027 Tips on Self-Publishing and How to Become a Lifelong Learner with Pamela Hodges

October 6, 2016 by Lorna Faith

In today’s show, Pamela Hodges shares how writers and artists can give themselves permission to passionately create the art they love. I was inspired by this chat with Pamela, mostly because it has taken me a long time and writing a few books to begin to believe in myself and to give myself permission to write the stories I love.

In the intro, I share about the book I’m reading now by Alan Watt called, The 90 Day Novel. I’ve been going through the each week’s lessons and the exercises have helped me to write with more freedom and to ask the right questions to discover more of my characters & setting.

A copywriting book I’ve been reading and loving is Love-Based Copywriting by Michele PW. Honestly it was the title that drew me to this book. She shares how to attract people that resonate with what you have to say – to your website, blog, emails and everywhere else. Great book. Also, I chat about TribeWriters a course that was the #1 influence for me to start blogging and to write books.

Watch the Video Interview

Interview Summary:

Pamela Hodges is a blogger, author and artist who encourages others to embrace their creativity. She inspires by sharing stories about art, creativity and everyday life with cat barf and seven litter boxes. You can see more of her blogposts at ipaintiwrite.com or visit her cat Harper’s blog at thecatwhowrites.com.

She talks about how she illustrated, formatted and designed the new book that her cat Pooh Hodges wrote called, How to Be A Cat. This book is for guys who are tired of going to work everyday and can quit shaving and give away their car… and become a cat 😉

Pamela talks about how she was first inspired to write and create her art when she first joined TribeWriter’s course. Later, Seth Godin’s book It’s Your Turn, among other things, encouraged her to try to go to school to learn Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.

When she first started the class, she didn’t even know how to turn on her computer. But she really wanted to learn how to do this, so she asked a lot of questions and stuck with it.

Trying to be perfect can stop you from creating. Don't let that happen to you. Share on X

Color the Cats: Forty Real Cats from Around the World and Their Stories.

Pamela encourages anyone who wants to begin learning something new that they’re passionate about to…

Treat it like a job – even if you have to work many hours at it
Set a deadline of when you want to be done – it makes a big difference
believe passionately in what you’re doing – in what you’re creating

If as a writer you are doubting your ability, or you are hearing your inner critic tell you “you’re no good a that,” just try it anyway. Maybe it takes you a little longer to finish your project than what it would take others, but that’s okay. It only matters that you get there. That you finish it.

Pamela encourages all writers to read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, to learn how to get past resistance and make space for their creativity.

How do people make room in their busy lives for lifelong learning – to create what their passionate about?

The only way to make room for something is that you have to make a choice.

Is it more important that you find out how the TV series ends, or is it more important to finish

writing that book? Or is it more important to do something with your friends every weekend, or do you need to choose some weekends to stay and finish that project you started, but didn’t finish?

If you want something you need to decide what your priorities are.

Pamela encourages creatives that are struggling with self-doubt, to embrace what you love. You are a writer or an artist when you say you are.

Our value as creative people doesn’t come from outside validation. Rather, it comes from an internal belief that you are who you say you are. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Trying to be perfect can stop you from creating. Don’t let that happen to you.

Treat yourself how you want to be treated. The best friend you can have is yourself. Be kind to yourself. Pamela encourages everyone who has self-doubt to take a big tube of red lipstick and write on your bathroom mirror: Smile sweetheart, you’re great. OR Hey you’ve got this, I believe in you.

New projects that Pamela is creating: A coloring book called, 31 Days to Joy: Finding Joy in Everyday Life. She will also be writing Pooh Hodges memoir, in a writing class by Marion Roach Smith. If you want to know more about what Pamela is up to, check out her blog or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.

