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Want to Make Money as an Author? Start Thinking Like a Brand

Kylie Fennell

If you think that creating a beautifully written book is enough to guarantee a best-seller, I have bad news for you.

A well-written book is a great start, and if you’ve got one ready to go, I congratulate you on the herculean effort I know that went into it.

Unfortunately though, if you want to make money out of book sales, you need to wrap your head around something that may seem like the complete antithesis of creative writing.

You need to start thinking of yourself as a brand.

If you write strictly for a hobby, that is, you don’t want, or need, to make money from selling your books, at ease. You can go back to trawling through social media/watching reality TV/reading a book, doing whatever you were doing before.

The rest of you though, don’t go anywhere. Trust me, I’ll know if you stop reading now. : )

Run It Like a Business

A very wise publishing friend of mine recently told me that the most difficult part of working with his clients is convincing them why they should act like they are running a business.

The leap from writing books to running a business, isn’t as big as you may think.

Businesses sell products – you (I assume) want to sell books (products).

Running a business requires financial and time management – so does writing. Whether you’re squeezing it in between your day job or family commitments, you will need to juggle your time and resources to pursue a career as an author.

Importantly, successful businesses need to invest time and effort into marketing.

For authors, aspiring or otherwise, your marketing (or lack of it) has the potential to make or break your writing career.

This is why, you hear so much about why you should build your author brand or platform.

Start Thinking Like a Brand

Authors are brands, whether they like to think of themselves that way or not.

***Brand is the only thing that matters when the market is saturated***

Okay, brand may not be the only thing, but I don’t need to tell you that the book marketplace is super competitive, and brand is often the difference between an author gaining cut through or not.

While it pains me to say this, many brilliantly written books may never make it to a book store, or generate the sales they deserve, without brand recognition.

When Should I Start Developing My Brand?

If you’re an aspiring author, you may believe you don’t have to worry about this ‘marketing stuff’ yet.

Sorry to rain on your parade.

The best time to start marketing yourself as an author is ASAP!

The more time you have to build your platform and generate interest, as well as followers, the easier it will be when you do publish your book. This applies whether you self-publish or have a traditional publisher.

First-up, you want to create a brand that agents, publishers, influencers and other book industry types want to support and invest in.

Start creating a brand now that your target audience, and readers, can really connect to, so when you do launch your book, you have a ready-made fan club buying it, and telling all of their friends to buy it too.

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Just When You Think You Can’t…Ganbatte

Kylie Fennell

Writing a novel may be hard work but it’s nothing compared to the gruelling task of editing…at least that’s my experience.

You see it’s possible to get on with the task of drafting a novel, even on days when the muse doesn’t show up, you can just keep at it. If you just write, the words slowly add up and eventually you will reach your goal.

The beauty of the drafting process is that you don’t have to overanalyse your words. Most of the time, I can get in the flow and not think too much about the words I’m using.

The most important thing is just getting the words down.

When drafting a novel, I focus on having discipline and word count targets. This may not work for everyone but it does for me and ensures I stay motivated. Setting myself tangible goals, that relate to nothing else other than word counts, means I can make positive progress.

As a result, I find that completing the first draft of a novel is relatively pain-free, and dare I say it, enjoyable! – I knew there was a reason writers put themselves through this torture on a regular basis.

Things though quickly unravel when I get to the first edit or revision of my novel.

At this point, things become a little less tangible. The first edit isn’t about picking up typos and formatting errors, it’s about much more subjective components.

I have to look at my work critically and ask whether the structure, story and characters work, as well as, many other potentially soul-destroying questions.

My Own Worst Critic

Reviewing your own work requires you to embrace your inner critic, but what if you’re too critical of your writing?

If you’re anything like me, you may be your own worst critic and this can send you on a rollercoaster of emotions.

The typical editing process means you can experience any or all of the following on any given day:

  • Imposter syndrome – “I’m not a proper writer, who was I kidding?”, ” I’m a fraud”.
  • Second guessing – “should I change that?”, “I’ll just change that back”, “Was the original version better?”.
  • Negative self-talk – “I can’t believe I wrote this rubbish”, “What was I thinking?”, “I’m not good at this”, “I might as well give up now”.

Occasionally I do have moments, and sometimes days, when I feel like I’m ‘winning’ at editing. I may come across a section of prose that I may not even recall writing and I marvel at it, believing that I may actually be okay at this fiction-writing gig.

Unfortunately though the times I feel like the cat’s pyjamas and am convinced I could be the next JK Rowling, are few and far between.

All too often I feel paralysed and have multiple crises of faith when it comes to editing my novel.

When You Just Can’t

After a lot of trial and error, procrastination and excuses, I’ve found one thing that keeps my editing on track. It’s ‘Ganbatte’.

