Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eric Beetner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Eric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I’ve made my primary living from TV and film work for over 30 years now. My writing has made me money, but not enough to support a family on. My other creative pursuits, whether playing in a band or painting, have likely cost more than I’ve earned, but it was a passion so I still made time to do it. After I graduated film school I hopped a plane to LA with the intention of working in the editing department on a film directed by a friend of mine. When I landed I learned the film had been put on hold and having just graduated I had zero savings. I stuck it out for a few months, then had to retreat back home to earn money. Less than a year later I returned and started working from the bottom up in the industry. I answered phones for about 2 weeks until they realized I was terrible at it, and they moved me into a low-level position in post production on a show that was truly terrible. I did not want to waste my break, though, and I worked my butt off. In the second season of the show I got promoted and I even got to write one of the scripts (again, terrible show. It does not show up on my resume) and it was a good lesson in working hard despite the end product because no matter what the content was, there was still much to be learned at that stage in my career.
After working on several other shows while climbing the ladder in positions, it was that same company who gave me my first job in the edit chair because they knew me and knew my work ethic, despite my lack of experience. Those early days of putting in the work were recognized and paid off a few years later and since that opportunity, I’ve never taken a step back.
Call it hustle or call it work ethic, people notice when employees are energetic and want to get in and do it without waiting to ask permission. While learning more about editing I had a job as a post coordinator on a sitcom and when I interviewed I told them I wanted to get my hands on the editing equipment to learn (in film school I cut on film and by the time I got to L.A. only a year later, Hollywood was all digital) so I offered to be the assistant editor for free. They saved money, I learned a ton and that producer hired me again for other projects because they saw my desire.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For my film and TV work I attended film school at Emerson College in Boston. I knew what I wanted to do early on. I was an actor in high school and did a little in college as well (even have an acting award for a film I was in at NYU) I always had a head for editing so I knew I wanted to pursue that as well as the standard dreams of writing and directing. I’ve made several short films and music videos and was a screenwriter for years. I sold four original scripts and was hired to write another as well as writing a few episodes of TV shows and being hired to write a pilot. Nothing ever ended up getting made, though. My scripts line the shelves of some of the finest studios in Hollywood, but nobody ever followed through. Frustrated with that, I started writing novels. Since that decision in 2009 I’ve writer over 30 novels and more than 100 short stories, all in the crime/thriller genre.
I’ve been award-nominated and worked with many different publishers, though nothing has been what anyone could call a best seller, much like 99% of all writers. I just love storytelling and I still approach my novels with a very cinematic attitude which is why they tend to be on the shorter side and very fast-paced.
Writing of any discipline can be a grind and soul-crushing when you meet the indifference of the business side of things, and I’ve seen the majority of my contemporaries quit or walk away from writing. I feel proud that I’ve stuck with it and have continued to see my readership grow and earn the respect and admiration of writers I love.
With all the creative pursuits I’ve undertaken, it’s really because I’m not satisfied with merely being a fan. I want to get in there and do the thing – whether it’s writing a movie, or learning how one is made, or picking up a guitar and starting a band. I had my first band less than a year after I first held a guitar. I was in a total of seven bands over the years, some very short lived, some with record deals and a tour van. But I wasn’t satisfied with going to see a show and not being on stage and figuring out how to write a song.
And in most everything, I’ve had only the most rudimentary teaching. I took one screenwriting class in college, about 3 months of guitar lessons from a friend of mine’s brother, one art class. Mostly I learn by doing and practicing until I feel confident, but also so that I remain myself and not only a copy of someone else’s style or teachings.
I love learning and picking up tips from anyone I respect, but I’m also wary of always making any creative pursuit have my own stamp on it so once I know the basics, I just need to dig in and start to work it. It’s meant a lot of failure and poor attempts, but none of that is wasted time. Practice at any art or creative pursuit is worth the time spent doing it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Very often the goal of doing something creative comes down to merely the act of doing it. There are stories or whole books I’ve written because if I didn’t get it out of my head and onto the page, it would never leave me alone. I can’t think about the monetary side of things, or at least I’m lucky that my TV editing provides me an income I can more-or-less rely on (as much as anyone can as a freelance worker). But writing a screenplay you have to do because you want to. Only .01% of scripts ever actually get made so you can’t think of it in that way. I started painting because I wanted something on my wall and I couldn’t afford anything from an art gallery. So why not try it myself and see what comes out? It’s the creative act that was the inspiration and the motivation to keep me going. I ended up doing a few art shows when I had the opportunity, but I knew painting was something I never wanted to worry about monetizing.
I worry in today’s world that creating for creating sake is being lost. Sure, we’d all love to make money in creative pursuits, but if that’s your primary motivation it will hinder your creativity.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have a bad habit of killing off publishers, apparently. I work mostly with smaller, independent publishers who are trying to make a go of a very difficult business, and sometimes they cannot sustain. But I’ve had publishers go under after I’d moved on, then I had to get my books back from them. I had one publisher abruptly shut down with only a week’s notice that left two different series I was writing without a home.
One series has been through 4 publishers now. It started with a small imprint of Penguin/Random House who wanted to revive an old imprint from the 1950s to do crime fiction as e-book only releases. They picked up my book and I got to work on the sequel. When I handed it in they said they loved it, but were “reevaluating” the imprint. They shuttered it shortly after. I got that first book picked up by another publisher along with the sequel and plans to write a third book. They released book 1 again, and then book 2, then shut down. After securing my rights back I found a third publisher who finally released the full trilogy. Then they let the contract lapse and I brought it to a fourth publisher who packaged all three books in a bundle where they are published now.
I could have easily left that series to die, but I believed in it and worked hard to keep it alive. All of this without an agent, by the way. My old agent sold the first rights to Penguin, but after that the book was considered used up and it was up to me to keep them alive and make sure the full trilogy made it out.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ericbeetner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbeetner/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.beetner
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericbeetner

Image Credits
Mark Krajnak (author photo)