The Authorpreneur Mindset

What Is Story? [3-01] This is the first episode in Season 3 (2019) of the podcast and it focuses on Story and Storytelling. While this season will end up being a full length one *ahem* unlike season 2 *ahem*, with the rebranding of the company I’ll be rebranding the podcast as well. More on that in the podcast and over the coming weeks, but the changes are very exciting and will lead to a greater appreciation of story. And don’t worry if you’ve enjoyed the content up to this point, it’ll still be a great place for writers to find tips, tricks, interviews, and more! If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, if you’re on mobile you can click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: What Is Story? Welcome to The Storyteller’s Mindset. A podcast that…wait, what? This is the Authorpreneur’s Mindset?No no no, they said to be here at 3 PM on Saturday, I know I’m in the right place.Maybe I’ll just go with it… Okay, so this isn’t the Storyteller’s Mindset…at least not yet. Later this year, the podcast, Instagram channel, and facebook group will be transitioning from The Authorpreneur Mindset to, as you probably guessed, The Storyteller’s Mindset. This goes hand in hand with the changes that are happening over on Steam Powered Dreams and the transition from a Publishing House into a Story Studio. So, with all the changes happening, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to talk about story, what it truly means, and why it’s so important. New news about Me or Steam Powered Dreams Before we get into story, a quick update on the rebranding and how it’s going. I just recently completed an overhaul of much of the webpage, so if you haven’t been there in a while you should go check it out. I also vastly upgraded our Service page, though there’s still more to do in that regard. See, with this rebranding comes an…expansion of what we can offer, while also pulling back on a few things that weren’t working for us. We’re still offering writer services, such as editing and formatting, as well as our two types of publishing, but we’re doing away with some of the other services for writers and replacing them with Writing Consultation. This essentially will cover anything that a writer needs that doesn’t require us to comb over the manuscript. We’ll also be merging SPD Sites into the main site, as well as offering marketing and branding for storytellers From here on out, everything we do will be with story and storytellers in mind.  And I think that’s a great transition point into actually talking about story. You’d be surprised at how few people can truly define what story means. The official definition is “an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment”, and that makes sense, but by that definition, anything could be considered a story. For the sake of this episode, let’s reword that definition to something more along the lines of an account of an event shared from one person to another that invokes your imagination and leaves you wanting more. Even this definition doesn’t truly encapsulate what story truly is, so let’s dive deep. A story is really a retelling of events that are designed to catch the attention of the audience. This retelling could be through the written word, sounds and words, visually, or even by touch or smell. And if you don’t think you’ve ever experienced a story from a smell, I invite you to find your favorite childhood food or the perfume your grandmother wore and tell me it doesn’t invoke a retelling of events from your past. You see, a storyteller doesn’t have to be an actual person, just as a story doesn’t have to be seen or heard. I’d go even further to say that a story actually envokes multiple senses at once, at least a good story. Thinking back again to your favorite food growing up, if you’re like most people just the thought of it, which is you retelling the event to yourself, might allow you to smell or taste it, even though it’s nowhere near you. Now, I don’t want to get too far into the abstract idea of story and storytellers, but it’s good to understand this concept, since marketers are using these tactics more and more to sell products and services, and that’s not really a bad thing. But, none of this explains why one story is great and another may fall flat. That’s because a good storyteller knows that a story is more than just the senses that make it. A truly good story also needs to do at least one of the following: Inform, Educate, or Entertain. Let’s walk through each of these so we can get a good idea of how to effectively create stories around each of them. Using a story to inform essentially means you’re using the words to tell someone about something. In marketing, this is usually a service or product, but could as easily be an event or situation. Maybe you’re trying to get the word out about your new copywriting service, so you tell a story about how you got started. On the other hand, when you use story to educate, you have to give detailed steps, which might seem counter-intuitive for storytelling. However, everything you do has a story to it, even if it’s simply how to screw in a screw. Finally, entertaining. This is what most people think of when they think of story, so I won’t spend much time on this, but your job is to evoke emotion from them in a way that they feel connected to what you’re saying or writing. Let me give you an example: When I was young I knew a boy named Jared. He looked up to me and just really wanted to be like me. Now, I wasn’t a bully by any definition, in fact, I’d been bullied myself a lot prior to meeting Jared, but something about the way he treated me really brought out the worst. Anyway, Jared was a nice kid but didn’t have many friends. I took him under my wing so to speak and, after a few months he would do pretty much anything I asked him to. During class, if I didn’t do my homework, he’d give me his to copy. At lunch, I’d ask him for some of his food, even though I had my own. And if there was something that I needed during recess, I’d send him to do it instead of doing it myself. This went on for a while and for some reason I started to take advantage of Jerad. Instead of asking him for favors, I’d command him. Instead of seeing if he wanted to share his food, I’d just take it. It got so bad that I nicknamed him my dog. Sorry, I didn’t think telling this story would get to me, but it’s bringing back some really bad memories. Poor Jared looked up to me so much and there I was, treating him worse than the people who made fun of him. He put up with it for a while, because in between these things, I treated him like a friend. But you can only push someone so far before they’ve had enough, and Jared finally had had enough. We had this game we’d play where I’d trip him and throw him on the ground, then pick him up and do it again. It was a rainy day when it finally happened. We were playing outside under cover during recess and I thought it’d be funny to trip him right into a puddle.What I didn’t think would happen is that he’d slip and fall not just into the puddle, but the mud next to it. His pants, which were white by the way, were covered in mud. I’ll never forget his face when he stood up and told me he’d had enough of me and lunged at me. His shoes were so muddy, instead of being able to punch me, he slipped and fell.All the kids around us were laughing and I felt just horrible I helped him up and told him I was sorry, but the damage was done. Now, this story is simple but has a lot of elements to it. The first thing to note is that it actually does all three. It informs the listener of an action or time in my life when I wasn’t as thoughtful as I am now. It educates about the dangers of treating someone so poorly, as well as pushing someone over the edge. And it entertains by bringing up emotions of anger against me, feeling sorry or sad for Jared, and it may have even been a bit fun to some. This was an example of something more personal, but I think you can begin to see how the stories you tell are more than just the words written or said. When you’re trying to determine how to go about creating your story, or editing it, ask yourself if it has these elements. It’s also important to keep in mind that many stories are not meant to educate or inform, but almost all good stories incorporate at least a simple lesson in them. That’s it for this weeks topic. With storytelling becoming a much more important part in the podcast, and my life in general, I’m hoping to tackle more topics like this one and delve deeper into the elements of story. If you have questions, there are two ways to reach me. The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters Don’t forget to check us out on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post What Is Story? [3-01] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Publishing Did you know that machines can learn very much like humans?Well, they still need us to program them initially, but it probably won’t be long before they can program themselves. And where will that leave us?Luckily, that’s not the type of AI we’re talking about today. We’re talking about something that’s fast approaching, the use of AI for reading, writing, editing, and finding books. If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.Episode Links:Steam Powered Dreams Writer SurveyThe Future of Barns & Noble Up In The AirThe First Ever True Mini-BooksThe podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:Buy a copy of ScrivenerSupport us on PatreonHire us to do your websiteAs always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: How Advancements In AI Will Change The Way We Write, Read, and Publish Robots, algorithms and artificial intelligence run everything around us. We rely on them to wake us up in the morning, get us where we need to go, and even do our job for us.Yet, the publishing industry has been mostly untouched by this artificial intelligence, right?Wrong. In fact, AI is becoming more and more important for publishing and will only continue to change the way we read and write.At least until the inevitable robot uprising comes.Steam Powered Dreams has an exciting announcement! We’re doing an early run of specialty t-shirts for writers! We’re starting small, with 3 designs available around January, but the plan is to eventually expand to book and author quotes, as well as other gear like totes, mugs, and more.Also, we’re running a survey to help us research writers habits. If you’d like to be part of it, just go to steampowereddreams.com/writersurvey to add your name to the list.That’s about all I have to share right now, but we have some big announcements coming up next month, so stay tuned for those!The future of Barnes and Noble is back up in the air as the deal with WH Smith fell through. https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2018/11/07/barnes-and-noble-amazon-wh-smith-acquisition/Dutton, a Penguin Random House imprint, has just released its first batch of mini books, with a box set of novels by the best-selling author John Green. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/business/mini-books-pocket-john-green.htmlWhen you think of artificial intelligence or AI, you probably envision some science fiction world where machines can do pretty much everything, but the reality is both a simple and exciting.When it comes to AI and technology, many times the old saying is true, Reality is stranger than fiction.Just a quick warning. This episode is going to get a bit technical, but understanding how this technology will help shape the future for writers and readers is important.As a whole, we have seen amazing advancements over the past 40 years, from the creation of the internet to a world where everything is connected almost all the time.We have machines that can not only play games of strategy such as chess but win against the world champions. The most recent of these AI chess-playing machines is named AlphaZero by Google and it wasn’t taught how to play, but instead learned how to play without human aid. Oh, and did I mention it’s also a master Go and Shogi player?The concept of a machine learning can seem strange, but the truth is it’s not too far-fetched if you understand the basics of machine learning. Of course, even a full podcast dedicated to machine learning wouldn’t cover everything, just know that these machines learn by asking hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of yes or no questions in an instant. It then records this data and recalls it as needed. If what it recalls is not correct, or not good enough such as in a chess move, it goes through the process again and looks for another, better way.How does this relate to you as an authorpreneur? It actually touches every single part of the process, but we’re going to focus on three main aspects in this episode: Editing, audiobooks, and algorithms.If you’ve ever used programs like Grammarly then you’ve already had some experience with a computer “reading” and analyzing your writing. While this is a rudimentary use of AI, it still looks at the words, the order of those words, and a bit of the context around the words and gives you feedback based on this. But, imagine an AI that can actually analyze and understand not just a word or sentence, but entire paragraphs, chapters, or books. That’s exactly what Google is doing with their Google Natural Langauge program.So far, it’s been able to start to reveal the structure and meaning of a text. It actually can understand people, places, and events and how they relate together. It can offer suggestions on related texts without the use of human-inputted keywords, but more on that in a bit. This process has the potential to change the way the editing process goes. Right now, the standard process is to self-edit, developmental edit or get beta readers, revise, copyedit, and done.What Google’s AI has the potential to do is eliminate the need for a lot of the technical side to this, such as syntax, grammar, and sentence structure. While self-editing will always be important for the story, there may come a time when you can put your manuscript through an AI and it comes out with perfect grammar and syntax. While still far off, this could even replace copy editors altogether.The one thing AI does not have, and may never develop, is emotional awareness. While AI can understand context and surroundings, there’s no way to program emotion and build a true connection with readers.But, that doesn’t mean it can’t mimic the emotions you’re trying to convey out loud.If you’ve been able to experience Google’s recent upgraded voice algorithms you’ll know that they are very lifelike. Ask Google a question on the Google Home and you’ll get a response in such a way that you almost feel like you’re talking to a person. Not only that, but the update earlier this year made it possible to have a conversation, instead of just giving it commands. Just ask Google Home to tell you a joke or a riddle and you’ll quickly understand where I’m going with this. Google’s AI uses speech inflection, pauses, and more to mimic the sound of a human. While it’s not perfect, it’s come a long way in a short period of time. Combine that with the Natural Language AI and the Real Time Translation AI, we will soon be seeing stories being read and translated, even complete novels, without a single human lifting a finger.This may or may not excite you, and you may also be wondering about all those amazingly talented audiobook narrator. Having an AI with the ability to naturally read a book won’t put them out of business. It goes back to the emotion and polish that AI just doesn’t have, and won’t have for the foreseeable future. There will still be demand for high-quality, human-voiced books, just as there is still a demand for hardcovers despite them costing sometimes 10x more than an eBook.What the future will actually hold for audiobooks is yet to be seen, though I am confident in saying we’ll start seeing AI recorded audiobooks in the next few years.But, another aspect of using machine learning can be found on pretty much every book-related site out there, algorithms.In fact, it’s not just book-related sites that use them, most of the internet does in one way or another.Google Search is a perfect example of a very complex, yet still relatively rudimentary, machine learning algorithm. You put in a search term and you get a list of hundreds of thousands of pages back. Google does this by sending their little robots to scan each and every page, seeing if it can determine what it’s about and if it has any value.If it does, it goes to the top, and if it doesn’t, it goes to the bottom.While Google’s search algorithm has come a long way from requiring websites to give keywords, it is only beginning to learn what it’s actually scanning, rather than just picking up on the words on the page. Amazon is another example, and one more close to home for us. We put our books up, pick a few categories, and