Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

043 How to Make a Business Plan for Success as an Indie Author with Denise Grover Swank

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Want to learn how to create a business plan to help you be more successful as an indie author?

In today’s interview, USA Today and NY Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank, shares how she created her first business plan when she first started writing. So if you want to learn tips on how to be a successful Indie Author, listen in to these amazing tips from Denise 😉

In the intro, I share how amazingly helpful it’s been to be part of a Facebook accountability group for romance writers. I wrote more last week than I have for a long time.

I also share some books I’ve been reading which have really useful in both positive mindset and motivation.

Bestselling author Jeff Goins has a New Release out now called Real Artists Don’t Starve. In this book Jeff(after many interviews with successful creatives) dismantles the myth of the starving artist, and shows you how you can make a living as a writer and as a creative.

I’ve also been reading The Power of Productivity by Leonardo D.M. The author shares tips on how to choose your priorities for each day. Learn how to focus better by doing one thing at a time, how to say no to extra commitments and how to identify what distracts you.

Click Here for the Video Interview

Interview Summary:

Denise Grover Swank began writing in 2009 – giving herself a challenge to write 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo. When she started writing she had a rough outline and by the end of November she had written 69,000 words. The book was finished on Dec. 10th.

In 2010 Denise tried to get an agent and publisher, not considering self-publishing as an option at the time. She had positive feedback from agents but they didn’t think it would sell well. After a second novel rejection, she decided to self-publish.

Since Denise had a blog where she told stories about her family, she had learned to write by regularly . Blogging was a great place to learn writing and connect with other mommy bloggers. Denise originally grew her blog traffic by writing about her family and then transitioned those readers over to her fiction writing and to Facebook where she connects with readers everyday.

Learn to Make a Business Plan for Success as an Indie Author…

When Denise started out she didn’t know anything about business, but her brother had started his own business, so she did research into how to create a business plan.

At some point – whether it’s with your first book or after you’ve written a few – it is a good idea to create a business plan. For writers who are just starting out, your business plan doesn’t need to be in depth, but some sort of business plan is a great idea.

If you want to read more details, Denise shares in depth about her business plan in this blogpost.

The following are some of the details included in Denise’s business plan and some ideas for you to consider as you create your own business plan:

1.Describe your business. What business are you creating? Describe your mission/vision for your business.

2.Write down details of ownership and location. This simple. Most likely you own the business and based in your own home.

3.Write down what your business does. What is the reason for your business. Do you write novels. Do you write nonfiction books and plan to create online courses too?

4.What types of books and/or merchandise does this business create? For example: ebooks, print books, audio books, translations and possible merchandise like t-shirts, journals, etc.

5.Write down your overall costs and pricing strategy. Write down details of how you’ll price your ebooks, print books, audio books. Also, include costs like: book cover design; editing costs, etc.

6.Study your market because it’s always changing. Look at pricing model for books. Look at your target audience of readers. There might be times that you’ll need to sacrifice what you want to write in order to pursue writing something else that might be more profitable.

7.Study effective marketing/promotion plans. This changes often. So do your best to keep up with new ideas on what is currently working for other authors.

8.Write down a production plan that works for you. Take a look at your schedule and see how you can adjust it to work in when you want to have your first draft done for each book; when you want to self-publish it, etc. To be successful you need to write and be self-publishing books on a consistent basis.

9.Decide on long term goals and write them down. Denise says she started planning for one year in advance, but says another indie author, Susan Kaye Quinn recommends creating a five year plan. The plan is fluid and can change as you go along.

On a personal level, Denise wishes she hadn’t written in so many genres when she first started out.  But she says on a business level, it’s important to have two genres. That way when one genre is hot, the other on might not be – and your chances of straddling the market are better.

Advice for first-time authors…

“If you’re brand new, don’t be in a hurry to publish. Write it. Revise it. Then revise it again. Make sure your books are as good and clean as possible.” Denise Grover Swank

 

To find out about Denise’s New Releases and read more about other series, go to www.denisegroverswank.com. To connect, you can find Denise on Facebook or Twitter.

3 Benefits of Accountability Groups for Writers

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There are amazing benefits and reasons for writers to be part of an accountability group.

One of my biggest lessons learned this past week, was that it’s amazing how much you can get done, just by being part of a support group that encourages you but also keeps you accountable to your goals.