Have you given yourself permission and made room in your life to create the art that you love? I’d love to hear your thoughts on that in the comments below 🙂

023 Learn How to Trust Emergence in Storytelling with Joanna Penn

August 11, 2016 by Lorna Faith

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“Success requires sustained focused effort. That is why so many do not achieve the success they desire. They don’t reach far enough, hard enough, or long enough.” Jack Canfield The Success Principles(TM)

Awhile back I had the privilege of having such a fun chat with Joanna Penn. Joanna is NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author and she was also voted as one The Guardian UK Top 100 Creative Professionals 2013. Her blog, thecreativepenn.com was voted as one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers 3 years running and one of the Top 10 Blogs for Self-Publishers 2012. You can find her most recent book releases at her author website, JFPenn.com. You can also connect with Joanna on Twitter or Facebook.

Watch the Video Interview Here

Interview Summary:

*Joanna Penn shares her dream of being a writer in her childhood years as well as when she went to Oxford University. While at Oxford, she studied Theology, specializing in the Psychology of Religion. Her main series of Fiction Thriller novels, the ARKANE series, stem from her studies at Oxford. Looking back she says its interesting how life is a winding process and how everything we do in life can end up in our stories.

*When Joanna finished her degree at Oxford, she was recruited into a large consulting firm to be a computer programmer. She did that for 13 years until she couldn’t stand it anymore and started trying different business ventures. She started a Scuba Diving business as well as did Property Investments, both which failed before she started her blog TheCreativePenn.com. She had been searching and didn’t know why she wasn’t happy until she realized it came down to a lack of creativity in her life. This unsettled feeling is what birthed her first book Career Change. She wrote it as her way of trying to figure out how to change her own life. For most people, the first book they write is really the book they need to write.

“The truth is: what you perceive is just a tiny piece of reality. There are unlimited possibilities. You just need to break down the mental barrier that stops you seeing them. If you can break down the walls, you will see there is a different reality out there. It just takes a mind shift.” Joanna Penn Career Change: Stop hating your job, discover what you really want to do with your life, and start doing it!

*Joanna encourages anyone who feels stuck, to instead think about the possibilities. To have a mindshift.

*Sidenote: Joanna recently wrote a super helpful book to help authors to learn how to have a success mindset with her newest nonfiction book, The Successful Author Mindset.

She also recommends that authors read the book The Success Principles(TM) by Jack Canfield. It was this book that helped her move from not even being able to call herself ‘a creative person or an author’ to starting to say it in her head, until she could whisper it and finally she could say it with confidence. When you’re just starting out it’s hard to believe you can get there… but you can if you don’t give up.

*She talks a little about the sacrifices she made to do what she loved. She gave up being the main wage earner between her and her husband, to earning 1/5th of what she used to make when she first started her blog and writing books.

As a couple they sold everything and gave up T.V. Then she went to working 4 days a week with her job and wrote the other days on her blog and writing books the other 3 days and she did that for 3 years before she went full-time as a authorpreneur.

She also tried 2 blogs which failed before she started TheCreativePenn.com. Joanna says you need to understand what it takes to be an author and that you need to take a long view of where you’re at and your goals. Keep steady and focus on what you want. Life is short. Ask yourself what do you want to do for everyday of your life? Do it now.

*Joanna shares how she started writing fiction. She had been writing on her blog and writing non-fiction books when one day she thought she should try writing fiction. When she interviewed Tom Evans on her Podcast, and they talked about creative blocks, she realized her block was that she felt she had to have a Pulitzer Prize winning book in order to write fiction. Then she did NaNoWriMo and wrote most of the book… that’s how she got her start. Her first book, Stone of Fire(An ARKANE Thriller, Book 1) was written during this time.

*She encourages fiction writers to trust emergence. When you go to a place or are inspired by something, soak it in. Then when you get ready to write, trust that the story will come to you. You might have written a book, but doubt that you’ll have enough ideas for a story to come to you again. Trust the process. Once the ideas come… just write them down. Joanna says, in her own process, she’s found that she writes the opening scene and the closing scene of where the story needs to go, then she feels like she can start writing. Then she creates 10-12 documents in Scrivener which is where she creates her different scenes.

