OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
We all need mentors, and I have had many over the years … the vast majority indirectly through books, podcasts and online courses. Today, I'd like to introduce you to two of them and the book they have just released for writers, Write. Publish. Repeat.
I started out my journey online in the community of bloggers writing about online business, copywriting and internet marketing. In a world with some shady characters, a few people stood out as authentic and real.
Johnny B Truant and Sean Platt
I came across Johnny B Truant and Sean Platt when they wrote for Copyblogger, my long-time favorite blog on content marketing, and I've listened to Johnny's brand of kick-ass motivation for a while.
A few years back, Sean moved into writing fiction, collaborating with David Wright on dark horror serials … then Johnny joined them to start the Self-Publishing Podcast (which I highly recommend but it's not safe for work and contains strong language).
Sean and Dave have always had prodigious word count output, but the last 18 months have seen a transformation in Johnny. He has gone from a man who wrote one novel in 12 years (whilst working on other things), to writing and publishing several million words in the last year, with 8 new series published in 2013.
Seriously impressive stuff.
These boys kick my ass, and now they've written a fantastic book, so I want you to reap the benefit of the wisdom they share too! Here's some of what I consider the highlights from Write, Publish, Repeat:
The concept of the funnel
You need something to draw people in, but that something must then lead logically to something else readers will pay for.
So your first product in the funnel needs to be freely available, or very easily experienced. For example, a perma-free ebook as the first in the series. Johnny's example is the Realm & Sands free list, and I now have Pentecost as perma-free. It's had nearly 20,000 downloads in the last couple of weeks, and I can see the uptick in my email newsletter and also sales of the other books in the series.
If you don't have funnels, it's hard for readers to follow through your work. So my ARKANE series is obvious now – Pentecost is the wide open beginning as the first in the series, which logically leads through to the other books.
But I have just released Desecration, with no entry product, and a horror short story series, A Thousand Fiendish Angels – neither of these have a funnel. I am considering writing a little novella to prelude Desecration, as well as the sequel Delirium, for next year.
The thing is to think how people can progress through your books, hooking the reader into staying with you for a bit longer.
You must include calls to action
The back of your book is valuable real estate. When people have just finished your amazing work, what do you ask them to do next?
Your call to action at the back of the book should generally be one of these:
a) Drive people to the next book in the series
b) Ask people to sign up for your list
c) Ask for a review
I've been banging away about email lists for a long-time, mainly because I come from the same community as Johnny & Sean. You need an email list so that you can tell people about your next book, and you'll still be able to make an income even if Amazon, Kobo and all the rest of the booksellers disappear forever. It's great to hear this reiterated, and it is still my #1 recommendation for authors – get this sorted out!
Writing fast using beats
Johnny's transformation into a fiction writing machine has inspired me to write faster in 2014. There is a myth that writing slowly 
equals higher quality, but Dean Wesley Smith busted that one a while back! I've also read ‘The Beam,' one of Johnny & Sean's works and it's impressive writing, along with White Space from Platt & Wright, my favorite of the dark horror serials.
Essentially, the beats are a paragraph of description per chapter, an outline that enables the writer to KEEP WRITING and NOT STOP to think in the first draft phase. Things may change, but the writer never has to think, what shall I write next?
I do a basic outline at the moment, but it's usually about 10 scenes to get me started and then I re-plan after about 20,000 words, and then then replan again at 50,000. I have to stop a lot, and I don't want to keep doing that. So I will be trying the beats technique for 2014 and we'll see how it goes. Considering I have 8 creative projects on my wall for 2014, writing faster would really help!
A kick in the ass
This is not a ‘get-rich quick on Kindle' type of book. Which is good, as I wouldn't be recommending it to you if it was!
In fact, the book says, “you will have to work your ass off and endure many ups and downs if you want to make a full-time living from your writing.”
You may have noticed that I haven't got rich from my books as yet, very few authors do, but the focus of ‘Write, Publish, Repeat' is about how to work smarter, as well as harder.
As ever, it's simple, but it's not easy.
But the book illustrates that it is more about putting in the work now, with far more of a direct correlation between how many words you write and publish, and your income. In the past, however hard you worked, it was still a lottery of being chosen. Now there are so many more paths to success, and the writer who stays the path, can be successful. As Johnny says, “It's a true workman's paradise.”
This book is not for the faint of heart, or the hobbyist writer.
But I don't think you're in that category. If you are, you wouldn't be on my blog either!
Write, Publish, Repeat has inspired me to continue on the path, and believe me, I have my wobbly days. To be honest, it would be easier to get a day job again, but I believe that in the long-run, this is the career for me, and it has the potential to be a fantastic living … but we all have to treat it as a business, and do the work.
You can buy Write, Publish, Repeat here on Amazon, or here on Kobo.
Check out The Self Publishing Podcast here (but only if you don't mind bad language and naughty humor!)
Here's my interviews with the guys – and Johnny will be back on the podcast in 2014.
