You’ve probably read articles about the importance of having good skills, being in the know and having a good network, but none of these matters if you don’t believe in yourself.

Of course, skills matter. Your network matters. Your relationship with other writers matter, but there is one thing that trumps every other, and this one thing is what it really takes to succeed online as a writer.

Here’s one quote that sums it all up:

“Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”? Bernard Baruch

Just take a look at that quote over and over again and it doesn’t take much effort to see what it really means.

The Importance of Having Self Confidence as a Writer

There’s one thing the most successful writers, the most successful bloggers, the most successful business people and even the most successful politicians have in common, that one thing is confidence.

Sometimes, the difference between succeeding as a writer and failing is the degree of self confidence you have in yourself.

Smart writers take action and are ready to stand up for each decision they make whereas mediocre writers take days and week to ponder on each idea before ever releasing it to the public. Smart writers confidently make mistakes and also embrace their mistakes and its solution with confidence, mediocre writers try as much as possible to avoid mistake and as a result hardly achieve anything. Smart writers confidently demand what they’re worth from clients while mediocre writers are afraid of asking “too much” because they think the offer will be going away soon.

It’s really all about having confidence about what you have to offer!

There Isn’t Perfectionism Anywhere

That project you’re working on would never be perfect, so why wait for it to be? Why ponder about releasing or improving it for weeks?

It’s natural. Our duty as a writer is to provoke. After all, can you really produce great work without provoking the emotion of others?

Confidence has nothing to do with perfectionism, it has everything to do with the realization that nothing you do will be perfect and standing up for everything you do.

You have very little time to produce great work, why obsess over what people think about what you know, then?

The foundation of life is based on what we think, our opinions. Just think about it, good and wrong. Everything that is good is good because people think it is, and everything that is wrong is wrong because people think it is so. Why then should you have to worry about what people think about your ideas? Why then should you have to worry about whether people agree with your ideas?

It’s all about knowing what you’re doing and being confident in yourself.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ready to accept your mistakes. There is a huge line between self-confidence and arrogance, and while it is very important to be confident about your work you should have an open mind towards what people think as well as be ready to improve.

This isn’t time to be perfect, it is time to stand up for what you believe in and deliver as much as you can on a consistent basis. Over time, you will be able to build your own audience that trust your voice and see you as an expert, you will be able to break new grounds in your writing, and hopefully, you will be able to create something really big that is a result of your confidence.

It doesn’t matter how many years of experience you have. It doesn’t matter how great your skills is. It doesn’t matter how many people you know. Nothing matters if you don’t believe in yourself.

What it really takes to succeed online is to believe in yourself. It is to have great self confidence that if anybody can, it is you.

Here are 3 ways to boost your self-confidence as a writer:

Building confidence as a writer is mostly emotional than physical. Reading every book and article on self confidence won’t suffice if you’re not mentally prepared.

1. Know YOU Can: Like I said above, gaining self confidence is mostly emotional than physical. The first step is to believe you can. Take a look at the most successful people doing the kind of writing that you do and you will notice that you’re no different from them. Of course, some of them might have a glamorous background, and it might seem like luck has its own part to play, but they all had to take one step. They all had to put their work out and that mostly has to do with self confidence on their part.

A huge part of being a writer – of sharing your ideas – is knowing that YOU can! If anyone can, it is YOU!

2. Surround Yourself with Positive People: I have noticed that the people I have around me, to a great extent, influence my mood for the day. Whenever I feel down or just can’t seem to get things done it mostly has to do with a problem at home or online. We are mostly a reflection of those we move it.

In most cases, you already have positive people around you who believe in you. These could be your family, your friends or even your mentors. If you don’t have them, find them. Sometimes, you have to pay for this. It doesn’t always have to be with your money, it could be with your time, your caring, your reciprocation or even moving away from your surrounding every once in a while to be around people who can motivate you.

