Become A Writer Today

Deadlines, should you be afraid of them? How much do you plan your books or even your series of books? In my early twenties, I learned one important lesson - the importance of deadlines. Deadlines can help you write book chapters, sections of your book, and even your entire book on time. They can also help you work with editors and then ship it so you can start earning book royalties.If you need help setting deadlines for your book, I recommend that you break it down into smaller milestones. So, rather than saying I'm going to write a book in six months, tell yourself I'm going to write act one in one month, and put that date in your Google Calendar.More experienced authors will use this approach to map out an entire series, and that's something that this week's guest did.His name is Mark Pawlosky. He's an experienced journalist who worked for CNBC and the Wall Street Journal.In this episode, we discuss:The importance of deadlinesMark's approach to planning out an entire seriesTu

Over the years, I've interviewed nearly 200 guests for the Become a Writer Today podcast. These days, I get pitched a lot from potential interviewees. If you're thinking of pitching another show to appear as a podcast guest, ask yourself if your message or book is relevant to their audience. There's no point appearing on a podcast simply because it's popular.A good podcast guest also has an actionable piece of advice to share. They'll prepare in advance and have a compelling story their audience can relate to. Guest podcasting is a fantastic way to sell your book if you get all of this right. Readers often engage with an article for a limited period, say 60 or 90 seconds. On the other hand, a podcast listener usually stays engaged for much longer, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes.That's a long time to hold somebody's attention. And if you've listened to a podcast for that long, you're much more likely to buy copies of that person's book, join their email list, or perh

Turning events from everyday life into stories is critical for nonfiction writing. It's also vital if you want to become a columnist, and it's even a practice that can help with your fiction.Years ago, I had a dream of becoming a columnist. I sent off dozens of job applications. Eventually, I got a response: "Bryan, you could only become a columnist if you're somebody who people know and feel that their writing is worth reading." In other words, I didn't have any name recognition because I was a new writer.Thankfully, these days, it's much easier to become a columnist. In fact, many traditional newspaper columnists are leaving the conventional print world to build relationships directly with their readers on Substack and other platforms like Ghost.Nevertheless, you still need anecdotes and stories that you can turn into column entries because a good column is about more than an idea or writing about whatever is on your mind. And that's the key takeaway from this week&ap

How can you write if you’re experiencing chronic pain?Chronic pain is terrible if you’re a writer because it can prevent you from producing your word count for the day. I know because I’ve experienced migraines on and off over the years. They usually occur when I’m stressed, dehydrated, or tired. When I experience a migraine, I find it exceptionally difficult to look at a computer screen or a phone.I tried to push through the pain at one point, but this didn’t work for me. So now, when I experience a migraine, I immediately go for a rest, even if that means calling it a day. I have to accept that I need to deal with the migraine and not try and push through it because it’ll just make things worse. That got me thinking, how can I still move a creative project forward if I’m experiencing chronic pain? My answer is somewhat similar to the solution that this week’s guest found. His name is Oliver Mol, and he has a truly impactful story about writing with chronic pain, what it did for his creative process, and how

How niche should you go with your books? This week's interviewee is Dr. Guy Windsor. He's well known as a martial arts instructor who teaches people the art of sword fighting, but he's also a well-known author in this particular genre or niche. In fact, he's published over 30 books on the subject, and he's created courses too.I first came across Guy Windsor's work in 2015 when he appeared on The Creative Penn Podcast hosted by Joanna Penn, but he's been writing about martial arts and sword fighting and teaching all of the ideas in his books for over 20 years.So, I was fascinated to catch up with somebody who is, firstly, able to sustain an interest in such a niche or specific topic for so long and, secondly, in somebody who was writing about a topic that would have a really specific market.In this episode, we discuss:Combining your real-world interests with your writing interestsUsing Amazon as a lead generation toolHow to format and translate your books appropriatelyThe imp

How can search engine optimization help you write? If you’re starting a blog, a content publishing website, or writing online, there are two things that you need to do, spend time actually writing and then figure out how people will find and read your work.You can do this in many different ways, from social media marketing to paid advertising, using your email list, and using search engine optimization.Every writer working online today could benefit from search engine optimization simply because you can use relatively affordable and even free tools to figure out what your readers are searching for. Then you can use this information to create and write articles on content that ranks.This week, I have an exciting guest. His name is Kevin Indig. He runs a popular newsletter that’s all about search engine optimization. He also likes to experiment with the latest SEO tools and has a research and writing process that any writer will recognize.In this episode, we discuss:How to approach SEOHow SEO enables writers to

What does it take to succeed on Substack today? And if you're thinking of starting your Substack newsletter, are you too late to the party? Over the past few years, I've interviewed several popular Substack newsletter owners. I even interviewed the co-founder of Substack, Hamish McKenzie.Substack has gotten a lot more popular since I first featured it on the Become a Writer Today Show. Now it's used by journalists, writers, fiction writers, novelists, bloggers, and all types of creatives worldwide. In fact, it's so popular that it can seem difficult if you're using Substack for the first time to build a popular newsletter.This week, I caught up with a Substack fellow, her name is Elle Griffin, and she runs the popular Substack newsletter, The Novelist. It has excellent advice and a great take on book writing and becoming an author versus writing a Substack newsletter. Elle also used her newsletter to serialize a book of fiction that she wrote during the pandemic.In this episode, we di

