Poli-Fi Author, Michael Fedor on Writing, Rewriting, and Never Giving Up

Writing a novel is never a straight path. But what happens when that journey takes 20 years? In this episode, I sit down with Michael Fedor, an award-winning independent author, to talk about the long, winding road to publishing his debut novel, What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose, a political science fiction thriller with deep themes and sharp commentary.

Michael shares:

✨ How an idea from two decades ago finally became a published book
✨ The highs and lows of drafting, rewriting, and refining a novel over time
✨ How personal life events and evolving perspectives shaped his storytelling
✨ The importance of community, persistence, and finding the right tools to stay motivated
✨ Lessons learned from self-publishing and navigating the indie author world

If you’ve ever struggled with finishing a manuscript or wondered if it’s too late to make your writing dreams a reality, Michael’s story is proof that perseverance pays off.

Episode Breakdown

📌 00:00 – The reality of long-term writing projects
📌 01:11 – Meet Michael Fedor and his writing journey
📌 02:52 – How What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose came to life
📌 08:29 – Writing political science fiction and balancing genre with message
📌 13:54 – The biggest challenges in writing and rewriting over 20 years
📌 24:00 – How to balance writing with real life (and why it’s okay to take breaks)
📌 26:48 – Michael’s best advice for writers struggling to finish their novel
📌 35:05 – Final thoughts and encouragement for your own writing journey

Writing isn’t just about speed—it’s about sticking with the story that won’t let you go. Whether you're knee-deep in your first draft or revising something you started years ago, this episode will remind you that your book is worth finishing.

Let me know what resonated most with you from Michael’s journey, and as always—keep writing, even when it’s scary. ✨

To connect with Michael, please visit these links:

Substack https://michaelfedorbooks.substack.com/

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23296831.Michael_Fedor

Website https://michaelfedorbooks.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michaelfedorbooks/

Transcript

Poli-Fi Author, Michael Fedor on Writing, Rewriting, and Never Giving Up

Michael: [00:00:00] Don't expect to write the perfect story the first time you sit down and write it. Give yourself the permission to just make mistakes or just go through that draft one to get all your thoughts down. And then set it aside and come back with a different intention the second time you write. 

Welcome to the Write it Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacey Fraser, a formerly repressed creative soul turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write it Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories.

The one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability and the often Subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative Holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that Successfully.

Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of [00:01:00] ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Write it Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.

Hi, writer. Welcome back to another episode of the write it scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacey. Thanks for joining me today. I have such an inspirational guest interview to share with you, and I think you're going to love it. If you are a writer, who's doubting your ability to make your author dream happen, then this is an episode you don't want to miss.

Today, I'm in conversation with Michael Fedor, an award winning independent author, and we talk about his debut novel, What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose, which is a political science fiction thriller. And Michael shares with us what it was like for him to craft that novel, what it took, and let me tell you, it was a labor of love that paid off.

So if you're struggling and you just need a little reminder to keep going and keep reaching for that dream, then this episode is going to inspire you to do exactly that. Let me give you his bio and then we will jump [00:02:00] into the interview. Michael Fedor is an award winning American author who crafts political thrillers brimming with suspense, fast paced action, and a dash of science fiction.

Michael draws on his 20 years of experience in the wild, wooly worlds of Washington, D. C. and state capitals to tell captivating stories of power, intrigue, and the human condition. His style makes his novels deliciously thrilling, and his meticulous research ensures that each story is terrifyingly plausible.

His inaugural release, What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose, book one, was a 2024 International Firebird Book Award winner in two categories, Political Thriller and Speculative Fiction. It also received honors from Story Trade Book Awards, Hollywood Book Festival 2024, Pencraft Best Book Fall 2024, , and its action packed sequel, Tree of Liberty is out now.

Stacy: Hi, Michael. Thank you for coming on the podcast. How are you today? 

Michael: I'm great, Stacey. Thanks for having me. 

Stacy: So I'm excited to have you [00:03:00] here. I have your book here.

What it takes to kill a bull moose, which is a beautiful cover. Listeners will not be able to see this, but , it's gorgeous. And you designed that, right? 

Michael: I did. And people always comment on that cover. It is one of those covers that pops out at you. So I did my job. 

Stacy: It really does. That's amazing.

