The Rocking Self Publishing Podcast

Mark Dawson is the British author of the John Milton series (among other works) which in the last year has really taken off. We look at his (rather complicated and very effective) structure for getting people into his different books, specifically how he uses permafree and newsletters to get people to cross series. He also works a full time job and has a young family, so we look at how he manages to write so many bestsellers (the clue is in the title).

Kickstarter has been talked about a lot as a place for indie authors to go to get the funding they need to put together a novel. Often these conversations are about established authors, with an existing fan base using the platform. In this interview I talk to Bill (WC) Hoffman about how an author can use Kickstarter to get their first book off the ground, even if they have no existing following.

This week I talk to Michael Rank a PhD student in Ottoman history based in Turkey. He was working a part time job teaching English, trading hours for dollars and wanted to move away from that and create a product that people would purchase. He self-published his first book, and it was an instant success, from there he created more books and now makes a mid 4 figure a month income from his writing. We look at how he did it.

In this weeks interview I talk to Aubrey Rose about a wide range of things, including the benefit of working with other authors. Aubrey has been a part of numerous box sets with other authors and often sees them make her more money than her standalone books. We talk about how she found other authors to do these box sets with, how she gets her writing done despite having a full time job, and why she turned down Montlake Romance (an Amazon publisher).

Bryan Cohen lives in Chicago and wasn2019t satisfied with the income that he was making from the sales of his self-published books. He didn2019t want to go back to the 9-5 world so decided to look into how he could make additional income around his books. From having a successful online video course, to doing speaking gigs at the beach, Bryan has experimented with a lot of things. If you2019re thinking of going full time, but worry about the cash flow, listen to this interview for some great inspiration and ideas!

For this week2019s show I got to talk to one of the biggest names in hybrid publishing CJ Lyons, who turned self-pub after her contract with a traditional publisher fell through. We talk in depth about how she works in both publishing worlds and what she has learned from each and how that applies to her overall career.

Matt wrote 50,000 words in a single day on the 1st November 2013, completing NaNoWriMo before most people had really begun. He has a passion for fast drafting and we talk about the mechanics of that in this episode. In the show notes for this episode, you2019ll be able to download the first draft of this book, as well as grab a PDF he has put together

It was a real pleasure to be able to talk to Russell Blake this week. We talk about treating writing as a business and how much this helped him when he was just starting out, and how it helps him shape the future decisions he makes about his writing career. We also touch on his production process and how he writes so much so quickly.

Victoria Danann is an award winning novelist and author of the Order of the Black Swan. I talk to her about her rather unique planning process and just how she manages to bring such depth to her characters (something her reviewers constantly praise her for). We also talk in depth about street teams and the value of having people around you supporting your writing.

Victoria Danann is an award winning novelist and author of the Order of the Black Swan. I talk to her about her rather unique planning process and just how she manages to bring such depth to her characters (something her reviewers constantly praise her for). We also talk in depth about street teams and the value of having people around you supporting your writing.