Jane Friedman reviews Key Book Publishing Paths, and describes considerations for fitting the path to your desired destination. We talk about how publishing isn’t indy or traditional—it’s a spectrum—and how hybrid authors aren’t necessarily authors who are using hybrid publishers. We talk about lessons one model can learn from another, and red flags to watch out for when you are assessing companies to do business with.
Jane Friedman has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors, and has previously worked for F+W Media and the Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2019, Jane was awarded Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World; her newsletter was awarded Media Outlet of the Year in 2020.
This episode of The Indy Author Podcast is a bit of a departure. Most of the episodes focus on one person's perspective on a variety of topics, but this episode is going to focus on many people's perspective on one topic, and that topic is PERSONAL BRANDING.
I solicited perspectives on personal branding from previous guests of the podcast, and I'd like to thank the following for answering the call: Tiffany Yates Martin, Dale L. Roberts, Michael La Ronn, Joanna Penn, Robert Blake Whitehill, Lee Savino, Pauline Wiles, and Wade Walton.
Website designer Pauline Wiles discusses AUTHOR WEBSITES, including easy fixes for common website problems; design guidelines that create a site that is both engaging and easy to maintain; various alternatives depending on your technology tolerance; and some free tools that can help you make your site look like a pro designed it.
Pauline Wiles is a website designer who builds simple, stylish sites for authors and writers. As an author herself, of the Saffron Sweeting romantic comedies, she noticed others were often overwhelmed by this task. Now, she’s helping to dispel some of the myths around how difficult – and costly – a web project should be. British by birth, Pauline is now a contented resident of California, although she admits to an occasional yearning for afternoon tea and historic homes.
Robert Blake Whitehill discusses MENTORING AND COLLABORATING WITH INTERNS, including the logistics and requirements of an author establishing an internship with a college or university, how he determines what work he asks his interns to do, and how he got past the idea that “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” He also discusses the considerable responsibilities he has as a sponsor, and shares what he receives in return for his investment of time and effort.
Robert Blake Whitehill trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. An early focus on feature screenwriting earned Whitehill film festival wins at the Hudson Valley Film Festival and the Hamptons International Film Festival. He has written episodes of Discovery/Times Channel’s THE NEW DETECTIVES, DARING CAPERS, and THE BUREAU. Robert served as the Vice President of Independent Film Acquisitions for Centerseat.com. He is author of the Ben Blackshaw thriller series, which Robert’s company Calaveras Media is developing into a feature film franchise. His biopic inspired by the live of Robert Smalls is in development with Legion M. Whitehill lives in New Jersey with his wife and son. For a number of years, he has worked with the Montclair Ambulance Unit as an emergency medical technician.
M.K. Williams talks about what she has learned from her author services business, including the importance of establishing a network within the community you want to serve, the advice to approach people with an offer rather than an ask, the value of her project management background, and the importance of knowing what your time is worth.
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 helps bloggers and podcasters bring their message to print.
Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors talks about COPYRIGHT FOR AUTHORS. We discuss why it’s so vitally important for authors, and especially indy authors, to understand the basics of copyright, at what point in the creative process copyright is established, the various parameters by which rights can be defined, and when legislation that focuses too heavily on authors’ rights can harm more authors and readers than it helps.
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.
Beth Kephart talks about WRITING MEMOIR, including various motivations for embarking on a memoir, and which might be considered unproductive or unhealthy (for example, for revenge). She discusses how writers can approach topics or episodes that involve actual people, both from a writing perspective and in terms of preparing those people for the experience of reading about themselves. And she talks about the market for memoir, and her experience across the full spectrum of publishing options—from the most well-established traditional houses to her own imprint.
Beth Kephart is an award-winning teacher at the University of Pennsylvania. She was the 2013 Master Writing Teacher for National YoungArts, is a co-founder of Juncture Workshops, has delivered keynote addresses on the art of teaching, has led teach-the-teacher sessions, and has taught writers of all ages in a variety of settings. She has published two books on the teaching of memoir—HANDLING THE TRUTH and TELL THE TRUTH. MAKE IT MATTER.—and writes a monthly educational newsletter, Juncture Notes.