Yeah. So I gave you a bit of a bio, but why don't you share with our listeners a bit more about your journey to becoming a published author? Cause it's quite interesting. 

Michael: It is. And, you know, maybe a dream of mine for Most of my life was being a published author, but it took me a long time to get here. In fact, only achieved it this year, 2024, but I began writing my first book 20 years ago when I was teaching high school English in Pennsylvania.

And, you know, I was teaching young people about literature, about the elements of style, about composition, and, you know, John Keats, Dead Poets Society style teacher, standing on desks, telling students to challenge, challenge the world, challenge norms. And I [00:04:00] was writing this book just kind of as a release to what the world was changing at that time.

This was 20 years ago, so post 9 11, a lot of international conflict, conflict in our own society about freedom of speech and rights. I taught a class on, on dissent. But the book I was writing at the time I thought was wonderful and gave it to a colleague and she was not as impressed. So maybe my ego took a couple knocks down a couple pegs.

And, you know, she encouraged me to, to dive into some more, you know, craft writing some practice and to read more books on craft. And we talked more about the writing craft. I left teaching, I set the book aside. Long story short big change in my life occurred last year and I pulled this book out after numerous revisions.

And started listening to some podcasts and reading more books on craft and committed to publishing. And [00:05:00] now in the year 2024 independent publishing and self publishing is so much more attainable than it was in 2004. I was able to accomplish much of my author dreams by, just following good practices and self publishing and also having a.

Team of people like editors and copy editors and coaches and peers to keep me from going completely insane and doing it And now I've got three published works in the world I have started an author career that's real and I'm terrified doing it. So it sounds like I'm on the right podcast for it.

Stacy: Yeah. Well, congrats. I just want to say congratulations. So what year did you dust this book? You wrote this book in a version of it in 2004. And when did you dust it off? Yeah. 

Michael: 2016 

Stacy: was the 

Michael: first time I pulled it out because of what was happening in the world. It was a political thriller based on the idea that there were just really crappy [00:06:00] candidates running that no one wanted to vote for.

And this person emerges as a better alternative to break the system. And in 2016 there were, there were pangs of that, right? And so I kind of pulled the book out and I started rewriting it. And talking to that same colleague again, 12 years later, and she started, she and I started working through it and she was giving me feedback like this doesn't make sense, or, you know, this character needs more depth and more details and contours.

And then I, my wife and I had our third child and it was very traumatic and so I just set the project side again. And then 2021 happened January 6th in particular and that was like the literal ending of my book. Was happening on television and I said, oh my I might be on to something with the things I'm writing about How can I tell this story?

It seems like it needs to be told So what do I need to do to actually get this story out into the world so I can stop [00:07:00] telling myself? That's in my book. That's in my book. That's in my book. Why doesn't anyone listen to me? This is happening So so then in 23 I started a complete rewrite, maybe the 5th or 6th rewrite of this book at that point start to finish, and really Finally achieve something that I think was commercially viable.

Stacy: That's amazing. So I love it because one, you know, we always hear that about our first books, they're not good. They're not supposed to be good. They are practiced, but it doesn't mean that you can't hold on to that concept, that idea or pieces of it. And take it to the finish line and turn it into a book that you're incredibly proud of.

It just means that there's a lot of elbow grease and a lot of work in between, you know, 2004 and 2024, right? 

Michael: Absolutely. Right. So I think, I think 

Stacy: you're a great example. So congratulations. 

Michael: Thank you. And the first chapter I ever wrote about this book didn't even end up in book [00:08:00] one. of this series.

It's actually the first chapter of book two. So I think that's where you kind of learn lessons about the pacing of a story and how things have to come. And the whole structure of the story changed when I rewrote it the seventh or eighth time here in 23. And the lead character changed because the more I started to develop the story, I realized I was writing the wrong main character.

And I had to go back and make the wrong antagonist anyway, and had to go back and rethink what was happening. 

Stacy: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, let's talk more about this book. It's called what it takes to kill a bull moose. It's a political thriller, but it's got a spin on it. It's got a speck thick spin, right?

Yeah, it's set in 2044. And it's around a presidential election. And also there is a curse, a past curse. That comes to light. 

Michael: The Curse of Tippecanoe. Yes. 

