One-Drink Book Club – Details, episodes & analysis

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One-Drink Book Club

Johnny B. Truant

Arts

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/14d. Total Eps: 43

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

johnnybtruant.substack.com

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Apple Podcasts

🇫🇷 France - books
11/08/2025
#60
🇫🇷 France - books
10/08/2025
#89

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https://johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38
43 shares
https://www.emmaleejayne.com/about/
40 shares
https://johnnybtruant.substack.com/s/one-drink-book-club
4 shares

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnnybtruant/the-artisan-author-your-way-out-of-the-self-pub-rat-race
4 shares

https://youtube.com/live/gqLXlxpz1B8
1 share

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Score global : 59%

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BONUS EPISODE - The Self Publishing Podcast reunion episode

Saturday, August 2, 2025 • Duration 01:20:03

This week’s episode isn’t actually an episode of the ODBC! I thought I’d share it here, though, because I think faithful One Drink Book Club listeners would enjoy it.

Back in the long-long ago, I used to be on one of the first major self-publishing podcasts … early enough, in fact, that we simply called ourselves “The Self Publishing Podcast.” It was me and two fun, irreverent partners: Sean Platt and David Wright.

And guys, we had SO MUCH FUN on that show. It wasn’t just us, either; it was the audience that made it fun as well. We had a great community … and doing the Kickstarter for The Artisan Author (which is still going for just a bit longer, by the way) got me thinking about that old show and community. So I pitched Sean and Dave on doing a single “reunion episode of SPP” … and this is it.

OH! And if you’d prefer the video version of this show, it’s here.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 041 - Picking Books Apart, Kickstarter, and the Parts of Any Art That the Creator Can't Control

Sunday, July 27, 2025 • Duration 01:04:02

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We opened by talking about my thinking about the “college” portion of my current Kickstarter campaign for The Artisan Author. The short version is that college is cool and we should all watch more 80s movies about it. (Or, rather, the short version is that you should check it out here before it ends, if you happen to be a writer.)

* Do kids still read? If yes, how and how much do they read? And do they (as well as adults, really) take IDENTITY from their reading?

* Bill took us down a weird rabbit hole wherein he’s reading only parts of his favorite book out of order … and how the dissection ruined it, but not for the reasons that sound obvious as you read this sentence.

* Which led to a fascinating chat about how all kinds of art are collaborative, meaning that the creator can’t control at least half of the experience … which depends on what the reader/observer/listener/consumer brings to that art. This one was such a cool thread that it will be our topic for next time!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 032 - The Big Writer's Block Episode

Sunday, February 9, 2025 • Duration 01:03:42

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

We really just hit one topic today, but we hit it well, thoroughly, and from a hundred angles: What happens when writing doesn’t come in the way it should, or that you want it to? What happens when you’re blocked, and you don’t know what to do about it?

Emma and I are both going through our own version of the shit, and we unpack it all in this big, juicy episode.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 031 - When Writing Sucks, the Writer's Fingerprint, and Being a Verbal Storyteller

Sunday, February 2, 2025 • Duration 55:07

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Emma returned triumphantly after months away … but only for the first 20 minutes. She opened a really interesting and seldom-talked-about topic: The fact that sometimes things really suck as a writer … and here’s how we deal. (NOTE: We’ll unpack this issue more next week if people are interested … so, you know, let us know if you are.)

* We talked a bit about backlist and advertising, and standing up for the books we’ve already written.

* Then a bit about imposter syndrome, being vulnerable, and more of that downer stuff. (Writing can be awesome, but it’s not always sunshine and roses, people!

* After Emma had to leave, Bill and I talked about “the writer’s unique fingerprint” — how repeated words and standard “safe home base” scenes become an individual writer’s DNA, so that readers can easily recognize their favorite writers’ style.

* Lastly, we talked about telling stories in person. Do good verbal storytellers make good writers, and what do you do when your best verbal stories just kind of stop landing like they used to?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

ODBC 030 - Finally Feeling Like a Real Author, Discovery Writing, and Not Talking Out Your Ass

Sunday, January 26, 2025 • Duration 49:17

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Bill showed-and-told (there’s no good verb for “show and tell”) some of his old books from his collection, and talked about the special place they have in his life and home.

* Spinning off of this, I shared a strange revelation: Now that I’m selling my books in person, I feel like “a real author” in ways I never have before. After a dozen years in this business, only now — with physical books in hand and real readers in front of me — do I truly feel like I belong here.

