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Image courtesy of thecreativepenn.com

As I stated in the first post in this series (which you can find here if you missed it) I began listening to some writing and publishing podcasts when I first started my writing career. The one I am going to tell you about today was one I listened to back then, but for various reasons discussed before, I stopped. I wish I hadn’t. Joanna Penn is now up to episode 373 and as much as I am a completer of things and would dearly love to go back to the beginning and start from there I know, realistically, I can’t. So, I have subscribed again, picked out a few from the back catalogue that looked interesting and caught up on all those that had downloaded in the meantime.

Joanna Penn is a thriller author and creative entrepreneur. Her podcasts provide interviews, inspiration and information on writing, publishing options and marketing ideas for your books. She is also a founding member of Alli (The Alliance of Independent Authors).

She is also an early-adopter, which is why she is approaching 400 podcasts, and is always bringing to the fore the latest technology and news in the industry which can feel a little overwhelming to me, but I’m taking on board everything that I can.

Joanna has an extremely enthusiastic presenting style, is knowledgeable and relentlessly positive as well as being incredibly helpful by providing a website packed full of information (including links to all the back episodes of the podcast). There is also an Author Blueprint available to download for free. And, she always sounds like she is having a great time!

Listening to Joanna has made me realise how cosy I have become in my tiny little speck of the internet and that there is actually a massive publishing world out there with many opportunities waiting to be explored – it makes me wish I could just pack everything else in and concentrate on my writing career full time actually!

However, the thing that I really like about Joanna Penn, apart from all the above, is that she shares the same ethos as me when it comes to income, and that is, never rely on just one source for all of it. I have been self-employed for over 20 years now and have always worked for around fifteen different companies at any one point during that time. Clients fall off the perch for a variety of reasons but with this business model I have always still had the income from the others.

In my writing career I have my sales, workshops and client work but I need to do more. I have been exclusive with Amazon for a while now, following advice I read from Hugh Howey, and while it is highly unlikely Amazon is going to topple over you should never put all your eggs in one basket. So I need to do something about that.

I have also recently managed to get my books into some libraries and I’m back to sorting out audiobooks as well, after a false start on that front. I shall also be looking into translations, possibly, following a discussion with writing pal, Linda Huber, today. So, there much more to come from this, until recently, rather jaded writer!

You can find The Creative Penn Podcast wherever you usually get your podcasts and there is also plenty to explore on the website.

The Creative Penn Website

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3 Responses to Podcast post #2 ~ The Creative Penn Podcast with Joanna Penn @thecreativepenn ~ #amwriting #publishing
  1. Thanks for the mention! 🙂 There are no easy answers, are there? We just have to keep plugging away, and hoping. As you know I live in Switzerland, which means that UK libraries are no source of income to me as UK PLR isn’t paid here. Are you trying ACX for audio?

    • I only have the books in some local libraries so it’s not going to be a lot of income but at least it gets them into more hands. I went initially with ACX, then sadly my producer became ill so that has all been cancelled. I’m just trying The Joker with Findaway Voices but received several auditions a week or so ago and haven’t had a minute to take that any further. I’m undecided as to what I will do with the trilogy but I suspect Findaway will be to expensive for me. I need some time to think about it all!!

  2. […] podcast on the fabulous Creative Penn. I have mentioned this fantastic resource of a podcast before here but the specific episode that helped me this week was Self-Publishing 3.0 And How To Build Success […]


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