*She talks about branding for authors as well. She says it wasn’t until she had finished her 1st two novels that she decided to switch from using Joanna Penn as her author name, to J.F. Penn. Her tagline Thrillers on the Edge is her third tagline. The first thing she says is that none of us authors have a clue… the process and your ‘voice’ comes to you over time with the words you write. The main piece of advice she gives authors, is don’t obsess about your brand. Just write some more books because by Book #5 your writing will be quite different than your first book. As far as branding your blog, ask yourself when people come to my website what do I want them to feel? Think about who are other authors who are like you – check out their websites as far as colour and tone too.

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*Joanna talks about the fact that authors are entrepreneurs. By definition entrepreneur is “someone who creates value from nothing.” Authors create something entirely new in the world… it comes from our brains and we put it into words. She talks about the arc of the Indie Writer journey. First you start with “I want to write a book” … and you focus on writing. Second, when your book is finished you say “how do I get it out there?” … and you focus on marketing. Then when you have 3 to 5 books out there, that’s the point where you want to take it to running a business as an author.

*The word entrepreneur applies to authors who are running a business – authorpreneur. That means taking the income seriously and thinking about your customer… aka readers. That’s where things like branding comes in. You need to think of a production plan to best serve the readers you have. The decision to write certain books and put out specific products is more of a business decision. Think in terms of what serves your existing audience the best. Joanna says she is passionate to that you can have a great living as well as a great life as a Creative Entrepreneur.

*Joanna talks about the future for Indie Authors. She mentions her own journey. That her books are now being sold in 42 different countries and that she’s doing a 50% royalty split with the narrators who do her audio books. Now her books are being translated into spanish, italian and german and she does a 50% royalty split with the translators as well. She says another thing Indie writers need to think about is to start selling not only from places like Amazon, Kobo, ibookstore, googleplay, etc., but to also start selling direct from their own website and sell from your own email list. Think about the Global idea and being mobile. She says collaboration is also another great thing for Indie Authors. The more we understand how creative people work, the more we’ll trust working together without all the middle men.

*Being an author is really about being positive about the opportunities that come up. Trying things out and taking some risks and just giving it a go.

The biggest thing that will propel you forward, is writing more books.

Joanna encourages writers to think in Olympic time – what can you achieve every 4 years? Think about where you were at in your writing at the last Olympics, how much you’ve learned since then and brainstorm about the possibilities of where you could be for the next Olympics.

I learned so much from Joanna in this interview… I hope you did too 😉

Check out the latest book release at JFPenn.com or go to thecreativepenn.com for more information on writing, publishing and marketing your book.

What did you find helpful as listened to Joanna’s tips on writing and self-publishing? Please join share your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear from you.

*Photo Credit for Joanna Penn: Jason Moon Photography

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

9 Simple Steps to Start a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog in Less than 15 Minutes

July 21, 2016 by Lorna Faith

It’s important to have a platform of your own to share your message and draw more readers to what you have to say. The best and simplest way to do that is to start your own self-hosted blog with WordPress.

With over 400 million people looking at blogs each month, it’s an amazing opportunity. Isn’t it time you took a chance and started your own blog? It has never been easier – or simpler – to connect with an audience and get your message heard… but are you joining in the conversation?

We all have something to say. Blogs not only make that possible, they make it simple to do.

Imagine if you had the chance to share what you’re passionate about with the world… what would you say? And better yet, what would happen if people read your words, actually listened?

Isn’t it time you started your blog?

Only you can choose yourself, take a risk and figure out what it takes to get your message heard and to watch as your causes spreads from one person to another, to another…

What have you got to lose if you don’t do this? Probably nothing. You’ll continue to get what you’ve had before. You’ll stay unheard and invisible. If you’re okay with that, then keep doing what you’re doing.

But if not, then it’s time for change…

Writing and blogging has made me who I am and can lead to amazing opportunities

I remember when I first started blogging in January 2012. It felt scary and risky, putting my thoughts out there into the world.

