorite, but gotta love Caina, really want to read the Cloak and Ghost novels, but not sure what point, so just wait until I finish The Ghost series. Thanks, Wayne. I'm glad you have enjoyed both Nadia and Caina's adventures. About the Cloak and Ghost books, you can probably read those…if you read all the Cloak books, you can read those whenever you want. They're not canon for either the Ghost series or the Cloak series. It's just a little experiment I wrote, where I thought it'd be interesting if Caina met Nadia and they went off and had adventures together. 00:04:21 Facebook and Amazon ad results for March 2023 So let's take a look back and see how my Facebook ads have performed for March 2023…actually, my Facebook ads and my Amazon ads. First up, let's start off with Facebook ads. And here is what I got back for every dollar spent on Facebook ads. For the Frostborn series, for every dollar spent, I got back $4.74, which includes the audiobooks. For The Ghosts, for every ...