I’m a self-confessed Japanophile, having lived there for a couple of years, and I have a go-to list of Japanese words that inspire me.

‘Ganbatte’ is one of my favourites. It roughly translates as: keep at it, do your best, don’t give up and work hard.

Japanese often use the phrase ‘Ganbatte kudasai (please)’ in the same way we would wish a person good luck before an exam or performance.

Ganbatte though is less about luck and more about tenacity. As a culture, Japanese value effort and perseverance and this is a quality that I remind myself to embrace whenever I hit upon a difficult editing phase.

Just when I think I can’t keep going with my editing, or there’s no point in trying, I channel the Japanese warrior in me – yes I like to think there’s a little samurai in all us writers –  and tell myself ‘Ganbatte!’.

You never know, it may work for you too. ‘Ganbatte kudasai!’

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Stop Waiting for the Muse to Arrive – Just Write

Kylie Fennell 1 comment

‘My writing has just stalled completely. I haven’t written anything for weeks.’

I was sitting with a lovely writer, on our lunch break from a writing workshop, listening to how she didn’t know what to write next, so she’d stopped writing.

She was devastated, because she was so attached to the story and its characters, but the ‘muse’ had left her.

I nodded my head knowingly. All of us writers have been there at one time or another.

I too have sat there, paralysed at my keyboard, waiting for that temperamental little minx of a muse to appear and shower me in magical creative fairy dust. And guess what? She never showed.

The Perfect Writing Conditions Don’t Exist

I had bad news for my new writer friend. If she persisted on her current path, the Muse wasn’t going to show up for her either.

You see, many of us writers like to think that we can only channel our creativity under the exact right conditions.

And given those conditions, the Muse will appear.

Those conditions may rely on being in the exact right mood and place. Having a beautifully designed workspace. It being the right time of day. Not being too tired. Having a big stint of time to sit down and write, completely undisturbed. And possible even having the astrological planets perfectly aligned. The thing is though, I’m yet to come across any writer whose life creates these perfect conditions for them on a consistent basis, or even at all.

I’ve used every excuse under the sun for why I couldn’t finish my book. In fact I used them for the best part of 10 years.

‘I write for a living, so I have no creativity or energy left each day.’  That was my favourite one.

Excuses are merely that. They are excuses. And you have to have call them out for the BS they are.

Life will inevitably get in the way of your writing. Deal with it, and recognise understand that it isn’t the reason why the Muse won’t appear.

The Muse Doesn’t Appear on Command

Even those of us, that accept that the perfect writing conditions don’t exist, have been guilty on occasion of tapping our fingers impatiently at our desk, waiting for a burst of creativity to appear.

Guess what though. The Muse doesn’t appear on command either.

Merely sitting at your keyboard, isn’t enough to signal to the Muse that you’re ready for her.

It’s a good start, because that’s where she’ll be looking for you, but it’s not enough.

Prove You’re Serious

The Muse needs to know you’re serious about your writing.

She’s not going to waste her time and magic on someone who isn’t prepared to do the hard yards.

How do you prove you’re serious?

You show up and you just write.

As simplistic as it sounds, you just have to sit at that keyboard, or notepad, and write your way through it.

The words may be rubbish, incoherent even, but you have to give the Muse something to work with.

Write whatever comes to you.

The great thing about writing is that the more you do it, the better you get at it.

The more you make yourself available to the Muse, the more responsive she is.

And the best part about writing is, that it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time.

Start with any words. You can change them later. Just get words onto a screen, or a page.

One word, after another, until you have a sentence. One sentence after another, until you have a page. You get the picture.

While I’d love to say that writing is all about being creative, the big ugly truth is that it’s not. More often than not, it’s about showing up day, after day, even when you don’t feel like it, and writing, writing, writing.

So stop waiting for the Muse, write for her.

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Forget 10,000 Hours of Practice – Embrace Shokunin To Be an Expert

Kylie Fennell 1 comment

Uncharacteristically, I had a hour or so to spare the other day, and I remembered that a new episode of Vikings should have been available SBS On Demand.

I was bitterly disappointed to find that the show hadn’t aired that week. Instead I poked around for something else to watch. My eyes fell on Jiro Dreams of Sushi. As a Japanophile the title was enough to draw me in, and I’m so glad it did, I just wish I’d seen it well before now.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a 2011 American documentary film following, the now 92-year-old, Jiro Ono – a sushi master and owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro.

Sukiyabashi Jiro is a Michelin three-star restaurant that only seats 10 people, and can be found in the unglamorous location of a Tokyo subway station. You won’t find any appetisers or fancy a la carte meals there. Jiro Ono only serves a tasting menu of around 20 courses, for a minimum of 30,000 Japanese yen (350 AUD) – ouch!

