Bestselling author Barry Eisler didn’t actually set out to have a writing career—in fact his path couldn’t have looked less like that of a future bestselling novelist.

After graduating law school, Barry worked for three years in covert operations with the CIA. After that he joined a law firm in San Francisco, then worked for major multinational conglomerate Matsushita (an early incarnation of Panasonic) in Japan (where he also earned his black belt at the Kodokan, the world’s premier judo institute), and later joined a start-up back in the States. It wasn’t until 2002 that he tried his hand as a novelist.

He received 50 rejections from agents before finding representation, and his first book, which launched Barry’s bestselling John Rain series, sold to Putnam, an imprint of big-six publisher Penguin at the time, in 2002.

Over the course of his next X books he hit the New York Times bestseller list, and then in 2007 sold his next two books to Ballantine (a Random House imprint) in a reported 7-figure deal. In 2011 he was offered a major deal with St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan) for two more titles.

And here’s where Barry shook up the industry: He famously walked away from the St. Martin’s deal—and all of traditional publishing—and decided to self-publish.

Our interview wound up being a fascinating, free-ranging exploration of his path and the publishing industry as a whole that also dips a toe into everything from geopolitics to Edward Snowden to judo.

A few highlights of Barry’s interview:
The difference between traditional publishing and Amazon publishing: 11:24
On not taking challenges in writing personally: 38:46
The theory versus the reality of legacy publishing: 56:29
The best way to learn a craft: 1:10:21

You can read more about Barry’s journey and his editing and revision process in his How Writers Revise feature here: https://foxprinteditorial.com/2023/05/04/barry-eisler-and-pioneering-the-path/

Find out more about Barry: https://www.barryeisler.com/

A few references mentioned:

• Barry’s blog post on his 2013 Pikes Peak speech and furor it ignited: https://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/04/eisler-on-digital-denial.html
• Jacob Segal’s “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century” article: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/guide-understanding-hoax-century-thirteen-ways-looking-disinformation
• Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath’s post: “Publishing is a Lottery; Publishing is a Carny Game”: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2014/02/eisler-publishing-is-lottery-konrath.html
• Steve Jobs heckler link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o

Find more author interviews, resources for writers, free craft downloadables, and weekly tips and tools for authors in my blog at my website: www.FoxPrintEditorial.com

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