Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

In this solo episode Mark reflects on the value authors can have for libraries, exhaustion of being on the road for several weeks in a row and too many commitments, and the feeling of "coming home." This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast. Links of Interest: Digipalooza Mark Leslie's Books via OverDrive Mark Leslie Lefebvre's Books via OverDrive Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode Mark reflects on a few of the things he has learned from a couple of the craft talks given at his intense residency week in the Masters in Creative Writing program at Western Colorado University. This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast. Links of Interest: Graduate Program in Creative Writing at WCU Steve Coughlin (Professor of English) Maya Jewel Zeller (Nature Writing and Poetry Faculty) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  

Mark interviews Johanna Rothman about her latest book FREE YOUR INNER NON-FICTION WRITER. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor This episode is sponsored by Mark's new book Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard. In the interview, Mark and Johanna talk about: Why Johanna is often called The Pragmatic Manager The thirty-years of consulting that Johanna has experience with The fact that she is not a "natural writer" Beginning to write in 1997 because she realized that speaking only wasn't a great way to market her business as a consultant Advice Johanna received from Gerald Weinberg How Johanna began to write short fiction in 2016 Being involved in the early days of "Agile" development Why Johanna recommends writing in 15 minute chunks for non-fiction Who the idea reader is for Johanna's book FREE YOUR INNER NONFICTION WRITER How to keep a business-related blog interesting How writing non-fiction includes universal story elements: "a person in a situation with a problem" The "write fast to write well" concept The importance of maintaining your voice Why Johanna writes a question of the week on her blog The book Obliquity by John Kay and how detours might help us better in the long run Advice Johanna would offer to writers for getting better at their own non-fiction writing And more... After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of your author voice as well as the divergent ways you sometimes find your way to your destination. Links of Interest: Johanna Rothman's Website Create an Adaptable Life Free Your Inner Non-Fiction Writer Lou J. Berger (IMDB) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your complex problems. She helps leaders and teams learn to see practical alternatives that help them achieve more agility in their work. With that knowledge, they can choose what—and how—to adapt their product development. For almost three decades, Johanna has helped her clients experiment with agile and lean alternatives for every piece of their product development. As a result, her clients create more management agility which translates to better business results. A prolific writer, Johanna is the author of 18 books and hundreds of articles about many aspects of product development. She uses her trademark practicality and humor to focus on what people can do—and not take herself too seriously.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode Mark reflects on being overly stressed about having too much on his plate, and what seemed to have helped him deal with that. This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast. Links of Interest: Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews David Olive, Jr (AKA David Grimdark) author and one of the engineers behind Penspyre a tool to help writers tackle writer's block and productivity. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark and David talk about: David's love of reading as a young child and his love of fantasy novels Begining to read eBooks on a dedicated reader, and reading Webnovels Starting to write when interning in University Putting some of his work up on Wattpad The Systems Design Engineering program David recently graduated from at University of Waterloo The final year project that David and his fellow engineering students put together, which resulted in Penspyre The procedural documentation of identifying problems related to the writing process Reaching out to local writers from the Cambridge Writer's Group as part of their research and investigation Learning the Google Spring method How Pensypre offers up AI-generated writing prompts to help a writer with their productivity The research they'd done with writers leading them to believe they didn't want a tool that would give them something they'd take word for word but that they needed something to help "get the ball rolling." The metrics they looked at for their research with how writers engaged with the tool Their study's results showing that writers typically wrote 15% more in a 20 minute writing sprint using the tool than when not using the tool How Pensyre is a tool David wanted to make as much for himself as for other writers The "Continue the Story" option where you can focus on action, dialogue, or inner thoughts of the characters with various styles or moods The "Link the story" feature for briding two different scenes or moments or actions together The "Describe" function that allows you to draw upon one or more of the five senses Penspyre's availability as a Google Docs extension How writers during the test kept the prompts unedited about 15% of the time The element of the software that suggests the level of "originality" score to the prompt Advice David would offer to beginning writers David's thoughts on why writers shouldn't be afraid of this new technology   After the interview Mark shares a few of his own reflections, thanks Patrons for their support and reminds them there'll be a video walk-thru of Penspyre available for them at www.patreon.com/starkreflections.   Links of Interest: David's Author Website Penspyre Website Penspyre Extension on Google Chrome Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   David Olive Jr is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo, Canada who has a passion for reading and writing fiction. As an aspiring writer he and some classmates decided to try and tackle writing productivity as their final year design project. The result was Penspyre, a tool that utilizes AI to give the writer contextualized writing prompts and help them be more productive.     