* We talked about “writing and seeing where it goes” versus plotting (Bill’s current dilemma).

* And finally we talked about writing things you aren’t an expert in and how to avoid looking like an asshole by getting things wrong … which led me to one of my favorite writerly topics: Getting some obvious facts right as a way of buying yourself the leeway you need to flat-out invent fantastical things to follow.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 029 - Reading Order, Sequels that Ruin Beloved Books, and Why We Need Two Categories of Authors

Sunday, December 8, 2024 • Duration 57:07

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Reading order: do you read in publishing order, chronological order, the order books were written, or some other order?

* Are we attached to the characters in a series or the world itself? (Watch for the place in this one where I say “The Beam” when I clearly meant “Dune.” Did you know what a great series The Beam is, according to me in this episode?)

* How sequels to a book can ruin a book you loved … and the different ways we deal with it.

* Who also wrote romance despite being known for writing some other famous genre?

* The different motivations of various writers and matching what they deliver with what readers actually expect … which became an AI and James Pattern sort of discussion.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 028 - Banging Billionaires, Judging Books by Their Covers, and Vegas to the Extreme

Sunday, November 24, 2024 • Duration 01:03:48

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* With Emma and I fresh from our Las Vegas trip to the Author Nation conference (and the RAVE bookselling event at its end), we started off by talking about Emma’s new branding, which she lined up in advance of Vegas.

* This led to a discussion of judging books by their covers … which, by the way, everyone actually does.

* We talked about selling books in person, and the unique eccentricities of that market.

* I shared how well-received my “Artisan Author” talk was, making us feel that artistry isn’t dead.

* We shared our experiences hand-selling books …

* … and Bill followed up by asking if we “partook” of Vegas too much, or if we saw other people who did.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 027 - Finally finishing books, tense and prose and the rules they imply, and which BEN does Emma really mean?

Sunday, November 3, 2024 • Duration 51:08

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* After a looooong time away from the first-draft page, I finished my first book in forever today. I talked about how that felt and what I had to re-learn to do it … and asked the crew whether or not I should “celebrate its completion” like Stephen King talks about doing.

* We talked about tense and voice of prose: first versus third-person narratives, as well as past tense versus present tense. We had a great discussion about suiting the style of narration to the book in question.

* On the topic of following “the rules implied by a certain style of or device for writing,” we talked about my old phrase “put a unicorn in it,” which bridges the at-some-point decision writers need to make about how much they want to follow the rules vs. how much they want the reader to actually understand the story.

* Most of the remainder of our chat today was consumed with talking about our preparations and excitement to hand-sell books in person at the RAVE book event in Vegas two weeks from when we were recording.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 026 - What Robots, Hormones, and Storytelling Have in Common

Sunday, October 27, 2024 • Duration 40:28

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* After a months’-long cliffhanger, we finally got to Emma’s story about how mentoring robotics crosses over into her storytelling. It’s not what you expect!

* Bill has started writing as a result of our goading, after a lifetime of loving to read and on-an-off trying to do pen a decades-in-the-making masterpiece himself.

* Talking Bill through some questions led to a riveting discussion about how all three of us write, from top to bottom …

* Which in turn led to one of the cooler chats I’ve had about how we “discover” things while writing — through runaway dialogue and science for me.

* We ended by discussing how writing a novel is like spinning plates. (Seriously, this is the best-fit metaphor I’ve come up with for it so far.)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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ODBC 025 - Revenge writing, ignoring songs, and the "mentally collaborative" nature of books

Saturday, October 12, 2024 • Duration 39:39

In this episode, we talked about:

* Do we ever put real people in our books, either as homage or revenge when we’re pissed off at them?

* When a writer is emotional (excited, happy, sad, etc), does the work come out just as emotional, or is it cathartic … or is it Option 3?

* We talked about how Bill still refuses to read poems and songs when they’re in his books, even if one of the narrators is a poet.

* I went on for a bit about my thoughts on how books are better than TV and film for the creator, because the consumer (reader/watcher) fills in the details using their brains rather than us having to specify every little thing.

* Lastly, I talked about how differently I write on my own versus with a collaborator.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com/subscribe

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One-Drink Book Club – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

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Apple Podcasts

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One-Drink Book Club – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other15

Kickstarter1

Youtube1

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other15

Kickstarter1

Youtube1

Apple Podcasts

Spotify