The Authorpreneur Podcast - Writing & Self Publishing Tips

Send us Fan Mail If you're new to writing, you've probably read the title of this episode and thought, "Oh, great, my scenes need to turn, now." Or perhaps you're not new to writing, heard this term before, and you're thinking, "I don't think so."  Before you hit the pause, please hear me out. Value shifts are a great way to ensure that each scene moves...

Send us Fan Mail Today, I'm bringing you my 2024 writing update, and honestly, it's been quite the year. I've got some wins to celebrate, like writing nearly 60,000 more words than last year and finishing two books in a completely new genre. But I've also hit some roadblocks that have left me questioning everything from Facebook ad strategies to whether I should keep writing at...

Send us Fan Mail What can Aristotle teach modern novelists? In this episode, I chat with Douglas Vigliotti about his book Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story. I loved talking to him about Aristotle for Novelists because it reminded me of my screenwriting roots, and it was nice to look back on my writing journey. Also, I loved his book because it was short enough to...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I chat with Douglas Vigliotti about getting into reading, its hidden benefits and the Books For Men Podcast. Please note that this is the first part of a two-part interview with Doug. In the second part, I discuss his book, Aristotle for Novelists. I felt that this chat about his podcast and reading was long enough to warrant its own episode. Also, I wanted to avo...

Send us Fan Mail Its been a while—fourteen months and a few days to be exact. In this hopefully short, update-style episode, I'll share the decision behind my podcast hiatus, discuss a few non-writing and publishing updates, then share my plans for the upcoming podcast episodes. Also, I'm podcasting during a heat-wave in London, so you might hear Hector my Dyson fan humming away in the b...

Send us Fan Mail As I wrote the outline and script for the show on value shifts, I realised that there is a smaller unit of story that I need to discuss that's integral to understanding value shifts or how a scene turns. So, I considered adding it to that episode but soon discovered that the final version of the episode would be too long. That's why I created this, hopefully, short bonus...

Send us Fan Mail So you've probably read the title of this episode and thought, what do cliffhangers have to do with outlining? I'm so glad you asked. Let me explain. If you're the kind of writer who needs to outline every scene, then you need to be aware of the types of cliffhangers and how to effectively use them to create a page-turning effect and not turn readers away. In fact,...

Send us Fan Mail I'm back again. And yes, it's been sixteen weeks since I released an episode of the podcast. Between now and November, I took December and January off because it's a busy time of year and I tend to travel during these periods. When I got back from vacation at the end of January, I had caught the flu from a family function. Guess who didn't get the flu vaccine?...

Send us Fan Mail So, how do you write a great scene? But not just a great scene but a scene that keeps a reader engaged and turning the pages, no matter what genre you're writing. The answer is in the details. In order to write great scenes, you need to pay attention to the anatomy of the scene. So, what do I mean by anatomy? I'm referring to the elements of a scene, which include the go...

Send us Fan Mail I'm back. And yes, it's been sixteen weeks since I released an episode of the podcast. Originally, I took the summer off because I needed to take a holiday from podcasting and writing. However, I did a bit of blogging during my break, where I discussed whether you should use AI-generated images in book covers. Also, I wrote a blog post on how to work with a book cover de...

Send us Fan Mail So, I have a confession to make. Actually, I've been struggling to sell paid books. Sure, I can give them away for free, but paid is a different problem altogether. I've been struggling to sell Duplicity, the second book in my James Lalonde Amateur Sleuth Mystery Series. A few days before my forty-second birthday, I realised that FreeBooksy had a spot open on my birthday...

Send us Fan Mail In the April Behind the Scenes Author Diary, I mentioned that I screwed up my amateur sleuth mystery series; well, a solution might be at hand. So, in this episode, I discuss my plans for my James Lalonde Amateur Sleuth Mystery series books three and four and a new shiny object. On top of this, I discuss a few self-publishing updates and selling direct with WooCommerce. But withou...

