Blogger to Author

Writer’s block strikes fear into even the most seasoned writer. Nothing saps your confidence like sitting in front of a blank screen or piece of paper for what seems like eons, failing to come up with any words to fill it. And, unfortunately, writer’s block is incredibly common. Even professional writers have off days when they struggle to come up with the words they need.

In this episode, I’m sharing six strategies that you can use to overcome writer’s block. These are strategies that have worked for me personally, and I know they’ve worked for other writers, too. I know that writer’s block can feel like a deep pit of frustration. But, there are ways to work your way out of that pit. So, instead of getting all worked up about your writer’s block, let’s come up with some solutions to help you overcome it!

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/103

One of the biggest problems that I hear writers struggle with is not having time to write. This is particularly true for those of you who are also business owners and who are busy running your businesses, creating content, staying active on social media, and a dozen other things. When you’re trying to write a book but you’re crunched for time, it helps to be able to get more written in the time you do have.

So, to help you get more words onto the page when you sit down to write, I’m sharing five tips to help you speed up your writing. (Several of these tips definitely apply to fiction writers, but I’m primarily aiming the tips at nonfiction writers.) If you find yourself saying, “But I don’t have time to write” or, “I can’t seem to finish my book because I’m too busy,” this episode is for you! I hope that at least one or two of these tips will help you finally finish your book and become an author.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/102

I’m going to be honest with you for a minute. The publishing space is getting pretty crowded, especially in popular niches like business or health and wellness or even cookbooks. That means that your book is competing for attention with many other books out there. How do you get the attention of potential book buyers? How can you make your nonfiction book stand out from the crowd and make it onto readers’ bookshelves?

There are three big places where you can make your nonfiction book stand out: writing, design, and marketing. In today’s episode, I’ll walk you through a few tips to help you make your book stand out in each of these three areas. You’ll get some food for thought, and hopefully you’ll come up with a few action items that you can follow to improve your book. My goal is that by the end of the episode, you’ll have an action item or two that you can implement right away to make your nonfiction book stand out.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/101

Sometimes, you need to take a break from your book. Maybe life got crazy and you simply didn’t have time to write. (It happens—don’t beat yourself up if you’ve needed to shift gears away from your book.) Or, maybe you just didn’t feel like writing for a while. Sometimes we get burnt out or overwhelmed or we just need a break from things. Again, it happens. But, if you want to become an author, you have to finish your book. You have to start writing again.

So, how do you start writing again after a break? How do you get back into the swing of writing so you can finally finish your manuscript? The process isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it. In this episode, I’ll walk you through the steps that I think you should take to get back to your book manuscript. These steps will help you get reacquainted with your manuscript and get back into the rhythm of writing so you can finish your book and become an author.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/100

Free 5-day writing challenge: bloggertoauthor.com/writingchallenge

How successful can your self-published book really be? And, what do you actually need to do to create and market your book to reach that level of success? From the outside, it can be difficult to know what to expect from your self-published book. Will it be a total flop, or will you consistently sell copies? Will bookstores want to sell your book? Will your book have an impact on your business?

From time to time, I like to bring you interviews with real, successful self-published authors. I think hearing from these authors helps us get a better idea of what we need to do to make our books a success. And, hearing what other people are doing to market their books and use those books to build their business might inspire you to do the same.

In this episode, I’m very excited to be interviewing Lyn Lindbergh, author of COUCH to ACTIVE. I first spoke with Lyn on the podcast last summer in Episode 70: Hiring Help for Your Book. I’m grateful that Lyn is back with us today to talk about everything that she’s done to make her book successful since we last spoke. You’ll hear what Lyn has done to successfully market her book, how she’s gained national recognition for her book (and was even a finalist for a book award!), and how she got her book into bookstores (including the big-name store I get asked about all the time!).

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/99

It’s a fear that I think every author-to-be has at one point: you work your tail off to write and publish a book…and no one buys it. It’s terrifying to think that you could put so much effort into creating a book that readers don’t want to read. And, if you’re hiring editors, designers, or other professionals to help with the production of your book, zero book sales could result in a big financial loss for you.

So, how do you tell if readers will buy your book? How can you help relieve your fears and prove to yourself that yes, people will want to read your book? In this episode, I’ll walk you through four important steps that you should take to figure out whether people will want to buy your book. These steps will help you think through some very important questions you should be asking yourself if you want to estimate how successful your book will be. At the end, I think you’ll have the answer you’re looking for.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/98

So, you’ve decided you want to publish a cookbook. Now what do you do? The idea of having to write and produce an entire cookbook can be overwhelming, especially when you look at the project as a whole. But, when you break things down and just focus on the next step in front of you, it’s much more manageable. That’s why today I’ll be walking you through the steps you’ll need to take to publish your cookbook.

If you’re still trying to decide whether you want to create a cookbook, I encourage you to go back and listen to Episode 96, which is a deep dive into whether you should publish a cookbook and if it’s actually worth the effort. But, if you’re ready to go, this episode will serve as a checklist with the steps to go through when you’re ready to make your cookbook a reality.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/97

I’ve been working with and hearing from a lot of food bloggers lately, food bloggers who are interested in publish a cookbook. But, they’re often unsure about whether they actually want to go through with it. I totally get it—producing a cookbook can take a lot of time, and it can be difficult to know whether your effort is going to pay off in the end.

In today’s episode, I’ll walk you through some of the frequently-asked questions I get from food bloggers who are trying to decide whether they should self-publish a cookbook. I’ll answer questions like, “is it worth it?” and, “how much will it cost?” You’ll learn more about choosing between traditional and self-publishing, whether you should publish your cookbook in print, if you’ll actually make money from your book, and how much time the whole process can take. My hope is that by the end of the episode, you’ll have the tools and insight you’ll need to help you decide whether you should self-publish your cookbook.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/96

If you’re like me, you’ve started a big project only to get busy or distracted and the project sits and sits until you’ve totally forgotten about it. But, if that project is important enough, you’ll eventually come back to it and finish what you’ve started. This happened to me with my second book: I wrote maybe a third or a half of the content, then I moved 800 miles across the country and had a baby. That book manuscript sat on my hard drive for almost a year before I finally picked it back up and self-published it. But, I’m really glad that I did come back and finish the book. It fits a unique space in my business—it’s a low-cost way for my audience to get a lot of information—and it definitely is helping people.

But, there are times when it doesn’t make sense to keep writing a book you’ve been working on. There’s a season for everything in your business, and sometimes it’s the season to temporarily shelve your book manuscript…or to put it aside entirely. In some cases, your book may actually bring you further from your goals, and writing it can actually be a waste of precious time. I know that you don’t have time to waste.

This episode is meant to help you figure out whether you should keep writing your book or if you should just walk away from it. There are three big instances when I think you should completely walk away from writing your book, and I want to share those instances with you here. My hope is that by listening to this episode, you’ll be able to decide if you should keep writing now, put your book aside for a little while, or scrap the project entirely.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/95

In some ways, mindset is everything. Having the wrong mindset and looking at your work and career the wrong way can really hold you back. If you keep looping back to the same negative thoughts or limiting beliefs, you can limit your success. Conversely, if you look at your book and your writing through the right lens, it will help you become much more successful.

In this episode, I’ll primarily be speaking to nonfiction authors, but I think fiction authors can and will get a lot out of these mindset shifts, too. I’ll walk you through the five big mindset shifts that I think authors should make to be more successful. I’ve worked with and talked to many aspiring and published authors, and there are a few beliefs and mental habits that hold many of them back. I want to help you overcome these five major blocks so you can have a great author mindset and ultimately have more success as an author.

Show notes: bloggertoauthor.com/94