Books for Writers

Want to self-publish your book but don't know where to start? Worried it's too complex or you don't have the right skills? This updated and expanded Fourth edition of Successful Self-Publishing provides everything you need to successfully self-publish your book in ebook, print, and audio formats, plus proven marketing strategies to reach more readers. Written by award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Joanna (J.F.) Penn, this practical guide shares the exact methods used to publish more than forty books and build a multi-six-figure author business. In this comprehensive guide, you'll discover: • A quick-start roadmap for self-publishing your first book • Step-by-step instructions for publishing professional-quality ebooks, print books, and audiobooks • The sites and services to trust and how to avoid the scams • Marketing strategies that work for both fiction and non-fictionNew in the Fourth Edition: • Updated publishing platforms and opportunities • Expanded section on direct sales, special editions and crowdfunding • Practical guidance on using AI tools effectively as an artisan author Whether you're writing your first book or you're an experienced author looking to expand your publishing business, this guide provides actionable steps without overwhelming technical jargon. Start your indie author journey today with confidence. Try Successful Self-Publishing!

Do you want to sell more books and reach more readers? Do you want to discover how to build an author career for the long-term as well as spike your book sales right now? If you don't know much about marketing, don't worry. We all start with nothing. I'm Joanna Penn and back in 2008, I had no book sales, no audience, no website, no social media, no podcast, and no email list. No nothing. Now I'm a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and non-fiction. My books have sold over 500,000 copies in 86 countries, and I'm an award-winning creative entrepreneur and international speaker, making a multi-six-figure income with my writing. Learning how to market my books and my personal brand changed my life. Yes, you need to write an awesome book, but you also need to know how to get it in front of the right readers. How to Market a Book is for authors who want to sell more books, but it's also for those writers who want to think like an entrepreneur and build a long-term income. It's for traditionally published authors who want to take control of their future, and for self-published authors who want to jump-start a career. There are short-term tactics for those who want to boost immediate sales, but the focus of the book is more about instilling values and marketing principles that will help your long-term career as a writer. It's also about going beyond just the book, because these methods can take you from being an author into making money from other products, professional speaking, and creating opportunities that you can't even imagine yet.

I'm Joanna Penn and I left my corporate job a decade ago to become a full-time author entrepreneur. In this completely updated Third Edition, I'll explain how I make a living with my writing and share tips from other writers on how you can do it too with practical, actionable advice that you can implement for yourself. If you love to create and you're ready to learn fresh skills in a fast-changing environment, this book will give you lots of ideas on how to make money with your words. Each chapter provides ideas you can use to research each opportunity in more detail and questions to guide your thought process. Sometimes it's just about knowing what's out there in order to find what's right for you. The transition to making a living with your writing

Being a writer is not just about typing. It's also about surviving the roller-coaster of the creative journey. Self-doubt, fear of failure, the need for validation, perfectionism, writer's block, comparisonitis, overwhelm, and much more. When you're going through these things, it can feel like you're alone. But actually, they are part of the creative process, and every author goes through them too. This book collects the mindset issues that writers experience, that I have been through myself over the last nine years, and that perhaps you will experience at different times on the creative journey. Each small chapter tackles a possible issue and then offers an antidote, so that you can dip in and out over time. It includes excerpts from my own personal journals as well as quotes from well-known writers. I hope it helps you on the road to becoming a successful author.

Are you ready to take the next step in your author journey? Art for the sake of art is important. Writing for the love of it, or to create something beautiful on the page, is absolutely worthwhile and critical to expand the sum of human expression. But I'm not here to talk about creativity or the craft of writing in this book. My aim is to take the result of your creativity into the realm of actually paying the bills. To take you from being an author to running a business as an author. I was a business consultant for 13 years before I gave up my job in September 2011 to become a full-time author-entrepreneur. I worked for large corporates and small businesses, implementing financial systems across Europe and Asia Pacific. I've also started a number of my own businesses: a scuba dive charter boat in New Zealand, a customized travel website, a property investment portfolio in Australia as well as my freelance consultancy. I've failed a lot and learned many lessons in my entrepreneurial life and I share them all in this book. In the last six years of being an author, through tempestuous changes in the publishing world, I've learned the business side of being a writer and I now earn a good living as an author-entrepreneur. I'm an author because it's my passion and my joy but also because it's a viable business in this age of global and digital opportunity.