Life is too short to be surrounded with negative people, and too much negativity isn’t good for a writer. Disconnect yourself from negative people, surround yourself with positive people and be open-minded.

3. Keep Striving to Improve: While self confidence isn’t necessarily dependent on your skills, constantly improving can go a long way to amplify your belief in yourself. A good writer will never be comfortable with stagnancy, and being on the same spot will only accelerate the depletion of your self confidence. Don’t be in the same spot for so long, always try to improve, always take new risks and try new things and you will always be proud to call yourself a writer.

How Do You Feel about Your Writing?

Are you confident about your stuff or are you still struggling? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.

Bamidele Onibalusi is a freelance writer and the founder of YoungPrePro.com. He recently released his free ebook, The Writer’s Handbook: How to Write for Traffic and Money, and you can download it at YoungPrePro.com. He also shares regular tips and resources for writers.

When you blog, creating content is the most important part of what you do.

Your content must be compelling, informative and valuable enough to be “tweeted,” “liked” and “plussed.” If it’s good enough, you’ll attract many inbound links as well.

Everyone says “Content is King,” and while that’s certainly true, there is no universally accepted metric for what it takes to make great content.

For many readers, it’s the message the content tries to convey. For some, it’s the music of the language and the way it’s written.

But it all boils down to the message you’re trying to communicate, which is why everyone IS a born writer.

If you can speak, you can write.

I am not a “born writer.” My writing sucked until I started blogging.

I am not saying my writing rocks right now. It’s not magazine quality. But it’s much better than when I started. And people always understand what I’m trying to say. I don’t use complex words.

But that doesn’t matter.

My readers appreciate my content and the value it provides. That’s the only thing that matters to me.

I don’t care if I break a few grammar rules, as long as readers understand my meaning. When I first started blogging, I tried to follow all the rules and it only restricted my writing. I took way more time to write articles and was constantly worried whether readers would rip apart my grammar.

It took time to realize that creating great content doesn’t necessarily mean writing articles in perfect English. Once I made this simple realization, my productivity shot through the roof. I was no longer scared of being a non-native writer.

The Only Reason You Are Not “Good Enough” Is Because You Believe It!

Yes, you will have to work hard to continuously improve, but you have the same shot as anyone else.

Here’s an interesting story about one of my friends.

He’s like me, a non-native writer. However, I am a computer science engineer and my friend has a Master’s in English literature.

I didn’t necessarily need to write for a living since I had a full time technical job at the time of this story. He was a freelance writer for a local newspaper which paid him approximately 5$ -10$ for a piece of published content.

When he found out I was making almost the same, and sometimes more than he was for content writing services over the web, he asked me how I was doing it.

I told him that web content writing is a hot money making opportunity online, and that if you could write decent English and find the right clients, there was good money to be made.

He said, “I am not so sure if I am good enough to write for people outside India.”

My English skills aren’t nearly as good as his, and yet he believed he wasn’t “good enough.” It’s these mental blocks that can prevent you from doing what you really want to do. My friend could make a killing writing for the web, if he chose to crash through his mental roadblock.

You can overcome the “I am not good enough mentality” forever.

Don’t overly obsess about grammar or writing style. If you try to mimic someone else, you will spend way too much time writing, and only end up with diminished results. That doesn’t mean you can produce mediocre content with terrible English and your readers will be OK with it, because they won’t.

You must have a good grip of the language. You don’t need to be an expert in it, your speaking voice is fine. Use that voice so that your writing is clear enough for readers to quickly grasp what you are trying to say without re-reading every sentence.

My articles have short paragraphs and I write in a conversational tone.

That isn’t how I used to write. I used to write in large blocks of chunky text, and my posts were far from conversational.

I’d often use words like one, person, individual, and so on instead of just saying YOU.

I took certain writing styles from other successful writers, then blended them with my writing. Now my writing reflects my personality. It’s who I am. If I tried to copy someone blindly, I doubt I would have made it more than 5 years blogging.

