Neal Asher has been writing science fiction for Pan Macmillan for 25 years and published 40-plus books, but before any of that he was hauling coal sacks in the rain and fishing typewriters out of skips. In this episode, the man behind Gridlinked and the Love, Death + Robots episodes "Snow in the Desert," "Bad Travelling," and "Mason's Rats" talks about clawing up every rung of the publishing ladder back when distribution was a brick wall, why he thinks indie writers have never had it better, and what's gone wrong with the books the big houses keep putting out. It's a clear-eyed history lesson from someone who lived the old days and isn't romantic about them.

In This Episode

* The working man who became a writer: Neal walks through the decade of being a machinist, gardener, barman, and skip-lorry jobs that came before the books, including a two-week stint delivering coal.

* Rejection, small presses, and the writer’s folio: How he built a career sending sample chapters by post and circulating manuscripts in a literal envelope of writers before email existed.

* The £1,000 phone call: The first novella sale that knocked him to the kitchen floor, and the 1999 SFX review of The Engineer that he stuck on top of the slush pile to catch Pan Macmillan’s eye.

* Extending Gridlinked in two weeks: Why his first Macmillan book was too short for the British market, and how he rewrote it from 65,000 to 135,000.

* From Heavy Metal to Netflix: The cold email to Tim Miller that started 15 years before Love, Death + Robots, the story Tom Cruise reportedly said could carry a film on its own, and working with David Fincher on “Bad Travelling.”

* What traditional publishing still does and where it’s failing readers: Neal on the distribution and editing the big houses do well, and his blunt take on “the message,” the reading slump among men, and why he reads by word of mouth now.

* Keeping your mouth shut vs. not giving a damn: The cost of being a vocal conservative or libertarian in publishing, the Dark Diamond dedication to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos that got books returned, and where he’s landed on all of it.

* AI governance in fiction and in real life: How the Polity’s AI-run society grew out of his short stories, his dystopian counterweight in the Owner trilogy, and whether a real superintelligence would wipe us out or keep us around like silverbacks.

* Indie books worth reading: The titles that pulled him out of a years-long reading hiatus, including Devon Eriksen’s Theft of Fire, Larry Correia’s catalog, and Michael F. Kane’s space western After Moses.

* Where to start and what’s next: Neal’s advice for new readers (and the blog post on his site that settles it), plus the Time’s Shadow trilogy: Dark Diamond out now, Dark Agent in May, and Dark Horizon next year.

Guest Links

* Read the Agent Cormac series: https://amzn.to/3P6xy2c

* Website: nealasher.co.uk

* X: @nealasher

Kristin’s Links

* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com

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

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

Timestamps

00:00 - Meet Neal Asher.

02:24 - Choosing Writing Seriously.

03:10 - Rejections and Small Presses.

06:26 - Writers Folio Breakthrough.

08:40 - Why Publishing Was Harder.

12:12 - Macmillan Calls in 1999.

15:14 - Love Death and Robots Origins.

20:07 - Traditional vs Indie Today.

21:45 - Publishers Without Publicity.

22:15 - Sci Fi And The Message.

23:59 - Finding Indie Sci Fi Gems.

26:17 - Word Of Mouth Wins.

28:02 - Politics And Speaking Out.

28:37 - Dark Diamond Dedication Fallout.

30:41 - AI Rule In The Polity.

32:32 - Singularity Fears And Hopes.

37:34 - Where To Start Reading.

40:04 - Dark Diamond Trilogy Preview.

42:25 - Writing More Than Planned.

43:01 - Closing Thanks And Wrap Up.

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.

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