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews author, publisher and RPG gamer Peter M. Ball who has been engaged in experimental and digital publishing since the very beginning of its appearance in the book industry. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark and Peter talk about: Peter being a night owl who is most comfortable starting to write at about 10 PM at night and working through the night How, through necessity with a regular life schedule, Peter will get the writing done first thing in the morning Peter having wanted to be a writer since he was quite young The way that most of the work he has taken on in his life has been somehow affiliated with the writing world Describing the Gold Coast of Australia as Miami with slightly less charm The undergraduate degree focus which mostly avoided genre fiction How you can never escape poetry once you've done it, even years later being introgued as "Peter the Poet" How in the early 2000s Dungeons and Dragons open-sourced their rules, allowing people to provide material within their realm Getting involved in DriveThruFiction back in 2005 The hunger for content that came out in that time period How changes in the RPG industry that happened were later echoed a few years later in the eBook fiction publishing space The issues Peter recognized in 2006 in creating role playing game material where somebody else held the licensce for it Challenges of submitting fiction to markets from a country like Australia Spending six weeks at an Australian branch of the Clarion Writers Workshop and how that dramatically changed the perspective forced on him from his university education Continuing to submit his fiction to the traditional markets but paying attention to what was going on in the self-publishing, digital publishing, and indie publishing space Launching Brain Jar Press in 2017 largely as a vehicle for publishing his backlist Why cutting your teeth in short fiction can be great Having a plan to indie publish his own books for about ten years, make all the mistake on his own books, rather than someone elses, and getting solid learning and experience from it to benefit his press Working with Kathleen Jennings on a poetry collection right at about the time her first book with Tor went huge The idea for a series of short chapbooks with four or five essays per writer in order to bring these remarkable articles the authors had already written back into availability Borrowing the cultural capital of all the people they're publishing so that they can grow and eventually launch new writers How Peter fell in love with print quite accidentally The requirement of having to have an online store for the press The joke that it's cheaper to get things to Narnia than it is to get them to Australia The thought exercise Peter does regarding how many books he has to sell to make it to $100 Understanding the market base that you're likely selling to as a small specialized indie press Peter's impatience for just replicating what midlist are publishing is doing in the face of such wonderful, free, and dynamic digital tools when one can be breaking the model, expanding, and forming new ideas and new products ether Peter has been doing much of his own writing since launching Brain Jar Press 2.0 The flash fiction writing Peter has been able to do during a few 8 minute breaks at work What Peter is most optimistic about with what's happening in the publishing world now And more...   After the interview Mark reflects on Peter working in publishing and writing related realms, the value of connecting with others in the industry, and Peter's thirst for innovation and experimentation within digital publishing.   Links of Interest: Peter M. Ball's Website Brain Jar Press Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Peter M. Ball is an author, publisher, and RPG gamer whose love of speculative fiction emerged after exposure to The Hobbit, Star Wars, David Lynch’s Dune, and far too many games of Dungeons and Dragons before the age of 7. He’s spent the bulk of his life working as a creative writing tutor, with brief stints as a performance poet, gaming convention organiser, online content developer, non-profit arts manager, and d20 RPG publisher. Peter’s three biggest passions are fiction, gaming, and honing the way aspiring writers think about the business and craft of writing, which led to a five-year period working for Queensland Writers Centre as manager of the Australian Writers Marketplace and convenor of the GenreCon writing conference. He is now pursuing a PhD in Writing at the University of Queensland, exploring the poetics of series fiction and their response to emerging publishing technologies. He’s the author of the Miriam Aster series and the Keith Murphy Urban Fantasy Thrillers, three short story collections, and more stories, articles, poems, and RPG material than he’d care to count. He’s one-half of Brain Jar Press with his partner, Sarah, publishes his own work under the Eclectic Projects imprint, and resides in Brisbane, Australia, with his wife and two very affectionate cats.     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Jeff Elkins about his writing, about dialogue and character voice, about his new book The Dialogue Doctor Will See You Now, and more . . . Prior to the interview, Mark shares the winners of the complimentary tickets to BookMARCon, the surprise winners of complimentary pizza, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. During their conversation Mark and Jeff talk about: Jeff's "nickname" as "The Dialogue Doctor" as well as his background as a writer What Jeff has seen in the past eight years that he has been involved in the indie author space The latest novel Jeff released in March 2023 co-authored with J.P. Rindfleisch called NRDS: National Recently Deceased Services which is described as "Ghostbusters meets The Office" The first collaboration Jeff had done with his best friend years ago Wanting to reengage in and looking for a way to give back to the author community in 2020 Adapting what he does professionally, training professionals in difficult conversations, and leveraging that to help authors apply those skills to their writing Doing more than 200 1:1 sessions since 2020 with authors to help them with their dialogue Liking helping writers perhaps more