Start Improving Today

If you can speak, you can write. Follow these simple steps to get better:

• Understand the basics of grammar. Pay special attention to the proper use of punctuation. The Elements of Style is a must read for every writer.
• Always use spellcheck and proofread your post at least twice. You would be surprised at the number of errors you will find when proofreading your copy after taking a break.
• Read great writing blogs, analyze their writing style, and try to adopt a few of those styles to improve your posts.
• Realize that it’s OK to make mistakes. I see typos on even the best writer’s blogs.
• Write with passion and confidence. If others can do it, you can too.

Over to You:

I always like to walk the talk. This guest post is one prime example. I am pitching this to Ghost Writer Dad which is one of the finest writing blogs in the blogosphere. I am not sure if my grammar is perfect (to my knowledge it is, but I don’t know all the grammar rules myself).

Have you ever resisted pitching another person because you thought your language was not good enough? How did you overcome your internal resistance? Let me know in the comments.

Adarsh Thampy is a passionate blogger and advices small businesses on using content marketing strategies. While not doing SEO or writing, he loves to hang out on Twitter and you can follow him @conversionchamp.

Photo credit: Marie C Fields via Shutterstock

Traffic is one thing every writer online craves.

We all want to be read, we want clients to flock after us and we want our next book to be an instant bestseller. The reality is that, right from the beginning, writers have always thrived on the number of people who read their work and the impact it has on them, and they always will.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest writer with the best copywriting skill, you won’t have an impact unless your work is exposed to people.

The good news is marketing isn’t as difficult as it used to be and with the right approach, determination and zero dollars you can put your word in front of thousands of people and you can start making an impact from there. In this article I will be giving you some pointers on how to generate traffic as a writer without stressing yourself and without having to spend a dollar.

It’s Not all in the Numbers

Before we get started I’d like you to know that there’s a huge difference between numbers and traffic, just as there is a huge difference between having your own dedicated 1000 fans compared to having tens of thousands of people with little to no interest in your work.

Most people are surprised when they see thousands of people visiting another website and they start dreaming of getting the same. One thing I’ve realized after actively doing all I can to get people to visit my website for the past 2 years is that there’s a difference between getting traffic and getting traffic. While both spell and sound the same way, they are entirely different things.

Having a ton of people visit your website can be a great thing as a writer, but that should only be second on your list. Your number one commitment should be getting the right people to visit your work. In other words not just getting ordinary people to read your work, but getting committed people to read your work.

A committed reader is the one who will read your articles, purchase your books and tell every friend she has about your work. As a writer, it is that kind of reader you should focus on getting.

The Importance of a USP

Some people have the right people visiting their website but just can’t get them to take action. I struggled with this problem for a long period of time when I just started blogging. I was good at spreading the word about myself and generating traffic but I just couldn’t get those visitors to stay. No one saw me as an expert. They just saw me as that other guy who is everywhere that they should keep tabs on.

There are various kinds of people in our lives. There are the people who we trust, respect and look up to and there are people who we aren’t certain about and just keep tabs on so we don’t miss what is going on with them. We’re ready to do anything to support this first group of people but we mostly ignore or silently monitor the second group. The key to being in the first group to your readers is to have a clearly defined USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

Just think about any topic you want to write about today and there are probably thousands of other blogs online on the same subject. Most of these blogs use the same marketing tactics as you and as a result it can be difficult to stand out amongst them. The solution in this case is to ask yourself this question, “If 1,000 other blogs are listed alongside mine will my readers still read mine?”

A USP is something that distinguishes your blog from that of everybody else online. It could be an approach with which you tackle each topic. It could be that you’re focusing on a very specific group of a larger group in your niche. And it could be the way you handle and interact with your readers. Either way, there must be something you’re doing that no other blog in your niche is doing and this thing should be your USP. It should be your winning difference.

Developing a Funnel

Once you’ve defined and tested your USP the next step is to develop a funnel. Marketing is important, but the question is what are you marketing? Are you just flushing your marketing efforts down the drain or do you have a tested system focused on helping you get the same person to visit your blog over and over again?