Alongside blogging, I started journalling almost everyday. Something happened. I started to see myself in a new light, my ideas forming clearly and developing and shifting to a whole new level.

So I started experimenting with ideas and started discovering what I was passionate about and soon learned what I loved – writing stories and helping others do the same – and I also learned what I was “meh” about 😉

Writing is Powerful

A blog is the easiest way for publishing ideas on the Internet for many other readers to see. It helps you get those ideas that you have in head, into the world, which in turn helps you to develop your ideas further.

I started blogging for fun 4 years ago. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but just wanted to share my ideas and what I was passionate about. Over time, my writing and passions have developed and I was able to begin to narrow my focus and understand what I loved to write and talk about and the way I really wanted to help others.

As you continue the habit of writing, it’s a super way to learn how to communicate, process your thoughts and it also helps you stay accountable to big plans and life changes, to build an audience and to understand the essence of who you are and the value you bring to the world.

Simply put, daily writing is one of the most powerful habits I’ve started and continue to do. It’s changed my world…

When I first started, I thought it would be super technical to set up a self-hosted blog. Surprisingly, it’s really easy to do. I do believe it’s worth investing a little money to be able to have full control over your website. I’m going to share with you screenshots of exactly what you need to do.

Here’s simple steps on how to make your own self-hosted WordPress blog in less than 15 minutes

In the screenshots below, I share what I wish I would have known when I first started blogging years ago. Seriously, it would have saved me a bunch of time and struggle. So I hope these steps help you to start blogging sooner.

Just a note before we begin: In this free tutorial, I share my affiliate link to Bluehost, which is a company I use for my websites and that I highly recommend that makes this process simple and easy. If you click the link to buy, I get a commission at no extra cost to you. Please know I only recommend products I use and love, and offering affiliate links is one way I can keep this blog going. Thank you ahead of time for your support 🙂

1. Click the green “Get Started Now” Button.

A web host, is where your website lives. You own it, but you pay a small fee to keep it online(sort of like paying property taxes to the government). In my experience, Bluehost gives you by far the best customer service and pricing of many of the hosting sites out there. They’ve also been a top recommended web host by WordPress since 2005.

I’ve set up screenshots to make this easy.

Click the green Get Started Now button at BlueHost to get started.

2. Purchase Your Hosting Package.

All you really need is the most basic option, which comes with a free domain(website address) of your choice. The only add-on you might want is Domain WHOIS Privacy ($9.95/yr), which keeps your personal information from being made public on your site. You don’t need any of the other add-ons or up-sells, such as Site Lock or Site Backup. All of those details can be sorted out much later. We want to keep this as simple as possible!

3. Pick your blog name(called URL or domain name).

This is part of the sign-up process with Bluehost. When you sign up for basic hosting, you get a website name for free.

I encourage you to keep it simple. Don’t put it off just because you can’t come up with a super amazing name. Using your first and last name(or something similar) works great… and might even be better if you don’t know what specific niche you’ll be focussing on. That way you’ll be able to blog about whatever topics you want to. Using your name can also allow the site to serve as a simple online resume… and it helps with your name’s google rankings 😉

On the next page enter the domain name that you’d like to use.

4. Fill out your contact details and payment information.

This part is easy. Just fill out the information – with your real details – so you can verify your account. In the screenshot below, you can see there’s extra options. I recommend you get the Domain Whois Privacy(to keep your contact details private), but don’t worry about the others.

5. Choose “I can do it”… if you’re wanting to follow these simple steps and install WordPress by yourself.

Of course, you can also ask Bluehost to install your website for you for a fee. This is the message you’ll see when you are inside Bluehost and you first get access to your cPanel.

6. Scroll down and find the icon called “Install WordPress.”

Blogging requires software, and the best I’ve found is WordPress. It’s easy, quick and best of all, it’s free. You can set up WordPress through your host(Bluehost does this for you for Free). Otherwise, you can go to WordPress.org to download the software and upload it to a host. Just a side note: Using WordPress.org is different than signing up for a free blog at WordPress.com. This infographic explains in more detail.