the recommendation algorithms start to kick in. The more people who buy our books, the more the “also bought” algorithm works.In theory, this sounds great. You most likely want to read more books like the ones you’ve bought, and readers can find your book based on the books they have read. However, you’ll often see off-the-wall recommendations because the algorithm doesn’t understand what the books are about, only that there was a correlation, even if only a small one.Have you ever bought a book as a gift and then soon after your recommendations were full of other, similar books? That may have been the only Science Fiction Romance involving inter-species relationships you had ever purchased, but now Amazon thinks that’s all you want.OKay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Much like Google, Amazon’s algorithm is always getting better and cases such as the one I just mentioned are becoming more infrequent. But a fully realized machine learning AI will change the way we search and the results we get back. Because it will not only see keywords and see your purchase history, but deeply understand what a book is about, it’ll be able to give real recommendations to you, and avoid that awkward moment when you open up Amazon in public to a page of Alien Erotica for all to see.Unless that’s your thing, then share it with the world!But maybe more than that, these advancements will be able to get your books into the hands of those who really want them.Of course, Google isn’t the only one working on true machine learning AI for algorithms. There are other websites and services that offer early versions of more advanced systems, but Google and Amazon are sure to be ahead of the game, even if it isn’t apparent to us yet.Whether you’re excited for AI or worried that it’ll be our downfall, machines that learn similar to humans are here and they’ll only get smarter.I for one am excited for a time when I can pick up a book in any language and have it translated in real time and read to me.Who knows, maybe one day we won’t even need to type anymore. We’ll just have a conversation with an AI and it’ll put those thoughts into coherent, meaningful sentences to complete our manuscript!If you have questions, there are two ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question.The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwritersWhere to find me:The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindsetyou can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollieron Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindsetUntil next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Publishing appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

Interview With Daralyse Lyons [2-04] If you’ve been listening to this podcast for long you’ll know that I have a passion for helping others. Though this podcast, I want to give both practical advice and share the stories of others within the industry, and this week I get to do just that. About a month and a half ago, I was lucky enough to get an interview with the amazing Daralyse Lyons. She talks about her life and what made her who she is today. Among that, you can see her passion for writing and helping others and the path she took. If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Interview With Daralyse Lyons When I started this podcast one of the things that I wanted to show was the struggle, the perseverance, and ultimately success of the writer’s life. Of course, what this means is different for each author, but no journey is any less important. This week I have an interview for you with the multi-talented Daralyse Lyons, who shares her journey and how she was able to claw her way out of the hole that life had dug for her. But before we do that, just a quick update this week on Steam Powered Dreams. We recently finished the First Draft series of blog posts. This means that we now have a complete guide on how to write, edit, and publish a novel. This has been in the works for the past 3 years and it’s both a relief and a bit sad to finally be at a point where I feel like it can help writers. I released a new post this week that sums up what you can expect, but if you’d like the whole list just head over to steampowereddreams.com and then under Writers click on How To Write a Novel. Alright, that’s enough for today. Let’s get into the amazing interview. My guest this week is Daralyse Lyons or Dara for short. She’s an author, speaker, yogi, and actress. If that’s not a full load, I don’t know what is! But, maybe more important than any of that alone, she has found her purpose in life in her love of stories and desire to help people find happiness. Welcome to the show, Dara, it’s great to have you here. Why don’t you tell us a bit more about yourself? On your website, you use the term, Transformational storyteller. Can you talk a little bit about what that means, both in your work and to you personally? Alright, let’s talk about growing up. Where were you born and raised? What was your family life like? Parents? Siblings? Did you read a lot growing up? If so, what genres most interested you? Favorite book? Let’s fast forward. Married, children? when? Is your main source of income currently writing? If so, when did that become a reality if not, what is? Let’s continue down this path for a bit. I always find it interested, especially when a writer started young, in what else they’ve done. Before becoming an author, speaker, yogi, and actress, what other jobs or hobbies did you have that weren’t related to writing? Let’s talk about your writing. You have over 10 books published on Amazon with more on the way. When did you get interested in writing and what is it that pushed you to become an author? Okay, getting back towards writing. I was looking around your blog a bit and noticed you shared a lot of personal stories. I think it’s great and I try to do the same. Do you think it’s important for authors, or really any professional, to share both their strengths and weaknesses out in the public? Your speaking and coaching topics seem to be on opposite ends from most of your writing. Do you find that to be true or are they two separate parts of your life? How would someone who has an online presence but never done any real speaking or coaching go about getting started? Knowing what you know now if there was something you could tell your younger self, advice you would give, on writing, what would it be? One final question, and it’s a question I plan on asking every guest. If you had a mascot or avatar that represented what you’re doing right now in life, what would it be? Where can you be found online? Anything you’d like to tell the listeners? Thank you so much for coming on the show and spending this time with us. It was such a pleasure talking with Dara and I hope to have her on the show again in the future. We’re also looking for new people to interview, as well as feedback on the show or what you’d like to see. Just head over to the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. Or join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters You can find me: On Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward The post Interview With Daralyse Lyons [2-04] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

How To Create An Author Brand [2-03] If you haven’t thought about your brand yet, this is a perfect time. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or already a little established, creating a brand for yourself and your writing is key to success. In this episode, I take a look at what branding is on a larger, company scale and how those same concepts can be applied to you, as an individual authorpreneur. While I cover the basics here, there’s a lot that can and should go into growing your brand. Give the episode a listen and if you have more questions, just drop me a line and let me know! If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.   The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: How To Create A Brand As An Author When you think of the suspense genre, what author comes to mind? What about magic wands, spells, and incantations? No matter if you thought of Steven King and J.K. Rowling or other authors, the reason those words brought that author to your mind is that that’s what they’re known for, it’s their brand. For many years, an author could just write and never worry about who they were or what their fans thought, but that time has passed. This is why it’s so important to build a brand alongside your writing. As we get into today’s episode, it’s going to be split into two parts. The first is going to focus on the rebranding of Steam Powered Dreams and what that means to both the company, you listening, and entrepreneurship in general. The second half is going to be more focused on an author brand, what it is, and how to get started on yours now, even if you don’t have a book out there yet. Because this episode is going to focus so much on Steam Powered Dreams I’m not having a formal update, since in a way the whole episode is kinda just that. Part 1 In the last episode, I mentioned that Steam Powered Dreams as a company has started to shift gears a bit. We’ve decided that being billed as a Publishing House doesn’t do justice to what we’re trying to create. We’re not just here to take a writers manuscript and transform it into a published piece of work, we’re here to tell amazing stories and grow the fantasy and science fiction community. We have no plans to stop at just books, though that will still be our main focus. In the future, we have hopes of expanding into other mediums, such as movies, video games, and any other platform where a high-quality story can be told. Hence why we have decided to transition into a Story Studio Of course, just calling ourselves a story studio doesn’t make it true. In order to do this, we need to change the way people see Steam Powered Dreams, our brand. Now, we’re still in our infancy, so doing this isn’t a huge feat as it would be for a larger company such as Apple or McDonalds who have both gone through a rebranding of their own. For us, the rebranding is about the content we put out there, the way we interact on social media, and in general our public persona. Rebranding takes time and it often leads to a drop in engagement and/or profit at first. However, a successful rebranding will bounce back quickly and those same metrics will increase. So, what is Steam Powered Dreams doing to rebrand? First off, we’ll be changing the way we interact on Twitter and Instagram, one that is more friendly and casual. We’ll be sharing more stories, talking with other authors, and more. On our website, we’ll be featuring new stories as often as possible. Some of these stories will be done by in-house writers, while others are from the community. Our newsletter will work hard to provide more content for readers (which means writers as well, since every writer should also be an avid reader!), including book giveaways, free stories, and even free books. Another thing that I will be doing personally is continuing to build a creative community on the Mixer platform. I’ll be live streaming creative writing that can be influenced by the audience, reading short stories, playing story-based video games, playing narrative tabletop games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, and this podcast will be recorded live on there as well. If you’re interested in participating on Mixer, you can find my channel at steampowereddreams.com/mixer Part 2 Creating a brand as a new writer is different, but the principals are the same. You’re looking to create a public persona that, when people think about something, they associate it with you. You won’t be known as THE fantasy writer right away, and may never reach the ranks of Tolkien or Rowling, but that’s not the point. Your goal is that your fans know your brand and that, when they share your name, books, or other information, that brand goes along with it. Before we get into practical ways to start and grow a brand, it’s important to point out that your brand needs to be genuine. If it isn’t, you run the risk of getting caught up in your fake persona and being called out. An example of this can be seen all throughout Instagram with fake or photoshopped pictures. Even some of the most loved celebrities, such as Beyonce, have been called out for using photoshopped images. You don’t want to be in a position where you can’t be yourself in the public, and that’s something that so many people back themselves into when they first create their brand. Once you understand this, you’ll want to then think long and hard about what your brand should represent, even down to some minor details you may not think matter. Ask yourself, what is it that I want to represent? What cause or audience? Do I want to be known most for my fiction or non-fiction? Do I want to be known for looking at things in a different way than most, or maybe shedding light on subjects others avoid? If you’re more focused on fiction, do you want to be known as a single-genre author or multi-genre? They each have their pros and cons, but the choice is yours. Well, the choice is mostly yours, but more on that in a bit. You also need to think about your personality, since that will come out both online and in person. Do you cuss a lot or have a bad taste in jokes? Do you drink, smoke, or do drugs? You shouldn’t hide these personality traits from the public. Some people, such as Entrepreneur Andy Frisella, embrace them and make them a core part of their brand. In short, be genuine and be real. You don’t have to be totally transparent about all aspects of your life to your audience, but you shouldn’t hide anything, either. So, now that you understand what a personal brand is and what to start thinking about, it’s time to get out there and actually start growing it. Social Media is the fastest way to grow your brand, so make sure you’re on as many as you can handle. I suggest starting with 1 and adding more over time as you feel comfortable. Personally, I am not active on more than 2 platforms at a time, but I do know some authors an entrepreneurs who are active on 4 or more. Every post you make, every image you upload should reflect your brand. Think about what you’re saying, who you’re trying to reach, and why you’re posting it. The why can be as simple as “it’s entertaining”. Make sure you’re interacting with your followers. When you’re just starting out, you should reply to every single person who comments on your posts, shares them, or anything else. As you grow, you can pick and choose, but if someone took the time to write something meaningful, the least you should do is acknowledge it. Your branding should run over into your writing, website, newsletter, and anything else you do. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting at home watching TV with a loved one, hanging out at the mall with some friends, or at an international convention, your brand is always present and you need to be mindful of it. If you follow all of this advice, you’ll be well on your way to starting your personal brand, but what happens next is what branding is truly all about. Once you’ve established this base brand for yourself, you’ll notice that it doesn’t stay consistent. Little things will change here and there, sometimes daily other times yearly, but things will change. Your brand is not only who you are, but the outside influences as well. Your audience influences your brand, and the bigger your audience, the more this is true. This is why it’s so important to be genuine from the start. Let’s take two examples from actors Samuel L. Jackson and Daniel Radcliffe. Samuel L. Jackson’s brand is being a badass, cussing, loud MFer who gets things done through the strength of his voice. Most likely this isn’t a brand he created for himself, but that was created for him due to outside influences. And now it’s hard for him to change that brand. Could you imagine Jackson playing a part in a romcom or historical drama? Probably not. Daniel Radcliffe, on the other hand, was able to break out of the branding that was pushed upon him by playing Harry Potter and start to forge something that is very much his own brand. During his time with Harry Potter, that became who he was. Many even said that it would be hard for him to find acting jobs after the series is over due to this typecasting. This was a fear he shared, so what did he do? He broke away from this by showing both his acting skills and a bit too much skin in the Broadway show Equus. More recently, he plays the part of a gun-wielding character in the upcoming movie Guns Akimbo. The important part is, thanks to him taking control of his brand, he doesn’t seem out of place in this movie. However, no matter how hard he tries, he will always be most associated with Harry Potter, and I would say that’s not really a bad thing. To sum up what we’ve talked about today, creating and reworking your branding is important no matter what stage of a career you’re in. Branding or rebranding is it’s all based on educated trial and error. If something doesn’t work, make sure you understand why it didn’t work and change your plan based on that. Listen to your audience, even if that’s only one person, and consider what they’re saying. But, the most important thing to remember is to always be genuine. These things take time, but more than that they take perseverance. If you have questions, there are two ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters Where to find me: The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset you can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post How To Create An Author Brand [2-03] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

