Thomas: Welcome back to Author Update, everybody. Today we’re going to talk about Charlie Kirk, a Christian author who was shot while giving a speech to his audience. We also have publishing news. MailerLite is reducing its free plan, Kit is raising prices, and the Wheel of Time rights are reverting.
We have more to cover, but first, I’m Thomas Umstattd, Jr.
Jonathan: I’m Jonathan, Jr. Today we’re going to address the major news event of the week. Charlie Kirk has been shot and killed while speaking to his audience in Utah.
A few months ago we covered conservative books getting kicked out of public libraries. Last week we covered a conservative in the UK getting arrested for his tweets. Now we’re talking about a podcaster, speaker, and author who has been killed for speaking about what he believes in.
As for Charlie Kirk, here are some quick biographical details. He was a prominent Christian conservative author and co-founder of Turning Point USA, which he started at 18. He was a young father of two and had recently married. He published several books. He was known for being open and engaging with his audience, allowing anything to be said so it could be heard and addressed from his conservative Christian viewpoint. From a Christian perspective, he gave people verses and Bible. He did not back down from his beliefs no matter how difficult it became.
I have nothing but respect for what he did, what he stood for, and most of the time the way he went about it. Of course, there are differences you might have with a public figure in how they address certain things, but it is hard to armchair general that. He was on the spot. You get to watch the replay.
Thomas, what are some things he did as an author that expanded his ability to speak to his audience?
What Authors Can Learn From Charlie Kirk
Thomas: People are nitpicking every word he ever said, when so much of the recordings are him in a context where people could ask any kind of question, often antagonistically. The fact that there is so little truly bad material is remarkable.
As someone who does open Q and A in a much safer environment, with patrons asking book marketing questions, I can tell you it is difficult. Doing that in a hostile environment is remarkable. We have heard a lot about Charlie Kirk for three days. This is Author Update, so I want to talk about him as an author.
He was an example of someone doing just about everything right from a book marketing, author, and writing perspective. The most notable thing you could say about Charlie Kirk is that he listened to his Timothy.
Jonathan: His whole brand was built on going to his Timothy and talking to them on camera.
Thomas: People call him a martyr for public speech and the First Amendment. I do not think people realize what that is. When someone goes to a campus to speak, they usually hold the microphone the whole time. That is not what Charlie Kirk did. He spent a huge amount of time allowing his intellectual opponents to talk. He would say, it’s your turn, we will go back and forth. It is an ancient principle. By debating and discussing, objective truth can be found.
Listening had a huge impact. To be a good debater, you must be a good listener. You cannot win if all you do is throw isms at the other person. You must understand their arguments. He did, and that informed his writing.
Five of the top six bestselling books on Amazon right now are Charlie Kirk’s. His books were doing well even before he was killed. He had a clear message and a clear audience. He knew who he was communicating to and spent a lot of time listening.
Many clips show him not on a big stage but on a small stage, sitting behind a table, discussing with someone who is often being very mean. He responded with grace, kindness, empathy, warmth, wisdom, and truth.
That is the work of an author. If you do that well in real life, you will write well. Writing that grows from conversation gets better. It is also practice. I did not follow him early, but I have listened to people who did. They talk about how much he improved over time in debating, communicating, organizing, and writing.
He put a lot of effort into building his platform. He did what I encourage authors to do. He had a podcast. He had an email newsletter. He did public speaking. He used social media strategically. He did not waste time there. He did things in real life that created good content for social media. Many clips were from his speaking, and he engaged with people online.
As his tweets resurface, people are retweeting posts from months ago. Many were prescient and wise. One practice he had, and I am pondering doing this, was keeping the Sabbath and resting from his phone on Sundays. He traveled, spoke, was on cable news, yet on Sundays you could not book him or reach him. He put his phone away and was fully with his family. I am not fully there on Sundays. It is a challenging example of using social media well.
He had courage, which we talk about a lot as critical for book marketing. He was willing to talk to people who hated him. Courage is attractive. He understood the times. He knew the zeitgeist, often better than cultural observers. People would say young people are socialists. He would say no, and he had authority to say it because he listened to young people.
Writing is a way for your ideas to live on after you. Charlie is not with us anymore, but his books are. I would not be surprised if he occupies top spots on the New York Times list.
Author Reactions and the Stephen King Misquote
Jonathan: There has been a lot of impact on authors in the past couple of days, mostly on social media. Everyone feels like they have to throw out their position. It is already happening in the comments here.
Thomas: I hope we are not throwing the negative ones up on screen.
Jonathan: I know my job. They can do it themselves.
Stephen King is probably the best example. He posted on X a quote he pulled out of context. He said Charlie Kirk had said the gays should be stoned. Turns out that was taken out of context. Charlie Kirk had been talking about how not to use the Bible, saying that claiming gays should be stoned because the Bible says so is not the right way to use the Bible.
