Author
Writing Through Pain, AI, and the Messy Realities of Being an Author
Andrew Butters shares his journey as an author, discusses his diverse books, and offers insights into writing, publishing, and the impact of AI on art and literature.
Episode notes
Andrew Butters writes across wildly different genres, and his first published book is the most personal. Bent But Not Broken grew from a family blog written during his daughter's spinal fusion surgery for severe scoliosis and her 11 months of recovery, when they could find little real-world information for families like theirs. All of its royalties go to Canadian Blood Services and Ronald McDonald House, and every year the family tries to donate more than the last.
From there he swung the other way with a psychological thriller about a terrible man surrounded by terrible people, first released as Hard Truth and later rebranded as Retribution: The Mogul. He is proudest, as a writer, of a novel about an authoritarian government using AI to control its citizens and the teenage computer genius, Katherine Webb, who stops asking for permission. He named her after NASA's Katherine Johnson and James Webb. He also has a trilogy in the works and a humorous memoir, Near Death by a Thousand Cuts.
He and Willow also get into leaving a publisher that wouldn't promote a book, the discomfort many authors feel about marketing themselves, and his advice to new writers: don't write for reader feedback, because you can't please everyone and shouldn't try.
In this episode
- Turning a family's medical journey into a book
- Donating royalties
- AI, art, and authoritarian fiction
- Leaving a publisher and rebranding a book
- Why writers shouldn't try to please everyone
Books mentioned
- Bent But Not Broken
- Retribution: The Mogul
- Near Death by a Thousand Cuts
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