The Authorpreneur Mindset

It’s time to talk about my absolute favorite topic when it comes to storytelling, The Hero’s Journey.

First popularized by Joseph Campbell, the idea behind The Hero’s Journey goes back much further and has had an impact on some of the greatest storytellers of all time, including J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and J.K. Rowling.

In this first episode of a three-part series, I’ll be talking about the first stage of The Hero’s Journey and how you can use Campbell’s theories in your own writing to create a more dynamic, real story.

If this type of content isn’t practical enough for you, don’t worry. Next week, I’ll be talking more about the rebranding Steam Powered Dreams is currently going through and how you can use branding to help you sell more books, or at least grow an audience.

If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.

The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:

* Buy a copy of Scrivener

* Support us on Patreon

* Hire us to do your website

As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO.

Topic: The Hero’s Journey [Part 1 – The Ordinary World]

If you could unlock the secret of what makes some of the most popular books and movies succeed, would you take the time to learn and understand it?

If you could create stories as powerful as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game, Hobbit, Harry Potter, or the Matrix, would you want to know how?

That’s exactly what we’re talking about today, the secret to why these stories relate to us so much, and how you can tap into that in your own writing.

So much going on since the last SPD update back in Oct of last year

The company has grown in terms of freelance workers, with 6 more on board for various tasks, as well as a freelance designer.

Our Instagram has grown a lot. Check that out by searching for Authorpreneur Mindset and say hi

If you’re a listener from last year, Story Pulse has been explained a bit more on the blog

more on that in the coming months though

New clients and potential new authors under our banner.

And, maybe most importantly, a shift in focus. As of this episode, Steam Powered Dreams is no longer a publishing company. We are moving in a slightly different direction and will now be working as a Story Studio.

This is a big change for our branding and what we’ll prioritize, but our goal is the same, to help writers get published and get the profit they deserve.

If you’re curious about this, or branding in general, then you’re in luck.

The next episode of Authorpreneur Mindset will talk a lot about that.

As for me on a personal level, the past few months since I quit my job has been both…amazing and not so amazing.

During the initial month and a half, things were going pretty well.

I had a lot of work for new and old clients for freelancing

started revitalizing everything I had going before

and I was able to  back into the swing of things

However, just as fast, things took a turn south, and that’s a very common problem for anyone who is trying to make it non traditionally like authorpreneurs and entrepreneurs.

One week you have more work than you can handle,

It’s finally here!

This is the first episode of Season 2, and it just serves as an update on what’s going on. I get into where I’ve been, what you can expect moving forward, and what’s changing in season 2.

Season 2 will run through December 14th or so, I haven’t decided exactly when the break will be.

Enjoy!

If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.

The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:

* Buy a copy of Scrivener

* Support us on Patreon

* Hire us to do your website

As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO.

Topic: The Authorpreneur Mindset Season Two

Welcome back to the Authorpreneur Mindset Podcast.

I know it’s been a while and I apologize about that.

Over the past few months, I’ve received many emails, tweets, and Facebook messages asking when the show would have more episodes and I’m excited to say this is the start of Season 2.

This episode will serve as an update on the podcast and what to expect moving forward.

But before I get into that, I’d like to talk a little about what’s been going on with me.

I hadn’t planned on waiting this long to start Season 2. In fact, it was supposed to start on January 1, but life got the better of me.

Back in November, I realized, as many entrepreneurs who are relatively new tend to realize, I had to do something to pay the bills. Steam Powered Dreams hadn’t taken off as I had hoped it would and I had drained all of the money I had tucked away, so I had to get a job.

At the end of December, I found a copywriting job at a tech startup in Silicon Valley, at least that’s what I thought I was being hired for.

Within the first three days, my position changed 2 times. I went from copywriter to Marketing associate to SEO specialist. I was also told I would get training on the proprietary software the company uses since I’d be writing a lot about that for the internal and external articles.

Well, January came around and the job started going downhill.

To keep the story short, I didn’t receive any kind of training until March. The people in charge did not treat their employees with any sort of respect

Yelling was common in the office, as was other borderline illegal activities.

By the end of April, I was fighting hard to not walk out. Work for Steam Powered Dreams had picked up and I had learned a lot of new skills, but the negative atmosphere was no longer worth it.

When things went from bad to worse in the marketing department, I’d had enough and put my two weeks in.

During those two weeks, I realized a few things

One, I had met some amazing people who I knew I’d stay in touch with

Two, I had learned a lot of new skills in the crazy environment, so I was very thankful for the job

And three, I never wanted to work 40 hours a week for someone else again. Ever.

Flash forward a few weeks and I’ve been able to make just enough money to justify not searching for a job and things are only going to pick up from here.

