Fantasy author Richie Billing returns to the Future Lab Podcast to talk about The Breakaways, a dark fantasy comedy about a crew of spectacularly useless monster hunters. He and Lee Schneider discuss mixing grit with slapstick, writing a novel in weekly chapters on Patreon, and why selling books directly to readers lets authors keep up to 97% of each sale.

After writing the political novella Together We Rise, Richie Billing wanted something lighter. The result is The Breakaways, a "sitcom" set in a dangerous fantasy world. A crew of underqualified monster hunters take on a job they can barely handle, with funny and sometimes fatal results.

Chapters:

• (00:43) The Breakawaysand blending dark fantasy with comedy
• (04:05) Writing in chapters and getting to know the characters
• (07:06) Meet the crew: making incompetence relatable
• (10:28) Genre rules, slapstick and schadenfreude
• (14:08) Why go direct to readers through Patreon
• (18:35) Lee's serial stories, Hollywood Extinction Event
• (20:31) Building a audio player with AI
• (21:30) Mailing lists, traffic and the economics of selling direct
• (24:30) Marketing for introverts
• (27:53) Teaching, map-making and a book-promotion vlog
• (31:48) The "Fixing Bad Writing" exercise
• (34:55) Why people are reading less
• (39:19) Clear prose and shorter attention spans
• (42:54) The future of books
• (43:39) Where to find The Breakaways

Links:

• Richie's website: https://richiebilling.com
• The Breakaways in weekly chapters, plus the audiobook: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/RichieBilling
• Also on Amazon and other major stores

Creators & Guests

• Lee Schneider - Host
• Richie Billing - Guest