Today’s guest is J. Thorn, writer (and other things!) and host of Writers, Ink, The Author Life, and The Music NFT Show.
J Thorn currently hosts Writers, Ink, The Author Life, and The Music NFT Show. J is a writer, FM radio DJ, musician and supports other authors through a range of services and resources. (He might also be supporting podcasters too soon, so watch this space!)
J’s connection with podcasting started in 2004/2005, when he started listening to podcasts (which he liked because they were like the best parts of radio!). His friend Jim Kukral had lunch with J around 2014, and he suggested (insisted?) that J created a podcast to establish himself as a horror writer.
And so, J’s prolific journey as a podcaster started, with the The Horror Writers Podcast. He stumbled around in the dark at the beginning, finding his voice and style – and you can hear what he sounded like in episode 1, “it’s as raw as it gets”.
It started out as a solo podcast, but he soon found it hard to maintain it on his own, finding the energy every week by himself, so he brought in one co-host and when that fizzled out, he went solo again and finally Zach Bohannon came in as co-host. But for J, podcasts have a shelf life, and at some point he runs out of things to say about that topic, so he ends the podcast (but you can still hear most of them, as most of them are still published).
Zach and J didn’t want to be labeled as only horror writers but wanted to support the indie writer community, and as they had already started to run events for authors, they evolved the Horror Writers podcast into The Career Author podcast.
10.20 MINS
There were a number of podcasts in between that J experimented with, like The Intronaut, a podcast for introverts.
It was a solo show and after 100 episodes, he had no more to say about that.
J wanted to share some of his experiences as an introvert, and dispel some myths like
“The big one (myth) is that introverts are shy. They can be shy, but that’s not a trade of Introversion. Introverts can be just as outgoing and gregarious and people friendly as anyone else. The difference is they need to recharge – that drains them where as an extrovert it recharges them.”
For that show, he had some bullet points and he would riff of them – his ability to inform and entertain at a moment’s notice and off script, which he developed as a teacher comes in handy behind the microphone.
He still takes this approach with his shows, he’ll edit external noises, but doesn’t edit erms, pauses etc to make sure the conversation remains natural.
14.10MINS
Going back to The Career Author podcast, J shares how Zach and him met, and how they became co-hosts (as well as great friends and writing partners).
J still listens back to all his recordings, to spot bad habits like filler words, or speaking too soon when he’s interviewing a guest, in order to develop his podcasting voice. He doesn’t podcast the same he talks – podcasters need performance energy, “turn up the personality dial two or three nutches”, but the listener will not notice this.
“You have to be a more amplified version of yourself behind the microphone to be an engaging podcaster”.
Pilar wants to know if the same “J” turns up to the different shows, with the different co-hosts. J brings different pieces of himself to different situations. For example, in The Writers Well, he was the most vulnerable he’s ever been, due to his relationship with co-host Rachael Herron and the format, where they would ask each other one question on the show, some of which were very personal. In contrast, in The Career Author, they were both more tactical and analytical.
21.10MINS
J and Rachael really hit it off when J appeared in Rachael’s show and they started to podcast together, first as The Petal to the Metal, a name they changed pretty early on as it didn’t convey what the show was about.
“Podcast and book titles are not the places you want to be cute, because all that does is confuse.”
As the show progressed, J and Rachael got more creative and personal with their questions, something J hadn’t anticipated. At some point, they ran out of questions to ask each other, and so they stopped creating regular episodes.
Moving on to another show that’s still going, The Author Life was created as a way of answering questions that were emerging in their community’s online space. Crys Cain and J ask each other questions in this show too, but they are those emerging in their community of indie authors and less personal than the ones emerging with Rachael – it’s a different kind of show.
Recently they’ve been bringing in other voices, like certified editors from the Three Story Method in order to make it more of a community podcast.
Most of the work on this show is done by Crys, J just shows up, which is great as he does most of the work on his other shows. J has been working in audio for decades (recording bands etc) and he’s been using the same software (Reaper) for over 20 years.
30.40 MINS
J often turns up in places where he doesn’t think he belongs, to see what unexpected things can happen. It was at Thriller Fest that he met J.D. Barker, who he (eventually) enticed to become the co-host in his new show, Writers, Ink. J.D. at first wasn’t keen on the idea, but as a listener you can tell he really enjoys it now.
In Writers, Ink, the co-hosts start and end the show, and J interviews writers for the middle section. Preparation is pretty intense, as J reads the book the authors are promoting (as you can tell when an interviewer hasn’t read the book), plus a few hours of research, looking at Wikipedia, reading and listening to interviews, social media, to find the questions that haven’t been asked yet.
He prepares 4 – 5 times more questions than he’ll end up asking, trying to balance the questions he really wants to ask versus what they want to tell you. It takes full listening skills to interview someone and pick up those things they might be signaling they want to talk to you about – sometimes subconsciously.
J starts his interviews by trying to get his guests to laugh, to set the right tone for the show. Sometimes this doesn’t work, but most times it does, especially when the guest is surprised by the question.
When he first meets his guests, he asks them if there is something on their mind they would like to discuss, and whether there is anything they don’t want to cover. The next questions he asks is his surprise question. For that reason, he runs the interviews over video, so he can see how these first, surprising questions land.
Pilar has always wondered whether J gets nervous when he interviews his most high-profiled guests. J doesn’t get as nervous as before, but he does share one moment when he was shaking.
One thing that Pilar enjoys about Writers, Ink is the fact that Zach joined J and JD after Career Author ended. It took a while to adjust to three person conversing, instead of two, but the trio have developed a way of communicating while they’re recording which keeps the conversation smooth.
49.51 MINS
J has recently started a solo show, The Music NFT Show because he wants to be part of this new wave of web 3 technology that’s going to help artists to take control of their careers. In a way, it’s easier to podcast on your own because you do not have to worry about scheduling etc. However, J is not quite on his own for this one. He has bonus episodes with guests, and his daughter is (increasingly) involved!
It seems like J has developed a strong instinct for podcasting, to know the best ways of evolving the show. Indeed, it has been the easiest show for J to launch, because he’s learned loads since 2014. The process of podcasting about this topic is enough reward for J.
On a whim, Pilar asked whether J had been thinking of supporting podcasters in a similar way to how he supports authors. And you know what, he has! He’s already got some beta courses that he’s offering to his author community and other related projects.
Something else that J has recently set up related to podcasting is a digest of podcast episodes for authors who can’t keep up with all the shows going on. In fact, this newsletter is curated by different people each week, so it’s also building a community around it. If you’re into writing, sign up here to The Author Podcast Broadcast, to be signed posted to specific episodes, or read the main takeaways from the recommended episodes.
If you want to get in touch with J, head over to The Author Life.
Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice yourself or connect on Twitter @Inpodcasting
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