Alec Cizak has been running Pulp Modern since 2011 and champions a simple but apparently radical idea: writers should be judged on the quality of their work, full stop. That stance, along with a vocal commitment to free speech, made him a target around 2020, when a coordinated smear campaign accused his publication of platforming rapists and pedophiles. Rather than apologize or disappear, he called the bluff, kept publishing, and eventually pivoted Pulp Modern into a film franchise.

In this conversation, we dig into why apologizing to a cancel mob is the worst thing you can do, how the “writing community” became one of the most censorious spaces in independent publishing, and what it actually looks like to protect your creative work when people are trying to bury you. We also get into the tribal psychology behind cancel culture, the slow strangulation of crime fiction by social-activist gatekeepers, and why Alec thinks the best indie work tends to come from people who’ve already been told to shut up.

In This Episode

* The Cancellation, Reconstructed: What actually happened when a small group of writers accused Pulp Modern of publishing rapists and pedophiles, why Alec responded with a $100 challenge instead of an apology, and what the silence of his longtime contributors hurt more than the attack itself.

* Never Apologize: Why capitulating to a cancel mob is the single worst move you can make, what the pile-on is actually testing for, and the four-word response Alec recommends over any attempt at reasoned debate.

* The Writing Community Problem: How a subset of crime fiction writers decided the genre needed to become a vehicle for social activism, why that gatekeeping broke indie crime fiction, and why Alec isn’t sure the damage has been undone.

* No Limits Doesn’t Mean No Standards: What Alec is actually looking for when he says Pulp Modern has no limits — and why it has nothing to do with shock value, profanity, or gratuitous content.

* Why Crime Fiction Needs to Be Ugly: What a conversation with an Indianapolis homicide detective confirmed about the gap between fictional criminality and the real thing, and why closing that gap matters more than making readers comfortable.

* From Magazine to Film: How the pandemic and the cancellation together accelerated Pulp Modern’s pivot into anthology filmmaking, why procuring short films works the same way procuring stories does, and what the third film is going to do differently.

* The Independent Fiction Alliance: Why Alec built a support network for canceled and targeted writers, what its meetings actually feel like, and why one member’s observation — if you haven’t been canceled, you probably aren’t doing anything interesting — is the right attitude to have.

* Free Speech Has to Mean All of It: Why Alec thinks the war on free speech was engineered to protect corporations from criticism, what happens when hate speech and free speech get deliberately conflated, and why the people who were cancel-happy in 2020 didn’t learn anything when it happened to them.

* AI in the Classroom: Why Alec, as a college literature and composition professor, has stopped trying to catch AI-generated essays and started teaching students how to construct a focused argument instead — and why he thinks the writing professor job has an expiration date.

Guest Links

* Get Pulp Modern issues as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription: https://amzn.to/4qprkqH

* Website: https://independentfictionalliance.com/

* X: @AlecCizak

Kristin’s Links

* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com

* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com

* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin

Timestamps

00:00 - Pulp Rebels Intro.

02:05 - Meet Alec Cizak.

02:59 - The 2020 Cancellation.

06:37 - Fear And Free Speech.

12:05 - Crime Fiction Gatekeeping.

16:06 - Why Write The Ugly.

20:11 - Tribalism And Community.

23:02 - Staying The Course.

24:39 - No Limits Publishing.

26:31 - Why Horror Now.

27:03 - Pivoting Into Film.

27:43 - Building Pulp Modern Anthologies.

29:06 - Launching the IFA.

30:32 - What makes Indie Spirit.

32:23 - What the IFA Does.

33:23 - Handling Cancellation Attacks.

35:54 - Bullies and Boundaries Online.

39:10 - AI as the New Battleground.

41:01 - Teaching Writing in the AI Era.

44:01 - What’s Next Creatively.

44:55 - Where to Find and Support.

46:37 - Closing Thoughts.

About This Podcast

Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.

New episodes weekly.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com