Stacy: Yeah. So tell the listeners a little bit more about this book. We kind of learned and, [00:09:00] and what it, we kind of learned a bit about what inspired you to write it and continue writing it.

But I just like to know a little bit more about it. And why you took it into the speculative fiction world. 

Michael: I wish I, I guess I was afraid of the label of science fiction writer because I felt like there was a stigma associated with it. And I wasn't sure that I fit in that genre until I realized how much I love science fiction.

I thought, why am I denying myself this pleasure of writing science fiction? And then discovered there was a whole category of science fiction called philosophical science fiction. It's like Orwell wrote 1984 Animal Farm, a lot of Ray Bradbury. I loved reading all of them. But it's just not a very common genre today.

And so I started to wonder about generating a new hybrid genre of political thriller and science fiction that I started calling Poli Fi, where you can take this political thriller type of story like The Diplomat, [00:10:00] like The West Wing, and then blend it with You're a more speculative future set story something that might take place in the future.

And so I found that there was a whole new gear and a whole new level of the story that emerged when I allowed myself to set it in the future and put an AI character in the story who is sentient. And it just became so much more of an exciting story when I could contemplate. The future so far into the future that I could like play with world events and inventions and the economy being drastically different and weather being drastically different 20 years from now and that just added just a really cool edge to the story And so I just, I went with it and I, and I explored it and I was so excited by it.

That's when like, kind of the breaks, the self imposed breaks I was having, I was trying to write this book, I kept kind of getting stuck. Those things became loose for me and I really took off when I Just committed to this strain [00:11:00] of, of science fiction being added into the story. And I think it made it a much more exciting story to tell.

Stacy: Oh, so how was it to craft the political thriller side of it? Because that, that kind of is the heart, right? It is, right? I would say. 

Michael: And that's what I know, right? I didn't write a Mariner story because I'm not a Mariner. So I wrote a political thriller because I spent 20 years working in politics.

Working in D. C., working in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, working in state capitals around the country, working for governors and presidents and senators. So I knew that I already really enjoyed those types of stories. Although a lot of political thriller today is espionage terrorism. And that's not what this is.

And so I started trying to find ways to, I really enjoy Dan Brown and Daniel Silva, who maybe are not political thriller writers as much as straight up thriller writers. And so I tried to pull more of that genre into stories that are set in the political landscape. [00:12:00] And driving the care, driving the story or main characters or like principle.

officeholders, senators, presidents, the people around them. The setting is D. C. It is the White House. It is the Capitol. But really important to me was getting it right. So using my experience in those places so that it wasn't goofy. Like if you have a lot of experience farming alpacas and someone who's never been around an alpaca writes a book about them, you would know immediately it's crap because they've never been around an alpaca and know what they're like.

So I wanted to make sure people who live and work in this world. Really felt the story was believable. So one of the first things I did when I wrote the Senate Deception, the novella prequel to this book, I gave it to my friends who work on the Hill and said, What does this look like to you? Does this read like, like real life or how would real life could be 20 years from now?

That was the sniff test and it passed. So, and I have you know, some former senators and some former governors who've read my work who also love it. So I know that I'm writing for an audience [00:13:00] who, knows this world and I'm capturing the essence of, you know, what it is to pursue power, to run campaigns, to, to be in office.

And so it's important to me to do that, but also to make some redeemable characters. So it couldn't all just be terrible people like House of Cards, it had to be someone in the story that you really wanted to cheer for and wasn't just, you know, hiding secrets. And so that's the creation of Jackson Piper, the protagonist, and Valerie Lawrence, his running mate, those are two genuinely good people who are running in the year 2044 and trying to change the system and not being, you know, Goofy, idealistic people in the process, but they're genuinely good people with, with no dark past.

And I think that's where this does set itself aside from maybe some of the other political thriller that could be out there. 

Stacy: Yeah. So what were some of the thrillers are not easy. All right, so you gotta you got your rat you got to run it through the box and then You got [00:14:00] to squeeze and tighten that box in a way that is is going to create a lot of trepidation and fear in the reader So one I mean some of the keys like you've got to make the reader care about this person.

And it sounds like you, you have your, you had your mind's eye on how to accomplish that. Make them a likable person right there. They're a standup solid citizen. And then you're going to put them in a really complicated situation where somewhere down the line, this person's got to become a victim. I mean, that's, that's the threat of the thriller.

