The Authorpreneur Blog
Amelia D. Hay is a virtual writing and business coach for fiction writers and the host of The Authorpeneur Podcast. Every week, on this blog, she will teach you how to develop a story idea, create compelling characters and outline your novel. Learn how to write your first draft, revise your story, self-publish, establish your author platform, and reach readers. In her, Behind the Scenes Podcast Diary (BTS) she shares an honest account of her journey to self-publishing her novels.
BTS053, The 100th Podcast Episode: Ask Me Anything on Writing, Revision, Editing, and Self Publishing
In the spirit of celebrating the 100th episode milestone, I’m going answer the top questions asked by my Blog Readers, YouTube Subscribers, and Podcast Listeners, and questions asked through my Ask A Question form on my website.
BTS052, I Screwed Up My Series and Reaching a New Level of Appreciation for Draft2Digital
At present, I’m struggling to sell book two in my amateur sleuth mystery series, and I’m going into detail about my experiments to get this bookselling and my issues with publishing direct to Barnes and Noble upon the advice of going wide webinar. Let’s just say that I regret leaving Draft 2 Digital. And I discuss how I’ve screwed up my amateur sleuth mystery series.
TAP044, News From My Editor: My Experience Writing into the Dark (Part 2)
Toward the end of March, I started working with my editor on the Locked Room, and in this episode, I share the mistakes that were found in that writing into the dark manuscript in comparison to the previous stories that I’ve written.
TAP043, A Tale of Two Novels: My Experience Writing into the Dark
In February, I finished my experiment with writing into the dark, and I’ll discuss how I achieved this, along with the response of my favourite beta reader. As you’ve come to expect, I will share my writing stats, days, time, word count and the step-by-step process that I used. Now that I’ve mentioned that, it’s crucial that I point out that I’m following Dean Wesley Smith’s Writing Into the Dark method, which he teaches in a course and in a book. I highly recommend that you check out both of these options if you’re interested in learning this writing into the dark technique.
BTS051, Writing a Locked Room Mystery, Author Book Readings, and Tech Issues Galore
In this episode, discuss what I’ve been doing in February. I also share my frustrations about a tech fail and newfound thoughts on this product and delve into why I’ve changed my mind. Also, I discuss a few things I did for the podcast, plus a marketing experiment I did this month. And I share my experience writing a locked room mystery
BTS050, More Experiments with Ad Stacking
So, I decided to list Suspicion for free and promote it using various newsletter book promotion services ahead of the release of the second book in the James Lalonde series. In this episode, I will share more of my experiences with Ad stacking.
BTS049, A Year in Review and Self Publishing Products I Loved in 2022
This year, I’ve decided to start my podcast by looking back at everything I achieved in 2022. After that, I will discuss the products I loved in 2022 and will continue to use in 2023. I will also not dive too deeply into metrics like hours or word count because that’s not helpful. In fact, as a coach, I hate metrics because it doesn’t contribute anything of value, especially in the writing space. Everyone writes differently. Some people need to write slowly, think and research as they write. And if that’s you, it’s okay to write that way and slowly build your backlist. But I’ll hop off my soap box now.
An Update on My Three Act Structure Scrivener Template
In an upcoming episode of the authorpreneur podcast, I discuss how I stopped supplying my three-act structure Scrivener template to my email list and the reasons that led to the decision. As I was editing that episode, I had an idea.
TAP042, Troy Lambert Discusses Plotting and Story Organisation Techniques with Plottr
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Plottr letting me know they were interested in chatting with me on my podcast about plotting and story organisation techniques and how Plottr can benefit both Plotters and Pantsers. Because Plottr is a story organisation tool I thought the interview would be great for this season of The Authorpreneur Podcast because I’m discussing outlining and the pre-writing phase. Also if you’ve been thinking about trying Plottr this might help you decide whether the software is right for you. So, in the show I’m chatting with Troy Lambert about plotting and story organisation techniques with Plottr.
TAP041, What is a Scene? How to Write Great Scenes
Are you confused about scenes and chapters? Do you write scenes that aren’t working, and you wonder why? In this first instalment of this mini-series on scenes, I will discuss the difference between scenes and chapters. Define what is a scene in the context of novel writing. I will answer the age-old question, what is the perfect length of a scene? And I will share how to end a scene and know when a scene has reached its natural end.
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Tools I Love + Use
The following recommended tools contain affiliate links.
I’ve been using Blubrry to host the Authorpreneur Podcast since 2018.
I’ve been a proud Divi Theme user since 2015.
A great website host for WordPresss sites and Divi Theme users.
A great writing tool that I’ve been using since 2014 or possibly earlier.
A course that I use and recommend that helps you get the most out of Scrivener.