In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Tiffany Yates Martin talks about how she was not willing to grant rights to her non-fiction book INTUITIVE EDITING, and how that differed for her fiction work. We talk about aspects of an author career over which you may have more control than you think, and aspects over which you may have less control. We talk about the importance, if you are granting rights to your work to a third party such as a publisher, of approaching it as a commodity, not as your baby. And Tiffany advises you not to write what you think others, such as publishers, want you to write, but to write what you love and then find a market for that.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Tiffany Yates Martin has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling, award-winning authors as well as newer writers. She is the author of the Amazon bestseller INTUITIVE EDITING: A CREATIVE AND PRACTICAL GUIDE TO REVISING YOUR WRITING. She's led workshops and seminars for conferences and writers' groups across the country and is a frequent contributor to writers' sites and publications. Under the pen name Phoebe Fox, she's the author of the Breakup Doctor series, including the most recent release, THE WAY WE WEREN’T.
This week on The Indy Author Podcast, Jeff Elkins, the Dialogue Doctor, talks about USING ENGINES, ANCHORS, AND HAZARDS TO DEFINE CHARACTER VOICE. He talks about how words like hero and villain, while useful for assessing plot, are less useful for assessing character development, or how the character operates in culture and how he or she negotiates the relationships with the people around them. We delve into examples, including BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, LORD OF THE RINGS, HARRY POTTER, and GAME OF THRONES, to understand how the characters surrounding the protagonist, or vehicle character, function as engines, anchors, or hazards to bring out the best or worst in that vehicle character.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Jeff Elkins is a novelist, ghostwriter, and editor with more than 10 novels on the market. During the day, he leads the writing team for a company that simulates difficult conversations for professionals to practice. He also helps authors improve their dialogue to engage readers more fully through one-on-one consulting and through his podcast The Dialogue Doctor.
Sharlene Anders discusses MAKING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS THROUGH POWERFUL LANGUAGE. We discuss how writers can use tools like the free Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer to assess titles or subtitles for emails, events, and even books for Intellectual, Empathetic, and Spiritual potential. She discusses the importance of letting your first ideas rest for a bit before acting on them. And we talk about how Sharlene used that analysis to reverse engineer the topic of a summit in a way that she knew would be especially impactful to her desired audience.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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As a Creativity Coach, Sharlene Anders helps artists unlock their potential with a hands-on philosophy based on the teachings of Julia Cameron in THE ARTIST'S WAY and Eric Maisel’s FEARLESS CREATING.
M. K. Williams of Author Your Ambition describes some of the retailers that authors, especially in the US, might not think of, and the aggregators you can use to reach them … the importance of having a plan for your distribution strategy … and considerations for balancing the access and opportunities that going direct to the retail platforms provide against the time it takes to learn and optimize those platforms. M. K. cautions against feeling like you have to be everywhere as soon as possible, and advocates for picking monthly focus for your distribution planning.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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M.K. Williams writes suspenseful literary fiction for the contemporary reader. Her fiction work includes NAILBITERS, an apocalyptic science-fiction thriller, ENEMIES OF PEACE, a cautionary tale of the American Dream gone awry, and THE INFINITE-INFINITE, the first in a series of sci-fi adventure books. Her non-fiction work includes writing and self-publishing guides, a budgeting and planning workbook, and THE FIOLOGY WORKBOOK: YOUR GUIDE TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE. She recently launched GOING WIDE: SELF-PUBLISHING YOUR BOOKS OUTSIDE THE AMAZON ECOSYSTEM (Author Your Ambition Book 4).
In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, author Alexandra Amor talks about Writing Non-fiction from the Inside, or how she approached the writing of her two non-fiction books, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE FOOD and CULT, A LOVE STORY, from the perspective of someone experiencing the topic from the inside, not a scientist examining it from the outside. She shares advice for writers who are deeply interested in a topic but dismiss the idea of writing a book about it because "I'm not an expert." And she discusses how the driving force for creating her books differed between her non-fiction and her fiction.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Alexandra Amor writes both fiction and non-fiction books, all with the themes of love, connection, and the search for understanding. She began her writing career with an Amazon best-selling, award-winning memoir about ten years she spent in a cult in the 1990s. Alexandra lives on Vancouver Island.
