The Damned #author Matt Rogers

The Damned (A Logan Booth Thriller Book 2)

Old rivals become new adversaries in this explosive instalment of the bestselling Logan Booth series.

Retired assassin Logan Booth is ready to settle down – but Jacinta Murphy, the President of the United States, has other ideas. Paranoid he will expose her past mistakes, the President triggers a chain of events that drive Logan to Colombia and into the middle of a new war.
 

After colliding with the wrong cartel, Logan finds himself on the run across the mountainous Colombian countryside. His only chance of survival lies with Alice Mason, an unlikely friend and confidant. Desperate to keep her out of harm’s way, Logan refuses to call on her for aid. But what if she turns up unbidden? How is he supposed to stop her running headfirst into danger when he’s barely keeping himself alive?

Author Matt Rogers is the internationally bestselling author of the Dante Jacoby series. Matt began self-publishing at the age of eighteen, and in the following eight years he single-handedly wrote and marketed more than thirty-five thriller novels. His books have collectively sold over one million copies.

To connect with Matt ...
https://www.instagram.com/mattrogersauthor/
https://www.mattrogersbooks.com/
https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/authors/Matt-Rogers/222415661

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's good morning, Matt Rogers. Welcome to Yellow Shelf, Matt.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Thanks for having me. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Oh, my pleasure. I um I'm feeling very privileged. I I made a shout out last week to say, hey, I'm talking to Matt Rogers, and I got a message back to say, hey, Yellow Shelves hit the big time. Matt Rogers is a writer and an author who's going to change a generation. So that's a compliment to you, not me.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

I don't know about that, but it's good to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

So cool to have you on. Congratulations, your latest book, The Damned, is pre-order now, available really soon. Tell us all about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, so the fastest way I can kind of pitch uh The Damned is so it's the second book in uh a series. So the first book, The Forsaken, came out last year. But you don't need to have read the first one to read the second one. I I try to write them kind of like Jack Reacher thrillers, where you can sort of pick up any of them and it it makes enough sense to just you know read them out of order. Um, so the best way I can describe it is it's a I like to call them like philosophical thrillers. So I I've come from self-publishing. This is like my traditional publishing debut. Um sorry, The Forsaken was the damned, is is the my second traditionally published book. Um, but yeah, I I wrote uh I guess like Jack Reacher style vigilante thrillers when I was self-publishing, and then they slowly became more kind of philosophical and psychological over time. Um, because I think thrillers are a really great uh I guess arena to like explore this stuff in because it's usually people going through the most extreme circumstances you can think of. Um, and the best comparison I can make is like if anyone's seen True Detective, uh that show with Matthew McConaughey where he plays this kind of like nihilistic, introspective uh detective, I guess. So uh I have a character similar to that, Logan Booth, and then uh the second protagonist is Alice Mason, who's a young woman uh who in The Forsaken in the previous book was sort of living on the streets of New York, and Logan is a retired assassin, uh, and they kind of form a friendship in that first book, and now in this second book, they're off on a off on a new chaotic adventure. So that is that is the fastest way I could uh sum it all up.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

