J. Manfred Weichsel is an indie author, editor, and New York background actor writing the kind of books the “write to market” gurus would tell you not to write — Menippean satires set in pulp-fantasy worlds, with covers spicy enough to get him banned from Amazon’s direct catalog. In this episode, he joins to discuss why classical satire is the antidote to the AI slop tsunami, why “tropey writing” was already machine-generated long before the LLMs showed up, and how an author with NSFW pulp covers builds an audience without playing the trends game.

In This Episode

* Two Kinds of Satire (and Why One Is Disappearing): Manfred explains the split between Aristophanic satire (SNL, South Park, parodying real people) and the Menippean tradition he writes in — fantasy-world satire aimed at human institutions, using weird perspectives and structural experiments.

* “How Do You Write Satire When Everything Is Satire?”: A Fordham nun asked him this decades ago and he still doesn’t have a clean answer. His current read: nothing is satire anymore, which is its own problem.

* The AI Slop Argument Authors Don’t Want to Hear: Trope-chasing romance authors who let tools pick their plots have been outsourcing creativity to algorithms for years. The pitchforks only came out when AI got good enough to do the last 5%.

* The Vertical Drama Economy: What he sees on Chinese romance sets — AI writes the script, actors get a “human touch” pass to fix mistakes.

* Why Originality Is the Only Way to Survive: When the machine spits out every trope on demand, the authors left standing are the ones doing things it can’t copy.

* Amazon’s NSFW Cover Roulette: Two of his Action Girls books got blocked from Amazon direct (still on Ingram Spark). He thinks re-uploading the cover too many times to fix a bleed line might have triggered it. A real look at how random Amazon’s enforcement is for spicy covers.

* Kickstarter as the NSFW Lifeline: Kickstarter is one of the most NSFW-friendly platforms left, with a dedicated NSFW newsletter pulling in tens of thousands per campaign.

* The Smut Double Standard: Male-targeted smut gets reviewed with “but what about other audiences?” framing. Female-targeted smut never gets that question. Manfred thinks regular readers don’t actually care — only the professional review sphere does.

* The Bizarro Scene Is Over (But the Authors Aren’t): What killed bizarro around 2019.

* Dropshipping as an Indie Fulfillment Hack: He uses Amazon author copies shipped straight from Amazon US (and Amazon UK for European orders), skipping the $8 middleman cost. That’s the reason his Kickstarter pricing works at all.

* Why Cirsova Made His Career: He got into Cirsova at Volume 1, Issue 8 — early enough to ride the wave up. Short fiction in the right venue is one of the highest-leverage moves a new author can make. He also covers the flip side: magazines that fold and bury your stories with them.

* The Social Media Dread: Manfred is on every platform and barely posts on any of them. What he sees on commuters’ phones in New York — short-form video, online shopping, chatbots, almost no text-based social — and why old Twitter was his peak before X tanked his reach.

* The Guru Trap for New Writers: Two predators to watch for. The course-sellers are obvious. The attention-economy ideologues who want you to convert and promote their worldview disguised as writing advice are much harder to spot.

Guest Links

* Read Space Escapades by J. Manfred Weichsel: https://amzn.to/4rwGriA

* Website: https://j-manfred-weichsel.mailchimpsites.com/

* Substack: J. Manfred Weichsel

Kristin’s Links

* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com

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

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

Timestamps

00:00 - Meet the Guest.

00:37 - Pulp Meets Satire.

00:57 - Classical Satire Roots.

01:26 - Menippean Satire Explained.

04:02 - Writing Outside Trends.

05:44 - AI Slop and Originality.

10:25 - Breaking Plot Formulas.

11:34 - Kickstarter and Indie Sales.

13:40 - Amazon NSFW Cover Roulette.

15:44 - Illustrated Trilogy Kickstarter.

17:02 - Kickstarter and NSFW Policies.

18:08 - Smut Double Standards.

20:59 - Transgressive Fiction Today.

21:45 - Transgressive Genres Fade.

22:40 - Bizarro Scene Fallout.

24:03 - Finding Readers Today.

24:17 - Social Media Dread.

26:23 - Short Form Video Shift.

29:06 - Kickstarter Versus Preorder.

29:49 - Fulfillment And Dropshipping.

32:09 - Short Fiction And Sir Sova.

35:45 - Advice For New Writers.

36:07 - Avoiding Internet Gurus.

40:09 - Where To Follow And Support.

42:25 - Final Thanks And Links.

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

J. Manfred Weichsel – The Smut Double Standard No One Will Talk About