It’s time to talk about my absolute favorite topic when it comes to storytelling, The Hero’s Journey. First popularized by Joseph Campbell, the idea behind The Hero’s Journey goes back much further and has had an impact on some of the greatest storytellers of all time, including J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and J.K. Rowling. In this first episode of a three-part series, I’ll be talking about the first stage of The Hero’s Journey and how you can use Campbell’s theories in your own writing to create a more dynamic, real story. If this type of content isn’t practical enough for you, don’t worry. Next week, I’ll be talking more about the rebranding Steam Powered Dreams is currently going through and how you can use branding to help you sell more books, or at least grow an audience. If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: The Hero’s Journey [Part 1 – The Ordinary World] If you could unlock the secret of what makes some of the most popular books and movies succeed, would you take the time to learn and understand it? If you could create stories as powerful as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game, Hobbit, Harry Potter, or the Matrix, would you want to know how? That’s exactly what we’re talking about today, the secret to why these stories relate to us so much, and how you can tap into that in your own writing. So much going on since the last SPD update back in Oct of last year The company has grown in terms of freelance workers, with 6 more on board for various tasks, as well as a freelance designer. Our Instagram has grown a lot. Check that out by searching for Authorpreneur Mindset and say hi If you’re a listener from last year, Story Pulse has been explained a bit more on the blog more on that in the coming months though New clients and potential new authors under our banner. And, maybe most importantly, a shift in focus. As of this episode, Steam Powered Dreams is no longer a publishing company. We are moving in a slightly different direction and will now be working as a Story Studio. This is a big change for our branding and what we’ll prioritize, but our goal is the same, to help writers get published and get the profit they deserve. If you’re curious about this, or branding in general, then you’re in luck. The next episode of Authorpreneur Mindset will talk a lot about that. As for me on a personal level, the past few months since I quit my job has been both…amazing and not so amazing. During the initial month and a half, things were going pretty well. I had a lot of work for new and old clients for freelancing started revitalizing everything I had going before and I was able to  back into the swing of things However, just as fast, things took a turn south, and that’s a very common problem for anyone who is trying to make it non traditionally like authorpreneurs and entrepreneurs. One week you have more work than you can handle, and the next nothing. It’s balancing both the money and the rollercoaster of ups and downs that help you be successful or at least get to a point where a week of no work won’t derail your life. But, enough about that, let’s get into the episode and talk about one of my very favorite topics, The Hero’s Journey. The hero’s journey is a concept popularized by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces based on the concept that all stories throughout time can fit into a single concept. He spent years trying to prove that every storyline in every book, movie, TV show and play are, essentially, exactly the same story. And that every character can fit into a specific archetype. He may have not been able to do this, but what he did find was very fascinating. And if you take the time to understand his theories, it can help inform your own writing. Alright, so before we get into the details of the hero’s journey, let’s define what scholars ultimately realized about what Joseph Campbell was studying; the story of a hero. Not every story is a hero’s journey. This is why not every story fits into his theories. We can see this in many modern indie films such as Before Sunrise, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong. In literature, books like The Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, and countless other classics fall in a similar category. If you’ve never seen these movies or read these books, they’re more of a story about a single moment in time or events that happen to characters. There are no heroes or villains, no good or evil. While these are all great stories that have a lot to offer, they don’t fit into The Hero’s Journey theory. Another thing that’s important to understand that not every story goes through each of the steps outlined by Campbell, nor do all characters fall into one archetype neatly, some can even be multiple archetypes at once. Alright, now that we understand that, let’s talk about what the hero’s journey is and why it works so well. I’m going to mostly be referring to The Hobbit and Ender’s game here since they’re two of my favorite books. Campbell broke the journey down into 12 stages over 3 sections. This episode is going to talk about the first section, known as the Ordinary World. The first stage shares the name of The Ordinary World and starts long before the story begins. It’s the life that the hero has lived up to this point. This is any and all backstory that you may or may not share about the characters and everything that has happened to make them who they are up to the start of the story. The second stage is the Call to Action. This is where something changes and the hero is called to act. This could range from a direct threat to something more subtle. In the Hobbit, the call to action is direct, when Gandolf asks him directly to join the dwarves on their adventure. On the other hand, in Ender’s Game, Ender is invited to join Battle School. In both of these examples, the Hero doesn’t realize at the time what is going to happen after that, nor do they realize the impact of their choices. The third stage is the refusal of the call and a great example of how not every story follows every step. This stage can take one of two forms, either an inner fear that must be overcome or a physical block. In the Hobbit, Bilbo turns Gandolf and the dwarves down. It takes him some time, with an inner turmoil playing out before he decides to join them. It’s his fear that holds him back. Hobbits aren’t meant to travel out of the shire! On the other hand, Ender doesn’t refuse the call. Instead embraces it and goes head first into his journey. An example of a physical block would be in Harry Potter. His uncle and aunt will do anything to stop him from accepting the call to adventure, i.e. the letters from Hogwarts and then Hagrid. In each of these examples, fear does play a role. Ender does fear what his life will be like should he go to Battle School, and Harry Potter fears the unknown of the magical world. The next two stages often times go together, and that is meeting a mentor and crossing the threshold into the second stage. In fact, often times it’s the mentor that helps the hero overcome the fears they may have and take the step over the threshold. In the Hobbit, it’s Gandolf, who influenced Bilbo, and knew he could count on him, even when he wasn’t sure he could count on himself. In Ender’s Game, it’s Colonel Graff who cares about Ender and can see his potential. So, let’s take a look at these 5 steps and think about why they work and why they’re important. The Ordinary World is really all about the background of your characters and it’s very important to understand where they came from, even if you never use that in your writing. When you write your character’s story, understanding their background will help them develop as the story unfolds. The call to action is where your hero realizes that there’s something that needs to get done, there’s some injustice in the world or problem that needs to be solved. This doesn’t always happen on the page, but if it doesn’t, it’s often referred to throughout the story. Deciding whether to write this point in your hero’s journey should come down to how important it is for the overall story. For example, the death of a loved one that pushes the hero to ask “why” may not have a direct effect on what happens in the rest of the story and may be best suited referred to throughout the story. This can add depth to a character and even help build a relationship between two or more characters. Another example is if the hero witnesses a horrific event and decides to act upon it in the moment. In one of my yet unreleased novels, the story opens with a young girl being raped on the street by an authority figure and the protagonist seeing how the people around them do nothing, and seemingly ignore what’s going on. This is important to understanding the story and why the character decides to act. Not only that, but the next 3 chapters take place as he nurses the victim back to health. The important point about this is, no matter if it happens on the page or off the page, it happens, and you know what it is and why your hero is doing what they’re doing. The refusal of the call is similar in that it may or may not happen on the page, but it still needs to happen in one way or another. We talked about how in Ender’s Game, Ender didn’t refuse the call outright, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t experience fear and uncertainty. He worried what would happen if he left his current life and his family. These fears make him who he is, and influence who he will become. The 4th stage, meeting the mentor, is a unique one because many people misinterpret what it really means.  While often times the mentor is a physical person, such as Gandolf, it doesn’t always have to be. I could come in the form of a memory or even an animal or other non-human companions. What they provide also doesn’t have to be specific. They may provide insight, give an item of importance, or just believe in the protagonist and help guide them. Without this stage, the hero will never get past their fears and cross over into the next section of the story. Now, when you are planning out or writing this, keep an open mind. Your hero’s mentor may come in a form you never even thought of. In another of my novels, the mentor turns out to be the hero’s father, who was murdered a few years prior, yet he’s with her in memory and in the items he left for her after his death. The end of the first section is the threshold leaving the ordinary world. Thanks to overcoming the refusal of the call and gaining the item and/or knowledge they need from the mentor, they’re ready to cross over into the unknown and actually start their adventure. This is an exciting part of your character’s journey, but also one that isn’t easy to write. As the author, you may be enthusiastic and ready to go, but your character should be wary, even if they are confident. You know that everything will eventually work out, but from the protagonist’s point of view, the odds are against them. So, when your character crosses this threshold, it’s an emotional time and your writing should reflect that. Think about a time in your own life where you’ve had to make the leap into the unknown. You were probably a mix of excitement, anxiety, scared, and a whole bunch of other emotions and your character should be too. Once the hero steps over this threshold, they’re now in the Special or Unknown World where the adventure really starts. But, this is where we’ll leave it for this episode. These episodes take a lot of planning and research, so the second episode for this will come in a few months, followed by two more about The Hero’s Journey before the end of the year. This is by far one of my favorite topics to discuss, so please feel free to ask any questions which you can do through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. Or join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters You can find me: On Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post The Ordinary World – The Hero’s Journey [Ep. 2-02] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

It’s finally here! This is the first episode of Season 2, and it just serves as an update on what’s going on. I get into where I’ve been, what you can expect moving forward, and what’s changing in season 2. Season 2 will run through December 14th or so, I haven’t decided exactly when the break will be. Enjoy! If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: The Authorpreneur Mindset Season Two Welcome back to the Authorpreneur Mindset Podcast. I know it’s been a while and I apologize about that. Over the past few months, I’ve received many emails, tweets, and Facebook messages asking when the show would have more episodes and I’m excited to say this is the start of Season 2. This episode will serve as an update on the podcast and what to expect moving forward. But before I get into that, I’d like to talk a little about what’s been going on with me. I hadn’t planned on waiting this long to start Season 2. In fact, it was supposed to start on January 1, but life got the better of me. Back in November, I realized, as many entrepreneurs who are relatively new tend to realize, I had to do something to pay the bills. Steam Powered Dreams hadn’t taken off as I had hoped it would and I had drained all of the money I had tucked away, so I had to get a job. At the end of December, I found a copywriting job at a tech startup in Silicon Valley, at least that’s what I thought I was being hired for. Within the first three days, my position changed 2 times. I went from copywriter to Marketing associate to SEO specialist. I was also told I would get training on the proprietary software the company uses since I’d be writing a lot about that for the internal and external articles. Well, January came around and the job started going downhill. To keep the story short, I didn’t receive any kind of training until March. The people in charge did not treat their employees with any sort of respect Yelling was common in the office, as was other borderline illegal activities. By the end of April, I was fighting hard to not walk out. Work for Steam Powered Dreams had picked up and I had learned a lot of new skills, but the negative atmosphere was no longer worth it. When things went from bad to worse in the marketing department, I’d had enough and put my two weeks in. During those two weeks, I realized a few things One, I had met some amazing people who I knew I’d stay in touch with Two, I had learned a lot of new skills in the crazy environment, so I was very thankful for the job And three, I never wanted to work 40 hours a week for someone else again. Ever. Flash forward a few weeks and I’ve been able to make just enough money to justify not searching for a job and things are only going to pick up from here. Can I honestly say I’ll never work for someone else ever again? No, but if I do, it will be on my terms, and not theirs. Steam Powered Dreams has some amazing things in the pipeline coming for the second half of this year. The editorial calendar includes more podcast episodes, a whole video series on the hero’s journey, and getting back on track with useful articles for writers, both amateur and professional. Alright, so what about this podcast? Well, with season 2 of the authorpreneur mindset will come to some changes. One major one is that, instead of weekly, it will be every other week for now. This may change at any time, especially if I start to get more support. Starting with ep. 13, you can also expect an interview every other month. I already have the interviews planned out for the rest of the year, but am always looking for new people to interview. If you’re interested, the best way to let me know is by going to the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset, click on Ask A Question and let me know! Something else you might notice is that the topics we cover on the podcast will have more meaning to the content we provide in our articles and video. They won’t be the same topic, but often times you’ll be able to get a bigger picture understanding if you also follow our blog. And finally, the biggest change with the content is you’re going to hear less about how to write and more about being an authorpreneur. This podcast was never meant to be a writing 101, it was meant to be advanced tips and tricks on making a career out of writing or the publishing industry. We will still be having shows that are dedicated to the art of writing, but instead of talking about how to write something, they’ll be about how to write better so your stories sell. Some of the topics you can expect to hear are how to build an email list, why social media is so important, and why no author can make it without a website these days. I’m still planning on tackling some of the more basic questions in special rapid-fire episodes, but I’m not sure how they’ll work yet. So, with that said, I think that’s a good place to end this. Welcome to the Authorpreneur Mindset Season 2. The post Introducing The Authorpreneur Mindset Season Two! appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