That sounds fabulous, Matt. Um, for people who may not be familiar, because and they should be because you have sold a lot of books and you have a lot of books in your back catalogue. Um I do. I I you you kind of skimmed over it, but I want to ask about this journey you had, an incredible journey of self-publishing and then landing a book deal, like through through a lot of persistence of delivering books. I find that incredibly inspiring. I'd love you to share a little bit about your writing journey, anything you want the audience to know about you and your background.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So so I started reading when I was four and writing when I was six. So it's just something I've done literally my whole life. So I'm not sure where that came from, but it I guess it was kind of built in. Uh, so yeah, so I wrote all through primary school, all through high school, and then uh when I first started uni, I started studying law when I was 18. Um, and I just learned about self-publishing, and it was just kind of becoming a thing. This was uh 10 years ago now, so 2016. And um, and so I thought, all right, I've always wanted to be a writer, I'll I'll take a gap year. Uh so I only got six months into my law degree, and then uh and then yeah, self-published my first adult thriller, which was uh which I think is terrible now, honestly. I've become like a much better writer over time. But um, I don't know, but enough enough people enjoyed it for some reason. And uh yeah, so that that was like a sort of Jack Reacher style thriller. Um, because I was obsessed with that series, you know, as a as a teenager, so tried to kind of put my own spin on it. Um and then yeah, with that sold pretty well, and then I did a sequel, and then suddenly it was my full-time job. So I've been like a yeah, a professional writer for 10 years, which is really weird to wrap my head around, really. Um and then and then yeah, uh last year, so last year was my traditional publishing debut. So I think I did like 30 novels self-published because it was my full-time job. I tried to treat it like a full-time job. Um, and then yeah, got wrote, wrote uh the first 60 pages of something, a new series, and thought, oh, I really don't want to self-publish this. I might see if I can get it uh traditionally published. And yeah, got an agent, and that ball seemed to actually go pretty smoothly. And uh, and yeah, so now now I'm doing both.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

So it's been uh it's been a whirlwind, but um yeah, that's that's that is insane journey story, and I think it's really powerful to share, you know, that tenacity that you had to just persist at this, and you know, like you said, make it your craft. I'm sure it wasn't easy at times.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Well, yeah, I just I kind of like developed my voice over time, which was interesting because it was like yeah, I felt like I was still learning how to be, you know, learning how to discover myself a writer while I was a professional writer. So it was like I was putting books out, but I was yeah, constantly trying to get better and studying, you know, my my favorite crime writers of all time. Uh Don Winslow is my if anyone's read any Don Winslow, he is just like a master of his craft. So studied his books and yeah, just tried to kind of put it all together over time.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Well done. Incredible, incredible. Matt, for anyone watching anywhere around the world, your book's gonna be and is available anywhere. And I'll put that in the show notes where people can connect with the book with you. Yeah, sure. But I I I want you to share where would you where would you like people to, if they want to check you out? I know you're on Instagram, you've got a website, point us in the direction of where we best get curious about you, your new book, your old books.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Uh yeah, Instagram's probably the best. So that that's just at Matt Rogers Author. Um, because that's kind of the place where I've shared the most stuff about, you know, my journey. And I did a whole series last year. Um, because also, fun fact, when I was self-published, I didn't have any author social media. So I was just writing and releasing, and I guess it was just like word of mouth.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

But um last year with the traditional publishing, my I mean, the publisher was like, Oh, you should probably put yourself out there a bit. Um, so I did a I did a series like from day one to day 80 or something, like a video every day of like how I me writing a book from start to finish. Um, so yeah, a lot of people found that pretty interesting just to like see the whole process. But um, yeah, that's that's definitely the the best place.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yeah, awesome. Well, look, I'll put that in the show notes so people can get curious about you, the book. Um, I I'm sure there's gonna be future work, um, Matt. Like, I have no doubt, you know, as as a as a kind comment came through, you're gonna change a generation with your writing.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

So again, I I think that's uh that's that's putting way too much uh pressure on my shoulder. No pressure. No, it's uh um yeah. I mean, I think yeah, my main thing is just because I'm still 28, so I'm like I'm a young author, and like my whole thing is just trying to encourage people my age to actually read, you know. It's so it's kind of I think a bit of a literary crisis at the moment, and um with with my kind of generation and yeah, like reading for pleasure, I guess. And then um, yeah, that's that's kind of my whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

It's that's brilliant because yeah, I I I feel the same. I feel you know, reading is so beneficial and you find what you love. Um yeah, but look, Matt, thank you for joining us. Enjoy this journey of like the you know, the world of publishing and marketing. Uh it's it is it's really um refreshing to hear that the marketing journey around books isn't always natural and easy. Um yeah, thanks, thanks for sharing. And yeah, I loved I love your work on Instagram. I've I've watched that's you know, a lot of the series of you sharing your journey. It's it's been really beneficial. Matt, all the best.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. This was great. Thanks for the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, good fun. Cheers.