In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me to discuss the seventh of the Seven Processes of Publishing: SELECTIVE RIGHTS LICENSING, or how you can make your hard-earned content work for you year after year across multiple markets and in multiple mediums. We discuss contract clauses that rights seekers might include in their boilerplate but which you should negotiate, and what clauses should be there that are sometimes left out … what it means to have someone option your work for TV or movies … why it’s important to fight for how you are represented in derived products (for example, the difference between “inspired by” and “based on”) … and when you need to let it go once you’ve licensed specific rights to a specific work.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Orna Ross is the founder and head of The Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me to discuss the sixth of the Seven Processes of Publishing: PROMOTION. ALLi defines promotion as specific activities designed to sell a particular book during a particular time period, as distinct from marketing, which we discussed in episode 105 and which comprises ongoing positioning of your work in the world. In our discussion of promotion, Orna addresses whether it's worthwhile for a career author’s first book; the importance of having a goal in mind so you can assess a promotion’s performance; the importance for an indy author of having profit, not just exposure, as a goal; the value of endorsements versus reader reviews; and whether investing in a publicist is a good use of your promotion budget.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Orna Ross is the founder and head of The Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the fifth of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the topic is marketing. We talk about the difference between marketing, which is your welcoming handshake to a potential reader, and promotion, which we’ll address in the next episode. We talk about the “post-natal mania” that authors suffer after their first book, and how this “buy my book!” approach is understandable but not effective marketing. We discuss the importance of having marketing be a two-way conversation with readers. Orna offers a host of ideas for how to achieve these goals, while emphasizing that this is not a checklist to be marched through blindly, but a menu of options from which you can pick to match your strategic goals, with an eye to what will work well for you personally.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Orna Ross is the founder and head of The Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the fourth of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the topic is distribution. As with the previous episodes in this series, we discuss ebook, print, and audio, including how to reach the most outlets in a way that is aligned with your business goals and that takes into account every indy author’s most limited resource: time. We discuss the importance of not assuming that your own reading or listening habits are necessarily the habits of the readers and listeners you want to reach. And we discuss how making your print book available on a non-Amazon distributor is necessary but not sufficient for getting your book on the shelves of brick-and-mortar bookstores.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Orna Ross is the founder and head of the Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the third of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing: Production. We talk about the production process for ebooks, print books, and audiobooks, including how the requirements for text-centric books is becoming increasingly easy for indy authors to meet; the expanding options for print, including easy-to-produce hardcover editions; and the opportunities that audio opens to indy authors. And we discuss what I have always thought of as the thorny question of ISBNs—those identifiers attached to each iteration of each of your works—and I discover that the answer is actually quite straightforward.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information: https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor or Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple
Orna Ross is the founder and head of the Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the second of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the focus is on Design. We talk about cover design, and how it needs to be not a work of art but a billboard that will appeal to your target readers. We discuss the importance of a professional cover designer who will understand the tropes of your genre and options for making that path affordable. And we talk about book formatting, including the tools that are available to indy authors to effortlessly create the various file types needed by the online platforms.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Orna Ross is the founder and head of the Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the first of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the focus is on Editorial. We talk about the different stages of editing, and the importance of distinguishing the deepening and development process from the correction and clarification process. We discuss how you can gain distance from your work by experiencing it in a different time, place, or format. We discuss the different types of professional editing, and how to balance your opinion of your work with the opinions of others.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Orna Ross is the founder and head of the Alliance of Independent Authors, a non-profit professional business membership organization for self-publishing authors. ALLi provides trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
Mark Lefebvre talks about the importance of being a relaxed author, a topic he and co-author Joanna Penn explore in depth in their book THE RELAXED AUTHOR. We discuss relaxed writing (including writing at your own pace and fitting your writing process to your lifestyle); relaxed publishing (including the advice to publish wide … or not : ) and how to deal with cancel culture and bad reviews); relaxed marketing (including deciding if and where to engage on social media and the option of outsourcing); and relaxed business (including the importance of saying “no” and the benefit of finding trusted voices and tuning out the rest).
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Mark Leslie Lefebvre is the author of more than twenty books that include fiction and thrillers, and paranormal non-fiction explorations. He has also edited numerous anthologies. With three decades of experience in bookselling and publishing, Mark is a seasoned and trusted book industry professional who embraces both traditional and indie publishing options.
A.L. (Amy) Jackson discusses CONNECTING WITH FANS THROUGH MERCHANDISING. She talks about considerations for using merch to strengthen ties with existing fans and to connect with new fans; what merch has worked best for her (including her fabulous book launch boxes); the logistics of design, sales, and distribution; and the factors that impact whether merch can be an income-earning as well as reader connection effort.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad. If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.