I’ve got a bit of a short one for you this week, but it stems from a very important question regarding editing that I hear quite often, how long should you wait between edits. I also talk about how many rounds of edits I recommend and give an overview of my recommended path to go from the first draft to final draft. Industry News: Bookfunnel announces sales delivery actions, allowing for easier direct sales. Amazon releases X-Ray to all authors, big news for Fantasy and Science Fiction authors especially. This episode also made me realize that there are a few things I already want to change about this podcast. For one, I want more interviews. The goal is, and always has been, to do at least 1 interview a month, but preferably 2. It was also my intention to cover topics that are aimed more at the business and marketing side of writing and not focus on the creative process itself. You’ll see these changes reflected around episode 11, and I”ll talk a bit more about them in episode 10. If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Let’s Talk About The Editing Process Editing is the most important part of writing a novel, there is no debate about that. But how much editing do you need?  How much is too much? Or not enough? For that matter, how long should editing take, and how should you go about editing, chapter by chapter or the whole manuscript at once? Today’s episode is about just that. Lynn Fellows sent in a question asking “Do you recommend one full edit at a time (for example reading out loud or using text to speech software to listen to the whole story) or is it more efficient to do several mini-edits on a chapter-by-chapter basis? How much time should you take between edits to avoid becoming ‘sick to death’ of reading your own words? or is that just me? In personal news, I started programming the Steam Powered Dreams Story Engine this week! It’s really fascinating the direction it’s going and I’ll be talking more about this as the weeks go by, but I’m happy to say you won’t have to wait too long to learn more, as I’m hoping to have a prototype to show off by the end of the year. In industry news, Bookfunnel.com announces “sales delivery actions” and what that means is their service now allows you to sell directly from your website to your reader’s preferred reading device or app! This is pretty big news for indie authors, as it’s been somewhat of a headache for most who try to sell direct. https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/selling-with-bookfunnel/ The other story comes from the big boy itself, Amazon, who is introducing X-Ray for Authors. This allows authors to provide more information on characters, topics, events, places, or any other term used in the book when the reader taps on the word. I actually started noticing this a while back being used by some big names, such as Brandon Sanderson, but it’s now open up to traditionally published authors and indies alike. https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/selling-with-bookfunnel/ Alright, that’s it for the news. Before we get into our topic, I want to mention two of our newest backers on Patreon, Jereme Menefee, who was on the show a few episodes ago, and Lunabell. Thank you for the support! The support really means a lot. This podcast is partially supported by those backing us on patreon, with the rest coming right out of my pocket. If you like what you hear and want to help support the show, the best way is to head over to our Parteon page at steampowereddreams.com/patreon. For showing your support, you’ll also get access to other goodies, such as our Discord, monthly Q&A videos, and more. Okay, let’s talk about editing. Editing really can be the bane of a writer’s existence. We all know it’s a necessity, but not only does it take time out of writing our stories, but it can be very boring. However, once you have your editing process down, you’ll be surprised at how smoothly it really can be. So let’s break Lynne’s question down into two, smaller questions. The first is whether or not you should do full edits or chapter by chapter mini-edits. And the truth is they both have their place. However, you should be careful about doing mini-edits until your manuscript is already pretty solid. This means when you’ve just finished your first draft, I highly recommend a full edit, from front to back. In fact, don’t even correct anything, just mark down everything you can find with a focus mostly on plot holes and missing scenes. And then, after that’s done, you can organize the story over again and really think about the changes before you actually put them in in your third round of editing. I find this works best, and I’m sure many writers agree, especially newer ones, but if you don’t like the idea of not fixing as you go, just keep in mind that you may change something that could impact later scenes, or worse, when you change something in chapter 12 and forget that you need to change it in chapter 3 as well. Once that’s done, you’ll want to get it to a developmental editor or beta readers, who will give you some very important feedback. This feedback should then be organized and used to edit based on a smaller scale, rather than the chapter or whole book level as you did in the second and third draft What I mean is focus on sections they gave feedback and skip those that they didn’t.   A word of warning about both developmental editors and beta readers, though. Everything they say is not golden. In the end, it’s your decision to change, cut, or add things to your story, but you should still always listen to what they have to say. And finally, after you’ve done all that, it’s a good time to give it one final full edit before sending it off to the copy editor, this time focusing on fixing as many little mistakes as you can find. Part two of the question was how much time should a writer take between edits. This is more subjective and can vary for every author, as well as which step of the process you’re in. It’s not uncommon for an author to let their manuscript sit for 3 to 6 months in between the first and second draft, though personally, I don’t like to take that much time off. The average for this is probably somewhere around the 1 to 3-month range, but you’ll know when the time is right. If that means starting your edits a day after typing “the end”, then go for it. For me, once I finish a draft, that story is usually churning around in my mind until I can’t stand it and it has to be worked on, usually no more than a week, maybe two. The time between other edits, say after getting it back from an editor, is generally pretty short, if there is any at all. Remember that some authors take years to produce a final draft, while others can do it within a month. Before we close this episode out, I do want to clarify a few things and go over what I recommend all authors do as their editing process. It might not be perfect for you and don’t do something you’re uncomfortable with, but try it out and see how it works. Once you finished your first draft, let it sit. Let the story play over and over in your mind for a few days or a week, and then sit down to read the whole thing. As I mentioned before, I like to make notes or comments, but not actually correct anything at this point. This keeps the story going on in my head with these “fixes” and by the time I’m ready to sit down and actually edit, I’ve decided what should and should not be changed, which is the next step. You can almost think of this as me doing my own developmental edits or beta reading. Once you’re ready to make the actual changes, focus on those that are larger in scale, such as making sure scenes are in the right order, they make sense, and characters are developed correctly. It’s at this point you want to hand it off to beta readers and/or developmental editor. For beta readers, tell them the story hasn’t been polished yet so you’re looking for feedback on things like character development and plot holes, rather than the smaller details or grammar. When you get their feedback, it’s time to make a choice. You can either spot edit whatever you feel needs fixing or do a full edit. Personally, I tend to spot edit but if your beta readers had things to say about almost every chapter, it’s probably a good idea to just go ahead and start from the beginning. It’s at this point I generally seek out a beta reader or two. If I’ve already had someone read it, I ask the same person to read it again, paying attention to the changes I made. Not all beta readers are willing to do this, and so if not, a new one works just as well. Either way, you should tell them to look for smaller issues now, and that most likely the story/plot/setting/character development most likely won’t change. If they get back to you and you notice there are, once again, major changes recommended across all chapters, you’ll probably need to do another full edit and another round of readers. But I find at this point you’ll most likely get just some smaller things, and so spot editing is probably the way to go. Which means, at long last, your manuscript is ready for a copy editor! The process will take anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months, depending on the length and editor, but do not skip out on this step!  You can skip out on a developmental editor and even beta readers if you really want to, but skipping out on this step all but guarantees your book will not sell. And, finally, after you get your book back from the copy editor, give it one last read and consider it done. If you plan on using a proofreader, send it off to them, but if not it’s time to publish, which is a topic for another day.   I hope this helps answer your questions, Lynne. If you have questions, there are two ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters Where to find me: The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset you can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Let’s Talk About The Editing Process [Ep. 009] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

It seems like a month doesn’t go by without someone mentioning the death of blogging, that social media has taken over and there’s no reason to have a blog, but I don’t think that’s quite true. In this episode, we take a look at the difference between blogging and social media, why both of them are important, and how to get started as a blogger in 2017. This topic was inspired by a friend of mine, LunaBell, who is just starting her personal blog and was asking me these very same questions. She isn’t a writer, but most of this episode really can pertain to anyone out there. Industry News: Jane Friedman talks about why Blogging is still important The Mcilvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year winner was announced Reference Links: Websites By Steam Powered Dreams (Use Coupon Code ‘authorpreneurmindset’ to save even more!) 10 Reasons To Start An Author Blog by Anne Allen LunaBell’s Blogsite  If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Tips for a blogger and starting an online blog Blogging is dead, long live Social Media! This is something that you might hear, well maybe not in such a dramatic way, but many people think blogging is dead, but I’m not so sure about that. Should you start a blog in 2017? If so, can it be something that can help you with a career, or to build an audience, or make money? Or, is blogging really dead, killed by social media and what is commonly known as the microblog? Well, let’s find out. Before we get into the topic, a quick update on me and Steam Powered Dreams. I recently wrote a post on my author page that reveals a bit more about the project I’ve been working on, the Steam Powered Dreams Story Engine. While I still can’t reveal too much, if you’re interested I’ll have a link to the post in the show notes, or you can just head over to author.jeremycollier.com to read it. In industry news, we have an article that directly relates to the topic of this episode. Jane Friedman recently posted on the topic of which is more important to an author, their website or social network account(s)? While this might not be directly related to industry news, I think it’s worth sharing. She goes through the differences between them, what each offers, and why she would choose her website over social networking anyway. Of course, we don’t actually have to choose, so we can have the best of both worlds! https://www.janefriedman.com/whats-important-author-websites-social-media/?utm_content=bufferea2f6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Also, the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year winner was announced. Denise Mina’s The Long Drop takes the prize this year, so if you’re looking for a good crime novel, check that out. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/minas-long-drop-wins-mcilvanney-prize-scottish-crime-book-year-2017-635376 Alright, that’s it for industry news this episode and we’ll get to the main topic in just a moment, but I wanted to remind everyone that this podcast is fully funded out of pocket and takes a lot of time to produce. If you like what you hear, there is a Patreon to show your appreciation. For just a few bucks a month you’ll be helping not only keep the show running, but push it towards the next level. You can find that at steampowereddreams.com/patreon or just search Authorpreneur Mindset on Patreon. The good news for many of us is that blogging is not dead. In fact, it’s far from it. I would actually say that it is stronger now than ever if done right and combined with other media, such as social networks, video, or podcasts But, let’s take it back a few steps and start with what is a blog. Well, a blog is pretty much any website that has moving content and some sort of interactivity, and by that I mean content that is published on a regular (or irregular) basis that allows for comments. Your blog could be made of images, video, podcast episode, text, or a combination of two or more of these. A lot of people don’t realize that. For example, even though I don’t call the website for this podcast a blog, that’s exactly what it is. I post the show notes, episode links, and the episode itself into a new blog post and publish it The text is the most common form of a blog. Sometimes it has images or video, but it’s mostly text. At least that’s how it used to be. Let’s take a look at some websites that you probably don’t even realize are blogs: YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter Youtube is a blog where Video is the focus, but it’s a blog none the less. You post new content, people can comment, the two most basic functions of a blog Instagram is a Picture focused type of blog And Twitter is a microblog, as is Facebook and many other social networks So you might be saying why should I start a boring old text blog when I already have a youtube, Instagram, twitter, facebook, or whatever else with a large following? There are a few reasons. The first is that you don’t own anything you do on these websites. At any moment, they can be taken down or deleted, you could be banned for no reason, or their service could be discontinued. The second is because you get to decide what your users see at all times when you have your own blog and you can set up each individual post to be 100% unique if you wanted to. And third, because it allows your users to feel a connection with you that a social network just doesn’t offer. Now, we understand what a blog is and some of the advantages over social networks, but why should we have a blog in the first place? Anne Allen recently wrote a great article on this subject called 10 reasons to start an author blog and we’re going to go over some of them. The first one is simple, you’re going to need a website anyway, why not add a blog? If you’re traditionally published (or trying to become so), you must have a website. Agents, reviewers, and even publishers will search for your website and the higher quality it is (and the more activity), the better it reflects on you. If you’re