YA author Emma G. Rose talks about the event that led her to write about suicide in her YA novels, how her goals for her book changed over time, how she approached her family about the topic of the book and how she interacts with her readers, and how she uses guidelines from her journalism background to avoid glamorizing the topic.
Emma G. Rose is a Maine author of contemporary fantasy, including NOTHING'S EVER LOST and NEAR-LIFE EXPERIENCE. She intended to become a kick-ass girl reporter like Nellie Bly. Then she spent a Christmas Eve standing on a riverbank waiting for rescue divers to pull a body from the water. That's when she stopped waiting and wandered off to explore the world instead.
Former FBI agent Jerri Williams talks about MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE ABOUT THE FBI AND HOW TO AVOID THEM. We discuss common myths and misconceptions about the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, including the portrayal of jurisdictional issues and roles and responsibilities. Jerri shares tips for the best way to approach subject matter experts for information to inform your own work. And we discuss how you can stay true to the facts while still making the story interesting.
Jerri Williams served for 26 years as a special agent in the FBI, working major economic fraud investigations. She uses her prior professional experiences with scams and schemers to write crime fiction about greed. Her novels PAY TO PLAY and GREEDY GIVERS – both inspired by actual FBI cases – feature a female FBI agent assigned to a Public Corruption and Fraud Squad in Philadelphia. She is the producer and host of the true crime podcast FBI RETIRED CASE FILES REVIEW, where she interviews retired FBI agents about their high-profile cases and careers.
Thriller author Jason Kasper discusses what drove his move from indy publishing to a small traditional publisher, the control he’s maintained over his two primary reader outreach mechanisms (email and a private Facebook group), and how he has maintained another indy author practice: rapid creation of content.
Jason Kasper served in the US Army as a Ranger and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq before attending West Point. Jason then served as an Airborne Infantry and Special Forces officer, deploying multiple times to Afghanistan and Africa. During his off-duty time he began running marathons and ultramarathons, skydiving, BASE jumping, and writing fiction. His last Army assignment was as a Green Beret team commander. Upon returning from his final deployment in 2016, Jason began his second career as an author with the publication of his debut novel, GREATEST ENEMY. Jason lives with his wife and daughter in North Carolina. A portion of all his sales benefits the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
Tiffany Yates Martin talks about X-RAYING YOUR PLOT, including the benefit of the x-ray—getting an overarching view of your story—how it differs from an outline, the importance of the “but / therefore” test, and some steps you can take if your x-ray reveals breaks in your story.
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.
Keith Wheeler talks about writing and publishing children’s books, including the importance of writing for the parents as well as the child, how to find and work with an illustrator (including advice to never work with friends or family), and the production process and options for books with illustrations.
Keith Wheeler is a multi-award-winning author. His first work was published while he was a freshman in high school and since then, Keith has self-published over 250 books in numerous genres, and has helped others achieve their goals of becoming published authors. His philosophy is simple: “EVERYONE from 7 to 107 has a book inside them waiting to come out and I love to help them on that journey.”
Mark Leslie Lefebvre talks about going wide for the win—the importance of distributing to and understanding all the retail platforms, not just Amazon. He gets pretty impassioned as he talks about the dangers of a lemming mentality, and he reminds us that there are bookselling professionals behind those other platforms, and that our own professional reputation benefits from us keeping that in mind. And he questions whether an author distributing only to Amazon really deserves to be called an independent author.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre is an author, professional speaker, and bookseller with more than a quarter century of experience in writing, publishing, and bookselling. Mark started writing when he was thirteen years old, was drawn to bookselling and has remained in the industry since 1992, wearing many different hats. Among other things, he was the founder of the Kobo Writing Life author platform and is currently the Director of Business Development for Draft2Digital. He is a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction, and is the host of the Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing podcast.
