Author Diary Entries

This episode of Indie Author Weekly shares the TRUTH about creativity that every writer needs to hear... are you ready for this? 

Consider this your book writing pep talk of the week! Tune into this episode to hear it now... 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Welcome back to Indie Author Weekly, where I share my behind-the-scenes journey of writing and self-publishing books. 

If you’re new to this podcast, I am a productivity strategist for multi-passionate creatives at SaganMorrow.com: I help people manage their time and energy effectively, through customized, actionable strategies that work for your unique life and business. When I’m not teaching about productivity to solopreneurs, I spend my time writing romantic comedies, and occasionally, business books. And that is what this podcast is all about: the adventures of the author life. 

Now let’s get into this episode of the Indie Author Weekly podcast. Back in Episode 79, I shared a few tips and writing prompts for how to start writing your novel… so with that in mind, today I want to share 3 tips for how to finish your book. 

TUNE IN to this episode to get practical tips for how to finally finish your novel... 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Get more focused and disciplined with Productivity Powerhouse at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .
• Learn more about Sagan's upcoming romcom, Small Town Stilettos, on GoodReads .
• Episode 79 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: ideas for how to start writing your book .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Today's episode of Indie Author Weekly shares 5 possible reasons for why you’re struggling with writing… plus how to fix each of those problems! As we go through these, we’ll see that many of them interconnect together, so you might find that a few of these resonate with you...  

TUNE IN to this episode to find out how to solve the problems and reasons for why you're struggling to write your novel. 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Get more focused and disciplined with Productivity Powerhouse at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .
• Learn more about Sagan's upcoming romcom, Small Town Stilettos, on GoodReads .
• Episode 79 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: ideas for how to start writing your book .
• Episode 44 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: how to use mindmapping to outline your book .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Today's episode of Indie Author Weekly shares 3 tips, plus a list of ideas and writing prompts, for how to start writing your novel. After all, sometimes one of the hardest things about writing your novel is actually starting it! After you write “Chapter 1”... what comes next? 

I encourage you to do 3 things when you’re writing the first scene in the first chapter of your book… TUNE IN to this episode of Indie Author Weekly to get the tips, PLUS 10 writing prompts for writing the opening scene of your novel!

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Today on Indie Author Weekly, I want to continue with our book launch recap of Her Bad Idea. Last week, I shared with you about the organic book marketing that I did for the book launch, and my experience with the book blogging community and the advance readers who helped me promote this book. You can tune into Episode 77 to get the inside scoop on all of that. 

Okay! So today, we’re on to Part 2 of the book launch recap for Her Bad Idea. The release day was August 25, so I consider the book launch to be a two-week period. In this episode, I want to share with you the money side of things with this book launch: which paid promotions were worth it, and which weren’t, plus how many book sales I actually made, and how much money I made from my romcoms during the two-week book launch period for Her Bad Idea.

I wanted to experiment with different combinations of promos… I figured that doing a blitz of multiple different promotional methods would give that extra boost and that punch you need to hit the bestseller list. It’s a multipronged approach! So that was my mindset behind buying a bunch of promos.

If you want to learn more about strategically planning ahead, then check out my signature program, Productivity Powerhouse, to get my best tips for doing just that. Visit SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse. 

TUNE IN to this episode of Indie Author Weekly to learn all about paid advertisements for book marketing and my book launch results... 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea at SaganMorrow.com/books
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Amazon .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Kobo .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Barnes & Noble .
• Episode 77 of Indie Author Weekly: Book launch recap for Her Bad Idea, part 1: organic marketing .
• Productivity Powerhouse: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .
• Publisher Rocket .
• Written Word Media (Red Feather Romance and New In Books) .
• Awesome Gang book ads .
• BookBub ads .
• Bknights book ads .
• Books Butterfly "pure gold" book ad .
• Fussy Librarian newsletter promo .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

This episode of Indie Author Weekly is a book launch recap of how things went with my book launch last month, for my latest romcom, Her Bad Idea. This is a 2-part series because I have a LOT of behind-the-scenes info to share with you! This episode is all about the organic marketing and book community side of things, and next week, I’ll talk about paid promotions and ads.

Quick overview of the book: Her Bad Idea tells the story of Scarlett, a burlesque dancer with a failing business, who has the opportunity to win a huge cash prize by participating in a dance competition. The only catch is that she needs to have a dance partner in order to join the competition… and she’s stuck with her extremely attractive and super annoying nemesis, Pete Fraser.

Her Bad Idea is a slow burn, enemies to lovers, fake relationship romantic comedy. It’s the 7th book in my Polyamorous Passions series, and it can be read as a standalone. It has received rave reviews from readers, and you can grab your copy on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, or anywhere else you read books.

Topics for this book launch recap: 

1. Book community and advance readers (book bloggers, bookstagrammers, and a book launch team) 
2. Paid advertisements & book publicity and marketing in email lists
3. Book sales and income earned from this book launch

This episode is all about the book community and organic marketing. TUNE IN to get the inside scoop... 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea at SaganMorrow.com/books
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Amazon .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Kobo .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Barnes & Noble .
• Episode 70 of Indie Author Weekly: Book launch plan breakdown for Her Bad Idea .
• ConvertKit (email marketing platform) .
• Citrus Rose blog .
• Winter Reader 40 .
• Rae's Reading Lounge .
• Diary of a Wannabe Writer .
• Mari Loves Books .
• Book Addict Reviews .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

For today's episode of Indie Author Weekly, I want to talk about the trouble with writing romcoms, and also 3 things you can do if you’re writing humour; I’ve got 3 tips for you when it comes to writing humour into your stories.

