Daniel Willcocks' own nonfiction book got flagged and blocked from Draft2Digital — not because it was bad, not because it broke any rules, but because an automated system decided it looked too generic. The irony wasn't lost on him: a book written entirely by hand, blocked by a filter built to catch AI slop. There was no appeal process. Just a flat rejection email and a trail of customer support conversations to work through.
In this solo episode, Dan steps away from interviewing guests to talk through what's actually happening in his own author business right now — from a stalled flat sale eating his bandwidth, to relaunching The Self-Publishing Blueprint 2.0, to finally publishing a new solo horror novella, Cock, four years after the idea first came up on a beach at ChillerCon.
He gets candid about the current state of author marketing: why organic discovery on social media has become nearly impossible, why pay-per-click advertising is now close to essential, and the early results from his first real Facebook ad test selling his Twisted Tales series. He also shares an honest, no-polish look at submission life — including a full manuscript read request from Tor Nightfire that ultimately ended in rejection — and makes the case for writing in series as one of the clearest paths to sustainable author income right now.
🎙️ What we get into:
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🖥️ Find out more: https://danielwillcocks.com/thewriterschair
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