The main purpose of a funnel is to keep the same person visiting your blog over and over again and it can be through many medium. Just imagine if you’re able to get 2 out of every 10 people who visit your blog to return over and over again you will be able to achieve critical mass over time; couple that with effective word of mouth marketing from them and you’ll hit it big. Of course, it takes more effort than just to explain it, but not having a funnel is even more dangerous.

Your funnel can be in many forms. It could be a mailing list, an RSS feed, social media profiles or any other system that allows you to repeatedly keep in touch with your website visitors.

Your funnel has just one aim: To get people to visit your blog over and over again. You might want to be creative and look for something that really stands out, but at the time of writing this the three prevalent kinds of funnel are email lists, RSS feeds and social networks. You will be driving traffic to your blog and will do everything to get as many people from your blog to join your funnel. In other words, if your main funnel is an email list, the focus of your blog should be on getting as many people as possible to subscribe to your email list after visiting your blog.

Go Out There!

It might not be comfortable or as easy as you think but there is no other way. This isn’t what a lot of writers love to hear but I’m afraid there isn’t an alternative.

Once you’ve put your “home” in order you still have to go outside and recruit people to come check you out. You need to connect with other bloggers. You need to connect with reporters. And you need to try to get in touch with your readers, wherever they are online. Based on my own experience, below are top places where you can always find people to visit your website. Of course, you will have heard of most of them before, but they work nevertheless.

Other Blogs: Anytime you think about your niche, you think about a particular blog. And every time you think about that blog, you think about several related blogs in your niche. Those are the top blogs in your niche. Your main aim should be to build a relationship with the owners of these blogs and leverage your relationship with them to get more people to visit your blog. It could be by getting them to interview you. It could be by commenting on the blog regularly. Or it could be by writing a guest post for them. Personally, my favorite approach is guest blogging because it does two things: It helps you build a relationship with the owner of the blog while exposing your work to their audience. If you’re new to the concept of guest blogging, you can check out my guest blogging guide for more info.

Online Forums: A lot of people think forums are outdated, but they still work. There are several forums in your field with hundreds of thousands of people using them and most of these people visit these forums every day in search of new information. In other words, they need an expert to lead them.

Visit Big-boards.com to search for the top forums in your niche based on keywords and categories. Look for a section closely related to your niche and start being as helpful as you can be in that section. Treat it just as your blog and make yourself known in that section. Also make sure a link to your website and a little description of who you are and what you do is included and you will be able to get more people to learn about you. Forum users are usually very passionate and you will be able to give your website a traffic boost, if you can gain their respect and support.

Video Sites: I know this is a little off from writing, but I can assure you it works. Multimedia is quickly becoming the top way for people to consume content online and you can leverage this as a writer. Of course, you can keep on writing your books and articles on your blog, but producing a few videos and distributing them online to build your reputation and traffic won’t hurt every once in a while.

The cool thing about videos is that you can submit the same video to hundreds of sites without having to worry about duplicate content while still gaining additional exposure in the process.

If you’re looking to go the video route, here’s a list of some top video streaming sites to help you get started.

Document Sharing Sites: The final option is to package your content for distribution on document sharing sites. The good news about this option is that it takes little effort to implement; you can easily write a quality report for distribution in a few hours and you can, as well, package some of your blog posts and turn them into a document to be distributed. Make sure you’re well introduced in the beginning and end of each document while at the same time including a link for readers to visit your blog. You can also submit the same document to multiple sites for maximum effect. Here’s a list of 29 document sharing sites to help you get started.

Don’t Make this Mistake

I’ve noticed that it is quite simple to generate traffic and build an audience, but one mistake most writers make is ignoring their audience. Your readers will always be hungry for new content. And in the online world, your website will only thrive on content. The more quality content you can pump out, the more trust you will gain from your readers and the more likely they are to spread the word about you.

