Author Diary Entries

Welcome back to Indie Author Weekly, where I share my behind-the-scenes journey of writing and self-publishing books. Today, we’re continuing with the author commentary from last week! As I mentioned last week, I always reread previously-published books in my Polyamorous Passions series when I’m writing a new novel in the series, to ensure everything is consistent with characters and plot etc. And since I’m currently writing Book 7, I figured it’d be fun to share with you my internal thoughts while I was recently rereading the first 6 books in the series. 

Tune into Episode 61 to get my author commentary of the first 3 books in my Polyamorous Passions series. That episode features Emma’s trilogy. So for this episode, we’re doing a commentary of Helen’s trilogy, Books 4 - 6. This trilogy is dedicated to my spouse, Mr Science. 

By the way—if you want to learn more about the background to this series, I answered some FAQs in Episode 51 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast. 

Now, there may be a few minor spoilers here and there during this episode. I’m trying to make sure that the commentary provides you with an overview and a few teasers as we go through it chapter by chapter—I don’t want to give away spoilers! But just a head’s up that if you hate spoilers of any kind, then you might want to pause this episode, and listen to it in sections after you read each book. These novellas are all quick reads, so you could finish all three of the books in a single day if you like. 

Grab your copies of these books at your favourite e-bookstore, or visit SaganMorrow.com/books. I even have a virtual boxset at SaganMorrow.com/books which will give you access to all future books in the series, as well as the complete series to date. 

Okay, let’s get right into today’s author commentary, starting with Book 4: She Wants More... TUNE IN to this episode to get the author commentary! 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Episode 61 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: Part ONE of the author commentary for Polyamorous Passions (Books 1 - 3) . 
• Episode 51 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: FAQ about the background of the Polyamorous Passions series .
• Get the Miss Time Management shirt at SaganMorrow.com/shop .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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. Today we're doing something a little different than usual… I want to share author commentary while rereading my Polyamorous Passions series that I wrote. 

I typically reread my previously published works at least twice all the way through, every single time I write a new novel in the series: I skim over the books before I begin writing the new book in the series, so I can have a general gist of the idea of the storyline and characters, and then I do a more thorough reread after writing the first full draft of the latest novel. I usually like to do another skim through each previously-published book before publishing the new book, just to do a final double check. This is a good practice to do if you write a series of connected books, so there's consistency in the plot, characters and storyline from one book to the next. 

Given that this Indie Author Weekly podcast is all about the behind-the-scenes sneak peek of the author life, I thought it'd be fun to share with you my internal commentary on my books, during my most recent reread of them! 

For context, I'm currently writing Book 7 in the Polyamorous Passions series, Her Bad Idea. If you haven’t read these stories yet, the first one in the series is free, AND you can get the entire boxset of current books which will also include ALL future books in the series for a steal of a deal, at SaganMorrow.com/books. 

This episode features the first 3 books in the series. The series is divided into 3 trilogies: Books 1 - 3 follow Emma’s story, Books 4 - 6 follow Helen’s story, and Books 7 - 9 will follow Scarlett’s story. 

Author commentary of the Polyamorous Passions series… starting with Emma’s story in Book 1: A Choice Between Two. This book is about figuring out that polyamory exists & starting the discussion about it in general. TUNE IN for the author commentary! 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Episode 48 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: Tips for writing books later on in the series .
• Episode 51 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: FAQ about the background of the Polyamorous Passions series .
• Get the Relationship Rebel shirt at SaganMorrow.com/shop . 
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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 features 5 practical tips for how you can find the time to market your books. 

After all, writing your books is one thing… but it’s not enough to just publish it. There’s a whole other side to being an indie author, and that is marketing. 

Frankly, this is something I’ve noticed come up again and again in my business journey. People often talk about the joy of the craft, but what they don’t tell you is that in the beginning especially, you have to put in a huge proportion of your time and energy into marketing, whether your business relies on services or physical products or digital products. 

But you love the craft of it, right? You don’t want to spend all your time marketing your books. You started writing books because you enjoy it. Marketing seems like a scary prospect, or maybe you even think of “selling” as a dirty word. 

It doesn’t need to be! In fact, last year, I went through a complete attitude adjustment around marketing in general for my business. Nowadays, I actually look at “marketing” as “just another form of content creation.” And that makes me happy! This simple act of reframing my approach to marketing has made it a much more enjoyable experience, and I’d also argue that I’ve gotten better at marketing as a result. 

Does it still take time? Yes, absolutely. But because I enjoy it now, it doesn’t exhaust me the same way it used to. And that is extremely powerful, because it means that I can do more effective marketing in less time, while still having the creative capacity and bandwidth leftover to do other things—such as writing books. 

If you’re curious to learn more about this entire concept and how to apply it to your own situation, then I recommend you check out my signature program, Productivity Powerhouse, which teaches you exactly how to do all of that. You can learn more at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse. I’ll drop the link in the show notes.  