 That's a lot of hoops to jump through. And also you do it , with multiple viewpoints . So how did you, how did you go about that?

Michael: Yeah, great question. Early on in my writing working with Thea Newell, my editor, I was fearful that I did not have what. took as a writer to succeed commercially in this genre and asked her to be honest with me, if it was crap and I had to stop, just tell me that. And I would stop now 

and she said, no, you have the cliffhangers, [00:15:00] you have the forward momentum of the story. You have the energy. What became very challenging and I needed to create, use some tools to do this was to keep track of all the plots, subplots that were going on.

So I used tools like Pseudowrite and Plotter to make sure that I was super clear on what an event happened and who knew about that event. And I know that within drafts, I discovered, like, someone's saying something they shouldn't know. And I had to go back and edit that. Or the opposite. Someone should be informed by this event that happened.

And why are they still acting this way? Go back and rewrite that scene. So, really have to be attentive in thriller about, both the curse of knowledge, like who knows things, and then who doesn't know. And, you know, kind of weaving those, those very carefully. And I think you also have to, you have to, I have to be clear as a writer, like building that tension.

So there were chapters I shuffled around in this book. I had to move things earlier on, and I still think it starts just a little too [00:16:00] slowly because my historian hat comes on too soon in the book. So I do think it slows it down just a little in chapter four or five, but I did have to move some things up because it needed to, to keep pace.

Now. book two that just came out in November 24. It doesn't suffer from that. In fact, I think it's too fast. It's moving, it's moving so quickly. It reads like a Daniel Silva novel where everything is happening. Every chapter is another crisis. But I think in thriller, you really have to be attentive. And I think, you know, this too, Stacy, like Figuring out like how to reveal the mystery without revealing too much, which I also felt I was guilty of, I was telling people everything at the start and like, crap, they're not going to read the ending.

They already know the secret. I have to go erase that. So that was important. 

Stacy: It's really hard. So you said the two resources that you leaned on were plotter, which I kind of know about, but the other one I've never heard of. Pseudorite? 

Michael: Yep, Pseudo Write's a really cool online AI tool I think it's a great both creative space because it has AI at your fingertips [00:17:00] to make suggestions rewrite this passage to be more show not tell darkify this, this scene add more content.

Depth to this dialogue, and you get stuck, write for me, tell me what should come next. It's never good enough to be commercially viable writing, but it is another entity sitting next to you saying, well, what about this? And you can take that idea, you can throw it away, and something that I heard was really important advice early on is, whenever you're working with an editor, they will tell you when things don't work.

They'll never be right about the solution, but they will know that something is not working. And I think pseudoright is the type of tool where it can give you an idea, even if it's not the right solution, push you to think another way. Within the Pseudo Write tool is a story bible and mapping tool where you can map the entire story, you can outline the entire story you can put character descriptions, you can put their physical descriptions in, their pronouns, their titles, other ways they're referred to in the story, and it'll keep track of all [00:18:00] that so that if you quickly need to refer back to what color were Or Valerie's eyes.

Or how did I spell Eaton Levi's name? There it is. It's right there. Wow. It sounds like 

Stacy: an extra brain. 

Michael: It is. It's like having a, yeah, literally another brain that you can access without having to like Risk. What I risk all the time is like forgetting things. 

Stacy: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good notes. I think my, the drawers in my internal filing system, like stick, 

Michael: or 

Stacy: there's just so many things in there.

I can't find them. So yeah, that's well, if everybody has to find like a way to keep track of it and keep track of the story questions and what the characters know, and also what the reader knows. But some of these characters may not if you're using any dramatic irony or anything like that. So it's a lot.

And so however you get it done, like, 

Michael: yes, hats off to 

Stacy: you. 

Michael: I would say that something else that helps and either using Apple to do it [00:19:00] or using another tool is to then listen to your story after you've written the story, whatever draft you're on two or three. Now you need to listen to the story without reading it on the screen.

Because for me, Especially when I'm doing audio book drafts. Now I'm very aware of what I know and don't know as the story, when I'm like listening to the story, and I will catch things. It's so weird. I'll catch them listening to the story that I won't catch in reading. That's really important to, oh, that, that's a fact that shouldn't happen yet.