than he even likes writing The Dialogue Doctor community that seems to operate as a problem-solving community Jeff's book The Dialogue Doctor Will See You Now, coming July 1, 2023 The structure of the book, which is hear the problem, learn the philosophy and the strategy for fixing it, then do a reading challenge, then a writing challenge The emotional journey a character goes on and the emotional shape of stories How you can have all the right plot points but not have the right emotional journey and the reader will disconnect from it Replacing the words hero, alley, and villain with terms like vehicle (the point of view character), the engines (characters who help move them forward), the anchors (those who weigh the vehicle down or bring out the worst versions of the vehicle) If you need the character to struggle, put them in scenes with their anchor If you want a big emotional moment where the character has to make an emotional choice, have the character enacting upon the influence of the anchor, then introduce the engine into that scene How when we talk about dialogue we're really talking about overall character interaction Building a character voice and ways of building a dynamic cast around a character where they can all build upon one another The difference between segments and scenes Jeff's "Apple a day" style advice for writers And more... After the interview Mark reflects on dialogue being one important aspect of overall character interaction, the readers emotional journey, and the value in helping other authors. Links of Interest: Jeff Elkins Website The Dialogue Doctor Website Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories (YouTube) Full Kurt Vonnegut Lecture (YouTube) Findaway Voices Spotify Royalty Increase (Findaway Blog) Converting Your Audiobook From Exclusive to Non-Exclusive (Findaway Blog) BookBub Blog: Promoting Your Audiobook For Skyrocketing Sales Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Jeff Elkins coaches authors and podcasts as the Dialogue Doctor. Since launching the Dialogue Doctor in 2020, he's held over 200 1-on-1 coaching sessions with authors focused on helping them improved their dialogue. In addition to 12 novels, Jeff is the author of The Dialogue Doctor Will See You Now: How to Write Dialogue and Characters Readers Will Love -- a primer on how to write great dialogue, dynamic character voices, and powerful casts of characters.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Lindsay Buroker, a full-time independent fantasy and science fiction author who has written over a hundred novels, appeared on the USA Today bestseller list, and has been twice nominated for a Goodreads Readers' Choice Award. Prior to the interview, Mark shares an extremely short personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. During their conversation Mark and Lindsay talk about: Lindsay's first appearance on the Stark Reflections Podcast, back in December 2018 The last time they saw one another in person, back in Vegas at 20BooksVegas a few months prior to the global pandemic Lindsay's start in self-publishing, which started just prior to Christmas in 2010 How she had been about to hit the publishing button for her first book when she received an offer back from an agent - and she decided to just go ahead and hit that "publish" button Using Podiobooks to release the first three books in audio for free Doing a Kickstarter to pay for the audiobook production back in 2012 What it was like self-publishing back in 2010 through 2013 Writing in different genres, the various experiences of doing that, and the surprising number of readers who willingly follow her on this journey Listening to her fans, but actually responding more to sales than to requests from her readers The writing, editing, proofreading, betareading, publishing process Lindsay loops through Always being aware of the possibility that the sales and consistent income might not always be there Launching books to her fans "direct" via Patreon prior to pushing them into KDP Select How an introvert like Lindsay can deal with being in such high demand from the author community and the reader community Pseudo-retiring the weekly schedule of The Six Figure Author Podcast and considering doing an episode once every quarter Books that Lindsay would recommend new readers might want to start with Advice Lindsay has for authors who prefer to "follow the muse" And more... After the interview Mark reflects on a few things about Lindsay's unique journey as well as how much he enjoyed returning to her books as a reader. Links of Interest: Lindsay Buroker's Website Lindsay on Twitter Lindsay on Facebook Sinister Magic (Book 1 in Death Before Dragons) 6 Figure Authors Podcast (new episode June 20, 2023) Episode 54 - Personable Publishing with Lindsay Buroker Mentions/apperances of Lindsay on Stark Reflections Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Lindsay Buroker is a full-time independent fantasy and science fiction author who loves travel, hiking, tennis, and vizslas. She's written over a hundred novels, appeared on the USA Today bestseller list, and has been twice nominated for a Goodreads Readers' Choice Award.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Dana Claire, an award-winning author and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Book Brush about her writing, about Book Brush, and about the virtual BookMARCon conference. Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes and a word from this episode's sponsor.   