TUNE IN to this episode for 5 actionable ways you can find the time to market your books! 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Productivity Powerhouse to save time, reframe your approach, increase your creative capacity for writing books, and more: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse 
• Planoly for planning & scheduling your Instagram "bookstagram" posts: SaganMorrow.com/planoly  
• The Business of Writing & Editing e-book: SaganMorrow.com/books . 
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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 romance novels, 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. Today, I want to share just a few of my favourite books that have helped me improve my writing skills over the years. These are great resources if you want to get a deeper understanding of language and how to use it effectively, and also if you want to improve your editing skills. 

By the way, we have a whole episode here on Indie Author Weekly featuring 10 practical tips for editing your own work—you can check that out in Episode 15. 

Okay, so here are six of my favourite books… I have four main resources (reference texts), plus two honourable mentions (memoirs about the craft of writing) that I want to share with you today... TUNE IN to this episode to find out what these resources are, and why they're so valuable! 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Episode 15 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast: 10 tips for how to edit your own work .
• Chicago Manual of Style . 
• Canadian Oxford Dictionary  
• GCSE English Grammar: Exam Revision Guide . 
• Webster's Compact Writers Guide . 
• The Word Detective by John Simpson . 
• On Writing by Stephen King . 
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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 romance novels, 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. Today, I want to share a few tips for how to organize the structure of a non-fiction book. I tend to focus much more on the fiction side of things in this podcast, but fun fact, the first book I ever published was a non-fiction book. It’s called The Business of Writing & Editing: Practical Tips & Templates for New Freelancers. It’s available at your favourite e-bookstore, or you can grab your copy at SaganMorrow.com/books. I’ll drop the link in the show notes. 

I thought this was a really important topic to share about because there are so many different ways that you can organize the structure for a non-fiction book. Storytelling isn’t just for fiction. In fact, I would argue that storytelling is extremely important in non-fiction, too. 

Writing non-fiction can be an art, just as much as writing fiction. There are many factors to consider when you are writing your non-fiction book, and depending on how you structure it, you will either make it more accessible and empowering to your reader… or it will fall flat. Structure matters! How you organize information and relay it to your reader can be the difference between them getting a ton of value from your book, or leaving them confused and dissatisfied. 

With that in mind, here are a few of the things you’ll want to consider when you’re organizing the structure of a non-fiction book—I have 4 tips for you today... TUNE IN to this week's episode to get the tips!

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• The Business of Writing & Editing: Practical Tips & Templates for New Freelancers .
• Begin Your Biz in 15 Minutes/Day: Your Freelancing Tips Starter Kit .
• Episode 44 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast: how to use mind mapping to outline your book .
• Learn about creating your business plan with the Business Planning Retreat Workshop at SaganMorrow.com/retreat .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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

Hello friends! Sagan here. 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 romance novels, 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. Today, I want to share 5 things that happen when you become an indie author. If you’re an indie author yourself, then I bet you can relate… and if you’ve been thinking about writing a book, then consider this your head’s up for what to expect!  

Tune into this episode to find out the 5 things that happen when you become an indie author...  

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Episode 39 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast: how to get your book idea out of your head and onto paper .
• Save 10+ hours every week so you free up the time to work on your book: SaganMorrow.com/savetime .
• Learn how to build a business you love in the Productivity Powerhouse e-course at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse . 
• Buy the Polyamorous Passions virtual boxset at SaganMorrow.com/books . 
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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 the Indie Author Weekly podcast explores going wide, vs going deep, as an indie author... and why go wide instead of deep! 

First of all, what exactly does it mean to “go wide” or “go deep” with your book sales? 

The concept is that “going wide” means you’re making your book available on multiple different platforms (Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc). “Going deep,” on the other hand, means you’re focusing exclusively on one particular platform. For example, if you want to be part of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program, you have to sign an exclusivity contract with them—which means you can’t provide your book for sale on any other platforms. 

There’s a  great breakdown of the pros and cons between the two options on The Creative Penn podcast, which I’ll link in the show notes. 

To me, choosing between going deep and going wide with my Polyamorous Passions romantic comedy series really came down to two crucial factors: first and foremost, when our books are available on multiple platforms, we are making them more accessible to more people. 

Accessibility matters so much. It’s why I offer complete written transcripts of each of these podcast episodes on the secret version of the podcast at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast, for example.  And the problem is that if we limit our books to only being available on Amazon, then we are losing out on connecting with so many other readers who prefer a different platform, and who would absolutely love to read our books. 

Whenever I’m choosing whether or not to do something in my business, I always like to take into account what I would want if I were the customer. This helps ensure that all of my business decisions always feel really good for my unique business. I strongly encourage you to tap into the same if you sometimes struggle with business decisions, yourself! This is an important part of building a business that you love, which I talk a lot about in my Productivity Powerhouse e-course—you can learn more about that at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse.  

So: Accessibility was a major factor in my decision to go wide rather than deep with my own books. Tune into this episode to find out the 2nd major factor!  