Or, ooh, wait a minute, I missed that detail. So, just an, especially when you're writing thriller mystery and you're wanting to just slowly reveal things, that's really important. I think to, to consider that as another strategy. 

Stacy: Well, thank you.

, let's transition over. Cause the big part of this podcast is dedicated to telling the truth about why writing can be so hard, exposing unhelpful internal narratives that a lot of us writers face when crafting our stories. We do this so that we can kind of normalize that rollercoaster, you know, so people realize they're [00:20:00] not alone.

You don't suck, you're not bad at this, and you should keep writing. And so that's the point of this. So would you share a time when the writing's gotten really hard, when you struggled with either your ability or your belief that this could happen? 

Michael: This happened a couple times for me in writing What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose.

And Stacy, thank you for this podcast, because I, I think either indie or traditional authors need to have this type of frank conversation amongst one another, because I think we're all, we all face that feeling of self doubt and alone. And that fear, that fear is always there, that what I'm writing right now is total garbage and no one's going to like this, or they'll never understand what's in my head.

No. Cool. So a couple things. First off, when I was working with my editor, and I gave her the first draft, and I said, if this is crap, just tell me and I'll quit now. And then there was like two weeks that passed waiting, and it was like hellish two weeks. And in my mind, she [00:21:00] hated it so badly, she didn't even finish reading it.

And it was taking her two weeks to try to bring up the courage to tell me how bad I was. So let's be real about that. The reality was she came back and said, I love the story. I read the whole thing. And you absolutely have what it takes to, to pursue a career as thriller writer. So let's talk about how to make this story better.

So all up of my, my self doubt and internal. Narration about how bad I was, was not validated at all by my editor so that was a blessing. Now, she came back with her edits in Act 1, and I worked on Act 1, I'd worked on Act 1 so many times, right? That Act 1 was beautiful, Act 2 was a hellscape of disorder, and Act 3 barely existed, because I'd only written it once.

And so what then became important to me was a suggested reading plot and structure by James Scott Bell. And if your listeners are writers and don't haven't read this book, plot and structure, they should. [00:22:00] That important lesson in that book was when you're writing fiction, your middle where most writers get stuck is about throwing challenges at your protagonist.

and continue to throw things at them that will slow them down, stop them and disappoint them. And that was an insight I hadn't really contemplated. And that's why I was so freaking stuck trying to write act two. And when I let go and decided to attack my protagonist, instead of try to help him as the author, I said, let me see how, how awful I can make his life by adding more and more challenge.

The story got way better. And it was a really important and helpful insight. And. And then I think in the process of that writing, that season of writing, I met fellow authors on an author website and we formed a little writers group and we got to come together and talk about how much we thought we sucked.

And how much we hated navigating KDP [00:23:00] or IngramSpark, or like, if I have to read my copy editing one more time, I'm going to barf or if I'm going to read my back cover copy one more time, but the rewrite it one more time, I'm going to hang myself with the letters in the back cover copy. So I think it's really important to find a community of people who can relate to your problems, even if they're first world problems.

And it would just make the pain. So more. Manageable is, I think, a really important lesson. 

Stacy: It's funny that you say that. I just joined a new community we were talking to the host about the needs of the community?

And I mentioned, I was like, okay, I think we need a bitch session. I think we need to include a window of time where we can just come and complain and to be seen in like how hard this is. And just commiserate together. And I'm, I'm typically pretty action and solution oriented, but I think that it is really important to just, you know, no, you're not alone in, in the difficulty.

So I totally agree with [00:24:00] you. Okay. So you're a very busy person. You've had a political career, you've worked in education, you have a family. How do you find the time to write? 

Michael: That's the hardest thing. And I think, you know, time as a writer is twofold. First, adequate time so that you are not just trying to write in 30 minutes.

You will never get enough depth if you're writing in 30 minutes. All the time, and then also thinking about writing when you write best. For me, that's the morning. I write best between 5 a. m. and 10 a. m. And after 10 a. m., my head is now too full of other things, other priorities, to do lists, and I get distracted, and I don't write as well, and I also get fatigued, like mentally fatigued.