When I first started writing romance novels a couple years ago, I didn’t really know what the subgenre was. I referred to them as “contemporary romances” and “new adult romance.” Sometimes it takes a while to hone in on our niche. I didn’t even know that “romantic comedy” was a genre of novels, in fact! About a year ago, I happened to be reading a book by an indie author who calls her stories “romantic comedies,” and I realized that my style could totally be considered romantic comedy.

At the same time, I also wasn’t sure if I was funny enough to write romcoms. I mean, I certainly amuse myself, but it’s tricky to know whether your sense of humour is going to be well-received by readers.

And that’s what leads to today’s episode topic: the trouble with writing romcoms. Because the most challenging part that I’ve found with writing this particular genre is that there’s a delicate balance between writing jokes that are obvious enough that your reader will understand the humour, and also subtle enough that you’re not over-the-top with them. At least, assuming that you’re going for witty humour, rather than slap-sticky humour.

This gets even more difficult to assess, the more rewrites and edits you do on your own book: you KNOW the joke, since you wrote it... so, trying to take a step back and figure out how it will “land” for your reader is a lot trickier.

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about how to be more productive in Productivity Powerhouse: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .
• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea at SaganMorrow.com/books . 
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Amazon .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Kobo .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Barnes & Noble .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast . 
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Today on Indie Author Weekly, I want to share with you the #1 thing YOU can do, today, to make writing easier on yourself.  

Because I know how hard it can be to write a novel. To start a novel, to write consistently, to get through the messy middle, to finish your novel, and then to keep working on it… to do rewrites and edits and polish it until you’re ready to publish it. That's a lot of work!  

With that in mind, the more that we can do to make writing easier, the better. And what I’ve discovered, after writing several business books and seven romance novels, is there’s actually one thing that can drastically make writing so much easier on yourself. It might come as a surprise to you...  

You want to know what the #1 thing is, to make writing easier? TUNE IN to this episode of Indie Author Weekly to find out!  

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more & join Productivity Powerhouse so you finally have the time to write your book: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .
• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast . 
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Today is BOOK RELEASE DAY for Her Bad Idea! I’m so excited to share this story with the world! For this episode, I want to celebrate the book by sharing why it matters so much, and why you’ll want to read it… 

First things first: grab your copy of Her Bad Idea right now on Amazon or Kobo!

Her Bad Idea follows the story of Scarlett, a burlesque dancer with financial struggles. Scarlett’s only chance to save her failing burlesque business is to become dance partners with her enemy—who just happens to be outrageously sexy. Things get complicated when she unexpectedly finds herself in an accidental fake relationship with him to garner media ratings… There’s a thin line between love and hate in this dance competition romcom! 

Her Bad Idea is an enemies to lovers, fake relationship, forced proximity, slow burn romantic comedy. Visit SaganMorrow.com/books to grab your copy! 

I’ll wait while you do that :) 

...Have you bought the book? Awesome! Let’s continue with this episode. 

This is the seventh book in the Polyamorous Passions series, but it can be read as a stand-alone. Polyamorous Passions will be a nine-book series, and it’s really made up of three “trilogies,” with Books 1 - 3 following Emma’s story, Books 4 - 6 following Helen’s story, and Books 7 - 9 following Scarlett’s story. That means this book, Her Bad Idea, is the beginning of Scarlett’s story… and therefore it’s a great book to start reading, even if you haven’t read the rest of the series yet! You’ll get a peek at the backstory of Emma and Helen in this one, too. Advance readers are already saying that this book is their favourite in the series so far.

TUNE IN NOW to find out why this story matters so much...  

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea at SaganMorrow.com/books . 
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Amazon .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Kobo .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Barnes & Noble .
• See what other readers say about Her Bad Idea on GoodReads . 
• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast . 
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show

Today, I want to share about my most recent writing and editing process, and the general experience I had with writing my upcoming romantic comedy, Her Bad Idea. Release day is just ONE WEEK from today! You can pre-order this slow burn, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, fake relationship romcom at your favourite e-bookstore, or visit SaganMorrow.com/books. 

I actually started outlining and writing it back in November. You can learn more about the planning process for Her Bad Idea in Episode 52 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast. 

I worked on writing the book here and there pretty much every month of this year, but wrote the majority of it in May, and then did a ton of rewrites and edits in July. It took me about 85 hours in total to write and edit this novel, which is the most I’ve spent on any book project to date. 

Let me tell you, writing a romance novel during a pandemic is hard. Like, really hard! I was living by myself up until July, and I haven’t been dating anyone since the pandemic. I’m quite certain that there would be some very different scenes in Her Bad Idea if it weren’t for the pandemic, to be honest! 

Anyway, that’s a big part of why it took me such a long time to write it. I was also very focused on building up other parts of my business—particularly teaching about productivity to solopreneurs—earlier this year, in order to create a stronger financial foundation for developing the authorpreneur side of my business. I’m happy to share more about that in a future episode if you’re interested; just let me know by reaching out on Twitter or Instagram, @Saganlives. 

TUNE IN to this episode to learn about my experience writing and editing each draft of Her Bad Idea... 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea at SaganMorrow.com/books
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Amazon .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Kobo .
• Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Barnes & Noble .
• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast . 
• Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .

Let's chat about this episode:  

• @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .
• Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .
• Email [email protected] .
• Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question 

Send fan mail! Click HERE to leave Sagan a voicemail & share your thoughts about this episode.

Support the show