What should you do if you want to write across genres? And how can you sustain a rewarding and lasting creative career? Perhaps writing across genres is the way to do it. I spend a lot of time thinking about what genre to write in. Like many readers, I like to consume lots of different genres. What you read usually informs what you write, so if you find yourself reading multiple genres, that may explain why you want to write across more than one genre. And it can be rewarding to do so because you learn what readers expect from different genres and enjoy different kinds of stories. Of course, the key challenge with writing across genres is that readers from genre A may not necessarily follow you to genre B.From a purely pragmatic and business decision, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to try writing across different genres because you could potentially split your audience, and you’ll have to work a little harder to promote your books. But, from a creative process, writing across genres is a lot more rewarding. P

Have you ever considered taking one of your old nonfiction books and rewriting it? It can take months to come up with the first draft, edit it, and turn it into something you're happy to send to an editor. Then when you get feedback, you'll probably spend more time fixing it. That's to say nothing of sending a book to beta readers who may have additional queries and clarifications for you. So, by the time you've finished the process, you're likely ready to move on. But what if the time comes when the ideas in the book have changed, and there are new concepts, more information, or perhaps better stories that could help your readers?Several years ago, I invited Mike Michalowicz on the Become a Writer Today Podcast. His nonfiction business books are fantastic. I particularly got a lot of help from Clockwork and his other book, Profit First.  Clockwork is all about how to accomplish more without necessarily burning yourself out. Profit First is all about how to organize finances in a smal

Some nonfiction books are harder to write than others. If you're an expert in a topic, sometimes you can just bang out a couple of thousand words, repeat for a few days, weeks, and months, and publish your nonfiction book. In fact, many successful nonfiction authors have built careers by publishing short nonfiction books that cover a specific topic and then publishing these books frequently. Now, this writing workflow doesn't work for every genre or niche. What if you're writing something that's more technical and involves more research or drawing on your expertise in a field? What if you're writing a psychology book, for example? My guest this week is a professional psychotherapist working in London. His new book, Other People: Something You Should Know, is a must-read for anybody interested in learning more about mental health and its triggers. For this particular book, Jonathan drew on his professional expertise and the years he spent reading the latest literature and academic pape

Writers sometimes forget that those who don't practice the craft daily find it exceptionally difficult to communicate in the written word, but if you are listening to this podcast episode, you already understand how to communicate in the written word. Chances are, you know how to hit writing deadlines. You know how to research articles and how to publish them. So, rather than just doing it for someone else and letting them reap all of the rewards, and you get paid 5 cents or 10 cents per word, why not build something for yourself that can become much more valuable?These days, here's what my writing day looks like. I usually get up and write an article for one of my content sites about a topic I'm interested in.When I've written the article, I'll either edit it myself using some software like Grammarly or I'll give it over to another editor on the team who will fix any mistakes for me, then I'll publish it on the site. So I still feel like I'm writing regularly.Then, I&a

What are your limiting mindsets around money and freelancing?Like many writers, I’ve had some limiting beliefs around money, which have held me back over the years. I guess I was telling myself I don’t deserve to get paid to write.Later on, when I started getting paid as a copywriter for a British software company, I said things like, “I should be content with what I have because lots of other people I know are worse off."Even later, in my 30s, I used to say things like, “It’s really hard for writers to make money or to earn a living today because perhaps it’s harder to sell books or people don’t read as much as they used to.” I still encounter these types of limiting beliefs around money from time to time, so I haven’t unwound them all. Do any of these strike a chord with you? In that case, I’d encourage you to dig a little deeper into why you think you don’t deserve to earn money for creative work or feel like you should be content with what you already have. Or perhaps even limiting beliefs like, “I’m

Years ago, I worked as a freelance writer producing my content exclusively. These days, I still write articles for the websites I run, but I also employ several writers to create content for me on topics outside my areas of expertise.To scale a content website, you need to publish more articles and blog posts, and it's impossible to write them all yourself.When you dive into a niche, you'll quickly find many untapped keywords, topics, and ideas on which you should publish content to scale up your traffic and hopefully increase your revenue.Your options include hiring freelance writers using a service like Upwork or perhaps advertising on the ProBlogger Jobs board, or outsourcing to a content agency.One agency that I've used for my content websites is called wordagents.com.For context, at the time of recording this interview, you could order 1,000 words, about the length of a standard article, for $114 and 10,000 words for $810. The more you order, the greater the discount.If you're running

