{"id":1391,"date":"2016-04-14T07:13:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T11:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crafttheshow.com\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2016-04-14T07:13:20","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T11:13:20","slug":"john-scalzi-how-to-stay-employed-as-a-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/?p=1391","title":{"rendered":"John Scalzi: how to stay employed as a writer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

-Andy Ross<\/p>\n

Writer John Scalzi is an Ohio resident and the author of several award-winning science fiction novels. He also runs a popular blog, Whatever<\/a>. Scalzi was the recipient of the 2016 Governor\u2019s Award for the Arts in Ohio. Scalzi will be at the Ohioana Book Festival<\/a> on Saturday April 23rd. Listen to my conversation with John Scalzi<\/a> for his thoughts on genres old and new.<\/p>\n

Scalzi stays busy with writing and his newest contract reflects that. \u201cI recently signed a multi-book deal with Tor Books, which on one hand is very nice because it\u2019s 13 books over ten years so I know what I\u2019m going to be doing for the next decade,\u201d Scalzi continued, \u201cbut the other side of that is it\u2019s 13 books over ten years and that\u2019s a lot of writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of his upcoming projects falls under the Young Adult banner, a new genre for the writer. \u201cOne of the things I really believe is true for writers is that you should always be trying new things and you should always be pushing yourself,\u201d Scalzi said.<\/p>\n

Though writing is a craft, Scalzi emphasizes the need for a business mentality when pursuing a career as a writer. He likens the career to running a small business. This played an especially crucial role when first delving into Young Adult fiction. He did ample research on the specifics of the younger audience. \u201cPart of running a small business is making sure you understand the landscape of the business that you\u2019re doing: where the market is now, where the market is going, what has worked, and what hasn\u2019t worked,\u201d Scalzi said.<\/p>\n

Scalzi may be new to Young Adult fiction, but his other writing has garnered significant praise. His novel, Redshirts, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2013. Scalzi was also the recipient of the 2016 Governor\u2019s Award for the Arts in Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI really wasn\u2019t expecting anything for two reasons: (1) if you look historically at the people who have won the Governor\u2019s Award in the Arts haven\u2019t been writers by and large and, of course, (2) \u00a0I am a genre writer,\u201d Scalzi said.<\/p>\n

Here he is mainly referring to the difficulty of genre writers, such as those who write science fiction, mystery, or romance, for breaking through and gaining mainstream critical praise. Scalzi\u2019s work was, of course, able to break those barriers.<\/p>\n

John Scalzi will be a featured guest at the Ohioana Book Festival<\/a> on Saturday, April 23rd at the Columbus Sheraton Hotel.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Craft_2016-4-Scalzi.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Andy Ross Writer John Scalzi is an Ohio resident and the author of several award-winning science fiction novels. He also runs a popular blog, Whatever. Scalzi was the recipient of the 2016 Governor\u2019s Award for the Arts in Ohio. Scalzi … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,7,110,12],"tags":[335,336,337,143,338],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","category-events-to-attend","category-ohioana","category-writing-advice","tag-john-scalzi","tag-market","tag-science-fiction","tag-writer","tag-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}