And if, now I'm in my 40s, if I sit down and try to write after 9 o'clock and now that I also don't drink caffeine. Because that's another part of my life like I drank enough caffeine to kill a team of elephants in my life So now I don't drink it anymore And so I can't really keep my eyes open at 11 o'clock or one o'clock like I [00:25:00] used to when I would write late late late so knowing when you write best And then setting aside that time and being unapologetic about the time that you're going to set aside to write.

Two hours a week at minimum, I would suggest, is the time you're going to need to devote if you especially want to accomplish writing a full book in a year. And being able to write efficiently too. Letting go and being able to write, you know, 500 to a thousand words an hour. You really need to be able to like find that gear, unleash and go.

And so I found, for me, that was early mornings, it was scheduled time it wasn't in place of other times, so it was like, well, it was in place of like, scrolling my social media, it was in place of just watching mindless infotainment on network television, it was in place of, you know, binging one more show on Netflix, so it was in place of those things, but it was important to me, so I had to prioritize it and make it take place of the things that were less important.

I didn't always do it right. It certainly was in place [00:26:00] of my wife's Serena times or in place of time with my kids or in place of chores and to do lists that I should be doing around the house. So it's not all altruistic, but I think it's really important to find the time that works for you and don't, don't overdo it.

I mean, you, you can get really excited. And you might find that chapters now finally coming for, and you want to do five hours. Great. Do it, but make sure everyone knows in your house that you're doing that not to avoid them. You're doing it because you found that spark and you need to finish that chapter.

You need to finish that, that act, right? I think that's important. 

Stacy: Yeah. It takes a village and often, you know, there's many unseen people behind the book. Right. Right. So great, great tips. Find, find a time that works for you. And take it seriously. It's a commitment. It is a, it is a commitment.

Michael: One of the things you asked me, though, that I thought I wanted to share is a quote about, about drafting, about writing process. That was probably I discovered it late, but I felt it was important in understanding why [00:27:00] you're doing multiple drafts of your book. And I recently spoke to a group of high school students at my son's high school about, some of them wanted to consider becoming authors, and I explained to them, think about it this way.

The first time you sit down and write your first draft, you're telling the story to yourself. The second draft is you now telling the story to a reader. So you're trying to then rework the draft so that someone else can follow. This story, if they don't know everything, you know, as the author, and then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth drafts are all about producing something that someone else would not only want to read, but would want to buy with their hard earned money.

And so it's getting rid of the errors. It's about following some stylistic or genre expectations. It's about getting rid of the. The chaff and the fluff and the stuff that doesn't work or slows things down. And I think if you understand that each of those phases is equally important and shouldn't [00:28:00] be neglected.

And also don't expect to write the perfect story the first time you sit down and write it. Then I think you give yourself the permission to just make mistakes or just go through that draft one to get all your thoughts down. And then set it aside and come back with a different intention the second time you write.

Stacy: That is a excellent takeaway, excellent takeaway. And even if you know it, sometimes it's still hard to remember it. Like I, I tend to think I'm gonna get it all right in this book, , because I know more now never happens. I know more now, but it's not, that's not the case. The process of writing a novel is an iterative process and a layering process.

And so when we think about it that way and, and approach that first draft as. You know, this is for us. It's, I totally think you're spot on. That's fantastic advice. 

Michael: And this is one of the only professions, and this was, I think, said by Thomas Umstead, Jr. Often, who's another writer and mentor that I, I talk and work with a lot.

He says, it's one of the few professions that's judged entirely [00:29:00] on your rookie season. Your first, your first real serious go that someone dives into has to be your best foot forward, because if your first book sucks, they're not going to read your second. So you've got to make sure that you are Really putting the time and effort and getting the professional help with cover design and back cover copy and editing and all those pieces Because you'll never sell more copies, especially in a series.

You won't sell more copies of book two than book one You have to make sure you sell What you want to sell in book one so that people will go on to read book two and so that's may not seem fair but it's the reality of of this profession in this, this career. And that means like, like I said, like we said, Stacey early on, like you, you write your first thing, you throw it in a drawer and you just go to the next thing because your first endeavor is not going to be good enough.

Mine wasn't either took 20 years and lots of rewrites to make it as something better or good enough to publish. So. 

Stacy: Yeah. And I'll just say that if you [00:30:00] make mistakes. You know, Indy or Trad, but specifically Indy. If you make mistakes, it doesn't mean that you can't start over. You may need to have a creative list of pen names behind you.

