JD Cowan: Iron Age Marketing Podcast Episode 026

In today’s episode of Iron Age Marketing, I talk to JD Cowan, writer and proud extoller of the pulp revolution.

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Let’s Meet Iron Age Creator JD Cowan

JD Cowan is a writer with an obsession for stories and Truth. He takes pleasure in looking for Light in the places where darkness grips the tightest. His works include “Grey Cat Blues,” “Y Signal,” the Gemini Man trilogy, and short stories in Cirsova, Storyhack Magazine, the PulpRev Sampler, as well as the Planetary Anthology. He blogs about stories and entertainment at wastelandandsky.blogspot.ca and can be found on Twitter @wastelandJD for those interested.

Beginning A Writing Career & Discovering The PulpRev

Today’s conversation between JD Cowan and Nicky P begins by digging into our guest’s roots and journey as an author. The story, from a birds-eye view, is a journey of learning and meeting the right guides along the way.

The big turn for JD and his writing career comes when he discovers and becomes a part of the PulpRev community. The introduction to this often glossed-over era of fiction didn’t strike him as an honest burial. From here, his own research led him to want to put out more traditional adventure literature.

The Gemini Man Series & Short Fiction Magazines

In the second part of our conversation, JD Cowan & Nicky P. get into The Gemini Man Series. The books were previously released under a now-defunct publisher, and JD managed to secure his rights to publish the books on his own. This is where his current output was at the time.

In addition to what he is currently up to, the discussion shifted toward his overall content, consisting of ten novels and between twenty and thirty short stories. JD has released many short stories in the current crop of magazines for such things, including Story Hack, Cirsova, and Iron Age magazines.

Monster Of The Week Vs A Grand Narrative & Communicating With Your Audience

The next section of the conversation between JD Cowan & Nicky P gets into some of the very visible failures of properties that turned from monster-of-the-week stories into grand narrative examples. The two big ones that come to mind are Fringe and The X Files. Both shows fail to keep interest in later seasons, whereas Stephen King managed to create an overarching universe that didn’t demand slavish adherence to a single story.

Turning back to the marketing questions, Nicky P attempts to dig into how JD manages to interact with his community effectively. Nicky P discovered JD on X/Twitter because of his interesting takes on music. The moral of the story bolsters, once again, that the strategy is always relationship-building.

Twitter & Substack Are The Kings Of Social Media For Writers

Digging into the specific choices JD Cowan has made for his own work, he surprises us with some of the places he finds his best communication exists. For growing his audience and reaching other writers, he finds X/Twitter to be the current king. He has also eschewed Mailchimp, as it declines, for Substack. Nicky P notes that he has found discoverability to be a great feather in Substack’s cap.

Hopefully, today’s episode with JD Cowan serves as both inspiration and education in your own journey to bring your creation to the world.

JD Cowan Resources & Extra Media

Shilling In The Iron Age

Need help connecting with or growing your audience for your book, comic, TTRPG, or other creative endeavor? Check out Nicky P @ ironagemarketing.com

ironagemarketing@nickpecone.com