Can I honestly say I’ll never work for someone else ever again? No, but if I do, it will be on my terms, and not theirs.

Steam Powered Dreams has some amazing things in the pipeline coming for the second half of this year. The editorial calendar includes more podcast episodes,

I’ve got a bit of a short one for you this week, but it stems from a very important question regarding editing that I hear quite often, how long should you wait between edits. I also talk about how many rounds of edits I recommend and give an overview of my recommended path to go from the first draft to final draft.

Industry News:

* Bookfunnel announces sales delivery actions, allowing for easier direct sales.

* Amazon releases X-Ray to all authors, big news for Fantasy and Science Fiction authors especially.

This episode also made me realize that there are a few things I already want to change about this podcast. For one, I want more interviews. The goal is, and always has been, to do at least 1 interview a month, but preferably 2. It was also my intention to cover topics that are aimed more at the business and marketing side of writing and not focus on the creative process itself. You’ll see these changes reflected around episode 11, and I”ll talk a bit more about them in episode 10.

If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.

The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:

* Buy a copy of Scrivener

* Support us on Patreon

* Hire us to do your website

As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO.

Topic: Let’s Talk About The Editing Process

Editing is the most important part of writing a novel, there is no debate about that.

But how much editing do you need?  How much is too much? Or not enough?

For that matter, how long should editing take, and how should you go about editing, chapter by chapter or the whole manuscript at once?

Today’s episode is about just that. Lynn Fellows sent in a question asking “Do you recommend one full edit at a time (for example reading out loud or using text to speech software to listen to the whole story) or is it more efficient to do several mini-edits on a chapter-by-chapter basis? How much time should you take between edits to avoid becoming ‘sick to death’ of reading your own words? or is that just me?

In personal news, I started programming the Steam Powered Dreams Story Engine this week! It’s really fascinating the direction it’s going and I’ll be talking more about this as the weeks go by, but I’m happy to say you won’t have to wait too long to learn more, as I’m hoping to have a prototype to show off by the end of the year.

In industry news, Bookfunnel.com announces “sales delivery actions” and what that means is their service now allows you to sell directly from your website to your reader’s preferred reading device or app! This is pretty big news for indie authors, as it’s been somewhat of a headache for most who try to sell direct.

https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/selling-with-bookfunnel/

The other story comes from the big boy itself, Amazon, who is introducing X-Ray for Authors. This allows authors to provide more information on characters, topics, events, places, or any other term used in the book when the reader taps on the word.

I actually started noticing this a while back being used by some big nam...

It seems like a month doesn’t go by without someone mentioning the death of blogging, that social media has taken over and there’s no reason to have a blog, but I don’t think that’s quite true. In this episode, we take a look at the difference between blogging and social media, why both of them are important, and how to get started as a blogger in 2017.

This topic was inspired by a friend of mine, LunaBell, who is just starting her personal blog and was asking me these very same questions. She isn’t a writer, but most of this episode really can pertain to anyone out there.

Industry News:

* Jane Friedman talks about why Blogging is still important

* The Mcilvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year winner was announced

Reference Links:

* Websites By Steam Powered Dreams (Use Coupon Code ‘authorpreneurmindset’ to save even more!)

* 10 Reasons To Start An Author Blog by Anne Allen

* LunaBell’s Blogsite 

If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.

The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:

* Buy a copy of Scrivener

* Support us on Patreon

* Hire us to do your website

As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO.

Topic: Tips for a blogger and starting an online blog

Blogging is dead, long live Social Media!

This is something that you might hear, well maybe not in such a dramatic way, but many people think blogging is dead, but I’m not so sure about that.

Should you start a blog in 2017? If so, can it be something that can help you with a career, or to build an audience, or make money?

Or, is blogging really dead, killed by social media and what is commonly known as the microblog? Well, let’s find out.

Before we get into the topic, a quick update on me and Steam Powered Dreams.

I recently wrote a post on my author page that reveals a bit more about the project I’ve been working on, the Steam Powered Dreams Story Engine.

While I still can’t reveal too much, if you’re interested I’ll have a link to the post in the show notes, or you can just head over to author.jeremycollier.com to read it.

In industry news, we have an article that directly relates to the topic of this episode.

Jane Friedman recently posted on the topic of which is more important to an author, their website or social network account(s)? While this might not be directly related to industry news, I think it’s worth sharing.

She goes through the differences between them, what each offers, and why she would choose her website over social networking anyway.

Of course, we don’t actually have to choose, so we can have the best of both worlds!

https://www.janefriedman.

You may have noticed that I was absent for awhile. This was due to many things, but what it boils down to is that procrastination overtook my drive to produce the show, which I get into quite a bit in this episode. We are all plagued by procrastination at some point in our lives, some worse than others, but what’s important is how well we deal with it when it comes up.