Click on “Install WordPress.”

7. The next screen asks you to write the name of your new website and add a username, password and email address.

Just fill out the details – your website name, your new admin username, your password(make this difficult for hackers), and then add your email. Click that you would like bluehost to automatically create a new database for this installation and click that you have read the terms and conditions.

After you’ve filled out your details, click “install now.”

8. Choose a WordPress Theme.

When you first start using WordPress, you get access to many beautiful blog designs(called “themes”), and many of those themes are free. If you’re just getting started and you want a free theme, I recommend Twenty Sixteen. It has a simple and elegant design. If you’re wanting a little more of a unique design – like this blog I use Beautiful Pro theme – you can find other themes at Studio Press by clicking here.

You can change your theme by going to Appearances in the Left Hand sidebar of BlueHost, and click themes. Up on the top you’ll find a tab called Install Themes, click on that link. Once you are there, you can use the search function to find a theme you like – from the thousands that are listed.

Or you can click install the theme design that you like best by clicking on install.

9. Log in and begin blogging.

Now you’re ready to begin to write on your own blog.

The URL for your dashboard(which redirects you to the login page if you’re not logged in) is yourblogname.com/wp-admin/. Once you are logged in, click “Posts” on the left hand side, and then choose “Add New.” Write a title and create some content for your new blog, and you’re ready to go!

That’s all there is to it. Now you’re blogging. This is really one of the best places where the difficult, but good work of writing begins.

What do you do if you already have a domain name?

If you already have a domain name registered with another service like Godaddy.com, but need a place to host it, there’s 2 things you can do:

1.Transfer the domain registration to Bluehost.

2.Change the name servers on your domain to point to your new host.

This video will show you how to do that:

If you’re ready to get started blogging with Bluehost, just click on the button below to get started 😉 They are a top recommended host by WordPress and have great customer service. I worked with them for a long time and have been very happy with the service.

Click Here to Get Started

If you want to share this with someone who would find it helpful, please do.

Do you have your own self-hosted blog? If you do, what do you love about it? If you don't, what questions do you have? Please share in the comments.

How to Create a Book Cover Using Canva

July 7, 2016 by Lorna Faith

I’ve been experimenting on how to create a great book cover using Canva.

I thought I’d walk you through some simple steps on what I’ve done to create a simple book cover, so you can do it too.

how to create a book cover

How to Make Your Own Book Cover Using Canva

As a self-published author one of the most difficult and most important things you’ll do is choose a cover for your book.

Your book cover is your most powerful marketing tool because it will either attract potential readers or repel them. If you choose a great cover for your genre of book and draw in readers, then you’ve done well, but if you don’t, then potential readers will just click away… a most likely not be back.

Personally, I like to use a professional book cover designer when I can, but there are many reasons you might want to make your own book cover:

Maybe you want more creative control
You want to try different cover ideas so you know what you want before hiring a designer
Maybe you’re writing a series and you don’t want to pay full price for each cover design
Or, you might be launching a small book – a short guide or ebook – and you don’t want to invest too much money into the project.

I created the book cover for my fiction giveaway, A Most Unsuitable Husband. It was fairly simple to do, so I thought I’d show you what I did in this post.

It’s super important that you consider a few things before you create your book cover:

There are a few guidelines for choosing pictures to have a great looking book cover. How good your book cover looks, will depend on what pictures or art you use and how well they fit together. One important aspect of a good book cover is to make sure it resonates with your target readers. For example, for this ebook cover, it is a Western Historical Romance, so usually there’s horses/or a ranch in the background and a lady dressed in some type of old fashioned dress. That’s why I chose the lady in the blue dress as well as the horses with the trees in the background.

Here’s simple steps on how you can make your own book cover.

Step 1: Find a great photo.

This part of the process can take the longest, because it’s your photo that will draw readers to your book. Of course, you’ll want to find a photo that mirrors the theme of your story, character and plot.