Ran Walker discusses what made him move from long-form fiction to short fiction, and specifically to drabbles, short stories of exactly 100 words; what platforms he uses to get his short fiction into readers’ hands; the benefits he has gained by building relationships with libraries; and his accidental success in France.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Ran Walker is the author of twenty-four books. His short stories, flash fiction, microfiction, and poetry have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journals. Before becoming a writer and educator, he worked in magazine publishing and practiced law in Mississippi. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Indie Author Project's 2019 National Indie Author of the Year Award, the 2019 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Best Fiction Ebook Award, the 2018 Virginia Indie Author Project Award for Adult Fiction, and the 2021 Blind Corner Afrofuturism Microfiction Contest. Ran is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hampton University, is a contributor to Writer’s Digest, and teaches with Writer's Digest University. He lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
Author JK Ellem shares why he chose to start indy and go exclusive on Amazon, and his strategy for pursuing traditional publishing deals and wider distribution. He discusses how he found the sweet spot in his release schedule and his pricing model. And he emphasizes why it should be your readers who should be driving the direction of your writing, including whether or not a standalone novel becomes a series.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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JK Ellem is an Amazon Charts US and UK #1 Bestselling thriller author. In 2020, his independently published crime thriller, MILL POINT ROAD, climbed to #1 globally in the Amazon Kindle Store in the categories of Crime Fiction, Thriller Fiction, Financial Thrillers, Heist Crime, Kidnapping Crime Fiction, and Noir. This was achieved with no agent, no publicist, and no publishing company behind him. Just him and his wife Jennifer, who looks after his marketing and social media.Jack splits his time between the US, the UK and Australia.
Michael La Ronn discusses how to maximize the value of the author tools that are already on your computer; what writing apps of the future will (and should) look like; how artificial intelligence will impact authors; and the importance of thinking of our books as data, the currency of the future.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Michael La Ronn is the author of over forty science fiction & fantasy novels and self-help books for writers. He also runs the popular YouTube channel Author Level Up, where he publishes weekly advice videos for writers. Michael also serves on the staff of the Alliance of Independent Authors as a US Ambassador, and he co-hosts the AskAlli Member Q&A Podcast where he answers new writers’ most burning questions about self-publishing.
Rob Archangel and Mikal Keefer talk about FINDING AND BEING A GHOSTWRITER. Rob, the principal at author services provider Archangel Ink, discusses the different circumstances that lead a person to look for a ghostwriter, how ghostwriting varies based on the client’s needs and skills, and the variables that influence the cost of a ghostwriting service. Mikal, one of the ghostwriters at Archangel Ink, talks about how he matches the voice of the work to the client, and the pros and cons of ghostwriting as a career—and of working on someone else’s books instead of your own. And both share tips for how to make a ghostwriting engagement a positive experience for both the ghost and the client.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Rob Archangel is the owner of Archangel Ink, and author of THE PUBLISHED PROFESSIONAL: How Self-Publishing Can Help Build Your Brand, Attract More Clients, And Increase Sales. Rob founded Archangel Ink to help clients more effectively reach their audience, share their message, and build their brand. Rob and his team help busy authors, entrepreneurs, and business professionals self-publish their written work with quality and ease, so they can focus on their area of expertise.
Mikal Keefer is a freelance author who’s published more than 35 books and ghosted a half-dozen more. He’s a veteran copywriter, crafting advertising and brand collateral for dozens of brands and hundreds of product launches. Mikal has served as an Executive Editor at a publishing house, written hundreds of video and audio scripts, developed curricula, and for one glorious day was hired to write fortune cookies.
Author Kristina Adams examines writing myths and questions the common wisdom of writing and publishing that perhaps shouldn't be so common. She shares her thoughts on what it means to be a productive and successful author, and debunks some of the myths of a writer's life, including the belief that writing is a talent, not a skill; the admonition to write what you know; how writing short stories is easier than writing a novel; and how a writer's life is necessarily a solitary one.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information: https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html
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Kristina Adams is the author of fifteen books and too many blog posts to count. She helps writers overcome their creative obstacles on her blog, podcast, and courses, over at THE WRITER’S COOKBOOK. When she’s not writing, she’s inflicting cooking experiments on her boyfriend or playing with her dog, Millie.
Nicholas Erik talks about Valuing the Creative Process and the importance of factoring in the enjoyment you get out of the process. We talk about the dangers of trying to increase productivity by taking shortcuts, and the importance of making the puzzles and challenges that you have to solve ones that you want to solve, not ones you dread. And we talk about why Nick places less emphasis on goals, where you set an end date for an activity, and more emphasis on objectives, or how you want to spend your days today and in the coming years … because as Nick says, “If you just want to make money, there are a lot easier ways to do that than writing.”