Your writing helps connect you with your audience, it keeps them in the loop and ensures they don’t forget about you. The more of your content you give them the more they are likely to stay with you, so make sure you keep them updated.

Bamidele Onibalusi is a young blogger, writer and the founder of YoungPrepro.com, a blog that teaches people how to write for traffic and money. Make sure you follow him on Twitter via @YoungPrePro.

John discusses his writing process, what it’s like writing indie versus with big publishing houses, and gives tips for ghostwriters and journalists in this week’s Eight Questions.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your series, LS9, which kicks off with Hope Road.

I’ve written in different genres under my own name, but principally literary fiction. I won the Paris Review’s Plimpton/Discovery Prize back in 2002, and that led to a couple of books with HarperCollins, then one with Farrar. Straus & Giroux. In the meantime I’ve worked as a ghost writer, doing some kids’ fiction and, over the last four years, a mammoth project for conceptual artists goldin+senneby, including all sorts of writing activities (and some amateur sleuthing!) and finishing up with the financial thriller HEADLESS, which we’re editing now.

LS9 is a series that revolves around a criminal family. John Ray, my main protagonist, has tried to avoid the criminal life of his father and brother (both career criminals). The series aims to explore just how difficult it is to separate oneself from that sort of environment. In HOPE ROAD John Ray finds himself involved in a murder enquiry, and his family connections become invaluable as he tries to solve the case himself.

I might add that part of my interest in criminal families stems from the discovery last year that an uncle of mine had been an arms dealer and thief (he was found dead on a plane, his throat cut). This set me off thinking about criminals and families, as you can imagine…

2. What is your writing process like?

I begin with a simple idea. With HOPE ROAD I had a very basic notion about the concealment of counterfeit money, nothing more. Then I play around with it, add more ideas, see how different characters might fit into the plot. I start writing things down, and as the file begins to grow, I go over it again and again, each time refining and changing what’s already there, and adding more. In the end there’s the essence of a plot, and at that stage I print everything out and tape the chapter summaries to the bookshelves in my office. I pace up and down, scribbling new notes on the pages and generally improving and deepening things until I’m ready to write. All this takes about two months, working 4-5 hours each morning.

3. How did you approach writing the series that was different from your prior work?

First off, I got to know several police detectives, one of whom actually works in the very department I describe in the book. I was also fortunate to get a contact which eventually led to a professional money counterfeiter. I met him only once, but learned a lot about counterfeiting, which features in HOPE ROAD. This hands-on kind of research is new to me, and I quite enjoy it. However, the third book in the LS9 series is going to be about the Chinese triads, and I don’t know how on earth I’m going to research that!

4. Tell us about your experiences with the big six publishers and what made you go indie?

I’ve been published in the US by two of them (HC and FSG) and loved it. I fully intended to seek a traditional book deal for HOPE ROAD, but as I was finishing the final draft I just fancied giving the self-pubbing route a try. Publishing is in something of a crisis at the moment, and I reckon now is as good a time as any to try something new.

5. What are some of the biggest differences you’ve noticed between traditional publication and indie?

There’s no editor! I was lucky to have editorial support from an agent who had also been an editor, but if I didn’t have that, it would cost a lot to hire out. Then there’s the cover art, the proof-reading, the ebook conversion… The costs can really add up. The plus side is that your book does not have to make a splash immediately. I can continue promoting HOPE ROAD right up to the launch of the next book, which will be in December.

6.You’re also a ghostwriter and journalist, what tips do you have for other writers looking to get succeed in these fields.

Stake out a clearly defined area. For journalism, my area is food. I don’t really push myself much because I like to treat it more as a hobby. But if I was more serious, I’d get a blog going, contribute guest posts elsewhere, generally create a name for myself. Be an expert.

7. What themes do you find yourself returning to in your fiction, and what draws you to them?

Well, food has featured in all the books that I’ve published under my own name. Food unites people, it speaks about culture and shared experience. It excites and stimulates and satisfies… I can’t imagine writing anything with at least *some* food in it!