You might be curious where to find photos. If you’ve taken some photos yourself, you can use that. Just double check that the resolution meets the required resolution before you publish your book on KDP(Amazon), CreateSpace or Smashwords. As far as photos go, the higher your resolution, the better your book cover image will look when it is printed.

Other websites to find royalty free photos:

www.morguefile.com

www.freedigitalphotos.net

www.bigstockphoto.com

www.shutterstock.com

www.dreamstime.com

At most websites you’ll have to pay for the photos. You’ll also need to double check what the licensing terms are for the photo. For example, some photos cost around $200 for up to 50,000 print copies. For my first two novels I used photos from bigstockphoto.com and there was no limit for print copies. Also I a lot less for the actual picture – somewhere around $50.

But when I created this book cover, I only paid $1 per photo. Here’s the two photos I used that I found on Canva.

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Step 2: Go to Canva.com and upload the photo you’ve found.(or you can find the photo you want once you’re in Canva. It’s easy you just use search terms. For example, search terms for the above photos: woman, historical dress, horses, ranch).

Create Your Account… it’s free. The website takes you automatically to a ‘beginner’s challenge’ – a tutorial on how to use it. If you want to go straight to designing your book cover, you’ll end up at the Dashboard here:

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You’ll notice that there are a bunch of different sizes already prepared for whatever platform you’re looking for. Click on the “More” button and scroll down until you find “Kindle Cover.” Click on that one.

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Step 3: Choose a Template already pre-made or Create Your Own.

Once you’ve chosen the Kindle Cover, you’ll see a bunch of pre-made book cover templates on the left hand side of the page. They’ve already been formatted with photos and fonts. You can choose one of those and just tweak the font or change the picture color, or you can create your own. Here’s what you should see… Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 11.06.10 AM

You can make your own book cover. It’s so easy to do, that I wanted to show you how you can make your own in this tutorial.

Step 4: Upload Your Photo to Canva.com

Just click on “upload your own images” and you can grab your photos from your computer file.

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Step 5: Decide if you want your photo to cover the front cover or if you want to use a different layout for you book. You can see it in the picture below. I clicked on layout(top LH side of Canva screen) and used the layout with 3 boxes for this book cover(see it below on RH side).

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Step 6: Drag Your Photo(s) onto your workspace.

Now you can drag the photos you’ve chosen into the layout you’ve chosen. I decided to use 2 photos. I put the woman in the blue historical dress at the top and the horses on the ranch on the bottom of the layout. Then for the middle picture I clicked on “background” and chose a ‘burgundy’ color to fill in the white lines around the pictures. Then also from ‘background’ I chose a cream colored background to place in the middle box. Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 11.44.59 AM

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Step 7: Add Your Book Title and Author Name.

You’ll need to add your book title and author name. On the far left hand side of the canva screen you’ll see an icon that says “Text.” Click on that.

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Then, a box will pop up above the photo you’re designing. It should say “Add Text.” Put your cursor in the text box and enter your title. If the text doesn’t fit the box, you can stretch the box with your cursor. Or what I did to create my title below I clicked again on “add heading” for each new word I wanted to add to the title. I changed the font to “Libre Baskerville” and chose a burgundy color and ’48’ font.

It’s so simple to change font or color – just click on the ‘number box’ or on the ‘color box’ if you want to switch something.

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 11.53.23 AM

Then you can do the same for your author name.

Step 8: Download Your Book Cover.

Double check that you like the finished product. When you’re ready to download the book cover just click on “download” on the upper right hand side of the screen. Then click what you want. I normally choose either “Image: high quality(PNG)” and click on that.

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Canva will get busy converting your photo and downloading it to your computer.

Step 9: And Voila! Your new DIY Book Cover is finished 😉

You’re book cover is done… and I’m sure you did a wonderful job!

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 12.10.09 PM

If you found this post helpful, please share it with someone who might also find it useful.

What are your tips for creating book covers using Canva? I’d love to hear your thoughts – we can learn from each others ideas 🙂

*Photos created with Canva.

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