Apparently though it’s completely worth it. Obama described his meal there as the best sushi he had ever had.

What’s that got to do with being an expert?

It turns out everything.

Embracing Shokunin

Jiro Ono subscribes to the practice of ‘shokunin’.

Shokunin is a Japanese term that translates as a ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan’ – more specifically, the mastery of ones profession.

Famed Japanese artist, sculptor, teacher and woodcrafting expert Tasio Odate says “the Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skills, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness. … The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people”.

This is a beautiful idea, but it seems that shokunin isn’t always driven by social obligation – even if there are beneficial outcomes for other people.

For many the shokunin is about the practice of doing something carefully and beautifully, to the best of your ability, and the personal joy derived from this. It is also about the continual quest for improvement and perfection.

In Jiro Dreams of Sushi we learn that the chef wakes up every morning and goes to work, despite already being incredibly successful and arguably the best sushi master in the world. He does this because he is driven by shokunin. He says, “All I want to do is make better sushi”.

The Cost of Perfection

As a self-confessed perfectionist I know the pressure I put on myself and how unhealthy it can be to me and those around me.

These days I prefer to aim for ‘progress’ rather then perfection – and sometimes ‘good enough’, is actually good enough.

Even Jiro Ono admits with perhaps a smidgen of a regret, that his quest for perfection meant he missed a lot with his family and could have been a better father.

So perfection isn’t all together perfect.

What I like though about the idea of shokunin is the drive to always improve and be better – to continually refine and master your craft – knowing that you may never reach perfection, and being okay with that, but also enjoying the journey and your craft.

Mastering Your Craft

I think shokunin is incredibly important whether you’re a writer, a software engineer, a cleaner, or a sushi master.

We should all take pride in what we do, want to be better at it and obtain joy from the process.

It can only lead to becoming an expert in your craft – and with that comes recognition, opportunities and self-satisfaction.

Debunking The 10,000 Hours Rule

Most of us have probably heard that we’re considered an expert in our field once we’ve practised our craft for 10,000 hours.

The concept comes from the work of psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, and was popularised by Author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.

Gladwell pointed to several case studies of incredibly successful people such as Bill Gates, whose success could be partly attributed to putting in 10,000 hours of work. That though is a simplistic interpretation of Gladwell’s book, which provides a lot of other compelling evidence for what makes people successful – it’s very much worth the read.

What though has come to light more recently is that the 10,000 hours may have little to do with whether you’re an expert.

Brad Stulberg, co-author of the book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success, says expertise develops based on the way you practise, rather than the time you practise. That the quality and focus of your practise determines your performance. He recommends intensively focused practice or “deliberate practice”.

Start Becoming an Expert

Deliberate practice certainly isn’t at odds with shokunin, because they’re both about mastering your craft.

The premise of the 10,000 hour rule isn’t terrible either, as the more you practise something, the more likely you are to improve.

Perhaps in our quest for shokunin and being an expert, a realistic step is reminding ourselves that every day is an opportunity to be better than we were yesterday.

For me, I dedicate myself every day to improving my writing and marketing craft.

To stay in the know about my writing projects and to receive regular writing tips and content like this, sign up here.

The Biggest Content Marketing Mistake You Need to Avoid

Kylie Fennell

There’s one big mistake many content marketers are making, and it’s potentially costing brands dearly.

It turns out marketers and writers everywhere are doing themselves, and their content, a disservice by letting good content go to waste.

The number one culprit is creating content with a short shelf life, or content that becomes out-of-date quickly.

There is a simple solution though. It’s making your content evergreen.

Creating evergreen, or timeless content, means content remains relevant and valuable to your target audience indefinitely.

It also can save you time, because it gives you a depository or content you can promote more than once and repeat on social media.

The Content Marketing Gift that Keeps Giving

Evergreen content can bring you lots of long-term marketing love.

When done well, evergreen content can generate engagement, traffic and leads for days, weeks, months, and even years to come – ­­­especially if it’s promoted on more than one occasion.

In fact, Hubspot research showed 76% of its blog views, and a whopping 92% of leads, came from “old” or evergreen posts.

A slight tweak to your content can easily transform it from being a one-hit wonder to forever young, and help you reap similar long-term benefits.

What is Evergreen Content?

An evergreen article is content that isn’t likely to date. It will stand the test of time.

For example, ‘How to Choose the Best Haircut for You’ would be more evergreen than ‘The Top Hair Trends This Season’.

While it’s important for some industries or businesses to demonstrate you understand and can comment on the latest trends, you should aim to mix up your content with evergreen articles as well.

Where possible try not to reference specific dates or years in your content, or facts or statistics that are likely to date quickly. 

What Next?

You should go through your existing content and identify what is evergreen or could easily be tweaked to become evergreen.