Somewhere in my head I knew I needed accountability, but it took days and weeks of finally being frustrated enough – of not reaching my writing goals – to force me to take the next step… which was to reach out to other writers and ask for help 😉

It sounds simple, but it’s not easy. Asking for help is hard for many of us to do, I think.

I was inspired to start an accountability group from the last coaching call I had with Nina Amir in her High Performance Writers Group Coaching. So at the end of last week, I posted in Facebook in one of the writing courses I’m taking, telling other romance writers that I was struggling with getting my word count in each day.

When I reached out to other writers, I was hoping for maybe 2 or 3 other writers to join me and was surprised when that number more than tripled.

We had our first 60 minute meetup – via Facebook group and messenger – on Friday. Each of us let each other know where we were at with our writing, talked about what was working and what wasn’t and then toward the end of our chat we wrote down what our goals were for the coming week.

Scary? Definitely yes.

But I knew this was exactly what I needed and I wasn’t going to let my own fears and limiting beliefs in my abilities or whatever else, to hold me back. I had finally had enough and was ready to run.

This week there have been many lessons learned in writing and in being a part of an accountability group, which I share below…

3 Benefits of Accountability Groups for Writers

I realized this past week, that it’s so incredible and helpful to have writers surround you who are listening to you, offering advice and most of all cheering you on.

Since I started last Friday(the 1st time we met as a group), I have so far written a little over 6000 words in 5 days. I’ve really surprised myself, but most of all I feel encouraged and inspired to keep writing.

Here are 3 Benefits for writers when they are part of an accountability group:

1.You know you aren’t struggling alone. When you’re really struggling with writing that blogpost, novel or nonfiction book, it helps to know that you’re not alone. When another writer lets you know that they’ve struggled too with reaching their goals, you feel like you’re not alone and it makes reaching your goal seem much more doable. When you are trying to finish your book, knowing you aren’t alone, somehow makes getting that first draft done, less daunting.

2.You learn from others in the group. In the writer’s group chat last week, I was busy soaking in all the tips from indie romance writers who had written and sold many books. They shared what worked and what didn’t as far as marketing and productivity. It’s so great to learn from other writer’s success and also be challenged to keep going when you feel like you aren’t reaching your goals.

3.You can encourage others and you are encouraged in return. Maybe they’ve tried a new way of writing or are writing in a new genre that they are excited about and it is selling well. You can encourage them and add value to their lives.  At the same time, you can also be challenged with your own writing. Or maybe someone will say how they had all these crazy things happen in their lives this past week and they still continued to write. I feel inspired to keep going when I hear stories like that.

There are also other benefits of being in an accountability group, like reaching your deadlines and having people to celebrate with you. I’m shooting for hitting my writing goal by Friday!

I hope you find this post useful to you. Maybe you’ve been inspired to start an accountability group of your own… that would be amazing! You might just be surprised, like I was, at how many other writers are in need of the support of other writers so they can accomplish their goals.

Are there other benefits that you would add for writers to be part of an accountability group?  Please share your ideas in the comments below, we can learn from each other 🙂

042 How to Write A 5 Day Novel with Scott King

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Do you want to learn how to accelerate your writing productivity? In this interview with bestselling Indie Fiction and NonFiction Author and Screenwriter Scott King, he shares how he wrote his political thriller, Ameriguns in only 5 Days – from start to finish.

Listen/watch/read the interview to learn how you too can write your stories faster!

In the intro, I share how focussed questions from a chat with Scott after the interview, helped me to uncover more ideas and get clarity on my 1920’s novel. Talking through my story seems to help me get more ideas to get unstuck, but each writer is different. That’s why it’s so important to learn what works best for you to help you discover your story.

I also share books I’ve been reading lately. The 5 Day Novel, by Scott King, includes really practical tips for writing fast and he also includes several chapters on how fiction writers can restructure weak spots in their writing like: overused words; weak verbs; passive voice; how we better use colour and big words. Another book that is a gem for writers is 10 Step Self-Publishing Boot Camp, by S.K. Quinn(which sadly is now unpublished). Sue makes a full-time living with her fiction writing and gives amazing tips/inspiration for writers which you can find on her blog. Also, for writers who want to learn how to make money from writing and as creatives, there’s a New Book by Jeff Goins out now called, Real Artists Don’t Starve.

