Episode 600: Thoughts On Writing Craft, Publishing, Marketing, Mindset, And The Author Business With Joanna Penn

Welcome to episode 600! I’m doing a solo show today, answering some questions from my recent podcast survey that cover the different aspects of the author life.

• From episode 1 in March 2009 to episode 600 (Jan 2022)
• How do you balance the artist/writer/creative side with the pragmatic business and marketing side of being an author?
• How do you improve your writing craft, both as a beginner and also as a later stage writer?
• What services and tools do you use right now for writing and publishing?
• What are you doing for marketing fiction and non-fiction now and how has that changed over time?
• It feels like an impossible job to stand out in such a crowded marketplace with millions of other books, as well as TV and film, games, music and other entertainment options. How do you deal with the mindset of feeling like it’s all pointless sometimes?
• What are the different streams of income that you have right now from your author business — and how would you like that to change over the next few years? 
• Questions for you as we head toward episode 700

From episode 1 to episode 600

I recorded episode 1 in March 2009 when I lived in Ipswich, just outside Brisbane, Australia. I phoned up a bestselling author on a landline, put it on speakerphone, and held an MP3 recorder next to the phone.

With some of my early books in 2009 (no longer available in those editions!)

At the time, I worked as an IT consultant specializing in accounts payable within an SAP implementation for an international mining company. I had a couple of non-fiction books out and a few people on my email list. The international Kindle hadn’t yet launched, print-on-demand was only just emerging as a viable option, there were no digital audiobooks — and there was certainly no empowered indie author movement as we have it today. 

Back then, self-publishing was mainly done by professional speakers and business-people who had their own distribution channels. Otherwise, it was considered ‘vanity press,’ and certainly not a viable business option for an author.

2009 really was before the dawn of the Creator Economy — which just shows you how things change over time!

In 2009, I had no author friends, and I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I saw podcasting as a way to connect with writers and somehow market my books. I had a one-page business plan on my wall for The Creative Penn with all the different ways I could make money based around my writing. I absolutely intended to leave my job and run a profitable business as an author, but I had no idea what lay ahead. I was just enthusiastic to get started! 

I created this business plan in March 2009

I started making some money and left my job a few years later in 2011 to focus on the business. I started making six figures in 2015, and then quickly surpassed my old salary with a multi-six-figure annual income, which I’ve sustained since then. You can read and listen to more of my historical lessons learned at TheCreativePenn.com/timeline 

Almost 13 years after that original episode, The Creative Penn Podcast has now been downloaded over 6.4 million times across 227 countries, with the top countries being US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Germany.

Most episodes get between 9000 – 16,000 downloads per episode, varying by the popularity of the topic, rather than the author, which I think is really key. You don’t have to be a “big name” author to be a great guest on a podcast. You just have to offer valuable content to the audience of the show. 

The podcast has many functions in my creative business. I still love talking to people and having conversations about interesting things, which you have seen develop in my future of creativity series of interviews over the last few years. It also connects me with the authors in the community, and many of my friends in real life are people I met on Twitter, invited on my podcast, and then eventually met in person.

I met Orna Ross on Twitter years before we met in real life and became friends — and she started the Alliance of Independent Authors.

The podcast is also important for my business income. I have consistent corporate sponsors of the podcast including Kobo Writing Life, Draft2Digital, Ingram Spark, FindawayVoices, and ProWritingAid; as well as occasional sponsors like PublisherRocket and ScribeCount — all of which I use personally as part of my author business.

I also have 727 wonderful Patrons on Patreon who support the show every month financially and emotionally, and many others have bought me a coffee. [www.buymeacoffee.com/thecreativepenn].

I also talk about my ongoing writing process and promote my own books, both fiction and non-fiction, and I direct you to useful things with my affiliate links, which many of you visit. Thank you for using my links! And of course, if you want to know more about how a podcast works from the technical, craft, and business angles, check out my book, Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies.

