The Business of Writing

In this episode I discuss different aspects of the writing and publishing business. It's been a strange year, so there has been a lot of pivoting and change. Take a look at the year gone past and motivate and prepare yourself for the year ahead. Make a difference in 2021

Transcript

Wendy Jones: 0:02

Hi, and welcome to the writing and Marketing Show brought to you by author Wendy H. Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. It's jam packed with interviews, advice, and tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast. So it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to the writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur Wendy H. Jones. As this is the week between Christmas and New Year, I would like to say, a very Merry Christmas to you. And I hope you had a good one. Despite the strange circumstances, I hope you got to see some family but still stayed safe. I had a good day I saw some of my family who and I like to see anyway, because I'm in a bubble with them. We had lunch and I just came home. But do you know what? It was pleasant anyway, and because I got to see some people that I care about. So what's been happening otherwise? Well, today, I'm going to do a show, which is all based around the business of writing. And I'm going to talk about the year and what's happened as we're coming to the years. And before we do that, I would just like to say it's an absolute pleasure bringing you the show, and I do so willingly every week. However, it does take some time out of my writing and my writing business. And if you would like to support this time, I would be very grateful. And you can do so@patreon.com that's pa t ar e o n.com. forward slash Wendy h Jones. And you can do so for just $3 a month, which is less than the cost of a cup of tea, or coffee. And it would let me know that you enjoy the show and that you want me to carry on with it. And I want to carry on with it because this is Episode 47 is coming along so fast that will be at that magical 52 will have done a year. I can't believe the way the year has gone. And neither can anyone else believe the way the year has gone because it has been the strangest year, I'm sure you will agree. And I never ever thought that the overview of my first year as a podcaster would include and lockdown COVID, or any such words as that. But here we are in Scotland, we're back in Tier four lockdown, and I'm staying at home and I'm staying safe. And I'm keeping it out of the way so I can protect myself and can protect others. And I'm hoping that when we come to the end of the second year of my podcast, there will be much cheerier news. However, it hasn't been a complete waste this year. No matter what everyone may think I know people have found it difficult. There are people who have had who've managed to get through the year and they're still happy others things have been quite dreadful for them. And my heart goes out to every single one of you. So I had no sooner started this podcast a year ago than the words COVID would have been banded around. Then in March, we all went down into lockdown in the United Kingdom. And I like many other people had a brain freeze when it came to writing, nobody could write, everyone was saying the same. Writing is tough. Writing is difficult, and our brains just couldn't get around it. And that's understandable because our brains were trying to cope with something that we'd never known before in this generation. So brain freeze. Despite that happening, it was okay because our brains needed space to regroup, refocus, and think about other things. And as I say, there was a lot of heartache and a lot of joy for many people. So that has been a year of and, you know, a year of differences. And we have to accept that. And so my writing was started like everyone else for a little while. And then it came back with a vengeance and I was writing up a storm. And that was a good thing. And I'm sure you will agree that many people have been like that as well. However, my reading did increase. I was doing a lot more reading. No, that was the opposite to what a lot of people thought they said their reading had gone down and that they couldn't read quite so much. But I did a lot of reading, which was a good thing. I also did a lot of watching television. Now I try to balance that with them watching the news with watching and other things. And also reading reading widely. I I did a reading challenge this year, which I set up and it was called Wendy's reading challenge 2020 funnily enough, and it was a good upon Facebook and a group of us just about 20 categories and we just looked at the 28 categories and chose any book we wanted that would fit that category read and discuss the books we want all reading the same book. We would all reading different books. And that was a good thing because I learned a lot about books and I found a lot of new books from it and just again next year when this reading challenge 2021, funnily enough. And if you go on Facebook and search Wendy's reading challenge 2021 and asked to join our admit you and you can discuss books with us. Now, there are 35 categories this year, because we're pushing the boundaries a little bit more each year, you do not need to read all 35, you can read as many or as little as you want. If you only want to do 12, that's fine. If you only want to do five, that's fine. If you want to do all 35. That's absolutely fabulous. And the categories are things like one with a yellow cover, or a book by or about Ernest Hemingway, or what else I'm trying to think No, I novella is one of them and a book over 400 pages, you can just choose anything you want. And from amongst that, and one of the categories is actually about writing. So if you want to read a book about writing or setting the world of writing, that is one of the categories. So we'll get that one ticked off our list easily enough as authors, I am sure. And there has been a great deal of uncertainty this year uncertainty about where our businesses were going, what we were doing, and book sales were up and down. What you know, one week, you could barely sell a book. And then the next week, you sold a lot of books, it was difficult with the book shops being closed. Of course, they got to reopen No, they're closed again. And book sales can be difficult, but it's still a good time to be a writer, because people are reading their reading during lockdown. And especially now that you know, they're over the initial shock of what was happening. So it has been a difficult year in that way everybody's income has been up and down because of that. Because if you're relying on book sales, then it can be a very difficult time. However, it is a good time to rethink your business. And that is what I'm doing. It's a good time to