self-published, not having a website will make you stand out, and not in a good way. Even before steam powered dreams, one of the first things I’m asked whenever I meet new writers, editors, or other industry people is where can I find your website? And if I didn’t have one, I’d lose out on both potential sales and potential networking opportunities. And that brings us to the next reason: Having a blog gets you into search engines. Sure, just having a static website might be what gets you into google or whatever other search engine people are using, but it’s the blog that helps you rank and keeps your website fresh. If a website has no changes, it will sink lower and lower into the rankings until it’s so far buried the only way you’ll find it is if you google your exact name, and even then it will be way below anything else you do. Also, blogs mean more traffic and more traffic means higher rankings and your website will start coming up more often in whatever search results make sense for you. Many of you are writers, in fact, I’d argue that most listening is, and that’s exactly what blogging is, so why not play to your strengths? You know what good writing looks like, you know what YOU want to know, so if you create the content, you’ll attract people similar to you, or who have similar tastes at least. The last reason I want to talk about from the article is that she says blogging is social media for grown-ups. What she means by this is that, unlike facebook or twitter, you can generally discuss much more complex ideas and share them with like-minded people. Twitter is limited to how many characters it can display and facebook is so full of random people and restrictions that it’s really hard to get what you want to say out. But on a blog, you control the flow, you control the content, and you even control the comments, if you want to go that far. It’s not uncommon for blog posts to be 3000 or even 5000 words long, as where the average facebook post is probably just a few hundred if that. If I haven’t convinced you to start a blog, then just google around and you’ll find that pretty much every author you read has one, as well as professionals from almost all walks of life. Alright, let’s switch gears a bit and discuss what makes a good blog, some tips to starting one, and what you can expect if you put in the hard work and dedication. A good blog usually consists of more than just the posts you put out there. For writers, you need to make it part of you, so including a few pictures is a great way to make the whole site feel real. Some people jump right in and have the blog displayed on the front page, and that works, but what I prefer is the front page be pretty static, let your visitors know who you are, what you do, and where else they might be able to find you. Make sure your blog is easily accessible, though! A link in the navigation bar is probably the best way, but having the latest post section is also a great way to get people to click. Create your website and blog around a color scheme that fits you. If you’re writing is dark, like horror, suspense, or thrillers, you probably don’t want to use white, pink, and light blue as your theme, just as you wouldn’t want to use blacks, greys, and dark reds for a children’s book site. Make sure to include an about me section that goes more in-depth with who you are. Include a few paragraphs that share you with your audience. Don’t share anything you’re uncomfortable with, of course, but it’s a great place to talk a bit about what makes you a writer and the journey you’ve been on. If you feel comfortable enough, include pictures of yourself, your pets, family, or whatever else makes you, you. Also, you should give your viewers a chance to easily contact you. This can be achieved easily through a contact form that sends you an email when someone contacts you. It keeps your email safe but still allows for that communication. As for the blog itself, organization is key. You want to keep your posts in as few categories as possible, but still enough to make navigation easy. For example, having a news and updates section is pretty common, as are things like Inspiration, Book Info, writing snippets, or writing advice. But if you already have those categories what probably isn’t needed is separate categories for things like Inspiration, Book Updates, Character Snippets, Editing advice, and so on. All of these things can fit neatly into the five categories you already had. For the posts, you’ll want to keep them at a length that is readable in one sitting, maybe between 500 and 1500 words. Also, don’t forget to include images and video!  You can easily embed youtube videos in your posts legally, so there’s no excuse not to! Make sure that your blog is always in date descending order, meaning your newest post on top, and a good rule of thumb is to hide the majority of a post behind a “read more” link. Imagine going to an author website where it’s not uncommon for them to share 1500 word character bios and 3000-word chapter previews and trying to sift through that to find a 500-word post they made. By limiting the amount of words displayed on the blog list view to around 250, it makes navigating a lot easier. For writers, make sure you also have a section on your website that showcases your work. Some writers do this right inside the blog, but I prefer a separate section so the viewers can easily find it. Now that you have an idea of what to put on your blog, how do you go about actually starting one? Well, many people start out with free blogs, and that’s fine, but know that they don’t scale very well, and they don’t look too professional. If you’re going for a free platform, I highly recommend wordpress.com. WordPress is the most widely used website and blog platform, so getting to know the basic will help you a lot in the long run. There is also a huge community and tons of free tutorials and guides for using WordPress to help you. If you’re looking to pay, there are a few options. The most basic are to do it all yourself. Get hosting from somewhere like Hostgator or GoDaddy, install WordPress, and you’re ready to go. For a bit extra they’ll even do all the heavy lifting for you, all you have to do is configure WordPress! If you’re not very technically inclined, you could also hire someone to create everything for you, and this is a great option, but you have to be careful. There are a lot of scams out there. Steam Powered Dreams offers a service for writers and other creative types, from DIY to fully customized, and they tend to be about half the price of many other services. If you’re interested, there’s a lot of information and demo sites over at websites.steampowereddreams.com. Okay, so now that you know what you’re doing, and have your blog, how do you actually get views? Well, one of the great things about blogs is, for the most part, the more energy you put into it, the more results you get out of it. I highly suggest writing anywhere from 5-10 posts and save them as drafts before you publish your first one, and then release them in succession, maybe one every other day for the first two weeks. This will jumpstart Google into getting your blog and website into the search results, and also give viewers more than a single post to look at, increasing the likelihood of them sharing it or saving the page for later. But, just as important, is sharing your post with friends and family on social networks and asking them to help you by resharing it themselves! This is why I say that having a blog alone really isn’t enough. Getting those links out there and getting them shared is extremely important! You won’t see much traction at first, but after a few weeks of this, it’ll start to grow. But even then, don’t expect to see much results in the first 6 months or even a year, unless one of your posts happen to go viral, in that case, congratulations. The most important thing is to keep writing. Keep consistent. You don’t have to do 5 posts a week, but 1-2 should be the minimum. I’m going to end this with a little story that ties this up with a nice example. The steam powered dreams website has been around for years. It was originally just a place for me and my writing partner to showcase our writing. It literally had nothing but a homepage that introduced us, a books page with links to our books, and an about me page that linked to our social media. We got almost no views, as you’d probably expect. About six months before I was forced to rebuild the Steam Powered Dreams website and make it what it is today, I started blogging weekly. All of a sudden, after only a few weeks, we were seeing consistent views across the whole website. It wasn’t much, but instead of 5-10 a month, we were getting 5-10 a day. And then we were hit with malware and I lost almost all of my content. The only reason I was able to save any of it was that Google had saved some of our pages in their cache! This wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have consistent viewers. By the time I remade the website and republished those posts, Google thought we were a dead website because technically for a while we were. Our views dropped back down to almost nothing. Then, I hired a few freelancers to write new posts, which quickly revitalized our views and took them to a new level, and it only took a few months. Because of our blog, and I know this for sure since I can track it, we have submissions to be published, writers looking for services, and more. The bottom line is a blog, along with social networks, can be an amazing tool to not only get your voice out there, but also to build a community, and promote your own work, so get blogging! Alright, I hope this helps you out. In a future episode I’ll talk more in-depth on the topic of blog themes and finding things to write about, but I think this is a great stopping point for this episode. The topic was brought to me by a friend of mine, Lunabell, who is just starting out on her blog. If you have questions about this episode or anything authorpreneur or entrepreneur related, there are two ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters Where to find me: The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset you can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward.   The post Blogging Is Dead, Long Live Social Media: Blogging in 2017 [Ep. 008] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

You may have noticed that I was absent for awhile. This was due to many things, but what it boils down to is that procrastination overtook my drive to produce the show, which I get into quite a bit in this episode. We are all plagued by procrastination at some point in our lives, some worse than others, but what’s important is how well we deal with it when it comes up. Clearly, I was able to deal with the procrastination of this episode, but it took longer than I’d have liked. But what really is procrastination, how does it affect us, and what can we do to help avoid it in the first place? Listen to find out! Industry News: Kobo enters the audiobook market Publishing salaries climb, but gender pay gap still there Reference links: ET The Hip-hop Preacher on YouTube Les Brown – You Gotta Be Hungry Speech Transcript for Speech Amazing motivational video by Mateusz M on YouTube If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Procrastination and Self Doubt Alright, it’s time to record an episode of the Authorpreneur Mindset Podcast! Well, I mean, I know it’s time, but there are so many other things I could be doing. I mean, does it really matter if I record this episode? It’s not like very many people are listening. The episode isn’t due out until Friday, I can record it Friday morning, why am I worrying so much about it right now? You know what, I’ll just forget it all together. Does that sound familiar? You could replace the word podcast with almost anything, even the things we love the most, and it would still be true for many of us. That’s why I’ve decided to tackle a subject that is near and dear to many creative types hearts, procrastination and consistency. This will be somewhat of a recurring mini series on the podcast and in this first episode I’m actually going to focus on how procrastination and self-doubt are  Before we get into the topic, I just wanted to talk a bit about what I’ve been up to this past few weeks. The first thing is I finally started reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and I am loving it. I actually picked up the book a few years ago when it was on sale, but at the time I just wasn’t in the mood to read Sanderson’s writing. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s an amazing writer, but his stories tend to be a bit drawn out for me. My brother, on the other hand, absolutely loves him and has been trying to get me to read this series for a while, so he’s happy he’ll finally be able to talk to me about it. Also, I’ve been doing an intense boot camp if you will to learn Python with Django programming language for an upcoming steam powered dreams project I can’t quite talk about yet, but I think it’s going to change the outlining process as we know it. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, make sure you’re on our mailing list so you’re the first to know. There’s a link to that on the podcast page at steampowereddreams.com/ Also, this episode marks the first of a new segment I have mentioned before, industry news. It’s basically tidbits that I find interesting or valuable for writers in all parts of their writing career. Also, I’ll have the links to these stories in the show notes The first story comes from thebookseller.com and says publishing salaries are climbing, but there’s still a quite large gender pay gap. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/starter-salaries-climb-132-2013-631196 According to the article, starting salaries have risen about 13% over the past four years, but out of the over 1000 people who reported, women are making about 16% less. The article continues to say this is most likely because there are more men in higher ranking positions than women, with almost 50% of the men who responded were in a position that earns them higher than the average position, compared to only 31% of women. This gender pay gap hasn’t changed much since 2008, but the amount of money has. The other story I picked up this week, also from thebookseller.com, was that Kobo is entering the audiobook market! http://www.thebookseller.com/news/kobo-enters-audiobook-market-631366 They recently launched their own audiobook subscription service and they claim to offer “the best value on a subscription plan in the category”. That’s saying a lot! But their words are backed up by the price For the basic plan, which is 1 audiobook a month, it’s about $1 cheaper than Audible and $2 cheaper than Scribd. This might help start a much-needed change in the audiobook industry, where Amazon has mostly dominated with Audible and ACX for years. Alright, that’s it for industry news this episode and we’ll get to the main topic in just a moment, but I wanted to remind everyone that this podcast is fully funded out of pocket and takes a lot of time to produce, especially with procrastination, as you’ll hear soon. If you like what you hear, there is a Patreon to show your appreciation. For just a few bucks a month you’ll be helping not only keep the show running, but push it towards the next level. You can find that at steampowereddreams.com/patreon or just search Authorpreneur Mindset on  Alright, so enough procrastinating! It’s time to get down to business. Let’s talk a bit about what procrastination is, why it exists, how it affects us when we don’t even realize it, and finish with a few tips and tricks on how to avoid letting it take over your life. Sometimes we put things off we know we shouldn’t just because we don’t feel well, or we’re tired, or sometimes we just don’t “feel” like it, but these are all excuses to procrastinate. We all know that procrastinating only makes us feel worse and leads to even more procrastination. This can be a vicious cycle and sometimes we do it without even realizing it. Take this podcast as an example. The reason I put off the episode at first was that I was sick, a valid reason not to record. But, as soon as I got better, the procrastination really started. I told myself I didn’t feel like doing it, or that I shouldn’t record late at night, or that I had more important things to do, but the truth was that, after skipping two weeks, I felt self-doubt. And this is one of the biggest reason we procrastinate because we doubt in our abilities to accomplish whatever it is we’re doing, and most of the time we don’t even realize this. If you are honest with yourself, you’ll know that procrastination really stems from that self-doubt. Think back to a time you procrastinated something, or actually, chances are good that you’re procrastinating right now. Be honest with yourself on why you’re procrastinating. I have a quote here from motivational speaker/YouTuber Eric Thomas, also known as ET the Hip Hop Preacher. Some of you in your life, the reason you’re not at your goal right now is because you’re all about your feelings. You don’t feel like waking up, so who does? Every day you say no to your dreams you might be pushing your dreams back a whole six months, a whole year. That one single day, that one day you didn’t get up could have pushed your stuff back I don’t know how long That’s some powerful stuff right there. Most of us are not so lucky to be able to wake up and go to a dream job, or not have to work at all. Most of us have to do what it takes to get from where we are to where we want to be, and that takes work and that takes pushing past procrastination, past the self-doubt. And it’s not easy. In the end, self-doubt is a fear, and fear leads to procrastination, and procrastination leads to failure, which of course leads to future self-doubt and the cycle is started all over again. But we can break out of that cycle and get past the fear, self-doubt, and procrastination. I have another quote, this time from the amazing Les Brown Fear kills dreams. Fear kills hope. Fear puts people in the hospital. Fear can aid you, can hold you back from doing something you know within yourself you are capable of doing, but it will paralyze you. It’s always been interesting to me that he says, in the midst of this, that fear can also aid you. At first, I thought it was a mistake, and that he meant to say something else, but later in the same speech, he talks about what he means by this Don’t allow your emotions to control you, we are emotional, but you want to begin to discipline your emotions. If you don’t discipline and contain your emotions, they will use you. I take this as we can not only break out of the cycle but use it to our advantage. One of the unique things about humans is our ability to manipulate our own thoughts and emotions. We can be terrified of something, yet still do it. We can be scared of heights, crowds, or anything else, yet still get up there on stage or climb the mountain, because we can control those emotions.   