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Exclusivity vs publishing wide on The Creative Penn podcast .
• Learn how to build a business you love in the Productivity Powerhouse e-course at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse
• Buy the Polyamorous Passions virtual boxset at SaganMorrow.com/books
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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 using creativity and creative outlets as a grounding practice and as a coping mechanism.  

The reason why I want to share about this today is because I’m doing a brand-new livestream show with my friend Jennifer of Roam Howl Creative. For the next three days, April 14 - 16 2020, we will be teaching the topic of Creative Marketing for Non-Creatives. I’m hosting it on Instagram Live at 4pm CT, so I hope to see you there! Follow me on Instagram, @Saganlives, to check it out.  

Over the course of our Creative Marketing for Non-Creatives livestream show, we’ll be covering the following: 

1. How to ground yourself through creativity during challenging times 
2. Creative self-expression and ideas for what to create . 
3. Advanced strategies for connecting deeply through creativity  

Now, that first point, about using creative outlets as grounding practice, is something that I have found to be incredibly powerful in my own life and business. So I want to dive into that here on the Indie Author Weekly podcast, because it is directly relates to my work as an author. 

We are collectively going through a challenging time right now, given the global pandemic situation. And there are many streams of thought out there as to what we should or shouldn’t be doing with ourselves while we’re all staying safe at home. 

One of the things that’s been making the rounds across the Internet are people who say we should be “making good use of this time by creating something.” 

I disagree. Instead, my way of looking at it is that *being creative can actually help us to cope during this challenging time.* 

It’s not about forcing ourselves to be creative. That’s not what it’s about, at all! Instead, it’s about using creativity as a tool to help support us. 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Creative Marketing for Non-Creatives livestream show: Instagram Live, April 14 - 16 2020 at 4pm Central: Instagram.com/saganlives .
• Jennifer at Roam Howl Creative  
• Episode 43 of Indie Author Weekly: What do you want from your book writing experience? (Background about the business partnership dissolution) .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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 answers a listener-submitted question from Alana, who asks: 

“How do you task-switch between writing fiction and doing other things? For example, I can’t switch from fiction to work emails and back. I can only write fiction with a giant long uninterrupted block… which is why I haven’t written anything longer than a short story in a long time, because there’s no way I can put aside a long enough uninterrupted or even mildly interrupted block to work on a novel.” 

Great question! This is definitely something that I think we can all relate to. I find it really challenging to write novels if I don’t have a large chunk of time blocked off for it, which is a big part of the reason for why I write novellas instead of novels. 

But there are some ways that we can make task-switching a little more manageable, and improve our focus and productivity with it all. And since I’m both a productivity strategist and an author, this question is exactly the kind of thing I love! 

Tune into this episode to get 7 tips for how to handle this problem around task-switching… 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .
• Productivity Powerhouse: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse  
• Episode 47 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How 4 authors outline and start writing their novels .
• Episode 52 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: What I'm doing to outline and start writing my upcoming romantic comedy .
• Episode 25 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How to get back into writing a book when you've set it aside for a while .
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes .

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

Indie Author Weekly podcast is 1 year old! This episodes shares backstory to how I started this podcast, plus the top 5 most popular episodes—as well as my personal favourite 5 episodes from over the past year. 

Since I’m in a celebratory mood, I also want to spread the love. Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to gift you the e-version of one of my books—either one of my romance novels or one of my business books—for the first five people who leave a review on Apple Podcasts of at least 50 words. After you publish your review of this podcast, take a screenshot of it and email me, [email protected] so I know who you are! At that point you can let me know which book of mine you want to receive a gift of and I’ll send it to you. 

There’s no time limit to this, it’s just the first five people. So get to it! I can’t wait to read your review of this Indie Author Weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, and to then email you the book of your choice as a thank-you gift. Visit SaganMorrow.com/books to choose which book you want to receive. 

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:  

• Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books 
• Episode 6 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How do you advertise books when you self-publish? 
• Learn how to do relationship-based marketing in online courses at SaganMorrow.com/school 
• Pitching Clients 101: SaganMorrow.com/pitch 
• Keep Your Clients: SaganMorrow.com/keep 
• Episode 1 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: Why I chose to self-publish books 
• Episode 15 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: 10 tips for how to edit your own work 
• Episode 47 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How 4 different authors outline their books 
• Episode 3 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How to get started with outlining & writing a new book 
• Episode 52 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: Step-by-step guide for how I'm planning & writing my upcoming romantic comedy, Her Bad Idea 
• Episode 51 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: FAQ about the background to my Polyamorous Passions series 
• Episode 14 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: Understanding your strengths & weaknesses as an author 
• Productivity Powerhouse: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse  
• Episode 44 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How to use mindmapping to write your book 
• Episode 50 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: What made me start writing Polyamorous Passions (my polyamory background) 
• Episode 34 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: How to practice self-discipline as a writer 
• Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast 
• Rate & review this podcast on iTunes 

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