rethink how you can help others and that is what I'm doing, it's a good time to think about, this may be the time to write my book, because when all this is over, people will be looking for reading material again, bookshops will be open. And it's a fabulous time to write a book. It was also a good time to focus. Once we got over the initial shock, we could focus on what we want to do what was important. And we're how we could move forward. And it was also a time for pivoting change and building your business. I did some pivoting this year. And I was actually in an anthology called pivot anthology. And I was part of five different anthologies, three of which I actually, and was the compiler and editor for and that labour code, part of why and they're all about why women do different things. And one was about startup business one was about build a course. And the other was about starting a membership, and obviously compiling in the editor as well as contributing to them. And they and as well as my marketing book, which also came out this year. And that is called marketing matters. And it's about selling more books. And they all went to the top of the church and became international bestsellers in several categories on several different Amazon stores. So that was exciting. And the other thing I've done this year is I've started a course to help people with the book marketing because book marketing matters so much more than I ever did, because we're in lockdown. So the course is called start marketing your book. And it goes alongside my marketing matters book. If you go to to Wendy h John's dot com, forward slash writing underscore and underscore marketing underscore, then you will be able to find the course and why not start off 2021 and moving your author business forward. And I have another opportunity as well for that. So this year has been a mixture of growth and reevaluating, reevaluating where I am and growing my writing and growing my business and moving at it in different ways. So I really am looking at multiple streams of income. And I would say to you that you should look at multiple streams of income as well, because that is the way forward. You're not relying on just book sales, but on a lot of different ways of getting income in so that you can still pay the bills at the end of the month and feed yourself. It's also been a year of networking and meeting new people. Now I'm sure you're saying have a nasty thought happened. Wendy, we've all been stuck indoors. But with the wonders of zoom. I have been doing speaking international summits and I met some lovely lovely lay people through this. And I want to give a shout out to just two of them, although there are many more. One is called Lisa McGrath and Hello, Lisa in Seattle, and the other is Kimberly Lawson. And she is in and I've completely forgotten where she is. I think she's in Tennessee, but I wouldn't swear to that. Oh, no, she's in Georgia. And frightfully sorry, Kimberly, you're in Georgia. That's right in the USA. So hello to both of you. And it's been an honour to meet you this year and to get to know you better and to do some work with you. And so the other thing that I've done and I said I would explain to you is I've started a membership for authors, and for aspiring writers. Now it's called author printer accelerator Academy. And this is a membership, which will help take aspiring writers from blank page to publish to author and beyond, it literally will cover every single aspect of writing and running an author business. So it will take you from zero to author printer, you can. It's a monthly membership. And it will be a mixture of online courses, you will get access to all the online courses as part of it. It will also be there's a Facebook group where people members can interact and support each other. There's also going to be Facebook Lives on zoom master classes. So there's going to be a lot of different aspects and threads to this membership, that will help move you forward. In fact, it will help rocket you forward and get your book written and your author business started. And I'm very much looking forward to that I have 12 people who've signed up already, if you're interested in would like to be one of the founding members and the founding members can join for only $49 a month. And for $49, you will get all of that input and support from myself. So it's well worth taking a look at. So again, if you go to Wendy h John's dot com forward slash writing underscore and underscore marketing are even easier. Just go to Wendy jones.com and click on writing and marketing. And you will find out more about that. So it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you again, I hope you find the overview of my year. Interesting. I hope you find it helpful. I'm very much looking forward to helping you all again next year. Oh, and the other thing I've been doing, I've been I'm now running, writing and marketing coaching business and I have several clients, all of them have been developing and moving their writing forward. In fact, one of my, one of my members brought sorry, one of my clients brought out a book called Leah. And I have another client, Abigail van tre, who has also brought a fabulous book. So if you look up Abigail van, Cray on Amazon, or if you look up Abigail van, cray, you will find her find her author, author website, and you'll be able to buy her young adult children's book. And the book Leah is by Amanda bedre. And both cracking cracking books and absolutely well worth well worth getting. I helped coach Abigail with some marketing. And I helped Amanda with her with editing and writing her book, and some marketing coaching. So those two books, it's been an absolute pleasure to be involved in helping their authors in any way I could. And if you would like to find out more you can do so on my website, Wendy h jones.com. It's very easy, you just go to Wendy jones.com. And you can find me and asked me about any aspect of my business. So if you would like to know more about your author, business and growing your author business in 2021, just contact me through my website, Wendy h jones.com. So without further ado, I will leave you to get ready for the new year. And I hope you manage to have a good new year and think about what you are going to do to move your author business forward in 2021. And I wish you all the best for 2021. That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H. Jones and you can find me at Wendy H jones.com. You can also find me on Patreon where you can support me for as little as $3 a month, which is less than the price of a tea or coffee. You go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy h Jones. I'm also Wendy H. Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week and keep writing. Keep reading and keep learning