8. If you could go back in time to when you first began writing, what advice would you give yourself that would’ve been most helpful?

Learn more about the book business, and accept that it is not always logical or fair (or reasonable). Meet other writers in a similar position to you and share experiences. Get out more! Writing is very lonely, and it can send you insane. Set aside some time each week to walk away from your writing and do something different.
Contact John:

John’s website

Twitter

Facebook

HOPE ROAD:

Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, B & N, iTunes, Sony, Kobo

Those that live inside your writing, and those that attack some flaw in your writing.

The first are legitimate errors drawing targets on your writing. The second are those letting the arrows fly.

In whatever form (human or not, fair or not, mean or not), grammar trolls attack with abandon, hacking a writer’s good name and best efforts to mush.

So, how do you approach writing and editing in a manner that neutralizes the threats of grammar trolls?

With an offensive strategy, the only effective way to win a war with grammar tolls.

It’s time for us writers and editors to fight back.

1. Attack with Uncomplicated Language

Verbose writing is a grammar nightmare waiting to happen.

Misplaced modifiers. Unnecessary adverbs. Inappropriate punctuation. Erroneous linking verbs. Run on sentences. Dangling participles. You get the idea.

Complicated styles invite grammar mistakes to wreak havoc throughout your writing. That’s where grammar trolls aim their critiques, hit their bulls-eyes, and harvest their pleasure.

Never give them that opportunity.

Simplify everything.

This may sound overly nuclear. It’s not. Simple language diffuses most would-be grammar bombs from detonating your content. Precision is the most effective method forpenetrating the hearts and minds of your readers.

Dan Zarrella agrees, writing in his popular book Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas…

“the use of flowery, adverb-adjective laden language was related to lower sharing rates.”

Dan cements his conclusion by citing advice from Strunk and White’s Elements of Style:

“Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place … it is nouns and verbs, not their assistants, that give good writing its toughness and color.”

Simply put: uncomplicated language puts you on the offensive – the strong, winning position to be in.

2. Lean Forward with Active Voice

Passive voice is nails on a chalkboard for grammar trolls. They can hear it from miles away and descend upon it like vultures diving onto a rotting corpse.

That’s suicide for a writer.

Active voice is your savior, allowing you to lean forward into your writing.

What’s the difference between passive voice and active voice?

According to Grammar Girl (more on her soon)…

“In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action…In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position.”

Here’s a third grade example:

AV: Jimmy threw the ball.

PV: The ball was thrown by Jimmy.

See the difference?

Feel the difference?

Active voice fuels your words with momentum, and imbues your content with powerful authority and bold confidence. Passive voice, by contrast, is a puny weakling begging for abuse from bully grammarians.

Get assertive. Lean forward. Write with active voice.

3. Fight Fire with Fire by Studying Grammar

Sometimes, you must fight fire with fire.

Picture this: you receive an unfair grammar critique from some troll. Most writers wouldn’t know it was unfounded, and thus take the pummeling.

But not you.

You’ve studied grammar. So, you unleash your grammar IQ in response, (kindly) pointing out their flaw and referencing a credible source to back up your retort.

Boom! Writer 1; Grammar Troll 0.

Studying grammar isn’t as dry as it seems. It can be fun, if you know where to go and whom to listen to.

Grammar Girl is my grammar guru of choice. I quickly search her site whenever I need to refresh my memory on some fuzzy grammar rule or debunk some long held but inaccurate myth.

Grammar Girl is awesome for her fun mnemonics and other clever memory tricks that will have your grammar IQ soaring in no time. Here’s a prime example:

“Still having a hard time remembering [the difference between who and whom]?

“Here’s my favorite mnemonic: If I say, “I love you,” you are the object of my affection, and you is also the object of the sentence (because I am loving you, making me the subject and you the object). How’s that? I love you. You are the object of my affection and my sentence. It’s like a Valentine’s Day card and grammar mnemonic all rolled into one.”