Are you an author or creative preparing for success? Do you want to learn to speak effectively in front of an audience? All successful creatives have to speak and present in public, whether that's at a festival, on a podcast or radio show, or as part of earning multiple streams of income. But you don't have to be like Tony Robbins, bouncing around on stage with a booming voice and larger than life personality. You just have to be you and tell your story in your own way. In this book, I'll share everything I know as a professional speaker, author, and introvert. It includes the practicalities of speaking, as well as mindset issues like anxiety, plus the business side if you want to make speaking an income stream. You will discover: PART 1: Practicalities of Speaking-Types of speaking, deciding on your topic, preparation, managing your energy, tips for slide packs, handouts, workbooks and more, personal presentation, giving the talk, managing people, panels, feedback and testimonials, performance tips, improving your speaking over time PART 2: Mindset-Tackling anxiety, growing your confidence and authenticity PART 3: The Speaking Business-How to get speaking events, running your own events, marketing, generosity and networking with others, your speaker brand, website and speaker's page, professional photos, email marketing, content marketing, social media, video, audio, how much to charge, increasing your revenue streams, financial considerations. Conclusion and next steps.

Do you suffer from physical pain relating to your writing life? Are you struggling with back pain, weight gain related to sedentary working, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, neck pain, eye strain, stress, loneliness, digestive issues, or Repetitive Strain Injury? These are the most common issues reported by writers and if you struggle with any of them, you are not alone. Writing is not a physically healthy job, but if you want a long-term writing career, then you need to look after your body. I've been through my own pain journey over the last six years. I used to get crippling migraines that sent me to a dark room, and back pain so bad that I couldn't sleep, as well as stress levels so high that I wasn't able to breathe normally. Now, my back pain, migraines and RSI have almost gone completely, and I manage my writing life in a far healthier way than ever before. I share my personal journey and insights with you in this book. My co-author is Dr Euan Lawson, who shares his insights into how we can reduce pain, improve health and build a writing career for the long term.

Are you ready to share your expertise, tell your story, or build a thriving author career?Do you want to write a non-fiction book but dont know where to start? Writing a book can change your life. It can help you share your unique knowledge and experience with the world, build authority in your field, and even generate multiple streams of income. But writing a book can also be hard. You might get paralyzed by writers block or self-doubt. You could get stuck because you dont know the next step to take. You may be bewildered by everything there is to learn about getting to a finished manuscript. In this book, award-winning author and creative entrepreneur Joanna Penn takes you step-by-step through the process of writing, publishing, and marketing a successful non-fiction book. Youll get the guidance you need to turn your knowledge into a valuable resource. Inside this updated and expanded second edition, youll discover: • The mindset shift you need to start and finish your bookeven if self-doubt is holding you back. • How to structure and organise your ideas into a compelling manuscript that delivers value to readers. • Proven techniques for writing, editing and refining your book, whether youre writing general non-fiction, memoir, or a combination of both • Marketing strategies tailored to non-fiction, so your book reaches the right audience and drives sales. • How to monetise your book, from licensing and bulk sales to speaking opportunities, and more. This comprehensive guide combines practical advice with mindset support to help you navigate every stage of the writing journey. Whether youre just starting out or looking to level up your author career,How to Write Non-Fictiongives you the tools and confidence to write the book youre meant to write.

Do you want to write more but feel frustrated at your lack of time? Are you doing 'busy' work instead of moving toward your creative goals? Is your To-Do list overwhelming? It's time to stop, reassess and take control of your time. This book will help you discover the path to becoming a productive writer. Learn how to: • Identify what's really stopping you from reaching your goals • Say no and set boundaries for others -- and for yourself • Find more time to write • Make the most of your writing time • Dictate your words for a more efficient and healthy writing life • Use outsourcing to buy yourself more creative time • Work with co-writers to produce more books • Use tools for specific aspects of productivity • Focus on physical and mental health to boost your productive time I've been writing and publishing for over a decade and in this book, I'll share my lessons learned in order to help you become more productive and, hopefully, save you time, money and heartache along the way.