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Nicholas Erik is the author of science fiction and urban fantasy, with over 20 books, including THE FINAL COLONY series and THE REMNANTS trilogy. He also writes comprehensive guides for his fellow indy authors on how to sell more books, build your fanbase, and be more productive. He runs 1-on-1 ads workshops and provides ads management for select clients. Nick previously joined me for Episode 052 - Five Keys to Building a Resilient Indy Business with Nicholas Erik, which I believe is a must-listen for any indy author.
Ricardo Fayet, one of the founders of the resource marketplace Reedsy, discusses FINDING A CREW FOR YOUR CREATIVE VOYAGE. He discusses what signs might tip off authors that they have reached the point where investing in this kind of help makes sense, how authors can decide what to outsource, best practices for finding a good match between needs and resources, and how to work effectively with these professionals to make it the most productive and creatively energizing experience for both parties.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Ricardo Fayet is one of the four founders of Reedsy, a marketplace connecting authors to the world's top publishing talent--from editors to cover designers, book marketers, or literary translators. He's the author of several Reedsy Learning courses on marketing and a regular presenter at several prestigious writers' conferences, including NINC, RWA Australia, and The Self Publishing Show Live. He recently released his first book, “How to Market a Book: Overperform in a Crowded Market.”
Rebel author Sacha Black discusses SIDE CHARACTERS--what are side characters and what distinguishes them from the protagonist and antagonist? Is a sidekick different from a side character? How can side characters support the story or the portrayal of other characters? And what are good and bad reasons to kill off a side character that readers are / will be invested in?
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
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Sacha Black is a bestselling author, rebel podcaster, and professional speaker. She has five obsessions; words, expensive shoes, conspiracy theories, self-improvement, and breaking the rules. Sacha writes books about people with magical powers and other books about the art of writing, including THE ANATOMY OF PROSE: 12 STEPS TO SENSATIONAL SENTENCES, 10 STEPS TO HERO: HOW TO CRAFT A KICKASS PROTAGONIST, and 13 STEPS TO EVIL: HOW TO CRAFT SUPERBAD VILLAINS. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son.
Michael La Ronn talks about his decision end his podcast THE WRITER’S JOURNEY. He discusses his original impetus for starting the podcast, the adjustments he made to it over time, and the personal and professional considerations that made him decide to bring that creative endeavor to an end. He discusses the benefits he gave up and the benefits he gained—and where he plans to redirect his creative energies.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Michael La Ronn is the author of over forty science fiction & fantasy novels and self-help books for writers. He also runs the popular YouTube channel, Author Level Up, where he publishes weekly advice videos for writers. Michael also serves on the staff of the Alliance of Independent Authors as a US Ambassador and he co-hosts the AskAlli Member Q&A Podcast where he answers new writers’ most burning questions about self-publishing.
In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, author Ben H. Winters discusses the "both-ness" of compelling characters. We talk about how he used the concept of “both-ness” in his own books, including THE QUIET BOY, UNDERGROUND AIRLINES, and THE LAST POLICEMAN, and how other authors have—or haven’t—used it in some of his favorite books, including THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. We talk about the importance of recognizing “both-ness” in people not only in books but in real life. And we talk about “other-ness,” and how to portray characters who are not only separated in some way from the rest of the world they live in, but sometimes even from ourselves.
Ben H. Winters is the author of the novels THE QUIET BOY, GOLDEN STATE, the New York Times bestselling UNDERGROUND AIRLINES, THE LAST POLICEMAN and its two sequels; the horror novel BEDBUGS; and several works for young readers. His first novel SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS was also a Times bestseller. Ben has won the Edgar Award for mystery writing, the Philip K. Dick award in science fiction, the Sidewise Award for alternate history, and France’s Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire. His writing has appeared in Slate and in the New York Times Book Review. He also writes for film and television and was a producer on the FX show LEGION. He lives in LA with his family.
Tiffany Yates Martin shares best practices for how to give and receive critique … and cites some pretty harrowing examples to illustrate her points. We look at the value of formal critique groups; the fact that all input is opinion, not fact; and tips for how to weigh how that input aligns with the vision you have for your work. We talk about whether reading your reader reviews is a good idea, and when you just have to pour yourself a bubble bath and have a glass of wine.
Tiffany Yates Martin has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling, award-winning authors as well as indie and newer writers. She is the author of the Amazon bestseller INTUITIVE EDITING: A CREATIVE AND PRACTICAL GUIDE TO REVISING YOUR WRITING. She's led workshops and seminars for conferences and writers' groups across the country and is a frequent contributor to writers' sites and publications. Under the pen name Phoebe Fox, she's the author of the Breakup Doctor series and her most recent release, A LITTLE BIT OF GRACE.