Click Here to Watch the Video Interview

Interview Summary:

Scott King began his writing career as a screenwriter, by optioning three of his screenplays while in college. His goal was to move to California to pursue movie-making, but his dad got very sick and Scott made the tough decision to stay close live closer to his parents.

He decided to switch to writing novels and to pursue self-publishing. Since that decision, he’s written and published a documentary graphic novel, several middle grade novels, a thriller, the nonfiction book for writers called The 5 Day Novel and another nonfiction book on screenwriting called, Finish the Script!

After Scott spent six months writing an epic fantasy novel, he felt frustrated at how long it took him to finish the book. He was inspired by how today’s romance authors were writing and self-publishing great novels to their hungry readers at bi-monthly or monthly rate and he realized that many romance authors were fast writers.

He wanted to try it too.

That’s when Scott decided to challenge himself and write The 5 Day Novel. His goal was to see if he could write 50,000 words in one day. He didn’t do any preparation for writing his novel, except for research for two weeks before the beginning of the challenge.

Even though he didn’t finish 50,000 words in one day, he did have a finished novel – Ameriguns – with revisions and the draft sent to his editor in only 5 days!

If you want to be a writer, you need to know why you are doing it... @ScottKing Share on X

Scott shares a breakdown of his workflow on how to write a novel in 5 Days:

Day 1: Prewriting – Decide on your protagonist and figure out what it is they want, what’s in their way and what genre you’re writing in. Then begin your outline.

Day 2: Write – In his book and in this interview, Scott gives great tips on how to get through your first draft as fast as possible. Some strategies include: writing the first draft, without worrying about edits; preparing and freezing your meals for a week, etc.

Day 3: More Writing – Scott shares tips on how to be productive: When working through your first draft, focus on solving the big problems of the story and skip little problems. If you feel lost and don’t know how to get back on track to finish your novel, got back to your pitch and ask yourself why you are writing this story.

Day 4: Rewriting – On this day, you’re at the point where you find the problems with your manuscript so that’s a concise and understandable story. Some common details that go wrong with a first draft are: Plot holes; weak characters; passive characters; generic character voices; too much or not enough descriptions; lack of clarity in descriptions; misuse of POV; pace is off; lack of conflict and drama; tone is off, etc. Scott’s tip: When rewriting always start with the big problems and work your way down to the small ones.

Day 5: Polish – This is where you fine-tune your manuscript. At this point the story is set. The characters are fixed and there shouldn’t be any plot, structure, or creative problems in your novel. This is the day for nothing but line edits – where you look at every sentence in your book. This is when you get it ready to send off to your editor.

Scott mentions at the end of the interview, that it is challenging to write a novel in 5 days. His goal, has been to share his tips and strategies from his own workflow to show writers that it’s possible to get your novel written faster, in hopes that those listening/reading will find this process useful in improving their own work flow.

The best piece of advice on writing Scott was given…

“When I was in grad school, I met Brad Meltzer – a NY Times bestselling Political Thriller author.  He said to me,  “If you want to be a writer, then write.”  That’s all it has to be. You have to make it a priority and once it’s a priority you have to actually do it. And then once you do, you’re a writer. It’s so simple and yet it’s so hard to actually do and achieve.”  Scott King

If you want to connect with Scott you can find him at his website and on Facebook and Twitter. Also, check out his new release – a Dystopian Thriller titled, Resist Them.

 

What helps you to be a more productive writer? Please share your thoughts in the comments 😉

7 Ways to Reignite Your Passion for Writing

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You have a dream to be a writer.

But maybe somewhere along the way, you gave up because the not-so-pleasant part of life happened. Life threw too many curve balls that upset your world and you felt like you struck out.

Maybe fear or worry inched it’s way into your life, sucking away your passion for writing.

And now you feel listless and sluggish not sure how to move forward.

Now you’re unsure how to get back that excitement you once had for writing. You’ve tried and failed to reignite that spark that seems to be lost.

Maybe you’re like me and you want to find the wonder, passion and joy that creating something new in the world brings to you.

If that’s you, I want to help bring the spark back today. You don’t have to give up. You don’t have to let go of your writing dreams. You don’t have to settle for less.

There is hope for your writing, hope for your creativity and hope for your dreams.