Stephen King apologized and took it down.
Thomas: This connects back to listening and going to your Timothy. Part of listening well is understanding your opponent’s position. Charlie would often quote, very articulately, the opponent’s position, then critique it. It shows he understands, then shows how it is wrong.
A lot of things he supposedly said, if you expand the timeline slightly, you hear him giving an articulate critique of the thing he supposedly said. It is disingenuous engagement. Long term, it does not work.
Back to Stephen King.
Jonathan: King amplified something he saw on X elsewhere. He is a huge antenna. He deleted it, backtracked, and apologized. Everyone started dogpiling.
Stephen King getting canceled is a big deal, though at a certain size you think you are beyond cancellation.
The question is, what can authors learn? What can an author say or not say in a charged moment? How should you govern your speech and how you are viewed? What dangers are present to authors and their brands? Stephen King has made his money. Even if he gets canceled, he will be fine personally.
Thomas: He is not canceled for any actual meaning of that word, but he is receiving ire. People are grieving, and anger is looking for an outlet. He is a prominent target, and he has not been charitable in his language.
How Authors Should Speak When Emotions Run Hot
Jonathan: As an author establishing a brand, how should you speak? There is a free speech argument and a best-practices argument. Thoughts?
Thomas: Pick your battles. Be circumspect. Be mindful of your brand. When emotions are high, being quiet is often wise.
When this first happened, emotions were extreme on X. Elon Musk took a break from X for half a day. He went completely dark, which is uncharacteristic for him, especially during breaking news. I think he was aware of his own emotions and afraid of saying things that would cause society to spin out of control.
There is a sense that we are trying to have a chess match, but if the other person punches me in the face, can we still have a chess match? Is learning chess going to help?
There is a sense on the left that if you say bad things, you deserve to get killed, and you see it in comments. People imply he brought it on himself. Some say it explicitly. That is evil and un-American.
Evil is real. We are fighting spiritual forces of evil, which influence ideas. People can be rescued from evil ideas. We all hear things we do not like. If that justifies violence, we cannot be a people.
Jonathan: R. R. Martin says he is going to take another 10 years to write the last Game of Thrones book. I do not get to shoot him. That is not how that works.
Fear, Courage, and the Cost of Speaking
Thomas: It is very scary to be threatened. My oldest heard that an author and podcaster was shot. The night after the shooting, she woke up crying and asked if they were going to kill Daddy next.
Her opinion of me is elevated, but we never thought they would go after people with no power. It is not like Charlie Kirk was a government official. People have shot at the president, gone to a Supreme Court justice’s house, and the speaker of the house was shot. But they would not shoot a commentator. Then they did.
In some ways, it is easier to target an obscure commentator. Charlie Kirk has security. Ben Shapiro has security. Elon Musk has security. Security is very expensive.
Alexander McCree wrote a great article about campus events. When Antifa started violence, insurance shot up. They had to pay about $400,000 in insurance and $30,000 a month for security. Even then, colleges would cancel events because of the other side’s violence. It has a chilling effect.
Friends are asking if it is safe to go to the grocery store. We are training our daughters for situational awareness. This is not the only violent thing that happened this week.
When I was a kid, my dad, an accountant, came across organized crime. He was scared, and for 24 hours there was fear in the house. I watched him decide not to be afraid. He would not let it control his life or keep him from doing his job.
Grief, Discipline, and Not Letting Anger Rule
Jonathan: There is a concept among combat troops that the guy next to you is going to get hit. That can be worse than getting hit yourself. There is survivor’s guilt. Many veterans think, I wish I had gone out with my boy.
There is a misunderstanding around Kash Patel. He said, “See you in Valhalla.” People asked, “What are you saying? You are Indian, he was Christian.” Guys, it’s a military saying. Many military personnel go into law enforcement. “I will see you in Valhalla,” is what warriors say when another warrior has died. Do not get caught around the spokes on that one.
When one of your own falls, you pick up his weapon, take his tags, and keep going. The mission still has to be accomplished. Otherwise, what did he die for?
Civilians, particularly in America, struggle with this because they do not often lose someone they were in the fight with. Moral outrage is an appropriate response to murder. Then what do you do with the anger? You do not get to gun down a whole village because they killed one of your boys. You must know who to go after. That requires intelligence, which was my job in the Marine Corps. Keep yourself disciplined.
Justice, Restraint, and What To Do Now
Thomas: We need the strong men who will make good times. Charlie Kirk was that kind of man. We are in the season where we are recovering from bad times that weak men made. Women are not safe on trains. Speakers are not safe on campuses.