Clearly, I was able to deal with the procrastination of this episode, but it took longer than I’d have liked.

But what really is procrastination, how does it affect us, and what can we do to help avoid it in the first place?

Listen to find out!

Industry News:

* Kobo enters the audiobook market

* Publishing salaries climb, but gender pay gap still there

Reference links:

* ET The Hip-hop Preacher on YouTube

* Les Brown – You Gotta Be Hungry Speech

* Transcript for Speech

* Amazing motivational video by Mateusz M on YouTube

If you have a question you’d like to ask, there’s a button the right side of the website to make it easy!  Or, just click here.

The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:

* Buy a copy of Scrivener

* Support us on Patreon

* Hire us to do your website

As always, below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded and are unedited but are here for reference and SEO.

Topic: Procrastination and Self Doubt

Alright, it’s time to record an episode of the Authorpreneur Mindset Podcast!

Well, I mean, I know it’s time, but there are so many other things I could be doing.

I mean, does it really matter if I record this episode? It’s not like very many people are listening.

The episode isn’t due out until Friday, I can record it Friday morning, why am I worrying so much about it right now?

You know what, I’ll just forget it all together.

Does that sound familiar? You could replace the word podcast with almost anything, even the things we love the most, and it would still be true for many of us.

That’s why I’ve decided to tackle a subject that is near and dear to many creative types hearts, procrastination and consistency.

This will be somewhat of a recurring mini series on the podcast and in this first episode I’m actually going to focus on how procrastination and self-doubt are 

Before we get into the topic, I just wanted to talk a bit about what I’ve been up to this past few weeks.

The first thing is I finally started reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and I am loving it. I actually picked up the book a few years ago when it was on sale, but at the time I just wasn’t in the mood to read Sanderson’s writing.

Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s an amazing writer, but his stories tend to be a bit drawn out for me.

My brother, on the other hand, absolutely loves him and has been trying to get me to read this series for a while, so he’s happy he’ll finally be able to talk to me about it.

Also,

This is it, this is the first interview episode here on the Authorpreneur Mindset Podcast and one that I couldn’t be happier to have done.Our guest today, Jeremy Menefee, has an amazing story. It’s one of overcoming difficulties in life and perseverance even in the face of devastation. It’s one that I think you will all enjoy.

He is currently working on a few different projects, most notably a book on Ghostwriting and a new fiction series. Check out the links below for more information:

* 3 Easy Outlines for Ghostwriters: Quickly Write Novels That Rock! (Amazon) (Instafreebie)

* Odd Behaviors (Rephaim: Bloodlines Short story #1)

* Eyes Without a Face (Rephaim: Bloodlines Short story #2)

* The Professional Ghostwriter’s Handbook (eBook) (Paperback)

More links for Jeremy Menefee:

* Jeremy’s Editing/Ghostwriting Blog

* Jeremy’s Facebook

* Jeremy’s Twitter

The podcast is brought to you by Steam Powered Dreams Publishing but paid for out of my own pocket. If you’d like to show your support, there are many different ways to do it:

* Buy My Books on Amazon

* Buy a copy of Scrivener

* Support us on Patreon

* Hire us to do your website

Below is a direct copy of the show notes. They were written before the episode was recorded but are here for reference and SEO. They only contain possible questions asked during the interview

Topic: Interview with Jeremy Menefee

* My guest this week is Jeremy Menefee. He is a best selling author, both fiction and non-fiction, Editor, blogger, and copywriter, but you’ve probably never heard his name, at least not yet.

* This is because, so far, he’s only been published as a ghostwriter, at least up until recently as he is working on his very own series of books due out next year.

* But here is the interesting part. He’s doing all of this after an accident that caused brain damage, as well as other health problems.

* Welcome to the show, Jeremy.

* Before we get started with the interview, I wanted to thank you for coming on and being the first guest of The Authorpreneur Mindset.

* Why don’t you tell us a bit more about yourself?

* When did you start ghostwriting and editing?

Why ghostwriting and not writing for yourself?

Let’s talk about the accident, what exactly happened?

What health issues has it caused for you and how have you been able to not only work around them, but also overcome them to create a living for yourself?

Let’s talk about growing up.

Where were you born and/or raised?

What was your family life like? Parents? Siblings?

Did you read a lot growing up? If so, what books/genres?

Did you write much when you were young? If so, do you remember anything you wrote? If not, how come?

Let’s fast forward a bit.

Married, children? When?

Other jobs you’ve had?

First time you ever completed a writing project

Family life before the accident and after

Share some (positive or funny) Editing and/or Ghostwriting stories

What made you finally decide to write your own story?

Tell us more about it and your plans for your own series.