Procrastination and self-doubt are no different. At this point, you may be asking yourself how this relates to writing and authorpreneurship, or you might already get it. As writers, we spend most of our times in our own heads. It’s not a surprise then that self doubt, fear, and anxiety are a major part of our lives. Did you know that the average writer never finishes their book because they don’t think they’re good enough? That the fear of what others think leads to self-doubt, which leads to procrastination, which eventually leads to giving up. Even to this day, after having published multiple stories, I still go through this with almost every story I write, but I’ve started to learn to control this fear. That doesn’t mean I am always in control. Procrastination still creeps up on my all too often, but I try to end that cycle as soon as I realize it. When I find myself feeling self-doubt or fear of what others are going to say when they read what I’ve written, or listen to an episode of my podcast, I try to push past that feeling and do it anyway. Does it always work? No, but the fact that this episode is out is a good indication of what I’m trying to say. And I’ll say it again, it’s not easy. In that same speech, les brown continued, speaking about the power of perseverance and having confidence in yourself, even if you have to convince yourself of it. When you want to change, it’s not easy, if it were, in fact, easy, everybody would do it. But if you’re serious, you’ll go all out. [You’ll convince yourself that] I’m in control here, I’m not going to let this get me down, I’m not going to let this destroy me, I’m coming back and I’ll be stronger and better because of it. You have got to make a declaration, that this is what you stand for. You’re standing up for your dreams, you’re standing up for peace of mind, you’re standing up for health. Take full responsibility for your life. Accept where you are and the responsibility that you’re going to take yourself where you want to go. He ends that portion of his speech with one more interesting quote that I’d like to share. You can decide that you are going to live each day as if it were my last. Live your life with passion. WIth some drive. Decide you’re going to push yourself. The last chapter to your life hasn’t been written yet. And it doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, it only matters what you are going to do about it. His whole speech is about 45 minutes long and very much worth listening to. I’ll have a link in the show notes, but what we can take away from this is that, if you let it, procrastination that leads to self-doubt that leads to fear can not only hold you back, but kill your creativity, or maybe worse So how do we get over this?  Well, les brown had some tips for us, about forcing our minds to do the work, but that’s easier said than done, so let’s talk about some practical, real world ways you can help stop your procrastination. First, up is keeping a schedule or list of things to get done. Some people prefer to do this on a physical piece of paper or calendar, while others do it digitally. I personally use a combination of Google Calendar and Evernote to keep track of what I need to do. If it’s time-based, I put it on my calendar, or if it’s something I just need to get done it goes in Evernote. Within Evernote, I have a folder named To-Do. Each week on Sunday, I make a Weekly To Do list that has everything I know I need to get done that week. Then, each night, I write a daily to do list for the next day that is usually copied/pasted right from that weekly to-do list. If something comes up mid-week, I don’t add it to the weekly list, only the daily one. I do this because, at the end of the week, I want to see that weekly list fully checked off. It might be artificial, since I may not have gotten everything done, but it boosts my confidence. Next, you need to find a way to help keep you accountable. This is especially tricky if you’re a new writer without much of an audience. Chances are, you don’t have anybody asking you when your next book is due out, and so you have to make artificial accountability or find a good friend to do it for you, someone who can show you, tough love. For me, my mom is great at keeping me accountable for my writing. For another podcast I do, I have a cohost who keeps me accountable. But, for many things, I have to keep myself accountable, and those tend to be the things that I procrastinate the most. You can do things like give yourself deadlines, or set rewards for yourself. These are both great motivators and useful with self-accountability, just make sure that you don’t let procrastination convince you that it’s okay to push back a deadline or that you deserve a treat, even when you didn’t do what you set out for. In the end, if you’re doing something that very few people other than yourself have any stake in, you just have to push yourself. Procrastination and self-doubt will always come back, they will be there to haunt you when you least expect it. The best way around this is to develop systems and put them in place that help you not only realize when it’s happening but push past it once you do. We’ll be covering this topic more in the future, but I think that’s a good stopping point for now. If you have questions about this episode or anything authorpreneur or entrepreneur related, there are two ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters Where to find me: The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset you can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Procrastination and Self Doubt (Procrastination Part 1)[Ep. 007] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

This is it, this is the first interview episode here on the Authorpreneur Mindset Podcast and one that I couldn’t be happier to have done.Our guest today, Jeremy Menefee, has an amazing story. It’s one of overcoming difficulties in life and perseverance even in the face of devastation. It’s one that I think you will all enjoy. He is currently working on a few different projects, most notably a book on Ghostwriting and a new fiction series. Check out the links below for more information: 3 Easy Outlines for Ghostwriters: Quickly Write Novels That Rock! (Amazon) (Instafreebie) Odd Behaviors (Rephaim: Bloodlines Short story #1) Eyes Without a Face (Rephaim: Bloodlines Short story #2) The Professional Ghostwriter’s Handbook (eBook) (Paperback) More links for Jeremy Menefee: Jeremy’s Editing/Ghostwriting Blog Jeremy’s Facebook Jeremy’s Twitter The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy My Books on Amazon Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website Below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded but are here for reference and SEO. They only contain possible questions asked during the interview Topic: Interview with Jeremy Menefee My guest this week is Jeremy Menefee. He is a best selling author, both fiction and non-fiction, Editor, blogger, and copywriter, but you’ve probably never heard his name, at least not yet. This is because, so far, he’s only been published as a ghostwriter, at least up until recently as he is working on his very own series of books due out next year. But here is the interesting part. He’s doing all of this after an accident that caused brain damage, as well as other health problems. Welcome to the show, Jeremy. Before we get started with the interview, I wanted to thank you for coming on and being the first guest of The Authorpreneur Mindset. Why don’t you tell us a bit more about yourself? When did you start ghostwriting and editing? Why ghostwriting and not writing for yourself? Let’s talk about the accident, what exactly happened? What health issues has it caused for you and how have you been able to not only work around them, but also overcome them to create a living for yourself? Let’s talk about growing up. Where were you born and/or raised? What was your family life like? Parents? Siblings? Did you read a lot growing up? If so, what books/genres? Did you write much when you were young? If so, do you remember anything you wrote? If not, how come? Let’s fast forward a bit. Married, children? When? Other jobs you’ve had? First time you ever completed a writing project Family life before the accident and after Share some (positive or funny) Editing and/or Ghostwriting stories What made you finally decide to write your own story? Tell us more about it and your plans for your own series. Putting the accident aside, how has your life changed since you decided to make a full time life from freelancing/writing/editing? Knowing what you know now, if there was something you could tell your young-writer self, advice you would give, what would it be? One final question, and it’s a question I plan on asking every guest. If you had a mascot or avatar that represented what you’re doing, i.e. your writing, editing, etc., what would it be? (elephant) Where can you be found online? Jsmenefee.wordpress.com facebook.com/authorjsmenefee twitter Anything you’d like to tell the listeners? Thank you for your time. I’d love to have you back on in the future closer to the release of your series. The post Interview with Author and Editor Jeremy Menefee [Ep. 006] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

This is the first Rapid Fire episode, that’s where I take multiple questions that don’t take a full episode to answer and, well, answer them! This time around we talk about how to write an author bio, if KDP Select is worth it, to share or not to share first drafts, marketing, and the editing process! If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Evergreen Stories and Stale Stories What is the correct way to write an author bio? Is Amazon KDP Select the way to go? Should you share my first draft? I am your host, Jeremy Collier, and today’s episode is the first Rapid Fire episode of The Authorpreneur Mindset. A rapid-fire episode is when I answer questions that don’t really require a whole episode to talk about in itself. Before we get into the topic, I wanted to talk a bit about our Patreon page. I mentioned it last episode, but I wanted to go into more detail on what exactly we’re offering on there, and how you can get a bunch of extra content for only $1 a month right now. The first 25 people who back the podcast on patreon will actually get the $3 level for just that, $1. You get access to future patreon-only content, the ability to listen to the Authorpreneur Mindset early, a Patreon only form to ask questions, and access to our very exclusive Discord server. We offer different things at different rewards levels, but let’s be honest, the $1 a month level is really all that matters right now. So if you’d like to show some support and get access to all that, and more as we hit our goals, head over to Steampowereddreams.com/patreon. With that out of the way, let’s get into our rapid fire questions. The first question comes from Masha Leyfer who asks “How would you recommend I write my author bio?” There is no one right way to write an author bio. Most authors write it in third person as if someone else is talking about you, but that’s not for everyone.  Some people get right to the point and talk about their books, while others give some backstory to their lives. The important thing is that it is both professional and personal. To give you an example, I’ll read mine Next question from Diane DeMuth who asks “Is Amazon KDP exclusive the way to go? Is it better to be on all e-reader sites? What are the best ways/least expensive ways to market?” Amazon KDP Select can bring a lot of value, especially to new authors, but it means potentially losing out on income from other sources. I’m a firm believer in going wide…eventually. What many authors do, and something I agree with, is, if you’re just starting out (or starting a new series) to put your books into KDP Select for a month, or two, or even three, and then once it has somewhat of a following on Amazon, take it out and go wide. This helps it get a jump-start, while still allowing you to make sales elsewhere. As for best ways and least expensive ways to market, this is an ever-changing answer. Facebook ads, if done right, can be amazing, as can Amazon ads. Both of these methods take a lot of patience and a fair bit of luck but make sure before spending even a dime to do your research, maybe even take an online class or two. My favorite method, and by far the cheapest because it’s free, of marketing is social media. Now, I’m not telling you to throw it into people’s faces, because that will backfire, but to join writing/reading communities and talk about your writing, and share your knowledge. People will ask you about your books and you will get sales.  Find groups that allow for weekly advertising, but avoid groups that are all advertising. Have friends and family promote your books, read your books, and review your books (just remember: anyone with your last name cannot review your book on Amazon!  It’s an odd thing, but can lead to problems.) Next question is from Al Sanchez who says “I’ve read that many established writers frown on sharing 1st drafts. Opinions?” Sharing your first draft is purely a personal choice. Many established writers frown upon sharing their first drafts to those who they cannot trust, but you’ll find that almost all of them share them with at least one person. If you have a loyal writer friend or reader friend who doesn’t mind that the story/characters/etc. Maybe really poorly laid out, it’s not only fine to share with them, but it’s very important to so that you can get their feedback. With that said, my advice is to share your second draft.  That is, write the first draft, read it over and do a full edit once, THEN share it with a trusted friend or family member.  You’d be surprised how much a single edit can change your book! The final question is from Daniel Cornett who asks “How many edits/drafts do you go through? I am waiting on my first draft edits back and I need to know how many edits are in my future.” This question has many parts to it and the answer will change for every author. Some of the most prolific and famous writers go through 10 to 15 edits or even more, while others only 2 or 3.   For me personally, I do 1 full edit after the first draft, 1 spot edit after beta readers, and finally a full edit after my copyeditor (this is generally a quick read with very little changes though).  Sometimes I do a full edit after the beta readers, but more often than not a spot edit will be enough. But if we talk about average rounds of editing, I’d have to say it’s 5+. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by waiting on your first draft edits back. I don’t recommend hiring anyone to edit your book until you have polished it up as best you can. Not only will you have a better book, but it’ll cost you a lot less.  Of course, if a traditional publisher picked up your book and that’s what you’re doing, it really is up to the editor. You may have to do 2 edits or 20.   I’m sorry my answer isn’t more specific, but every manuscript is as different as every author and every editor. That’s it for our first Rapid Fire episode. I want to thank everyone for the questions. If you have a question, or 10, head on over to steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and click on Ask A Question, or join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters You can also find me directly on: Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Rapid Fire Questions #1 [Ep. 005] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