Here’s the secret about grammar rules: they aren’t all “rules.”

Many so-called rules are guidelines subject to context and style. That leaves open a wide range of interpretations, a pretty invite for grammar carpet bombers.

Arm yourself with the ammunition you need to defend your good writing if a grammar troll decides to strike.

4. Divide And Conquer Your Writing From Your Editing

Writing and editing activate different parts of the brain. That means it’s impossible to optimize either when trying to do both.

Even if you’re using uncomplicated language and active voice, grammar (and spelling) errors can still sneak through if you don’t divide and conquer your writing from your editing.

Where should you start your conquest?

First, develop your own cadence to involve iterative cycles. Write in a 90 minute block, followed by a 90 minute editing block. Rinse and repeat.

Second, experiment with writing and editing on alternating days. If you’re a full-time writer/editor, this may be best as you have the time to submerge yourself into the deep ends of both.

Third, get other sets of eyes on your writing. Hire a professional editor. Or get peer reviewers or beta readers to spot-check your writing. Allies are invaluable in the war against grammar trolls.

In the end, grammar victory goes to those who want it the most.

If you’re a serious writer, you know what you must do. You must take the grammar force seriously, or it will crush you.

You could write the most epic saga or persuasive argument in history and still find your influence muted by an avalanche of grammar critiques ranging from the acute (e.g. she can’t use a comma to save her life) to the generally sinister (e.g. his writing is unprofessional and unworthy of mainstream attention).

The game is on. The stakes are high. What say you?

1. Your books use aspects of religion as the basis for their stories. How have readers reacted to that? 

I am personally fascinated by religion and actually have a Masters degree in Theology so I have studied in depth. It’s been a continued interest of mine and I’ve read and travelled widely to learn more. I find that religious story and myth are already deeply rooted in our society and that resonates with people even if they don’t believe in a specific faith.

From a commercial perspective I think Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code was so popular because it connected with something people already knew about. So I wanted to tap a similar theme, taking religious ideas and using them as the basis for action-adventure thrillers.

Generally, people have taken the religious aspects as entertainment and also some education as I try to use real places and existing objects. Prophecy features the Devil’s Bible which is actually a real medieval book, and Pentecost involves a search for the bones of the Apostles, again based on truth.

I have the greatest respect for believers but at heart, I am writing fiction. Some people think the books aren’t Christian enough but I want to entertain and make you think. No preaching, more action!

2. Some of your reviews have said you write like a man because you focus on action/ adventure and have some violent scenes. What do you think of this gender bias for thriller/ action-adventure books? 

Amusingly, these comments have come from people who ‘know me’ from my blog. I am a happy, positive, upbeat person, passionate about creating and writing and I’m always smiling on my videos and podcasts. It seems a long way from burning a nun alive on the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi (Pentecost) or sacrificial murder in the bone church of Sedlec in the Czech Republic (Prophecy). But I don’t think the two are incompatible and my books are still definitely thriller, rather than horror.

It’s the writer’s responsibility (and joy) to investigate the things at the edge of what’s acceptable in society. It’s also important to deliver on the promise to the reader and thrillers are always high stakes, fast paced romps. Body count is mandatory. I write what I love to read and so there needs to be plenty of bodies.

In saying all that, I’m actually reinventing myself as J.F. Penn in order to take advantage of being gender neutral to avoid these types of comments! There is also some evidence that male readers prefer male writers so going with initials instead of the full name is often something female thriller writers do in order to level the field. Think CJ Lyons, MJ Rose, JT Ellison and more.

3. Your books race through amazing global locations including famous churches and creepy ossuaries. Have you been to all these places and what’s your obsession with scene setting?

Travel is one of my obsessions and I have been to a lot of the places I write about over the last 20 years. Jerusalem in particular is a muse for me and I’ve been there 11 times. It’s woven into both thrillers and will return again. Certainly I’ll be needing another research trip there soon!