Jon McGoran discusses point of view, the pros and cons of first-, second-, and third-person point of view, and reader expectations based on considerations such as genre. He discusses the importance of narrative economy and triangulation--how one character's observations of another character can give the reader a lot of information about both the observed character and the observer. And he shares a formatting tip for helping to keep track of POV characters, and to see where POV shift occur throughout your manuscript.
Jon McGoran is the author of ten novels for adults and young adults, including the award-winning YA science fiction thrillers SPLICED, SPLINTERED and SPIKED, and the acclaimed thrillers DRIFT, DEADOUT, and DUST UP. He cohosts THE LIARS CLUB ODDCAST, a podcast about writing and creativity. He is a freelance writer, developmental editor, and writing coach.
Brian Rathbone discusses the opportunities offered by Google Play, including the ability to reach global markets that are underserved by other platforms, the ability to link content together—for example, linking an ebook box set with the component works and benefiting from earned metadata, or ratings and reviews, of the component works. He also discusses his premium pricing approach, and how that plays out on the Google Play platform.
Brian Rathbone is a horse trainer turned author and creator of The World of Godsland fantasy series, the most recent of which is THE SEVENTH MAGIC. He is also the author of the Sam Flock novels, a paranormal adventure series that begins with LURE.
Editor Joshua Essoe discusses tips for drafting and editing your action sequences to ensure that the reader isn’t pulled out of the story – tips that apply even if your scene doesn’t involve battle plans or broadswords. He talks about the importance of strong, engaging characters, because if your reader doesn’t care about the people involved, no amount of exciting action is going to draw them in. And he discusses how you can save your editor time – and yourself money – by paying attention to the logistics of the scene: don’t have a character holding a knife in one hand and a shield in another hand their magic amulet in the … well, the other other hand.
Joshua Essoe is a full-time freelance editor who has edited for New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, and many top-notch independents and award-winners. He was lead editor at Urban Fantasy Magazine from 2014-2015. You can find Joshua teaching about editing, pitches, and back-cover copy every year at the Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado. And he just completed his Kickstarter release for the first in a five-book series, each covering two subjects of the most-common issues he sees in fiction writing.
Evan Gow discusses the role newsletter swaps can play in author promotions, the etiquette of swaps, and some gotchas authors should watch out for, as well as advice for authors with small or inactive email lists. Evan also talks about the many other services that StoryOrigin provides, and why the fact that he’s both the development team and the support team for StoryOrigin means that its current beta (i.e., free) status still means high quality.
Evan Gow is the indie developer of StoryOrigin, a marketing tool and community of authors that work together to build their mailing lists, increase sales, find reviewers, and stay on top of deadlines.
Lee Savino discusses AUTHOR NEWSLETTERS, the one area of an author’s business about which Lee says “just do it,” imagining your newsletter as a conversation with a specific person over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and a pep talk about how to get past the “I don’t want to pester them” mindset and recognizing that your work is a gift that you’re sharing with people who have opted in because they’re interested.
Lee Savino is a USA Today bestselling author, mom, and chocoholic. She loves connecting with other authors and writers. She moderates a Facebook group, Millionaire Author Mastermind, for authors serious about making money from their books and is the instructor, along with Nicholas Erik, of the Six Figure Author Marketing Challenge.
Joe Lallo discusses THE PROS AND CONS OF PRE-ORDERS, including the specific considerations of pre-orders on Amazon versus other platforms, whether or not pre-orders make sense for an author’s first book or for standalone novels, and things to keep in mind to avoid annoying your most faithful fans. We also talk about pricing strategies, including how to price box sets.
Joseph Lallo was educated at NJIT, where he earned a master’s degree in Computer Engineering. In September 2014 he was given the opportunity to take a promotion that would eliminate his writing time or become a full-time author. He chose the books. Since then he has written dozens of novels and novellas in genres across the science fiction and fantasy spectrum, including the international bestselling Book of Deacon series and the critically acclaimed Free-Wrench series.