Have you ever wondered if your story has any fans out there? Maybe you’re writing in a niche genre, or more often than not, you were told that “that topic is so old, no one reads it anymore.” Well, that’s not exactly true. Every niche, no matter how small, has an audience, and most stories are evergreen, they just come and go in cycles. In this episode, I’m going to talk about why you should avoid writing to the market and write what you truly want to right, and how it can benefit you in the future. Just because Zombies are played out right now, doesn’t mean they will be forever. The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Evergreen Stories and Stale Stories   Some stories stay golden forever, while others go viral and then tend to fade pretty quickly, but how do you know which is which? And maybe more importantly, how do you plan your story around this type of ever-changing market? Hello everyone, I’m Jeremy Collier, this is episode 4 of the Authorpreneur Mindset and today we’ll be talking about the difference between trends and evergreen stories. But before we start that, I wanted to give a quick update about what’s been going on. A lot of changes are in the works for Steam Powered Dreams, most of which are happening out of necessity rather than choice. I have had to take a step back from my full-ahead plan I had originally started, but that doesn’t mean things will really change on the outside. In fact, it should mean more consistent content coming out of us, both on our website, in your email, and on this show, so that is a good thing. Also, I am happy to announce that I have completed the first interview for this podcast and that will be in Episode 6. It’s a very inspirational interview, so make sure you catch that one. Also, I wanted to remind everyone that I’m offering discounts to listeners of this podcast for my Websites for Writers service. You can use the discount code Podcast to save 15%, but the true value comes from the fact that our prices are already significantly less money than others who offer a similar service. To get there, just go to websites.steampowereddreams.com Even if you’re not looking for a website right now but want to help support the show, spread the word and let others know about this wonderful service Or you could head over to our Patreon and pledge as little as $2 a month. You can find that at steampowereddreams.com/patreon With all that out of the way, let’s get into the topic. Today’s topic comes from Jennifer Quick and is an interesting one I’ve put a lot of thought into.  She asks “I was told that certain genres just aren’t being looked at right now, ie werewolves. I had a freaking brilliant idea for a werewolf story that also tied into today’s deteriorating society in a subtle but eerie way. I understand that genres have a life span. That part I can very much get over. However, what boggles my mind is what was said afterward. “Publishers already know what they are looking for over the next SEVERAL years. If you don’t fit their search, don’t even bother trying.” And the quick answer is that this is both true and not so true at the same time. The publishing industry, especially in its current state, is changing faster than any publisher can keep up with. In fact, more and more, the indie scene is dictating what direction things go in, rather than the big publishers. This is because it isn’t unheard of for an indie to publish 2, 3, even 4 books a year, where it takes traditionally published authors at least a year to publish one, if not longer. It is true that some sub-genres are just fads that go away and never come back, but those are rare. More common are those that are evergreen, but come and go in a cycle. Let’s use your werewolf story as an example. Much like vampires, they became hot in the early 2000’s thanks to Twilight but have since started to fade away. This is mostly due to the fact that everyone is trying to write to the market.  You wouldn’t believe how many Twilight rip-offs there are out there right now, some much better than the original, but most just sloppy and written specifically for the market. This dilutes the sub-genre and it quickly gets played out. What’s the next big thing?  There’s no way to be sure, though publishers do try to predict what will be the hot thing in 2-3 years. But, again, as fast as things change today, it’s nearly impossible. A movie may come out that sparks people’s interest in a topic, or a video game, or even a book, and then that’s the newest and best thing.   Then hundreds of writers-for-hire (or people paying ghostwriters in hopes of cashing in) will flock to the computer and write in that genre until it’s saturated and no one wants to read it. These people will become wealthy for a while and probably switch to a new genre as soon as it’s hot, repeating the process over and over. It can be a bit daunting, But don’t worry, not all hope is lost.   There’s a reason it’s not recommended to write to the market because if you do, you may never write what YOU Want to write and you will be constantly changing what you write. Topics like werewolves, vampires, aliens, elves, magic, space travel, and hundreds more will always resurface, and that’s why a person passionate about writing doesn’t write to the market but rather writes whatever they want to. When Twilight came out, sales of Ann Rice’s Interview With A Vampire skyrocketed to levels that it hadn’t since the early 90’s when the movie first came out, and that wasn’t the first time that happened. That book has had huge sales spikes multiple times since it was written in 1976 because it is a good book and the topic has cycled around more than once. There is something I want to clarify, though. While a publisher won’t turn down a good book just because the sub-genre is “stale”, it is harder to get published, and this is why many people turn to self-publishing when they’re writing in a stale genre. This doesn’t mean don’t try to go the traditional route if that’s what you want, but you might find it much better for you, and your future, to self-publish. So, in the end, it comes down to thinking about the long term, thinking about the future. If you want to write a werewolf story right now, it may not sell much this year or even in the next 5 years.  But, if it’s a good book, there will come a time when werewolves are the hot thing and you will have an advantage because it’s already out there. I hope this helps answer your questions, Jennifer. If you have questions, there are three ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters The third is by contacting me directly on Twitter at SoulScribbler, on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Evergreen Stories Vs. A Stale Market [Ep. 004] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

A topic that I get asked about all the time is what to do after you’re done with that first draft. Many new writers don’t realize how much work it takes to go from finishing that draft to published, and some don’t even realize they have anything to do. There was a day where a first draft might have gotten you a publishing deal if you were an amazing writer, but those days are long gone and have been replaced by either a lot of hard work and some money (indie publishing) or hard work and time (traditional publishing). This week’s topic on post-first draft process comes from Kaylie Esther Rosenberry, a member of Writers Helping Writers on Facebook. She asks: I’ve just finished the Rough Draft to my the 1st book in my fantasy/adventure series (my 1st novel – working on the 2nd as well). What is my next step? I have several beta-readers already lined up and reading as we speak, hopefully. 🙂 What’s next? My plan is to pursue a more traditional publication instead of self-publishing. I hope this episode helps you, Kaylie, as well as anyone else who is curious about what to do next! Show Notes (unedited copy of the show notes for SEO) Imagine this; you’ve been working hard on your very first manuscript for sometime now and you’ve finally finished your rough draft. You know it still has a long way to go, and have some friends reading over it who you know will both tell you if it’s good or not, but also be gentle and understanding at the same time.  After all, it is just a rough draft. But, where do you go from there? Hello everyone, I’m Jeremy Collier, this is episode 3 of the Authorpreneur Mindset. A small personal update on me: I got sick this week, again. It seems like about once a month or so I come down with something. Websites at Steam Powered Dreams is just about to be launched and will be by the time this is released. It’s a great service for authors who want a full website on a budget. Use code Podcast to get 15% off.   Today’s topic comes from Kaylie Esther Rosenberry who says “I’ve just finished the Rough Draft to my the 1st book in my fantasy/adventure series (my 1st novel – working on the 2nd as well). What is my next step? I have several beta-readers already lined up and reading as we speak, hopefully. 🙂 What’s next? My plan is to pursue a more traditional publication instead of self-publishing. THank you for the question, Kaylie, and the short answer is edit and rewrite until you can’t feel your fingers any more. I’m kidding of course, but there is still a lot to do before you even think about submitting to an agent or publisher, and even more to do if you end up self publishing. Since you already have beta readers who are reading your book, that’s a great place to start, but let me caution everyone on giving your book to beta readers too early.   Many times, you only have one shot with a beta reader, so you want that book to be as well written as you can possibly do alone before you hand it to them. This might mean 3 or 4 rounds of edits/rewrites, or just a single one, it’s different for each author, but that’s where you should start. After Beta Readers, it’s time to really think about their feedback and implement what you think is important. Then, you have the option of seeking out a Developmental Editor.  The benefits is that this is a professional who has built a career on knowing what’s good and what’s not in a book, usually specific to a genre even.  The bad news is that they do cost quite a bit and if you have very little budget for your book, it is better spent later. Once you’ve been through beta readers and developmental editing and fixed all the little plot holes and mistakes you can, that’s when it’s time for a copyeditor. Now, some people will tell you that you shouldn’t pay for editing prior to submitting to a publisher, but times have changed and most publishers won’t look past page one unless it’s as near to perfect as it can be. Spend the money to get your copy edits done, you won’t regret it. While your copy editing is going on, start researching agents or publishers.  If you’re looking at small press or medium press, they tend to not require agents, and many of them prefer not to have them at all, but all the bigger names won’t even look in your direction unless you have one. If you are going with an agent, they will know which publishers to submit your work to, so you don’t have to worry about researching both. Then, you wait.  It may be weeks or months, but you wait.  The rejections will start coming in and that should feel good, because that means you have people reading your work.   Read each one, especially those that have constructive criticism, and then move on.   LIsten to your agent when they say something might need to be done, either altering parts of your story or whatever it is, since they know the industry best. Then, one day, you’ll finally get that letter that tells you they will publish you. After that, the process  is different for every author and can last anywhere between 6 months to 2 years before your book is actually out there. There will be negotiations over royalty, rights, cover, sections of your story that they want you to rewrite, rounds of editing, and possibly even months of silence, but once that contract is signed, it will happen. You will be a published author, and it feels great!  But it doesn’t quite stop there. Another thing that has changed is these days the author is required to do their own marketing.  The publisher will put you on their website, promote you to their mailing list, but probably won’t spend very much money on advertising.   Make sure you talk with them about what you can do, but generally making sure to reach out to all your social networks, friends, and family to buy your book within the release window (usually 2-3 weeks).  The more downloads and reviews you get in that window, the more likely you are to be promoted by your publisher to a greater extent. There is something you cannot forget, though, that you should be doing throughout this whole process, and it’s the most important step any author can take, whether you want to be self-published or traditionally published, and that’s to start writing your next book.   By the time you have your first book published, you should be well on your way to finishing your second.  I hope this helps answer your questions, Kaylie. If you have questions, there’s two ways to reach me.  The first is through the website at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset and then click on Ask A Question. The second is to join our facebook group at facebook.com/SPDwritershelpingwriters You can also find me: on Twitter at SoulScribbler, on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post What To Do After The First Draft Is Complete [ep. 003] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

The first episode of The Authorpreneur Mindset seemed to be a hit!  So we took a few weeks between that episode and this to get ahead. You can expect 3 episodes over the next week and then at least 1 episode a week after that. I’m really excited about the content we have planned for you! Also, I realized today the website hasn’t been updated with proper links to where to download, that will be fixed ASAP. This episode is all about the Misconceptions and Scams in the Publishing Industry, so it’s one you really don’t want to miss! We talk about vanity publishing (both the good and bad), the misconceptions about traditional publishing, we also talked about the differences in money between traditional and indie and how you might be surprised at the changing times.  There’s a lot more content than that, as well! The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it: Buy a copy of Scrivener Support us on Patreon Hire us to do your website As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded but are here for reference and SEO. Topic: Misconceptions and Scams There are a lot of all too common misconceptions in the publishing industry and it doesn’t just stop when you’ve been published traditionally.   In fact, that’s just the start for many companies who are trying to get as much money out of you for as little effort as possible. Today I’m going to be talking about some of the scams and misconceptions that are spread across all aspects of the writing industry, from outlining and planning, all the way up to stealing your rights away from you with the promise to publish your book I’m Jeremy Collier and this is episode 2 of the Authorpreneur Podcast So, getting into our topic for this episode, let’s first talk about some of the misconceptions revolving writing and publishing. Misconception Number 1: Self/Indie Pub are not truly published authors. Self Publishing is now not only viable, but for most authors a better choice. You get full royalty rates and have full control over the who, what, when, where, and how of your book. If you want to sell your eBook on Amazon exclusively, your paperback at a local mom-and-pop bookstore, and create your own audiobook to sell on your website, you can do that. If you wanted to give away a free copy of your eBook for every physical book sold, you can do that. Decided on changing the cover, CTA’s, back, etc.? You’re in 100% control. But it is a business and it takes some knowledge in not just writing, but everything else, as well. Even if you outsource things like formatting, cover, and the actual publishing, you should still know enough to understand the process.   