- Serial fiction with author entrepreneur Sean Platt (2011)
- Marketing non-fiction vs fiction with Johnny B Truant (2012)
- Writing serials and collaborative writing with David Wright (2013)
- Me on the Self-Publishing Podcast – Research, comparisonitis and being patient
Very interesting and impressive! This guys are soo productive! Definitely I´m going to follow their blog.
My experience with NaNoWriMo this year makes me realize: fast writing it is not equal to low quality, at least not for me. If I compare it with my slow writing/”well thinked” drafts, there is almost no difference , sure I have to edit a lot, but I´m okay with that, I have to do it anyway, and writing fast gives no chance to second guesses which is an issue to me.
It´s fantastic how your posts always came in right time for my writing needs, I mean, my biggest goal for the next year is to write and finish all my unfinished novels as fast and furious as I can! (and improve my english)
I’m always stunned that I can’t tell later which parts of my writing came in ‘flow’ and which parts were blood, sweat and tears. It doesn’t seem to impact the text in the end. The best thing is to have drafts to work with and shape, so yes, writing fast and editing to completion is a great goal for 2014.
Writing slowly sounds horrible. I think that myth must have been created by someone who didn’t want any competition. From what I’ve heard most authors write while seeing their scenes like clips from a movie. Writing slowly would be like watching a movie in slow motion and that sounds like you get the same product, but much slower, and perhaps with a little more fluffy prose that isn’t really needed everywhere. Maybe a better idea would be, “Write fast, edit slow.” Over-editing could also be a problem, but editing is the part that needs to be thorough.
Thanks for the post, Joanna.
A great summary and fascinating to read what you have taken from the book most. I can’t even comprehend what their daily word count target is (where’s my calculator). I also recommend that writers read Sean Platt’s ‘Writer Dad’. It hammers home the point of just how much hard work is required to be a writer. It’s a brave and honest insight into his journey as a writer. I have always respected the advice and work ethic of the SPP boys but after reading Writer Dad, I value the words of Write. Publish. Repeat even more.
Thank you so much for saying that Kerry. That is very, very sweet. 🙂
I enjoyed Writer Dad as well – makes me want to write something memoir-ish at some point 🙂
Great job! I’ve never been to your blog before but picked up WPR and am almost done with it. The SPP guys are a huge influence on the business side of my writing. I look forward to reading more from you. 🙂
Thanks so much for this Joanna. I loved it! 🙂
I have their book but haven’t cracked it open yet. I’m in the midst of revisions. I did NaNo for the first time this past November and I was scared to death before it began. Once I started writing, I was loving the fast pace. So I’ve definitely become a believer of fast drafting.
The funnel concept is another that I agree with. I’m working on getting something written that I can use as a forever free product for the newsletter and then a novella to use as a free product for my books.
Absolutely everyone seems to be talking about Write.Publish. Repeat. I can’t wait to get into!
The boys did a great job of launching – being everywhere on the net in one day 🙂
I totally understand the importance of writing fast, and my stories are perfectly organized inside my head so I’ve never experienced writer’s block (not that I have the writing background to really drive this point home) but the reason I can’t write fast is very objective: English is not my mother tongue. I know it enough to have a feeling of the word or expression I’m looking for, but my mind won’t grasp it until I see it in black and white. Enter Google. On the other hand, as an experienced translator with an ingrained profreader’s mentality, I strive for high quality, error-free language, so there you have it. If you guys are proud of yourselves when you write THE END, imagine how I feel 🙂
Regards from Greece!
Excellent post, Joanna. I appreciate how you’ve added your experience and results. Thank you!
Peace, Seeley
Brilliant review Joanna… I’m quite excited to start reading this – even though I’m writing non-fiction, I think some of the same principles apply and the great thing about speed is that you get to feel success early!
I’m so glad I found you, Joanna! I’m gearing up to self-publish my first erotic romance novella, and so I’m reading as much about how to do it right as I possibly can. I found you by reading _The Naked Truth_ and now I cannot wait to get my hands on _Write. Publish. Repeat._.
I’m not sure from your review if I understand the concept of the “beat” or not, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out once I get WPR. Thank you for giving aspiring/seasoned writers the tools we need to better understand the business side of writing.
Great breakdown! I’m in the middle of reading the book but it looks like I need to quickly finish it.
Hi Joanna, I have just finished Write. Publish. Repeat. it is such a brilliant book. Marketing my work as an Indie writer has always seemed like a mystery to me – they make it sound so simple – write more, funnel & CTA.
Inspired by the book, it have upped by word count and efficiency – I have purchased Scrivener (why did I not know about this before?) and I now use Dragon 12 for my first draft (a bit rough for fiction, but first drafts always are.)
One of my inspirations has been John Truby, so I have always used story beats, but using story beats in Scrivener is so much simpler.
Thanks to Johnny & Shaun, I’m turning writing from a hobby into a business, because they have shown me how to do it. #NJTravers