Michael emailed me a few weeks ago and something in that email struck me, he wrote 'self-publishing saved my life.' Michael went from being long-term unemployed to making enough money from self publishing to live off in under a year. It was a period of long days and dedicated work, but in the end he came out on top. This episode not only tells his story but it also looks at how you can launch a book even if you have no budget at all.

This week I talk to Beverley Kendall about a survey she completed late last year and publishing in January 2014, which look at what self published authors were earning, and what the top earners were doing in common. We also talk about her journey from being a traditionally published author to going self published, and why she is so glad that she did!

Given that Hugh is just a bit well known he's told his story on many blogs, podcasts, and his own site. With that in mind, we basically skip over his journey to success and get into the things that are important to him today. We talk about his S&S deal in retrospect, where he sees the future going for his work and life, what it's like to work with foreign publishers, and why he is no happier today than when he was an unknown author.

In this episode of the podcast I talk to Holly Lisle who had a successful traditional career (31 commercially published books), but transitioned over to self-publishing before there were any of the services that are around today. She made the transition after not getting paid by her publisher for six months. We talk her journey, her advice for writers, and a whole bunch else.

Today’s interview with with Tim Long who is a hybrid author and has a few books published and a few self-published. He writes both action/horror and comedy. We talk about the benefits of being a hybrid author as well as taking part (and running) online events which have been a boon to him in terms of book sales.

This interview is something a bit different. Back in episode 17, Leeland Artra came on the show and during a chat we had after the show he said "Hey Simon, you should get someone to come onto the show and interview you! Tell your story!" To that I said, "Alright Leeland, you do it!" So a couple of months down the line we did. We also talk audiobooks, which I know a bit about and Leeland is just starting to explore. I do hope you enjoy learning a bit more about me and the show!

In this episode of the RSP podcast, I finally respond to some listener demand and get a children’s author on the show! Jeff gives us the run down on putting out his illustrated children’s book – The Day I Learned to Fly. We go through some of the challenges that Jeff has faced in getting his book on the market, and what sort of work in general goes into such a complicated project like this.

In the show this week I have the pleasure of talking to Jim Kukral. Jim is our first exclusively non-fiction author, and as well as talking about the challenges and benefits of writing non-fiction, we talk about the past and future of digital books. Even if you are a fiction author this interview is worth listening to as Jim is a marketing whizz for both fiction and non-fiction.

In this episode of the Rocking Self Publishing podcast, I talk to Armand Rosamilia who published 45 works in 2013 and plans even more for 2014. We also talk about genre hopping - he writes 'beach fiction' as well as 'graphic horror' - all under the same name. He also crosses genres over, writing horror-erotica and zombie-spy-thrillers! Adult themes in this one due to Armand's genre.

This weeks show is an interview with Shawn Chesser, the author of the successful series "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse." We talk about what it takes to write a successful series and some of the things that Shawn has learnt along the way. Shawn reveals some key strategies that he has used to keep sales up across all his books, as well as how useful networking with other authors has been to him.