You’ll also get to choose how your book is marketed and when. Misconception Number 2: If you get a traditional deal, they do everything! Sure, if you’re name is Stephen King or JK Rowling they’ll take your finished manuscript and turn it into a masterpiece, with high quality edits, cover design, and formatting, not to mention thousands invested in marketing, but most of us don’t get that treatment. In fact, in exchange for around 90% of the profit, the traditional published author gets very little. Mediocre editing (enough to pass as edited), if that. Many require you to have your work edited ahead of time and they just touch it up. It’s becoming more common to see manuscripts rejected based on the fact they are not professionally edited. Virtually no marketing, other than on the webpage of the publisher (and no one really visits there) Royalty rates that kick in only AFTER advances are paid, if any advance is given Advances are actually a dying art, at least big ones. All of this with little to no say over what happens once you sign that contract. Misconception Number 3: A traditional publisher has more reach and you can make a lot more money. The first part of this is true.  Most traditional publishers DO have a much further reach, but as we talked about a few minutes ago, they don’t generally use it unless you’re a huge name, and even when they do, you don’t get as much benefit from it as you might think. Recently, a NYT best selling author came out and said they only make $0.40 per book sold on their books, which range from $12 (eBook) to $14 (paperback).  That’s next to nothing.   This means that a publisher would have to help you sell 21x more books for you to make the same amount as an indie. To put that into perspective, if an indie sold 100 books a month (very easy with a little bit of marketing smarts) at that price, they would make around $840 bucks.  In order for that same author above to make that much money, the publisher would have to help them sell 2100 copies.  See the problem there? I know it’s not all about the money.  SOme people just want to be traditionally published, and I get that and that’s fine, but if you’re trying to build a career out of your writing, it is next to impossible to do with traditional publishing, unless you’re able to crank out 3+ books a year for the first few years and not expect much money in return. Misconception Number 4: Self-Publishing is better because you’ll earn more money in the long run. This is opposite of number 3 and something else I hear a lot, and much like the answer above, it’s not always true.   I just talked about the earning potential difference between an author who sells 100 books as an indie vs. 2100 as a published, but that scenario would never happen.  There are very few, if any, indie authors who would try to sell their ebook for $12.  The more common price range is $2.99-5.99 (but as much as 9.99).  The reason it’s higher for traditional is because the publsihing house needs to stay in business. So that same eBook that sells for $12 in traditional would probably sell for $5.99 in indie, meaning it would take more sales to reach any type of number to make a living. It’s also less likely you will make much money off of a single book.  Most indie authors say they start making money around the third book and can comfortably rationalize either cutting back hours or quitting their dayjob at around 6-8 books. That’s a lot of books! There’s also the fact that you have to bust your butt in all aspects of the job, from finding a cover design/formatter/editor to learning how to actually publish, and it doesn’t stop there because you now need to know how best to market your book. So what it comes down to for both indie and trad. Is that if you want to be successful, want to make a living from your writing, and you want to do it for the long haul, it’s going to take work, and lots of it.  Yes, there is a higher earning potential for indie authors, but it also takes a lot more work to get there. Misconception Number 5: Hitting a major Best Sellers list means you’re set for life! I’ve kinda already busted this one above, but it in no way means that.   The best seller’s list doesn’t actually measure how well your book has done since release, but instead how fast it has risen. This is why you often see books that are only a few months old on the list, while books like Harry Potter, who sells consistently well each month even now, isn’t.   This means that if your book goes from 1-10,000 in the first month and you hit the list, and let’s say you’re on there for 3 months straight, selling 50,000 books all together, you are very happy and have made anywhere between $20,000 (for that traditional published author we talked about) to $210,000 (an indie author selling their book for $6), but then sales start to fall off and eventually you find you’re only selling a few hundred copies a month. Taking the median between the low and high end here, you might have made $100,000 in that first three months, but the next 3 months you only make 70k, then the next 3 months only 50k, and so on until it stabilizes because your book is no longer new. Sure, in that first year, you made $300,000 bucks ($210,000 after taxes), but now you’re starting to look at that book only making you $20,000 or less a year. This isn’t uncommon and in fact it happens all the time.  Many NYT best selling authors live high for 6 months to a year off their placement on there, but then are either forced to go back to a day job or try and repeat success with another book. Now, let’s switch it up a bit and talk about straight scams and how to avoid them. These are in order of how you might find them in your path to being a published, profitable author. Scam Number 1: Most standalone, mainstream editing houses will take advantage of you.   These are companies that go all out to make their website look like a well oiled, and busy editing company.  They talk about guarantees, their professionalism, speed, and other factors that explain why their prices are so much higher than other people.  I mean, they’re a professional editing company that does a top notch job, of course they cost more! Many times they seem like just what you need, but the truth is there are very few editing companies out there like this who are legit.  Why? For one, publishing houses have their own editors or a list of very trusted freelance editors they hire as needed.  A publishing house will NEVER outsource editing to another major company, it just doesn’t make sense because of cost. For two, there are hundreds and hundreds of freelance editors out there.  Yes, they might go under the name of a company, like my good friend and trusted editor Robin does under Shadowcat Editing, but you can see the difference right from the home page.   You can see and learn about Robin herself, instead of a faceless “editor” right on her homepage, and even more on her about page. A great example to compare to is http://www.firstediting.com/.  Any editing company (or really any company within the publishing industry) that looks like that, my advice is to avoid them. A client of mine went to first editing before I knew her and spent over $4000 on a single pass copy edit that turned out to not even be that.  They made some changes, but when I got ahold of it, I made over 1000 new changes just in the developmental editing alone.  When she tried to fight it, they pointed out that they are a “first editing” service and that she got exactly what they promised. Scam Number 2: This brings me to my next scam, not signing a contract. We all know the importance of reading over a contract when it’s presented to you and making sure it’s legit and you understand it all.  In fact, making sure others read it over is also a good idea, but what about having NO contract? Many scammers don’t use contracts because a contract will give the client rights. I use contracts for everything, even made my brother in law sign one for tutoring! Make sure if you sign with someone, be it a major company or a freelance editor, you have a contract and you understand everything in that contract. Also, they should be simple.  The longer the contract, the more chance of missing something is, and people know that.  Car dealerships and mortgages still do this (not all the time, thankfully) and it’s not uncommon for a $20,000 car to end up with a $25,000 loan attached to it before you know it. Scam Number 3: Vanity Publishing In general, it’s best to avoid vanity publishers.  These are the publishers that offer a range of services and package deals from simply taking your book and putting it on amazon to full packages that include editing, formatting, cover, publishing, and marketing. There are a few legit companies, but even they don’t care about you or your book.  They publish it under their banner and charge you thousands of dollars to do so.  Their editing is usually a joke, cover design is spotty, and marketing almost non-existent. Their small print is the worst, though.  One scam company in general states that you keep 100% of your royalties!  What they DON’T tell you up front is that you only get that after they have made a certain amount of money from your book.  So, if you get their elite package that costs $4000 and your book is published, they still take 100% of your profit for the first $5000 or even $10,000, if you ever reach that point, since your cover is bad, editing is bad, and there is no marketing. Scam Number 4: Marketers This one is a little harder to point out exactly who and what to avoid because, unless it’s a well established marketing company/person, it’s impossible to tell.   Maybe worse is that they deliver on their promise, covering themselves, but the results never show up. A legit company that markets books to thousands and thousands of people is BookBub.  They are hard to get, but they can do amazing things for your book, well worth the price of admission. They work by sending out emails to their email list that they have grown over the years the right way.  You can sign up for different lists and get good deals right in your mail box.  It’s a service that serves both authors and readers. On the flipside, there are companies that promise they will promote your book to 10,000 people on their mailing list, but what they don’t tell you is that their mailing list is bought or fake, resulting in most people never seeing that email or getting mad because it’s spam.   Of course these people tend not to last long, or they change names often, which is another way to tell if it might be legit. These are the main things I’ve ran into. I don’t feel comfortable calling out specific companies as scams, but I will provide links on the website to articles that talk more specifically about this.  And if you’ve ran into any of these types of companies, or need advice, feel free to contact me. Ending Where to find me: The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset you can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Misconceptions and Scams In The Publishing Industry [Ep. 002] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.

As the title says, welcome to the Authorpreneur Mindset. This podcast is designed for writers in all aspects of their career with the intent to share my experience, as well as the experience with others. This first episode introduces what an Authorpreneur is and the mindset I am talking about. Future episodes, starting sometime before Episode 10, will include interviews with both known and unknown authors, editors, designers, and more. A little bit about the show notes before we get going. I haven’t decided on a format for them yet in terms of how it’ll look on the page, but in general, the first few paragraphs will include a bit about what to expect in the episode and anything else I want to include.  The second half of the show notes, under the linebreak, is a copy of my pre-show notes. In general, this is what was written before recording and doesn’t include any interview answers (but will include some questions). Anyway, thanks for coming to the show. I hope you enjoy!  Don’t forget to find us on iTunes and leave a review, or leave a comment below! Welcome to The Authorpreneur Mindset. A podcast about the writer’s life and what it takes to become successful, both traditionally and as an indie. It’s a podcast that takes a look at the business aspect of the publishing industry and picks it apart. If you enjoy the show and want more, you can sign up for the Steam Powered Dreams mailing list to receive emails with valuable information right in your inbox. Just head over to SteamPoweredDreams.com/AuthorpreneurMindset to sign up now Hey everyone and Thank you for joining me for what I hope is the first of many episodes of The Authorpreneur mindset podcast. I am, Jeremy Collier, founder of Steam Powered Dreams Publishing and host of this show. This podcast is all about taking a look at the publishing industry from different angles and helping others push their own careers forward. While there will be a strong focus on the post first draft process, from what to do after you’ve written The End all the way to actually publishing and marketing, we’ll be hitting a wide variety of topics beyond that. The first handful of episodes will be solo shows where I talk about some of the bigger issues facing the publishing industry right now, but I have also planned interviews with those who have been working in the industry for some time, including writers, editors, designers, and publishers. So, let’s talk a bit about what the title of this podcast really means. The publishing industry has changed and the days of large advances followed by fame are pretty much over. Only the top, elite writers of our time like Stephen King or JK Rowling actually get special treatment, and even they have had to learn to adapt For the rest of us, we have to understand there is more to be done than just finishing the first draft. In fact, that’s just the start of our journey. In order to be successful, we need to learn the ins and outs of the industry, things like understanding our rights, marketing our books, and knowing what is fair and what isn’t. And an Author Entrepreneur, or authorpreneur, is just that. It doesn’t matter if you’re unpublished or have 100 books under your belt, if you have the passion for making a career as a writer and understanding what it takes, you are an authorpreneur. Back to what I was saying about the changes that have been happening in the publishing industry over the past 10 years. The eBook revolution has made it easier and cheaper than ever to become a published author, yet getting a publishing deal is harder and means less than ever. I’m not saying traditional publishing isn’t right for some people, but relying on an agent to get you the best deal and a publishing house to do what’s best for your book leaves a lot to desire to an authorpreneur. They know, with a little hard work, they can get their book edited, designed, formatted, published, and marketed in the way they want and keep 100% of their royalty and see a lot more money coming in. In fact, I’ll go one further and say that most authorpreneurs have no desire to be traditionally published, that getting that contract isn’t even on their radar. . In it’s simplest form, this is the authorpreneur mindset. To paraphrase an entrepreneur I highly respect and consider somewhat of a mentor, being an author entrepreneur isn’t about the money, but about the freedom to do things your way and to pursue your writing in a way that adds meaning to your life. The freedom to control how and when you spend your time as an author. So, you might be asking, what is the goal of being an authorpreneur, if not to be traditionally published? Well, the exact goal will be different for everyone, but I think one thing we all have in common is that we want to not only make a living from our writing, but be in control of what we write, how and when we publish, and who our ideal audience truly is. It’s a scary thought to make the leap, especially if you have had the traditional path in your head most of your life, but if you want to create a better life for yourself, one with writing at the head of your career, then this podcast might just be for you. I’ve been part of the publishing industry now for a few years and something that truly disturbs me is how many people are out to take advantage of writers. I created Steam Powered Dreams as a way to combat that, even if only on a small scale, and this podcast is an extension of that. Anyway, I’ve talked longer than I meant to, so I’ll wrap up this episode. The website is at steampowereddreams.com/authorpreneurmindset you can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/jeremylcollier on Twitter at SoulScribbler, and finally on Instagram at authorpreneurmindset Until next week, I am your host Jeremy and don’t forget to keep moving forward. The post Welcome To The Authorpreneur Mindset [Ep. 001] appeared first on SPD StoryStudio.