Chuck Klosterman

Those podcasts I did in Simmons have been huge for my career.

And they have been detrimental to the appreciation of my writing.

Absolutely.

Well, okay.

So if you like a book, like when Fuck Rock City came out and no one had ever heard me speak, if they like that book, the voice they're hearing from that book is the best version of their own voice.

That if you don't know anything about the writer, but you like the work, what you're hearing is exactly the way it would be presented by yourself.

So it is like this weird sort of bargain kind of.

It's like in order to be a successful writer now,

I have to do this.

If I wanna sell books, I have to go on these podcasts.

Like there's a thin sliver of writers who can make a living doing this and even thinner slice who can just like, I put the books out and that's how it is.

It has to be like, they have to have somebody who had some commercial success and the perception within the publishing industry that this work is so great, we gotta do it.

For me to do this, I'm not sure how people would even know this book existed if I didn't do this.

Because people don't go around bookstores anymore just browsing covers.

And yet I know that it probably has a somewhat negative impact.

Or for example, let's say I say something on a podcast that the person is really bothered by.

It's not really pertinent to what I'm writing about or anything else.

But they're like, this guy is a blowhard and he doesn't understand this.

He's uninformed.

He's uninformed about, you know, Luka Doncic or whatever it is.