Conversations with Eric Beetner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Beetner.

Hi Eric, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am fortunate enough to have lived a creative life. I’ve been a musician, author, filmmaker, painter and sometime actor. None of this has made me rich, of course, but I haven’t ever worked in a cubicle or been forced to wear a tie.
These days my main work is as a TV & Film editor and producer. I work mostly in unscripted TV on a mixture of high-minded documentaries and competition reality shows. Most people would know the latter. At cocktail parties I can go on and on about the 10-part series on autism, the female-driven auto racing show, the feature documentary that won Best Doc at a film festival in Oslo, mostly to blank stares. But when I ask, “Have you see The Amazing Race? Fear Factor? The Bachelor?” people come to life.
As an author, I did my time writing screenplays, several of which I sold but nothing ever made it to the screen save for the film I wrote and directed myself which played to festivals only. When I switched to novels and short stories I went with what I read, which are thrillers and crime novels. Since my first novel in 2009 I’ve published 32 books. Some have been co-written, some written under different names. I’ve been nominated twice for the International Thriller Writers Award, the Shamus award (for detective fiction) the Derringer Award (for short fiction) and four times for the Anthony Award (handed out at the largest crime writing conference, Bouchercon).
If you add in the ten Emmy nominations for my TV work, it seems like I must be doing something right. Of course, none of these nominations have come with a win (yet).
I’ve played guitar since I was 16 in my first punk rock band, on to an acoustic duet in college, an “alternative” band after that and then two post-punk, mid-90s indie rock bands where I played and sang lead vocals. That’s where I did most of my touring and had small indie record deals. Loud, offbeat music is a young man’s game, however, so I mostly just play around the house these days and watch the music industry change all around me.
TV editing and writing definitely use the same parts of the brain, so one work informs the other constantly. I tend to write tight, shorter novels that are often described as “cinematic”, which makes total sense. My job is literally to cut to the chase.
I still do work in an acting class to keep those muscles limber, though I’m not very good at actively pursuing that as a career since I know the time and dedication it takes. I still screen write and I plan to keep writing novels until I’m very old.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Working freelance the way I do is not an easy life. As much as I’d love to encourage my two daughters to pursue whatever it is that they are passionate about, I also urge them to seek a career with a 401K and health insurance. Somehow I’ve managed to make it work and support a family of four, but the way the entertainment industry is changing, the future is uncertain at best, and downright bleak some days.
Pursuing life as a novelist in 2025 is no picnic either.
It’s no secret that reading is not the pastime it once was in a pre-cellphone world. The life of a writer has never been an easy one, despite how novelists are often portrayed in movies. Despite the number of books I’ve published, my writing is not my primary source of income, not by a long shot. Pursuing film and TV development deals is always top of mind and one of the only ways to make real money as an author these days.
But even with all the frustrations and uncertainties, I wouldn’t change the life I’ve built in the arts.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an author, a TV and film editor, recovering musician, sometimes painter and would-be actor.
Within crime and thriller fiction circles, I have somewhat of a name. I’ve been award-nominated, published multiple times, anthologized and featured in interviews.
As an editor, we remain fairly anonymous. I have been Emmy-nominated ten times, which is quite an honor. Editing, when done right, is an invisible art form so it’s hard to seek recognition for something nobody is supposed to notice. But millions of people have seen my work, been entertained by it, and don’t know the secret of good editing, as it should be.
I’m incredibly proud of my novels, a good chunk of my TV work (though there are some shows that never quite make it onto the ol’ resume), I was proud of the music I made. I think the thing that sets me apart is my willingness to try anything and not be afraid to fail. I’m not content to merely be a fan or a spectator of something. I want to know how it’s done, and to be a part of it. I don’t pretend to be expert at anything, but I’ve made a career, garnered praise and generally had more success that I really thought possible, so I think I made the right choices in my pursuits.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
When I first moved to L.A. from the East Coast, I landed in Glendale because I knew I had a job waiting in Pasadena. When my girlfriend, now my wife, moved to join me she stated emphatically that she hadn’t left a good corporate job in Manhattan and an upper East Side apartment only to live in Glendale. We were moving to the beach.
We moved to Marina Del Rey, bought our first condo in Playa Del Rey and have been in El Segundo for 13 years now. We love the small town vibe of El Segundo as well as the proximity to the beach. I’m out on the sand 3-4 times a week playing volleyball, so I feel like I do truly take advantage of living here.
If the biggest downside is that we get an above average number of requests to pick people up from the airport, then I think we’re doing okay.
As my daughters get to be college age I try to get them to understand that they will encounter people at school from the midwest, the South, the East Coast and they will all harbor a little jealousy and wonder that my girls grew up so close to the beach, and that their high school has been featured in so many movies and TV shows. I think they are in for a “don’t-know-what-you’ve-got-until-it’s-gone” phase very soon.
After so many years living near an airport, I can be ready for a little more quiet, but it’s a small inconvenience for where we live.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericbeetner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbeetner/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.beetner