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the future of content publishing online.When you run a content website, you must understand a couple of strategies to build an audience.If you're focused on attracting traffic from Google, you need to figure out search engine optimization. Alternatively, if you're looking for traffic from Facebook, you need to understand social media marketing and paid advertising. And if you want to build a relationship with your audience, you need a way of connecting with them over email.With some of those methods, you're not always in control of that relationship. And in fact, I know many creators that run content publishing businesses and have seen their sites plummet in traffic and value after a Google algorithm update.In other words, you're at the mercy of Google for how your website will perform over time. There are similar issues with Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.As a content creator, you must play within the walled garden of whatever platform you use.We

Over the years, I've produced, recorded, and outsourced various audiobooks based on works I've written.For my first book, I narrated it myself using a microphone at home. Later, I commissioned a narrator, also known as an ACX, and asked them to rework the entire audiobook.They did a better job than I did.For subsequent books, I outsourced production by hiring narrators, and I paid between $1,000 and $2,000 for a finished audiobook.More recently, when I wrote my parenting memoir, I Can't Believe I'm a Dad!, I decided I wanted to narrate this book myself, so I rented a studio nearby.Each chapter ranged between 1,500 and 2,000 words and took about half an hour to narrate. I'd have to stop and rerecord a sentence for pickups or get the right tone, speed, and pace. The radio producer often asked me to go back and rerecord certain sections.After several hours of recording, my voice would crack and dry up, which would be it for the day.The whole process took a lot longer than I thought. But

How can you balance the analytical act of editing with the creative act of writing? I spend a lot of time thinking about editing and considering the best ways to take a draft and turn it into something publishable. That's probably because I spend some of the working days editing the work of other writers and because I've worked as a sub-editor for several newspapers over the years. I learned from editors far more talented than I am about how to take an early draft and turn it into something you can publish in a professional publication. This week, I caught up with a talented developmental editor. Her name is Tiffany Yates Martin. She runs FoxPrint Editorial and is also the author of Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. Tiffany has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, to name a few.In the interview, I explained to Tiffany how I currently approach e

Meditation, mindfulness, and creativity, how do they work hand in hand? I like to meditate twice a day. It's a practice that took 8 or 9 years to develop. I first learned meditation using the app Headspace and took guided meditation courses. Then, I started taking some in-person meditation courses. I even went away on a meditative retreat.Because I spend so much time working alone, I find meditation helpful for mental health and learning how to focus and gain a bit of perspective.These days, I also use the meditation app Waking Up, which Sam Harris created. Sam interviews guests and experts about the topic of meditation and the different types of meditative practices that are out there. It's a good way of understanding how you can fit meditative and mindfulness practice into your writing, creativity, and overall life.This week, I caught up with Albert Flynn DeSilver, an award-winning, internationally published writer, speaker, and workshop leader. He's also a former Poet Laureate and has writte

What should writers and content publishers know about using AI as part of their creative workflow?Over the past year or two, I’ve tested various content marketing tools, software, and so on. One tool that I use extensively is MarketMuse.About a year ago, the traffic on my main website, Become a Writer Today, dipped by 10 to 20 percent after a Google algorithm update. I was pretty stressed about the whole thing because I had just left my permanent job and relied on the site to pay the bills.When I dug into the traffic dip, I found a few issues. One was that competitors were reverse-engineering some of my top-performing content. But I had also missed opportunities to publish supporting content that would help and engage readers.It isn’t easy to figure out all of this yourself, and that’s where AI and content marketing tools like MarketMuse can help.Using MarketMuse, I analyzed all the top-performing content on my site and figured out what content was outdated and needed an overhaul to ensure a consistent journe

How can you earn a living from your passion for the written word? When I started as a writer, it seemed exceptionally difficult to earn a good living from the written word. That's probably because I was trying to make a living as a journalist in Ireland, and as a pretty small country, there were few opportunities. But I quickly discovered that my experiences weren't unique. It's pretty tricky to earn a living from the written word. Or at least it was up until a few years ago.Now there are a variety of platforms and online tools that make it easier for writers to connect with readers and their audience. You can start a blog, you can build a following on Twitter, you can self-publish a book, and then you can create a companion course.There are a plethora of opportunities for writers today. It depends on where your passion lies, but finding time for all these projects and balancing creative work with earning a living can be challenging.In this week's podcast, I caught up with Adam Davidson. H

How can interviews help you if you are writing a non-fiction book?I spent a lot of time interviewing guests for this podcast and as a freelance journalist. Interviews can seem like they're pretty straightforward to do. But it can take almost as long to prepare for an interview, particularly if you don't know the topic well.Even if you're knowledgeable about a topic, it's still helpful to figure out an angle for your interview because it gives a strong structure.I have learned to use interviews in my non-fiction because they help add a third-party voice. If you're writing a non-fiction book about a particular topic, interviewing an expert in your niche adds credibility.One series of books that's made a significant impact on me is the Market Wizards series by Jack Schwager. He profiles day traders, investors, and various types of financial entrepreneurs who have made money in the markets.Now, I don't day trade, but I particularly like these books because they give a good insig