Become a Writer Today

Jon Tromans is a fellow podcaster. His podcast is called Not Another Marketing Podcast, and he uses content marketing to build his business and provide consultancy services to his clients. It can be challenging to balance creative work, like writing a book or writing stories, with content marketing, so I wanted to talk to Jon about his productivity tips for creatives. Jon explains that if you want...

Treasa Edmond has been an accomplished ghostwriter for over 15 years. She's written across many different genres and, in this interview, she talks about how much ghostwriters can earn, how to get started, and the types of questions you should ask clients before you decide to work with them. You'll learn a lot from this interview, especially if you are a freelancer who struggles to find c...

Mariah Sinclair is an Arizona-based book cover designer who recently set up and sold a book cover directory.  I wanted to know what a book cover directory is, how authors can use them, and how her sale went.  I also asked Mariah to critique a book cover for one of my earlier books that didn’t sell well. Mariah gave me some interesting insights that I could use if I decided to relaunch the book at...

If you've not heard of it before, the Zettelkasten Method is a way that will help you collect and organize your research, thoughts, and ideas, and any information you come across in a structured manner or a single system. It has its origins in the mid part of the 20th century. The German scholar Niklas Luhmann is the man behind it, and he used the Zettelkasten Method to write over 70 books an...

In this episode, I talk to Geoff Kullman about his writing journey and how he became an instructor in the art of copywriting. Geoff also helps authors turn their ideas and non-fiction books into emails, landing pages, and other digital assets, which help them earn more money. Geoff taught me that there are different types of copywriting. If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of using words to sell...

NFTs are a topic that has been in the news a lot lately. I recently went down the NFT rabbit hole by reading up on the subject, joining Discord channels, watching videos on YouTube, and reading articles. One person who knows more than me is this week’s guest, Shane Neeley. He wrote a fantastic article about how writers and authors can use NFTs to sell some of their books and increase their income....

 The self-publishing landscape has changed quite a bit since I self-published my first book in 2014. It was easy to sell your book using Amazon ads back then. These days, you've got to invest a lot more time and money and learn the basics of Amazon advertising. That's on top of learning how to commission a book cover, finding an editor, and the rest! But what if you don't want to do...

Amy S. Peele is a successful indie author who’s written across several genres, including medical mysteries and, more recently, rom-com. Amy says that when you start writing in a new genre, it’s natural to feel a sense of imposter syndrome. After all, this is something that you haven’t written in before. But, with a little bit of practice and some know-how about the genre, you can easily overcome t...

 Katja Kaine is the founder of The Novel Factory, a piece of software that makes it easier to write compelling stories. Katja developed the software and now uses real-world feedback from readers to improve the product. Katja talks about how she balances creative work and writing with running a business. She told me she writes for between two and three hours in the morning before she starts work on...

If you've never tried affiliate marketing before, it can be an excellent way to earn some passive income. I've been using affiliate marketing for some time, and I've also promoted some courses directly as an affiliate. How it works is, when there's a big course launch, you get invited to recommend it to your audience by an affiliate manager. Matt McWilliams is one of the most w...

Julie Broad is the author of Self-Publish & Succeed and she is an expert when it comes to book launches. If you've written a book and have been thinking about its launch, there are several strategies that you can try. On her YouTube channel, Book Launchers, Julie offers practical advice about how to launch your book on Amazon, get reviews, and sell more books. I caught up with Julie to ge...

Many of you who listen to Become a Writer Today want to write a book and take action and do it.  Others say they want to write a book or have a book inside of them, but somehow, that goal or that intention never actually happens. The best way to start writing your book is to think about your intention.  Do you want to be more creative, build a business, make an impact or share your stories?  Or is...

As the founder of Filthy Rich Writer, Nicki Krawczyk teaches other people how to become profitable copywriters. In our chat, Nicki talks about how you can become a copywriter, the skills you need to land clients, how to pitch your first client, and how to set your rates so you can get paid well for doing it.  I also asked Nicki what courses copywriters should take and which books they should read....

My guest in this podcast episode is Geoffrey Bunting, a book cover designer based in the UK. He’s worked for publications like HarperCollins and National Geographic. In this episode of the podcast, we get into how you can get ready to work with your book cover designer, how much you should expect to pay, and how to figure out the types of book covers that will work in your niche. In the second hal...

Frank Scalise is a crime writer who also writes under the pen name Frank Zafiro. His books include the River City series and he has also written several fantasy books. Frank has been writing since he was 13 years old. After entering the police force, he wrote before or after shift work. In 2013, Frank did what many writers dream of: he retired from the police force to write full time. During our c...

Sandy Forster is the author of the international bestseller How to Be Wildly Wealthy Fast. Not only is she a published author, but she has built a  successful business around her book.  When I recently caught up with Sandy, one of the key takeaways from the interview was how she got really clear on her ideal reader and who she wanted to help. Sandy admitted that she had some limiting beliefs about...

The Final Flight is James Blatch's first book, and during our chat, I asked him how he's planning on selling copies because it's easier to sell books when you have a back catalog. So what should a new author do when they're about to release their first book? James talks about using advertising to sell copies of his book, so I asked him if advertising could help me sell the pare...

Steph Smith is a growth marketer, writer, and the author of  Doing Content Right . Steph has a fascinating take on how to launch a book. In fact, she has an altogether different approach to most authors. As her book is about creating content for businesses, she promoted it first on Twitter, where she first validated the idea with her audience.  In this interview, she talks about how she did that b...

Ann Kroeker is a writing coach, published author, and professional speaker. She works with clients who want to find agents and publish books the traditional way and also helps her clients figure out if self-publishing is the correct route for them.  In this interview, we talk about some of the merits of self-publishing versus traditional publishing. One of the biggest challenges of self-publishing...

Alex Strathdee is the founder of Advanced Amazon Ads as well as a best-selling Amazon author.  I've used Amazon ads since 2016 to sell non-fiction books. Back when I started using Amazon ads, it was straightforward to get them working. Over the years, Amazon ads have become far more competitive. It's impossible to get the same return for the same budget, and the platform has changed.  I...

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Allen Klein. He's spent his career writing spirituality and personal development books. To date, he's written over 31 books, including The Healing Power of Humor, and his most recent title is The Awe Factor which spiritualityandpractice.com dubbed one of the best spiritual books of 2020. I wanted to understand what goes into a good spirituality...

Mark McGuinness is an award-winning poet, author, and creative coach. He also hosts his own podcast, The 21st Century Creative. In this podcast episode, Mark explains how he worked with Brian Clark of Copyblogger and how the copywriting lessons he learned have stayed with him ever since. We also talked about how the pandemic has impacted creatives. Mark describes some of the steps he's taking...

James Morgan-Jones found his love of writing at around 12 years of age. He's now the author of The Glasswater Quintet, and in this episode he talks about his approach to writing a book series and how the first book in the series came about when he was studying for his MA.  James is also a poet and a playwright and I was fascinated to hear about how his poetry, screenplays, and his background...

Caitlin Berve recently published a collection of modern fairy tales called When Magic Calls . She's also written two other anthologies and has another one in the works.  While she's not writing, Caitlin runs her own writing business and coaches other writers on how they can improve their books and their craft. In addition to all that, she also edits memoir and fiction. I recently had the...

Charlene Wang is a product manager at Google. In other words, she's got a hectic, demanding day job, and yet she found time to write and publish her new book, Model Breakers. Charlene also runs a popular newsletter on Substack called LivingOS.  Last year, Charlene set herself a goal of writing 200 articles in 200 days, and so far, she's exceeded that goal. It's fantastic to hear abo...