Then create a repeating schedule for promoting the content on social media and other marketing channels such as e-newsletters.

To stay in the know about my writing projects and to receive regular writing tips and content like this, sign up here.

The Big Bad Truth about Blogging and Content Marketing and Why Your Business Should care

Kylie Fennell 1 comment

Content marketing and blogging remains one of the most effective marketing strategies for businesses.

Your online content has never mattered more.

In fact it REALLY matters. The Content Marketing Institute cites numerous studies that show:

  • Small businesses with blogs get 126% more leads than businesses without blogs.
  • 77% of internet users read blogs.
  • 61% of consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • Websites with blog content have 434% more search-engine indexed pages – making your business easier to find on Google.
  • Content marketing generates 3 times the leads and 6 times the conversions, while costing 62% less than other marketing methods.

I know this first-hand because I regularly work with global marketing specialists and agencies. I also ghost-write for one of the world’s leading Content Marketing Experts, featured numerous times in Forbes magazine.

So what’s BAD about what I’m telling you?

It’s not bad if your business already has a content marketing and blogging strategy.

However, if you aren’t creating and distributing valuable content – preferably original content – then you may be missing out on valuable lead generation and sales opportunities.

I’m not talking about advertisements or blatant brand promotion. I’m talking about useful and interesting content, such as blog or online articles, relevant to your target audience.

The intention of the content, of course, is to stimulate interest in your brand and result in the reader taking an action, but this is achieved by being helpful as opposed to salesy.

How to Get Started

Regular blogging via your website, or publishing online articles on sites such as LinkedIn Pulse is relatively simple when you work with a professional writer.

You can get high quality blog articles and online content in a cinch – and it will only take 10 minutes of your time.


Check out our blog writing packages. You may also like to check out my blogging FAQs. Contact me now for high quality content.

Let’s Get Real – Creating Authentic Connections

Kylie Fennell

As a content marker and online publisher a lot of the work I do is in the digital and social media world.

We often hear (and tell people) that we need to be ‘authentic’ in our storytelling, that we should create ‘authentic’ connections with people meaningful to us and our business.

I totally agree.

The thing though that has been stumping me for some time though is exactly HOW can we create REAL, AUTHENTIC and MEANINGFUL connections with people in a digital world?

Continue reading “Let’s Get Real – Creating Authentic Connections” →

Are You the Person Holding Yourself Back? It’s Time to Hold Yourself to Account

Kylie Fennell

I like to think I hold myself to account. That I’m a responsible person. That I do what I say I’m going to do.

And when it comes to my clients, delivering on promises to friends and family, I’m pretty damn reliable.

When it comes to my own desires, goals and ambitions, I’m terrible at being accountable to myself.

I am going to finish that book, this year….next year….no the year after.

I’m going to eat healthier.

I’m going to look after myself.

I have great intentions and well laid out plans with big actions broken down into smaller ‘achievable’ tasks, but when it comes to the crunch I’m full of excuses for why I didn’t deliver on them.

I was busy with work, my family, I don’t have enough time or money, what if I fail…I should be doing [insert any task that’s for someone other than me] instead.

It’s time to hold myself to account. Continue reading “Are You the Person Holding Yourself Back? It’s Time to Hold Yourself to Account” →

Stuck in a Rut or a Funk? It’s Time to Reboot

Kylie Fennell

We all have those days, weeks or years even.

You’re stuck in a rut, or a funk that you just can’t escape from.

Maybe you feel like you have no energy, or so overwhelmed by the tasks ahead that you do nothing instead.

Or maybe you feel like you have lost your mojo.

I for one, have just come off an incredibly busy few months of refining my online marketing course and my small business resource site, where I set myself some very ambitious targets.

The great news is that I completed all the tasks I needed to do, but now I have fallen flat.

I know there is a bunch of things I should be doing now, but I feel a little deflated and the fuel tank is empty.

It’s time to reboot.

Continue reading “Stuck in a Rut or a Funk? It’s Time to Reboot” →

Risk Averse or Risk Taker – Why You Don’t Need to Choose

Kylie Fennell

There’s a great series of ads here in Australia from an insurance company featuring ‘Captain Risky’.

Captain Risky is a self-styled Evel Knievel wannabe who says: “I’ve always been drawn to risk – like a moth to an oxy-acety-lene flame”.

He performs crazy stunt after crazy stunt and has some epic fails along the way. Yet he goes on undeterred.

“One thing I do know is that sometimes you gotta go out on a limb – ‘cos that’s where the fruit is.”

There’s some real wisdom in that.

Sometimes you have to take a chance, take a risk – the magic happens outside your comfort zone, but what if you’re risk averse by nature…

Continue reading “Risk Averse or Risk Taker – Why You Don’t Need to Choose” →

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