Send us Fan Mail Honestly, I can't believe I made it this far; it's mind-blowing. I know that's cliche, but it's how I feel when I see that episode number. Let's just say it has been a wild ride, a ride that is not yet over, and I'm glad I stuck with podcasting through those difficult times. And I've dabbled with a few great interviews and had my first-ever guest...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the ninety-ninth episode of the Authorpreneur Podcast. Yes, I'm doing the countdown thing—I know, it's super dorky, but I'm embracing it anyway. At present, I'm struggling to sell book two in my amateur sleuth mystery series, and I'm going into detail about my experiments to get this bookselling and my issues with publishing direct to Barnes and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the ninety-eighth episode of the Authorpreneur Podcast. Honestly, I can't believe that my podcast has come this far. But, back to the matter at hand. Toward the end of March, I started working with my editor on the Locked Room, and in this episode, I share the mistakes that were found in that manuscript in comparison to the previous stories that I've written....

Send us Fan Mail In February, I finished writing the Locked Room into the Dark, and I'll discuss how I achieved this, along with the response of my favourite beta reader. As you've come to expect, I will share my writing stats, days, time, word count and the step-by-step process that I used. Now that I've mentioned that, it's crucial that I point out that I'm following Dea...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, discuss what I've been doing in February. I also share my frustrations about a tech fail and newfound thoughts on this product and delve into why I've changed my mind. It's important to discuss the positives and negatives of products I use and recommend because I've discovered something stupid that needs to be addressed or I feel like I need to...

Send us Fan Mail So, I decided to list Suspicion for free and promote it using various newsletter book promotion services ahead of the release of the second book in the James Lalonde series. The promotions I booked were with AuthorsXP, Fussy Librarian, Kobo, and Free Booksy; altogether, these promotions cost me £176.67 or US$209.96. I used the Google exchange rate from the 19th of November, just i...

Send us Fan Mail This year, I've decided to start my podcast by looking back at everything I achieved in 2022. After that, I will discuss the products I loved in 2022 and will continue to use in 2023. I will also not dive too deeply into metrics like hours or word count because that's not helpful. In fact, as a coach, I hate metrics because it doesn't contribute anything of value, e...

Send us Fan Mail In an upcoming episode of the authorpreneur podcast, I discuss how I stopped supplying my three-act structure Scrivener template to my email list and the reasons that led to the decision. As I was editing that episode, I had an idea. I'm considering supplying a free ebook on three-act structure, a cheat seat, and possibly a video on how you can create your own Scrivener templ...

Send us Fan Mail A few weeks ago, I received an email from Plottr letting me know they were interested in chatting with me on my podcast about plotting and story organisation techniques and how Plottr can benefit both Plotters and Pantsers. Because Plottr is a story organisation tool, I thought the interview would be great for this season of The Authorpreneur Podcast because I'm discussing ou...

Send us Fan Mail Are you confused about scenes and chapters? Do you write scenes that aren't working, and you wonder why? In this first instalment of this mini-series on scenes, I will discuss the difference between scenes and chapters. Define what is a scene in the context of novel writing. I will answer the age-old question: what is the perfect length of a scene? And I will share how to end...

Send us Fan Mail It's been a while since I filmed or recorded a Behind the Scenes Author Diary Update—so that's what I'm going to do. In this episode, I will discuss what I've been doing since January 2022. And this episode isn't going to be scripted, mainly because if I start scripting these episodes, it will take a long time to produce them. Let's face it: I know wh...

Send us Fan Mail Now that you've chosen the right point of view for your story, you're finally ready to put pen to page and start writing or outlining your novel, right? No, there is a little more to Point-of-View than first, second or third person. And that's what we're going to discuss in this show. When planning out season three of the podcast, I split the episodes covering...

Send us Fan Mail Before you put pen to page, you need to decide which point of view is right for your story. In this show, I will discuss point-of-view in writing fiction and the things to consider when choosing the right point of view for your novel. But I will not discuss second-person because I don't understand its mechanics. And I will not be delving too deep into third-person omniscient...