Video content creator Dale L. Roberts shares tips on how to reach readers and followers, and how to monetize your efforts, through video. He discusses how to maintain your content over time to ensure your viewers continue to get value from it, how to ensure engagement through discussion, and ideas for how fiction as well as non-fiction authors can use video to establish a brand and an online presence.
Rachael Herron, the internationally bestselling author of more than two dozen books, including thriller (under R.H. Herron), mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing, discusses the barriers that can block our creativity and strategies and tactics we can use to overcome them. We discuss the idea of trusting that you'll land softly, the role that scaring yourself plays in nurturing creativity, and when and how to let go without shame if an endeavor is not feeding your creative drive.
Julie Mulhern, USA Today bestselling author of the (traditionally published) Country Club Murders and the (indy published) Poppy Fields Adventures, discusses her career as a hybrid author and how she went the traditional route first in order to build a platform and traction for later self-publishing. We talk about the tangible and intangible benefits of working with a team, and how book price can impact perceived value.
Tara Cremin discusses the factors to be considered for ebook pricing: the length and genre of the book; whether it is part of a series and, if it is, the length of the series; reader expectations regarding boxset pricing; the pros and cons of permafree; and the research needed for pricing in global markets.
Becca Syme discusses common advice writers receive--like "you can't edit a blank page"--and shares advice on how to decide if it's right for you. She explores the importance of questioning the premise, and provides guidance on how you can best match your abilities and preferences to the approach you take to your creative work.
Zach Bohannon shares the personal and creative benefits he gained by living a life of digital minimalism. He asks us to question our assumptions about whether online interactions are really necessary to create community with our fans and to reach new readers. We also discuss what fodder for our work we miss if we're focused on our devices rather than on the world around us.
Kelly Simmons reviews the three core rules of writing a successful query--keep it short, don’t sound like an a**hole, and don’t become an automatic no--and shares guidance on how to make your query stand out in a busy agent's inbox (including emojis!).
Pauline Wiles discusses why authors intent on reaching new readers should not be investing their time writing blog posts for their own website, and shares ideas for alternatives that will offer better returns in terms of building your reader community.
Common wisdom is to write what you know, and incorporating your day job into your books is an obvious method. But how do you do that and maintain confidentiality and professionalism when your job is as sensitive as a funeral director and undertaker? Todd Harra describes how he has walked that fine line in this episode.
Brian Meeks talks through his revision of one of Matty's book descriptions to illustrate the copywriting methods that have enabled him to turn browsers into buyers on the online retail platforms.
J.J. Hensley discusses the Three Hard Truths he has discovered since his first book, the support he found in the writing community, and the importance of assessing your goals for becoming a writer.
Emma Prince shares her process and learnings from translating her historical romances into German--reader outreach that, with some upfront preparation, can earn an author another stream of income from an existing piece of content with minimal ongoing effort.
Liz Jostes of Eli Rose Social Media describes the data that drives search engine optimization, identifies outdated approaches to avoid, and provides tactics that authors can apply to ensure readers can find you and your books online.
Author and podcaster J. Thorn shares some great advice for anyone thinking of starting a podcast, great recommendations for writers looking for a podcast to listen to, and valuable insights into building relationships with others in the writing and publishing worlds by approaching them with an offer rather than an ask.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre brings over a quarter century of experience in the writing, publishing, and bookselling worlds to provide insights and strategies for how authors can benefit from developing relationships with libraries and bookstores and can in turn bring benefit to those organizations.
Jane Gorman, author of the Adam Kaminski mystery series, and I discuss two primary components of a successful book cover--the cover image and the title--and provide best practices and advice on avoiding common pitfalls.
Story Grid-certified editor Anne Hawley discusses what we can learn from masterworks and the importance of meeting a reader's genre-specific expectations.
In this episode, I speak with Julie Duffy, founder and director of StoryADay.org, about creativity, mindset, the importance of community, and the strategies and tools you can use to write today, not someday.
USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Lisa Regan shares the details of her voyage through the traditional and indy publishing worlds, and shares some great advice for making a success of both.
Wendy Tyson, bestselling author of three mystery series, shares her lessons on "Five Things I Wish I Knew Before I Was Published."
Mark Lefebvre, my co-author on “Taking the Short Tack: Creating Income and Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction,” discuss the collaboration process and the messages of the book.
This episode’s topic takes a cue from the name of one of Jane’s series—Writing in Time—because the topics of many of Jane’s books are closely tied to a specific time and an event of that time. We discuss the research Jane did on those topics, and what she found.