Stories turn songs into symphonies, events into memories, and lives into legends. In our crowded world, “knowing your story” cuts through the noise so you can make your mark — whether you want to sell more books, increase profits, or just make a difference. At Sterling & Stone, Story is our business. The Story Studio Podcast is where we explore ways we can all tell our stories better.
Johnny B. Truant, Sean Platt, and David Wright
It’s a wrap! Season 1: State of the Industry is done. After interviewing some truly stellar guests with their fingers on the pulse of what’s going on in all different […]
“There’s never been a better time to be an indie author,” Craig Martell says on this episode of the Story Studio Podcast. Craig Martell runs the 20 Books to 50K […]
Erin Wright is a contemporary western romance author who also runs the fantastic online/Facebook Group called Wide For The Win. Erin was initially invited onto the podcast in place of […]
When the guys first met Mark Leslie Lefevbre, they got to know him as Mark Kobo, because he was working for Kobo back then. Now Mark works for Draft2Digital, through […]
Andre Chaperon and Shawn Twing are writing and business partners. Together they run a website called Tiny Little Businesses (which you can find at https://tinylittlebusinesses.com). Sean first found Andre through […]
Once upon a time, there was a fiction writer who wanted to send a free copy of his book to his mom. But he didn’t want her to have to […]
It’s no secret that the audiobook segment of the publishing industry has been growing in recent years. In the last 9 months of stay-at-home orders and quarantines, people have been […]
Sean has known Jane Friedman since before the beginning, way back when Yesterday’s Gone was just the seed of an idea and he approached her to talk about a series […]
In today’s episode, the guys talk to Dave Chesson, founder of Kindlepreneur.com, a website devoted to teaching advanced book marketing. His tactics and insights help both Fiction and Nonfiction authors […]
As powerful people are so fond of saying, “Knowledge is Power” and in the world of ebook publishing, Alex Newton’s K-Lytics is a powerful thing. Knowing the real numbers about […]
Knowing what to quit doing can be just as important as knowing what to do. Sean and Johnny first encountered Becca Syme through her book, Dear Writer, You need to […]
In today’s episode, the guys sit down with their old friends Mark Dawson and James Blatch to check in on what they’ve been doing and what they see coming in […]
State of the Industry with Michael Anderle The Guys first met Michael Anderle right at the start of his journey in Self-Publishing. He had the (dubious) pleasure of riding in […]
Joanna Penn is a North Star in the Self-Publishing Industry. She is someone who was already there when the guys first got started, and most people think of them as […]
Welcome to The Story Studio Podcast Season 1: The State of the Industry. Yes, after 131 episodes of The Story Studio Podcast, the show is finally transitioning from Season 0 […]
In today’s episode, the guys, along with Bonnie and Niamh, talk about the big changes coming to the Story Studio Podcast in the coming weeks. This episode is the last […]
Out of everyone in the story studio, Sean is probably the most versatile author who can dexterously turn his hand from one genre and form to another quickly and with […]
Johnny B Truant writes complex stories. Stories with plots that tend to branch out and get more complex by the chapter and book throughout a series. If you’ve read Invasion, […]
If you’ve ever read a David Wright story, you’ve experienced narrative tension. But how does Dave do it so well? And how does he crank it up a notch higher […]
Worldbuilding is about building both the hardware and software that supports a story. Culture is the software. How we interact with the hardware, how we view it and use it, […]
When the critics can’t stop talking about something, and people can’t stop talking about it too, you hit that sweet spot we all look for in terms of finding ways […]
Ninie Hammon wrote in the newspaper world for 25 years before she started writing novels. When she started writing novels, 12-13 years ago, she never thought about the process. She […]
In today’s episode of The Story Studio Podcast, the guys talk with Eileen Rose who is a member of the Sterling and Stone Story Studio. Before Eileen joined the Story […]
Different people come up with ideas and brainstorm in different ways. In the Sterling & Stone Story Studio, all of the authors bring stories to the table to brainstorm at […]
On today’s episode, the guys talk about watching the movie Doctor Sleep and the Shining franchise. They have a lot to say about movie adaptations from books, about one book […]