Read on to discover 7 ways how you can reignite your passion for writing again…

7 Ways to Reignite Your Passion For Writing

I wanted to share with you what has helped me to re-connect with my passion for writing again.

It’s been a seriously tough last couple of months or so and I feel like just in the past couple of weeks, I’ve started to rediscover my passion for writing and storytelling.

So, if you need a little inspiration to help you stick with it, the follow 7 ways are what have helped me.

1.Reconnect with your Big Why. It’s super important to write down why you want to write in the first place. It’s been shown by studies that writing down your goals and/or dreams helps to reinforce them in our minds.

Give yourself permission to write down whatever reason for writing that comes into your mind. There’s no judgement here and no wrong answer. Whatever your reason is for writing and telling stories that compels you, let that pull you forward.

Maybe you want to earn a living writing. Or perhaps you want to be able to make money to save for your kids college education. Maybe for you, there’s a story inside of you that keeps you awake at night, compelling you to put words on the page.

I’ve been re-writing my big why down in my journal in the past few weeks, and it really has given me clarity. I want to write novels as well as nonfiction books and make a full-time income from it.

2.Read/Listen/Watch what inspires your writing goals and dreams. I believe creatives need to be inspired on a regular basis. For myself, I need to either read or listen to something that helps me step beyond my self-doubts and into belief, every single day. For example, when I listened to this YouTube video on Getting What You Want, by Oprah, and was reminded that if you have faith as a mustard seed you can move mountains and anything is possible.

As I watched this video, I was reminded of when I was ten years old. My mom gave me a necklace with a mustard seed, in a little clear box and said Lorna Faith, this is for you. Think of your name [Faith] every time you wear it. It’ll help you get past your mountains. And someday I know you’ll encourage others to have faith when things look impossible. 

This was a great reminder to keep going after my dream of writing. I hope it helps you too and that you find blogposts, books, audios or videos that inspire you to keep telling your stories too.

3.Talk about your dreams with a loved one. This is so good. I share constantly(probably too much), with my hubby and sometimes my kids, the books I’m writing – and my ideas and goals, what I’m blogging about or the very fun chats I have with so many amazing authors. They tell me it inspires them to go further with their own dreams too.

Sharing your dream with people who love and believe in you, empowers and motivates you.

4.Speak out loud your goals and affirmations. I started doing this on a regular basis around the start of 2017, and it has helped me stay motivated and focussed. I learned this in the awesome book Miracle Morning for Writers by Hal Elrod, Steve Scott, and Honoree Corder. I’ve also learned how a focussed morning routine that includes affirmations, increases your productivity and income.

So instead of saying words like:  I can’t; I shouldn’t; or this won’t work – change those words to – I can; I should try this; it will work. You’ll start to be amazed how it begins to change your perspective about yourself and your writing.

5.Go for a walk in nature or visit a museum or other places that inspire you. Take a little bit of time to go on an Artist Date. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way, encourages creatives to go once a week to someplace that inspires you(museums, craft stores, walking in nature), fills the creative well of your inner child. I go for walks by the lake or sometimes a take 30 minutes to visit to the craft store, which gives me many ideas for stories.

6.Stay Connected with Other Writers. This is something that is really helpful. I have quite a few writing groups that I love to connect with and share ideas on. Some are in courses that I’ve taken like Tribe Writers and others. But, a group for indie writers that isn’t from an online course, that is super helpful to anyone wanting to write and self-publish their books, is Susan Kaye Quinn’s For Love or Money FB Group.  There are a ton of great ideas that get shared in this group and people are more than willing to help. Just ask to join and you’re good to go!

7.Make a list of all the things you love. I find that thinking of and writing down what I love, helps to inspire me. Go to places like Pinterest, Instagram or just google a topic that really interests you. Often I’ll go to Pinterest and look for pictures, which gives ideas for my characters or for some next scenes. It’s really quite fun how ideas just pop in your head as you’re researching stuff. So make a list of things that you love and then do more research on them. You might be surprised at ideas you get from it!

So, I hope this list has helped to reignite your passion for writing. I practice doing most of these ideas every week, and it keeps me grounded and focussed. I hope it does the same for you and that you stay focussed and inspired on your writing dreams 😉

What inspires or reignites your writing dreams? Please share. I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below. Let’s learn from each other!

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