Strong men must do difficult things. One of those things is being meek, controlling strength and violence. Justice is a blindfolded woman, blind to color and class, bearing a naked blade and holding scales. The standard is an eye for an eye and a life for a life. The temptation is to be harsher or lighter than that. Weak men have been unwilling to punish evil. They are unwilling to allow Lady Justice to wield the naked blade.
The time for that is ending. We follow ancient paths. Fair trials. Jury of your peers. Swift executions and punishments. That is what fixes society. Resist the temptation to take justice into your own hands.
Jonathan: Legitimacy is part of how punishment works. In the Bible, Cain kills Abel. Cain’s concern was that everyone would want to kill him, so God marked him so that would not happen. Later, the law of self-defense appears. After the flood, God gives the command, whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed. That passes punishment to government. Governments will answer for how they wield it. Self-defense is different and still stands, but tracking down and punishing is governmental. He holds the sword for a reason.
Thomas: It is right and good for a Christian to forgive the evildoer. It is also right and good for a judge to say, you are guilty, and tomorrow at noon you will be hanged by the neck until dead. Those are not in conflict. Harboring unforgiveness is poisonous. Jesus calls us to forgive as individuals. Turning the other cheek does not mean murderers suffer no consequences. We have forgotten what justice is. We have put words in front of the word justice for so long we have forgotten justice itself.
Our ancestors gave us the picture. A blindfolded woman, bearing a naked blade, with scales to bring balance. We can have that again. The wheel turns ever onward. We are in a fourth turning. Things fall apart, then are rebuilt. You can advocate for justice in your stories and nonfiction.
Last night I met with dads about training our daughters to protect themselves. One dad is training his daughter to carry, and to have a guardian mindset. We need to do this, but we should not normalize it. Society must change. Women should be able to sit on a bus without fear. That means justice needs to wield the naked blade. More importantly, we must repent of our sins. We have lied, stolen, coveted, taken God’s name in vain. We need to trust Jesus and go back to church.
If you want to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy, go back to church. There is one in your area. They would be happy to have you.
Number one, repent, trust in Jesus, pray for our nation. Number two, reject calls for vigilant violence and civil war.
Jonathan: I lived in a country that had civil war. You do not want that. A lot of people on social media are almost gleeful that their time has come.
If something is trying to make you angry online, look and see why. Controlling people through anger is easy, especially if they think they are being moral. Foreign actors value destabilizing the US. Now is a great time for them to try. As for real people who are excited for civil war, they have no idea what they are talking about. You have never lived your life looking at trash and wondering if it is a bomb. Do not ask for a world you would find unbearable.
Thomas: The first American Civil War had more casualties than any other war we have fought, and we had a fraction of today’s population. It would be unfathomably terrible and unnecessary. Our ancestors already gave us the solution, which is true justice through the courts.
A Personal Challenge From Charlie’s Example
Jonathan: We have covered the majority of what we need to cover regarding Charlie Kirk. Your people will make their own decisions. I am inspired and shamed by his impact and the impact I have not had. I have not worked as hard as he did. The man was a workaholic. He was friendly to everyone, extroverted, always talking to everyone. He sent personal messages to anyone who needed it, not only to people who could benefit him.
I am inspired by his life and example, and shamed by what I have not even aspired to. I would stay in my office and write a book every three years.
Thomas: Meanwhile, he was podcasting every day, still writing a book a year, and traveling and speaking.
Jonathan: Take a look at your own ministry and mission. Adjust if you need to. Push on. Do not despair. Quote Lord of the Rings to yourself if you have to. Be like Theoden, who said, now I shall not be ashamed to stand in my ancestors’ mighty company. That is what we are going for.
Publishing News: BookBub Names Novel Marketing a Top Podcast
Jonathan: Some good news. BookBub selected Novel Marketing as one of the best podcasts for authors. It shows that the Novel Marketing method works. Thoughts?
Thomas: BookBub reached out that they featured Novel Marketing as one of the top 20 podcasts for authors. We will share the link in the blog version of this episode. I am thankful to be featured.
I suspect they used AI to generate the list, which means the AI optimization I have been preaching works. If they did not use AI, I still appreciate being selected.
Email Platforms: MailerLite Narrows Free Plan, Kit Raises Prices
Thomas: MailerLite is reducing its free plan. Previously free users could have up to 1,000 subscribers. They are reducing that to 500. They are also removing automation tools from the free plan.
This will likely improve MailerLite’s quality. Email services share server reputation. Free users require policing so deliverability stays high.
Kit is also raising prices. They have not raised prices in 12 years. Kit at 39 dollars a month is still cheaper than when it launched at 29 dollars, adjusted for inflation.
