The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 16 - Your Back Matter Is Costing You Readers (And You Don't Even Know It)
Release Date: 05/08/2026
Reader comments and questions (The Smarter Artist Show-38 )
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode, Dave digs into the YouTube comments and listener emails. The guys tackle everything from direct-to-reader store migrations and messy Amazon backlists to controversial AI thumbnails. Plus, a deep dive into world-building advice for aspiring writers, looking at cause, effect, and internal consistency. TIMESTAMPS 00:01 – Intro 03:44 – Something Cool: Dave: Introducing his son to favorite horror films and the breakout star-making turn in Obsession (Indy Navaret). Johnny: Finally reading Pierce Brown’s sci-fi/dystopian Red Rising series. Sean: Celebrating...
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The Smarter Artist Show-34: Alternate Endings "The Endless"
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The Smarter Artist Show-33: Alternate Endings--Ratatouille
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This week the guys talk about Pixar's Ratatouille, a movie Dave had actually not seen before. Pixar's love letter to creativity is a must-watch for anyone who tells stories or creates art. Sign up for our Dispatch, a weekly column to inspire your creativity at
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The Smarter Artist Show-31: Printer Has “Issue” With Johnny’s Book
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The Smarter Artist Show-30 (Alternate Endings: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
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This week’s podcast is another Alternate Endings, a show we recorded in 2021 and never released… until now, where we each make the others watch a movie we loved. Think of it like Oprah’s Book Club, if she chose books to piss off the others in the club. This week’s pick was from Sean. And it was his hero, Quentin Tarantino, and his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Sean LOVES Tarantino. Dave does not. Let the arguments begin! Sign up for our Dispatch, a weekly column to inspire your creativity at
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The Smarter Artist Show-29: What Should I Write?
The Smarter Artist Show
This week we responded to a recent conversation I had with a struggling writer. Which led me to ask Sean and Johnny what made them start writing, why they chose the books they wrote as their first books, and how do they decide what to write next. Despite knowing one another for 15 years, this is the first time we actually talked about our early inspiration. And, oddly enough, we all share one common writer in common as being the most influential on us. Can you guess who? We also talked about discovering your voice versus imitation of your favorites, how to decide between commercial...
info_outlineSean, Dave, and Johnny dig into one of the most neglected pieces of real estate in any author's catalog: back matter. The highest-leverage moment you have with a reader is the thirty seconds after they finish your book, and most creators waste it with a generic thank-you and a mailing list link that goes nowhere.
This episode is a post-mortem on real mistakes from the Sterling & Stone catalog, including a back matter page that thanked readers for a book they didn't read!
The practical takeaway is simple: every book you publish should know where to send the reader next. Not a list of everything you've written. One book, same emotional register, direct buy link.
Sean, Dave, and Johnny walk through why standalones are the hardest to monetize, why Johnny thinks we systematically misread buyer psychology, and what Colleen Hoover's publisher is doing right that authors ought to emulate.
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Timestamps
00:00 Something Cool: Sean's castle in Ireland where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien used to meet (and yes, 666 acres of Celtic forest)
10:21 Something Cool: Dave's son discovers Seth Rogen, Martin Scorsese, and then Goodfellas via a Zane Lowe interview
12:09 Chris Stuckman's micro-budget horror film Shelby Oaks and what it means to take your shot 17:35 The main topic: what is back matter, and why does it matter more than anything else in your book
19:15 The Sterling & Stone back matter fail: the Crash/Threshold story
21:09 Back matter as catalog architecture: how books should know each other
25:00 Brandon Sanderson's back matter and why you're not him yet
27:04 What makes a standalone profitable vs. a reader dead-end
29:31 The leaking bathtub debate (Johnny officially retires the metaphor)
31:32 Don't make readers click twice: direct buy links, specific CTAs, order matters
36:10 Aging series and the dead link problem: Dave's website domain story
40:24 How often to audit your back matter (at least once a year)
41:29 What Colleen Hoover's publisher is doing that you should steal
43:03 Johnny on convention buyers vs. online buyers: why you keep assuming wrong things about your readers
51:33 One thing you can do right now: open your last book and read your own back matter like a stranger 53:11 Sean's final take: look at the actual page shipping under your name, then fix it
Resources Mentioned
The Smarter Artist Method by Sean Platt, free with Dispatch sign-up Back Matter Checklist, exclusive to Dispatch subscribers
Crash by David Wright
Threshold by Sean Platt
Pretty Killer by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant
Yesterday's Gone by Sean Platt and David Wright
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Shelby Oaks (film, dir. Chris Stuckman, produced with Mike Flanagan)
The Studio (Apple TV+) *
Platonic (Apple TV+)