You can find out more about BookMARCon at https://bookbrush.com/bookmarcon/ During their conversation, Mark and Dana talk about: Dana's background as a creative person as a writer, including the influence of her mother, an English teacher, and her college experience Joining forces with her mother who wanted to write a children's book, and Dana who wanted to write an adult book - and the resulting young adult book they decided upon Losing her mother unexpectedly, and then honoring her mother's memory by releasing the book the had planned on Some of the issues and errors Dana made when publishing her first book (The Connection) Dana's experience and background doing marketing and promotions for major companies Being an author who has both traditionally published and self-published Dana's belief in conferences and how important that has been to her author career Pitching her novel to fourteen different publishers at a conference, and how it got picked up because of this What Book Brush is - online software to make promotional images for books, including 3D versions of the books, within thousands of images that place it in specific settings and environments How Book Brush is updated weekly and there's always something new available for writers to take advantage of The way Book Brush can be very community driven so that authors don't feel so lonely What BookMARCon is (a three day virtual event - August 11 through 13, 2023), the origin of it, and how that MAR stands for MARKETING. (Book Marketing Con) The agent pitches that will be a part of this virtual conference The importance of the "personality fit" that can happen between authors and agents Self-publishing a book that her agent didn't want to pick up, and how that led to it winning an award and also being involved in a few things Dana isn't yet able to publicly talk about Her novel Sideliners being optioned for TV because Hunterland was optioned for television How self-published titles can help sell more of an author's traditionally published titles and vice versa More about the various topics that'll be covered during BookMARCon Heart-felt advice that Dana received from an agent during a meeting where the book she'd pitched was rejected and how that stayed with her and kept her motivated The $199 USD registration fee for this conference The Early Bird special registrants can get at the price of $149 until the end of July How you can get $50 off the conference registration using code MARK50 Advice that Dana would offer to other writers And more...   After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of conferences to a writer's career, particularly from the networking and connections made there, Dana's great advice for writers, and the unique way that Dana signs her emails to authors as the company's COO.   Links of Interest:   Dana Claire's Website Book Brush BookMARCon Episode 209 - From Zero to Four Figures with Paul Austin Ardoin Episode 284 - Collaborations in AI with Elizabeth Ann West Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Dana Claire is an award-winning author and also serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Book Brush, overseeing the company's daily operations, spearheading strategic initiatives, and expanding the platform's offerings. With her experience as an author, Dana brings a unique perspective to Book Brush, enabling her to empathize with the needs of the community and provide tailored solutions. With nearly two decades of experience in marketing and sales, she is well-equipped to bridge the gap between traditional marketing and the literary world. Dana currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, California with her biggest fan, her husband.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 

Mark interviews Paul Austin Ardoin about his new book From Zero to Four Figures: Making $1,000 a Month Self-Publishing Fiction. Prior to the interview, Mark welcomes new patrons, shares comments from recent episodes and a word from this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. During their conversation Mark and Paul talk about: How Paul has wanted to be a novelist since he was six years old University being all about literary fiction, and never finishing that "great American novel" he kept trying to write The way that writing a genre he was passionate about (mystery) was what made the major difference for Paul Paul's wife giving him a great idea for a main character, a former nurse who becomes a county coroner The fact that there are distinct seasons in Milwaukee Paul being a pantser, or discovery writer How literary fiction didn't gell with Paul's writing style What is really meant by the "write what you know" advice from writing Some mistakes that can be made related to missing some of the important tropes in one's writing How Paul always approaches writing mysteries as a "pantser" or "discovery writer" One of the pitfalls of "pantsing" a mystery novel Making a lot of mistakes in the past five years, and being sure to include that in his new book for writers The definite plan that Paul believes that many authors can put into place to get to $1000 a month How Paul approached writing this book as something that just didn't seem to exist for writers, offering them a way they could approach it, including an important mindset shift The value of series to a reader not having to go through the process of "finding something to read next" The importance of setting a more reachable goal such as $1000 a month rather than the commonly shared much higher revenue goals often pushed on writers Reader expectations and why it's such an important element for writers to pay attention to The marketing pitfall authors can fall into when they believe their book is unique and "defies" genre Sharing the many mistakes Paul has made as an author in this book The important question about how readers are going to find your books Paul's "Costco" analogy of book marketing Focusing on the entry point novel How the "freebee seekers" are a part of the business The timeline that Paul lays out for this author journey Thinking about your first book as an advertisement rather than as your baby A few of the elements that are a part of this book that are mostly lacking in many of the books out there for writers The power of being able to make changes Advice Paul wish he'd had when he was first starting out And more . . . After the interview Mark shares a few reflections about things that came up in the conversation.   Links of Interest:   Paul Austin Ardoin's Website From Zero to Four Figures Episode 300 - Celebrating 300 Episodes with Guest Reflections Episode 301 - Procrastinating Partners Collaborating with Liz Anderson Episode 166 - Wording Around with Kathy Mac Other episodes with Kathy Mac Episode 280 - The Jozie Planner The 12 Hour Walk (Audio for Patrons) and Blog Post Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Paul Austin Ardoin is the USA TODAY bestselling indie author of The Fenway Stevenson Mysteries and The Woodhead & Becker Mysteries. He holds a B.A. in creative writing from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. in marketing from the University of Phoenix. His book Zero to Four Figures: Making $1,000 a Month Self-Publishing Fiction was published in June 2023.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0