This podcast is still one of the most important aspects of my creative and business life. I consider it part of my body of work. 

I enjoy being a curator of news and although I was feeling burned out for a bit, as I outlined in my 2021 round-up, I now feel rejuvenated in my mission of empowering authors with the knowledge they need to thrive, especially as we move toward web 3 and what it might mean for creators over the next few years. 

Let’s get into the questions, which I’ve put together from a selection to represent every stage of the writer life. 

How do you balance the artist/writer/creative side with the pragmatic business and marketing side of being an author?

This is a challenge for every author, and it’s a constant balancing act. No matter whether you’re indie, or traditionally published, there are parts of the author ‘job’ that involve business and marketing tasks. You cannot do without them if you want to sell books and be a successful creative professional.

I love business and I think it’s incredibly creative. We turn our ideas into books that exist in the world — amazing! And making money with my art means I can make more art! 

If you don’t feel that way about business (yet), then you need to change your attitude. If you embrace the business and marketing side, you will be more successful, whatever that means to you. [Check out my books, How to Make a Living with Your Writing, Business for Authors, and Productivity for Authors for more detail on mindset and practicalities.]

In terms of balance, I essentially split my day.

Weekday mornings, or anything up to about 2 pm are usually for creative work — which includes first draft writing, editing, research and noodling ideas, recording and editing audiobooks, and also things like this solo show, which is essentially a piece of writing — as I write before I record for these solo shows, and I also write the introduction for every interview show. Podcasting for me originates in the written word!

Weekday afternoons are for business and marketing tasks — which include podcast interviews, either for my show or appearing on others; business meetings; email scheduling and replies; scheduling and managing ads; accounting and tax things; organizing research trips; social media (which is a tiny, tiny part of my life now, barely even 15-20 mins a day). 

Want more tips? Check out Productivity for Authors

I usually work at the weekends, too — but mostly, just an hour or so each day to stay on top of email and business things, as they are relentless! I will also go on longer research trips for my fiction, and also on business conferences to either speak or learn, and then the usual schedule goes out the window! 

I used to have a similar split when I had a day job between 2006 – 2011. I’d get up at 5 am and write, then go to work, and in the evenings, I worked on the podcast/blog/social media/learning the craft and the business, and everything else.

Inevitably, it’s a bit like a see-saw (which I think some Americans call it a teeter-totter which I always find hilarious!). If you stand in the middle and try to stay balanced, inevitably things shift one way and then you have to change your focus to either side.

Sometimes I drop everything and just finish writing or editing a book. Other times, I have multiple days of marketing and business in a row. It depends on the stage of each project.

The good news is that over time, you learn more about your personality (see episode 572 on Strengths for Writers) and what works best for you, plus new tools for writers are developed all the time that help save time and effort. 

Plus, as you make more money, you can invest in freelancers to help you. Thank you to Alexandra Amor, my virtual assistant now for many years! We’re both introverts, so even though we email sometimes multiple times in a work day, we’ve only spoken on Skype a few times and never met in person. Maybe one day! Thanks also to Jane Dixon Smith, my cover designer, who knows me so well now, she pretty much nails every cover first time. I have other freelancers for other things, but those two have been with me for years. 

In terms of practicalities, I use Google Calendar to schedule everything — including my writing time. I block out meetings with myself to write, and turn up as I would to any other professional meeting. The reality is that there is never enough time to do everything, you just have to make time for what’s important for you. 

How do you improve your writing craft, both as a beginner and also as a later stage writer?

This is a great question and it gets to the heart of why being an author can be a long-term career. With every book we write, we learn something new, so if you keep stretching yourself, you can keep learning new skills, which keeps the process fresh and interesting. 

Of course, you can only do that if you write more books. So that’s the first tip! Don’t spend years working on the same book, re-editing over and over again and making endless changes. Sure, you should finish the book and work with a professional editor to make it the best it can be. But then write another one, and another, and another, and you will learn something different every time.

I like writing in cafes