The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 16 - Your Back Matter Is Costing You Readers (And You Don't Even Know It)

The Smarter Artist Show 23: Hypotheticals 2: Electric Boogaloo

In this week's episode of The Smarter Artist Show, Sean, Dave, and Johnny take turns answering Dave's latest batch of hypothetical questions. Dave also talks about how one of the questions inspired a script idea. Join the guys for an assortment of amusing, weird, and intriguing hypothetical questions which you can play along at home! Note: In efforts to get to the nonsense sooner, we shortened the intro. The outro full song is still there for your listening enjoyment. 0:00 — Intro 14:00 — Question 1: You have a difficult neighbor. How do you deal with it? 24:25 — The nude question 26:00 — The zoo animal question 29:50 — If you could speak to one kind of animal which would you choose to speak with? 33:20 — If you had to pick another job other than writing and you'd be guaranteed success, which would you choose? 34:39 — A Beam question. Would you rather be Enterprise or Directorate? 39:20 — The dumbest question in this set! 40:50 — Could you take a job where you're paid $2 million per year to do nothing? 46:00 — the suitcase question. 49:00 — Would you rather be reincarnated as yourself with some of your memories and reliving your life, or a fresh start as someone else? 54:00 — The Unicorn question. 55:00 — The Three Body Problem question. 57:00 — You can reboot or continue any series or movie you want, which would you choose, and what would you do with it? 100:04 — Which of your properties would you most like to see made into a TV show or movie? Never miss an update of our podcast and get a new essay and bonus content delivered every Friday with our free weekly newsletter, The Dispatch. Get it at https://smarterartist.net/disptch [https://smarterartist.net/disptch]

The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 22 - 20,000 Covers, One Lesson.

In this episode, Sean, Dave, Johnny, and guest Matt Stone of 100 Covers talk about the number one thing successful books have in common. Spoiler: it has to do with the cover! Stay tuned to the end, or just go to the show notes, for a limited time offer from 100 Covers. **Special Promotion:** Special 50% offer at https://100covers.com [https://100covers.com] using the coupon code ASS from Friday June 19, 2026 to 11:59 PM EST Monday June 22, 2026. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to the episode and guest Matt Stone 00:26 - The importance of showing your work and applying experience to your brand 02:30 - Something Cools: Johnny and Sean talk the Backrooms movie. Dave talks about the upcoming movie on Netflix "The Last House" and Matt's is … a Milli Vanilli song. 14:55 - An amazing segue to the topic of the show and how Dave is trying to sabotage the show. 16:00 - The origins of 100 Covers. 18:40 - What Matt discovered while researching their 20,000 book covers. 24:58 - Targeting successful book covers and utilizing Bookbub ads. 31:05 - Balancing creativity and market trends, short game versus long game. 37:57 - working with clients on how to research for their book cover. 41:00 - non-fiction book cover designs 46:00 - Evergreen vs. ephemeral design trends 51:00 - Special 50% offer to get your own covers. ⠀**Special Promotion:** Special 50% offer at https://100covers.com using the coupon code ASS from Friday June 19, 2026 to 11:59 PM EST Monday June 22, 2026.

The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 21 - The $800 Movie

This week Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into the indie horror moment happening right now in Hollywood, two breakout films, Obsession and Backrooms, both made by filmmakers who came up on YouTube with almost no budget. They trace the path from Curry Barker's $800 film to a theatrical release that's earned around $250 million (at press time), and talk about why horror rewards resourcefulness in a way most genres don't. Sean talks for the first time on air about the horror script he and Dave have been developing, and the conversation he had with a friend that talked him out of a $5 million budget and into a $1 million one. It's the first public mention of a project that's going to keep coming up. Timestamps: 7:00 — Something Cools 12:40 — The topic of the week. 15:30 — Talking about Backrooms 19:00 — Horror movies being held to a different standard 22:45 — Sean's $1 million movie announcement 24:48 — Dave talks about low budget horror and the upcoming Ice cream Man movie trailer. 26:00 — Benson and Moorehead's low budget Lovecraftian movies which led to them working on Marvel shows. 30:00 — constraints in movies versus having too big of a budget. Discussion about Christopher Nolan's work, and Dave's fave movie, The Fountain. 41:36 — More low budget movie success stories: Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, Blair Witch, and Saw. Resources mentioned: Obsession (dir. Curry Barker) that's a bad idea channel — https://www.youtube.com/@thats_a_bad_idea [https://www.youtube.com/@thats_a_bad_idea] Backrooms (dir. Kane Parsons, A24) The Endless, Synchronic, Resolution (dir. Benson and Moorhead) The Ice Cream Man Redband trailer — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiS6TWj4nV0 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiS6TWj4nV0] Milk and Serial — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzGQ1lszv4 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzGQ1lszv4] Subscribe to the Dispatch: https://smarterartist.net/dispatch [https://smarterartist.net/dispatch] Next week: we're talking book covers