Do you want to create, publish and market your audiobooks? Are you ready to use podcasting to grow your author brand and reach more listeners with your books? Audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment in publishing with double-digit growth in markets across the world. Podcasting has gone mainstream with listeners consuming audio on mobile phones and in-car devices, as well as through smart speakers. Advancements in voice technology continue to expand possibilities for audio creation and marketing. With such rapid growth in opportunity, how can you position your books in an increasingly voice-first world? I've been podcasting for over a decade as well as narrating and producing my own audiobooks since 2014. I'm an avid consumer of audio content and I'm also experimenting with AI voice technologies. In this audiobook, I'll share everything I know so you can position your books and your author brand for the next shift in listener behavior.

You are an author. You turn ideas into reality in the shape of a book. You turn the thoughts in your head into valuable intellectual property assets. You understand how powerful the written word can be. Now it's time to use your words to create a business plan to take your writing career to the next level - whatever that means for your situation. I'm Joanna Penn and I've been a full-time author-entrepreneur for almost a decade. In this book, I'll guide you through the process of creating a business plan that will help you achieve your creative and financial goals. It's relevant for fiction and non-fiction authors, as well as those who want to include other products, services, and income streams. It's also applicable whether you're just starting out or if you already have a mature author business. A plan helps at any stage of the journey. Part 1 covers your business summary and author brand, taking you through the process of deciding the overall direction for what you want to achieve and who you want to serve. Part 2 goes into the production process around your writing, publishing and licensing, products and services. Part 3 covers your marketing strategy and author eco-system. Part 4 goes into the financial side of your business, from mindset to revenue and costs, as well as paying yourself now and into the future. The final chapter will give you a framework for simplifying your plan and turning it into achievable steps across a chosen timeline. In each section, I give examples from my own business plan and there are questions for you to answer, templates, and resources that might help along the way, as well as example business plans for different kinds of authors. It's time to take your author career to the next level. Let's get started on your business plan. Please note: This book doesn't go into detail on how to do the specific topics, for example, how to self-publish a book, or how to do content marketing. I cover those topics in my other Books for Authors. If you already have my previous business book, Business for Authors, this is a rewritten and updated sub-set of that material, focusing on the specifics of a plan as opposed to everything involved in running a business. This book acts as a companion as well as a more recent update to my own author journey. It will help you bring it all together into a coherent plan that you can use to take your author business into the future.

There are plenty of books and tips on writing faster, learning more marketing tactics and strategies, trying to maximize your ranking, hitting the top of the charts, juicing the algorithms, and hacking different ad platforms. While these are all important things - which the authors themselves regularly write and talk about - it's also important to recognize that your author journey is a marathon, and not a sprint. Joanna Penn and Mark Leslie Lefebvre have been in the business long enough to see authors burning out and leaving the writing life because they turned what they love into a hamster wheel of ever more production and marketing tasks they hate. It doesn't have to be this way. This book is a collection of tips on how to be a more relaxed author - and return to the love that brought you to writing in the first place. Includes: Relaxed Writing, Relaxed Publishing, Relaxed Marketing, and Relaxed Business.

It might not be in the way that you expect, but when you hold your book in your hand and say, "I made this," something will shift. The process of getting to that point will light a spark in your creative soul and help you discover unexpected aspects of yourself. It will be one of the things you are most proud of in your life. I'm Joanna (J.F.) Penn, award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 18 novels and novellas with nearly a million books sold in over one hundred countries. This book will help you write your first novel, or improve your creative process so you can write more books and reach more readers. It covers mindset, ideas and research, plotting/outlining and discovery writing, aspects of craft from character to setting to voice and much more, how to write a first draft, and work through an editing process to a finished book. If you want to (finally) write your novel, then buy How to Write a Novel today.