In addition to writing, he helps run the Six Figure Authors podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Andrea Pearson. Past ventures have included the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast and BrainLazy.com. In his spare time he builds pointless doodads in his ridiculously over-equipped basement workshop.
Joshua Essoe discusses CROWDFUNDING FOR AUTHORS. He shares what led him to choose crowdfunding—and specifically Kickstarter—as his approach for funding his book, ESSOE’S GUIDES TO WRITING ACTION SEQUENCES AND SEX SCENES, what went according to plan, and what was a surprise. He also describes what he gained from the experience, including confirmation that being a writer doesn’t have to be the solo sport it sometimes feels like.
Joshua Essoe is a full-time freelance editor who has edited for New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, and many top-notch independents and award-winners. He was lead editor at URBAN FANTASY MAGAZINE from 2014-2015. From 2012-2015 he recorded the weekly writing podcast HIDE AND CREATE. You can find Joshua teaching about editing, pitches, and back-cover copy every year at the Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado. Joshua is a writer himself and was a 2014 finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. He just completed his Kickstarter release for the first in a five-book series, each covering two subjects of the most-common issues he sees in fiction writing.
Michael La Ronn discusses the costs involved in independently publishing a book. Michael talks about the two most costly aspects—editing and cover design—and tips for how to accomplish these on a budget. We discuss potential pitfalls—for example, the fact that if your cover designer inappropriately uses copyrighted material, you as the author are the one who will get the cease-and-desist letter. And we discuss how to ensure the professionals you are considering doing business with are reputable, and how to ensure your interaction is successful for both parties.
Michael La Ronn is the author of over 40 science fiction & fantasy books including the ANDROID X series, the MODERN NECROMANCY series, and the GALAXY MAVERICKS series. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has perfected the art of balancing writing with a full-time job and family, law school, writing 5-7 books per year.
Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn, discusses FUTURIST TRENDS WE CAN PREPARE FOR NOW. She talks about the role persistence plays in making a career as an indy author, the opportunities offered by content curation—for both creators and consumers—and the importance of bringing a global / digital / mobile mindset to your business model, while also recognizing that we can’t beat the machine, so we have to double down on being human.
Joanna Penn is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers as J.F. Penn. As an award-winning creative entrepreneur, she also writes non-fiction for authors and hosts The Creative Penn Podcast. Her site TheCreativePenn.com has been voted in the Top 100 sites for writers by Writer's Digest.
Editor Tiffany Yates Martin and I geek out about THE PRINCESS BRIDE and all the lessons it can teach writers about story structure, character development, and those little bits that make a story extra engaging. She shares tips for how authors can gain some distance from our own work in order to bring an editor’s eye to it, and we talk about how Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Can Smell Like played with traditional knight in shining armor tropes.
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.
Nicholas Erik discusses the FIVE KEYS TO BUILDING A RESILIENT INDY BUSINESS. He talks about how organic newsletter subscribers serve as a valuable representation of the health of your business, how understanding your monthly expenses can actually be a stress-reliever, and how an hour spent with an accountant will pay you back many times over in the course of your author career.
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.
Former FBI special agent Jerri Williams discusses her podcast FBI RETIRED CASE FILES REVIEW and how she has used it as content marketing for her fiction and non-fiction books. She discusses how her goals for the podcast changed over time, the importance of aligning one's creative work behind a unifying theme, how to engage listeners in your community, and what she did when she found that her second love, podcasting, was stealing time from her first love, writing.
Jerri Williams served for 26 years as a special agent in the FBI, working major economic fraud investigations. She uses her prior professional experiences with scams and schemers to write crime fiction about greed. Her novels PAY TO PLAY and GREEDY GIVERS – both inspired by actual FBI cases – feature a female FBI agent assigned to a Public Corruption and Fraud Squad in Philadelphia. She is also the author of the non-fiction book FBI MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS, and the producer and host of the true crime podcast FBI RETIRED CASE FILES REVIEW, where she interviews retired FBI agents about their high-profile cases and careers.