The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 20 - The Thing We Haven't Written Yet

Dave opens by holding up five completely filled journals to the camera, all devoted to a fantasy novel he's been building in his head for at least five years. That kicks off an hour-long conversation about the creative project you haven't written yet: the idea that's too big, too personal, or too risky to touch until you're ready. Sean's version is the very first book he ever wrote in 2007, a 600-page narrative nightmare with, in the words of Cindy's professor friend, "long passages of staggering genius." Both projects are alive, neither is finished… yet. Timestamps 00:00 — Cold open: Dave shows the journals. 03:30 — Something Cool (Sean): *The Next RenAIssance* by Zack Cass, recommended by Joanna Penn. AI in education and medicine, the case for augmentation, and why Sean thinks school would have worked for him in a different era. 11:36 — Sean publicly praises Dave's screenplay draft as the best rough draft he's ever turned in. 14:30 — What the screenplay feedback was actually about: showing vs. telling, and why a narcissist villain should never be too honest too fast. 16:40 — Something Cool (Dave): *Office Space* (1999), rewatched with his son. Beavis and Butt-Head, the Beavis reboot, and how Winger got cancelled by a cartoon. 25:55 — The actual topic: what is the thing you haven't written yet? Dave's project: a fantasy novel five years in journals, mythology without a single borrowed framework, an ensemble cast, and a central story element he won't reveal on air. 40:15 — Sean's project: the first book he ever wrote, started in 2007 during rest time at the preschool. A 600-page novel that tried to be a fictional *A Short History of Nearly Everything*. Books and Resources Mentioned The Next RenAIssance by Zack Cass (Joanna Penn recommendation) A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman The Dark Tower series by Stephen King The Smarter Artist Method by Sean Platt (leave a review on Amazon) Sign-Off CTA If this conversation gave you something to think about, you won't want to live without the Dispatch. Head to https://smarterartist.net/dispatch [https://smarterartist.net/dispatch]. Sign up and you'll get a copy of *The Smarter Artist Method* and the workbook. We'll see you in your inbox.

The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 19 - Your Characters Are Assets. Are You Treating Them That Way?

Saul Goodman was supposed to appear in four episodes of Breaking Bad. He was comic relief. Vince Gilligan read the room, changed his mind, and eventually built a six-season prequel around him. Sean, Dave, and Johnny use that as the on-ramp for a longer conversation about what separates a character that can carry IP from one that can't, and whether a creator can engineer that kind of popularity or whether it only exists because an audience decided it does. The guys then talk about characters taking over shows not meant for them, why some asshole characters work and others don't, and much more in this episode of The Smarter Artist Show. Timestamps 01:37 Episode intro: Your characters are assets. Are you treating them that way? 04:20 — Something Cool: Dave on Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (new Apple TV show, Tatiana Maslany) 09:04 — Sean's Something Cool: building custom apps with Claude, and why off-the-shelf task management never quite works for him. 10:00 — Johnny's Something Cool - he's doing an appearance at Comicapalooza in Houston. 21:34 — Sean on the Sterling & Stone AI hallucination problem (Forbes quoted something wrong; now the AI believes it) 24:00 — The actual topic: characters that become bigger than the story they inhabit 25:40 — Better Call Saul as the case study. Dave's original take: it'll never work 29:20 — Sean talks about Boricio Wolfe. Why it was their best example, and why it couldn't have been engineered? 34:00 — Sean on characters that take over shows they weren't written for. 40:00 — Johnny: what happens when the audience loves a character you don't? "Assholes are fun to write." 41:00 — The likability question. Succession, Meyer Dempsey, and why some audiences reject complicated characters. 47:50 — Dave on what makes an unlikable character work for him, when the reader can understand or identify why they're the way they are. 51:55 — Ending, theme song If this conversation gave you something to think about, you won't want to live without the Dispatch. Head to https://smarterartist.net/dispatch [https://smarterartist.net/dispatch] Sign up and you'll get two things right away: a copy of The Smarter Artist Method, and the workbook to help you get smarter, faster. We'll see you in your inbox.