Yes. But right? Good point. , but it doesn't mean you can't start over. And I know many, many Indy authors who launched out, flop. They go back to the drawing board and You know, they, they come at it in a different direction and they do make it happen. Right.

Because 

Michael: also like I will find even to this day, like God give me the persistence of a typo that's made it through 72 edits. Right. So I've found typos and it is not the end of the world. I go back, I update the manuscript and upload it on KDP and Apple and all those places again for the hundredth time.

And I, I worry like, Oh my God, what about all those people have already read it and found it. Well, It's like a hundred people, Michael, or it's 200 or it's 12 people, Michael, like, so what, like, there's still 300 million more who could still read it. So relax. [00:31:00] And I think you give yourself the permission that you are, you're not making a mistake.

That's being like tattooed in on your body forever. This, the way this, this industry works now, it's a river. It's constantly changing. And so you have those abilities to go back and I think continue to iterate. It is important. 

Stacy: So what's the best piece of writing advice you think you've ever received? 

Michael: Wow. I've received a lot of advice. I think, I think it is that when people tell you something is wrong, they'll rarely be right about the solution, but just listen to them when they're telling you that something isn't working.

And you then have to figure out the solution, and, and that's your job as the writer. And so think about that, and don't be, don't be stubborn when someone's telling you this character doesn't work, this scene doesn't work, the book starts too slow. Those things matter. Someone's telling you because they care to make it better.

If they're giving you that feedback. It's not to hurt you. And if they didn't care, they would tell you, it's great. It's nice, right? [00:32:00] So your book's nice. Okay. I'd rather someone tell me it sucks and tell me why they think it sucks. Cause I can make the next one better. 

Stacy: Yeah. Great advice. And what would be your wish for your fellow writers out there who are embarking on, their debut, putting their debut out in the world?

Michael: Yeah, be confident, believe in yourself, even when those pangs those voices in your head are saying this is not going to be good enough, no one's going to buy it there's hard work you have to do to make sure that they do and that they do know it's there. But I think you have to trust that there, there is a readership. if you're telling something that's genuinely authentic and has some power behind it, then believe in that and commit to it and push it across the finish line. Then do the work. to find your readers and bring them in because it just doesn't magically happen. There's a business to this and a marketing business to this and learn that craft too, but believe in yourself.

Don't let the voice of self doubt drowned out. What should be the louder [00:33:00] voice of hope in your head? 

Stacy: That's beautiful. Thank you. What are you currently working on and where can listeners find you? 

Michael: I just finished Tree of Liberty book two in the Bull Moose series. So I'm working on getting that. Widely distributed and have started the manuscript for book three.

I'm committing to taking a year to write book three. I have been in a rapid release phase for book one and two because they originally were going to be one book. And it was too long and I broke it apart to two books. So I want to slow down and I would take some time to make book three something exciting and also give myself a little bit of space.

So I'm not just constantly writing all the time. So that's what I'm working on. I'm also thinking about doing another reader magnet for giveaway on my website. I have The Scent Deception up right now. It's a novella for giveaway. I'm thinking about doing the backstory on another character and making that either short story or another novella to be able to give away to readers who are curious.

To find those things and more, you [00:34:00] can visit my website, michaelfedorbooks. com, F E D O R, books. com. And I'm on Instagram, Facebook Twitter, sort of, but Instagram and Facebook are probably the best places to find me, at michaelfedorbooks. And then. Bookbub and Goodreads. I'm there. Just look me up look for the moose and you'll find me.

And 

Stacy: I will say your, your author website is something to look at. It's done incredibly well. 

Michael: Oh, thank you. That's really nice, Stacy. I appreciate that. A lot of hard work and many revisions to get it right. 

Stacy: Good job. Good job. 

Michael: Thank you. 

Stacy: Well, thank you so much for your time today. And I appreciate you coming on the podcast and I wish you all the best and I'm excited for you.

I can feel your energy and your excitement for this series and I think you're such a great example in the writing community of what's possible if you're willing to work hard and follow a dream. [00:35:00] 

Michael: Stacy, I'm grateful for you helping to tell my story and share it with more writers.

So thanks for having me. I've really enjoyed it. 

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