Quick Take
- Narration: Kirby Heyborne brings genuine warmth to Hayes’s self-deprecating voice, navigating the tonal shifts between practical advice and the book’s deliberately odd humor sections with easy confidence.
- Themes: Indie publishing economics, the writing life as small business, creative work and financial sustainability
- Mood: Conversational, dry-humored, and surprisingly useful
- Verdict: Hayes’s candor about money, failure, and the shape of a sustainable writing career makes this stand out from the genre, the odd essays are a bonus, not a detour.
I was on a train somewhere between Paris and Lyon when I finished the first section of Underqualified Advice, and I remember thinking that Drew Hayes had just described the economic reality of independent authorship more honestly than any writing guide I had read in the previous two years. That was the practical half. The second half, which I consumed mostly on the return journey, is harder to categorize. Hayes describes it as essays on extremely specific topics, flash fiction, and some bits that not even I know how to classify, which is exactly accurate.
Drew Hayes has made his living as a writer since 2012 and has published over twenty books, mostly in the indie fantasy space. Fred the Vampire Accountant is his most recognizable series, a reliable signal for readers trying to orient to his sensibility. He arrives at Underqualified Advice without credentials in the traditional sense, which is the entire point of the title. He has not cracked bestseller lists or won major awards. What he has done is build a sustainable independent writing career across six years of consistent output, and it is that specific, grounded, imperfect experience he draws on here.
The Half That Treats Writing as a Business
The practical section of the book is the reason most listeners will show up, and it earns that attention. Hayes covers the economics of indie publishing with an uncommon willingness to discuss actual numbers, real failure rates, and the slow unglamorous work of building readership across multiple titles over several years. His treatment of staying fiscally afloat in largely unstable waters is the kind of hard-won pragmatism that writers who are two or three years into an independent career will find immediately useful. One reviewer noted that a chapter addressing how Hayes manages the transitions between the beginnings and ends of books, specifically how to sustain momentum through middles, arrived at exactly the moment they needed it. That kind of specific, experiential advice is what distinguishes this from the aspirational writing-life guides that treat success as inevitable if you just persist.
The section on maneuvering the publishing industry is more targeted toward indie and hybrid authors than toward those seeking traditional deals. Writers on a traditional publishing track will find some overlap but should know that Hayes’s experience is primarily self-publishing oriented. This is not a weakness, but it is a scope definition worth knowing before you start.
Kirby Heyborne and the Tonal Juggling Act
The unusual structural choice of the book, alternating chapters of practical advice with essays that are clearly not practical writing advice, places real demands on a narrator. Heyborne handles this well. He is one of the more reliable names in audiobook narration, with a particular facility for first-person voices that feel grounded and human rather than performed. Hayes’s self-deprecating register, his willingness to present himself as underqualified rather than expert, is the load-bearing element of the book’s tone, and Heyborne finds it without overselling. The shift into the humor sections, which one reviewer called interspersed bits of weirdness, could easily feel jarring in less capable hands. Heyborne makes them feel like deliberate breaks in a consistent voice rather than category errors.
At nearly twelve hours, the audiobook is longer than many writing guides, and the mixed-format structure is partly responsible. Listeners who come purely for the writing advice and find the essay sections frustrating should know that Hayes is transparent about the format upfront. He describes the book as half practical, half fun, and neither half apologizes for existing. Whether you find the humor sections a welcome palate cleanser or an unnecessary digression will depend on how much you enjoy Hayes’s fiction voice as well as his industry voice.
The Specific Audience for This One
Underqualified Advice is most valuable for writers who are one to five years into an independent publishing career and trying to make sense of the economics without the benefit of a traditional publishing support system. It is also genuinely useful for writers who are self-aware enough to know that the emotional and structural challenges of sustaining long projects are their real obstacle, not the absence of information. A reviewer noted the book’s NaNoWriMo timing, and while Hayes would probably resist the framing of this as a NaNoWriMo book, the practical sections do address exactly the kinds of mid-project stalls that month tends to produce.
Who Should Listen and Who Should Skip
Listen to this if you are an independent author trying to build a sustainable career and want honest, experience-based advice from someone who has done it without the safety net of a traditional advance. Listen if you also enjoy the kind of dry, specific humor that surfaces in long-form genre fiction writing. Skip it if you are looking for traditional publishing guidance, if you find the hybrid format of advice and essays distracting, or if you are at a very early stage where the economics questions Hayes raises are not yet relevant to your situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Underqualified Advice focused on traditional publishing, indie publishing, or both?
Hayes’s experience and advice are primarily rooted in indie publishing. He covers the economics of self-publishing, building readership across multiple titles, and the financial realities of independent authorship. Writers pursuing traditional publishing routes will find some useful general material but should know the book’s default lens is self-publishing.
What are the humor and essay sections like, and do they interrupt the practical writing advice?
Hayes alternates between practical writing and publishing chapters and sections he describes as essays on specific topics, flash fiction, and material that resists easy classification. He is upfront about this structure from the beginning. Whether the humor sections feel like welcome variety or unwanted interruption will depend on how much readers enjoy Hayes’s fiction voice alongside his industry voice.
Does Kirby Heyborne’s narration add something to Drew Hayes’s voice, or is this a case where author self-narration might have been better?
Heyborne’s warmth and tonal range are genuine assets here. He handles the shifts between practical content and the book’s deliberately odd humor sections naturally. Hayes writes in a self-deprecating, conversational register that Heyborne finds without effort. This is a case where a skilled professional narrator serves the material well.
How specific is Hayes about the financial realities of indie publishing, does he give actual numbers or stay at the level of general principles?
Hayes is meaningfully more candid about money than most writing guides. He discusses actual sales figures, income ranges, and the slow build of a sustainable indie career with enough specificity to be genuinely useful. This is one of the things that reviewers consistently flag as a distinguishing feature of the book.