Kit has a free plan that goes up to 10,000 subscribers because they are competing with Substack. This makes me feel good about pivoting away from recommending MailerLite and toward Kit. When I rebuilt the Author Email Academy and created my free course, the Send Your First Email Challenge, I kept it simple and taught only Kit.
You can get the free course at AuthorMedia.com under Courses. It walks you step by step through setting up your newsletter and sending your first email.
New Author Tool: Book Splitter
Jonathan: Thomas has a new toolbox tool. It is the Book Splitter, which sounds like a video game weapon.
At my publisher, authors would submit 500-page books. That creates problems. Past a certain page count, printing gets expensive. Shipping is expensive. Often, that is three books. Take act one, act two, act three.
I did this in my Shades of Black series. I hit 90,000 words halfway through book two and realized I had to break it up. You can use Thomas’s tool to split along natural seam points. It is extremely useful.
Thomas: It does not just find split points. It gives tips on how to massage the beginning and end of each new book so readers get a satisfying conclusion that still leaves them wanting more. It guides you, and you write those scenes.
If your book is print on demand, the sweet spot is 200 to 250 pages. That is where your cost per copy is lowest and your earnings are highest. If your book is too short, you can adjust trim size and font, but only so much. Sometimes you must split.
Give it a try.
Anthropic Copyright Case Update
Thomas: An update on the Anthropic story. Quick recap: Anthropic was sued by authors over copyright violations by training an AI model on their books. The judge ruled that training on books is fair use and exceedingly transformative. But the judge also said Anthropic did not buy its copies of the books. They were pirated, so a piracy claim could proceed.
The lawyers refiled with a piracy focus. Anthropic entered settlement talks. They presented a settlement to the judge.
Jonathan: The judge came back with concerns. He criticized the lack of clarity on how claims would be filed, how authors would be notified, and which works would be covered. He demanded a revised plan, including a clear opt-in process for authors and a finalized list of works by September 15.
Thomas: The finalized list of books will be most interesting for authors. You will want to search for your book. If it is listed, you could potentially make 3,000 dollars per book. We will continue to cover this. Both sides want to settle. Anthropic sees itself as lawful good and wants this to go away. It is hard to say no to 1.5 billion dollars.
New Author Tool: Royalty Analyzer
Thomas: Another toolbox tool I should have featured first is the Royalty Analyzer. You know that spreadsheet from Amazon KDP you never look at because it is overwhelming. This tool analyzes it and shows what marketing activities are working.
It is simple. Upload your KDP Excel file. Keep a log of your marketing activities. For example, I went on the Acme Podcast on September 1. I started my ads on such date and ended them on another date. The tool lines up your log with your sales, including paperback, hardback, and KDP reads.
The real one simple trick is keeping the log. When you track something, you improve. Start a document and keep a log. You can retroactively add the last year from memory. Then use the Analyzer to see what moved the numbers.
It does not analyze Audible because their reports are hot garbage and difficult to process.
You can also upload other sales spreadsheets for added context.
Jonathan: Where can they find it?
Thomas: PatronToolbox.com. This and about 50 other tools I have built for authors are there.
Wheel of Time TV Rights Revert to the Estate
Jonathan: Since the Wheel of Time show on Prime was canceled, the rights have returned to Iwat, which manages the rights for Robert Jordan’s works. They are not looking for another streamer. Sony and Amazon held the rights. The first season disappointed Jordan fans and failed to capture a big audience. Even though seasons two and three subjectively improved, the drop-off in viewers was severe, so they canceled it.
It is believed Jordan’s estate will now pursue other options, such as a video game franchise in Jordan’s world, or potentially silver screen options if anyone wants to take a risk after the Amazon debacle.
Thomas: They made the same mistake with Wheel of Time that they are making with the new Chronicles of Narnia show. They altered the laws of the universe so it was not the show.
Wheel of Time’s theme across all 12 books is that men and women are different, and they use their differences together. The magic system is built on that. Postmodern, deconstructed views that erase differences between men and women fundamentally break that universe. If you want to tell that story, tell it, but do not slather Wheel of Time paint on it. It is not Wheel of Time. Just like if you make Aslan a woman, it is not Narnia.
Jonathan: Hence the drop-off in viewership. I made it halfway through the first season. It looked derivative of Lord of the Rings. Several scenes were copy-pasted. While I love Lord of the Rings, make something else, Amazon.
Thomas: I wanted to like it. After several episodes of season one, I went back and re-listened to the audiobooks of the entire series instead of continuing the show.
Closing
Thomas: We will be back next week with more publishing news. Like and subscribe, and ring the bell to be notified when we go live. I appreciate how active the chat has been. Hopefully everyone has been civil. If you were not, it is a free country.
Jonathan: Say stuff about Thomas in the chat. He cannot see it.
Thomas: Thank you all for listening. Live long, prosper, and go to church on Sunday.