We’ve all heard from writing classes and craft books that we need to murder our darlings. In today’s episode, the guys discuss the darlings they’ve murdered both for themselves and […]
We are living in a Black Mirror episode. Dave always was living in a Black Mirror episode, but 2020 is the year the rest of the world joined him there. […]
In today’s episode, Johnny and Dave switch roles. Dave is excitedly working on his new project in the Yesterday’s Gone universe, and Johnny wishes an asteroid would hit the earth […]
In today’s episode, Dave reveals his plans for any physical fights he may or may not have in the future and how he will make sure that whoever he battles […]
Being a writer requires doing the seriously hard work of writing. But making a living writing requires more. In today’s episode, Rachael Herron talks about all the different income streams […]
In today’s episode of The Story Studio Podcast Sean and Johnny rewatched The Godfather and Dave watched it for the first time and asked some great questions of each other. […]
Getting to do what you love for a living is pretty incredible. But when you are building your author career through writing and releasing books in series, there is a […]
Ever have a story get stuck? There are a few different ways in which this can happen. Sometimes a story gets mechanically stuck where you’ve written your way into some […]
Have you ever wanted to collaborate with another author or multiple authors to build a fictional world where you can come together to create extraordinary stories? More inputs mean more […]
In today’s episode, Sean and Johnny continue the conversation with Bonnie about Characterization Hacks. They talk about commercial characters, over-the-top superman characters, supermen with relatable flaws, everyman characters, and more. […]
Creating outlines and beats can keep you moving by always knowing what’s next when a pure pantser might have to stop and figure out what happens. But sometimes too much […]
People don’t fall in love with plots, devices, and settings. At least most people don’t. When someone falls in love with a book or a story, most often they are […]
In last week’s episode, The Guys Watch: The Watchmen Part 1, the guys and the Story Studio discussed The Watchmen. They went into all kinds of detail about what worked […]
On today’s episode, most of the Sterling & Stone Story Studio appears along with the guys to discuss The Watchmen. The whole studio watched it together and in this, part […]
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield personifies Resistance as an almost corporeal being of sorts, something that must be faced, battled, and defeated and a daily basis in order […]
What are the tools you love and use every day to help you do all the things you need to get done? The guys share a few of their favorites […]
If we only knew then what we know now. The guys insist that they don’t legitimately have regrets, but if they had a time machine and could go back to […]
In today’s episode, the guys talk with Jeff Haskell, an author they met at S3, the Story Shop Summit in Austin, Tx. Jeff writes Superhero science fiction, a little bit […]
On today’s episode, the guys answer listener questions about anthologies and serials. Anthologies are collections of works (stories, poems, or episodes) that each stand on their own but may sometimes […]
In today's episode, the guys talk about watching Being John Malkovich. Spoiler Alert: Be warned, if you haven’t seen it yet, this episode may very well spoil it for you. […]
It's difficult to create great work when your confidence gets rocked or when your emotional self is in turmoil. There are so many things that can put a kink in […]
Episode 100! A milestone indeed. The guys have hit it several times on past podcasts like The Self-Publishing Podcast and others and joke that they often end up changing the […]
Dave always loved Green Mile by Stephen King and really wanted to do something serial-based. In 2008 Available Darkness was the first thing Dave and Sean serialized on their website. […]
What productivity systems and techniques work best for creatives and specifically writers? The Story Studio Podcast wanted to find out. On today's episode Dave, Sean, and Johnny try out three […]
Jono Matt is a writer in LA and the scrappiest MF Johnny has ever met. Recently, Jessie Cole came on the show to talk about Savana Bananas, the sitcom that […]
Once upon a time, if you wanted to binge-watch your favorite show, you had to record each episode from TV and wait to save up all the episodes so you […]
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