In writing my books, I actually start with the idea and then look at places that resonate with the theme. When I was gathering ideas for Prophecy, I went to the Paris catacombs and I knew that bones and ossuaries would be a great atmospheric thread. It turned out that the Devil’s Bible had been kept at the bone church of Sedlec in the middle ages and then I found the mummy crypt of Palermo in Sicily, both awesome locations.

As a reader, I love to learn about new places and descriptions of setting make a difference to the atmosphere of the book. In the writing process, I often plot the book by location rather than by plot on the first pass. One of the important elements for action-adventure is the movement and pacing so fantastic scene locations are critical, and amazingly fun to write!

4. You also use a lot of art history in the books. How do you bring these layers into what is a fast paced story? 

My muse is European and I love to bring the layers of religion, architecture, history and art into the books. Again, it’s about learning as well as experiencing as you read. In Prophecy, art history became more of a dominant theme. Morgan Sierra, the protagonist, has to research how the apocalyptic imagery of the Four Horsemen might have been passed down. I could therefore indulge my passion for William Blake (also widely used by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon and the Hannibal Lecter books).

I also like to set expectations for my readers and have little surprises for those people interested in art history as I am. The Director of ARKANE always has a painting in his office. In Prophecy, it’s Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross which is one of my favorites. Using art is all about resonance and deepening the experience of the book.

5. Joe Konrath recently came out with an article questioning the value of publicity. What have you found works for book marketing? 

I do agree that marketing fiction is different to non-fiction. My first novel, Pentecost, has sold over 16,000 copies which is much more than could be accounted for by my personal platform. Those sales came from Amazon marketing it which in turn was based on rankings over time, the right category and reviews, all of which Konrath cite as more important that blogging or PR.

However, I believe the initial impetus for my sales came from my launch process, review gathering and continual marketing which have kept the ball rolling over almost a year now. My site, The Creative Penn, is for writers, not readers, but I also have a business associated with that and I’m more of an author-entrepreneur. I speak and sell online courses as well as consult with people so my income is not just from fiction, as Joe’s is. As I write more books, the focus will shift but for now, I need multiple income streams.

People who are starting out in indie publishing should definitely focus on the basics first. Write a good book, then pay for a great cover and professional editing. But getting reviews can often be easier if you have already started building a platform. I do now have JoannaPenn.com which is aimed more at my fiction readers and I’ll be building that over time. But we rarely find out how people hear about our books so I guess we all just have to keep trying!

6. Your blog, The Creative Penn was recently voted one of the Top 10 blogs for Writers on Write To Done. What’s the best thing about blogging for you? 

Blogging changed my life! Seriously. I spent many years being blocked creatively and not writing. Blogging for the last 3 years has enabled me to

1. Write regularly on different subjects and become faster and more confident at creation
2. Connect with amazing, like-minded people who have given me confidence to write. I do a weekly podcast which is an interview with a writer/ publisher/ book marketer. I did one with Sean last year on writing serialized fiction.
3. Create a business that enabled me to leave IT consulting to become an author-entrepreneur.
4. Help other people by sharing lessons learned along the way
5. Create a foundation for my fiction platform as at least some of my blog readers enjoy my fiction as well

It’s best to go into blogging with a goal other than making money though. Sharing what you learn along your personal journey is a popular way to start. It takes a lot of time and effort to build but it’s definitely worth it!

7. Why did you self-publish your books and what are your goals for your career?

Four years ago I wrote a career change book, How To Enjoy Your Job…Or Find A New One. It was the book I needed to write to unblock a lot of things in my own life and it started me down the road I’m now on. I did query that book and received one rejection. I didn’t like the negativity that surrounded the process so I was determined to do it myself. That’s when I started to learn about self-publishing and everything indie.

So when I decided to write fiction, I didn’t even consider traditional publishing. I know what I can do on my own and I believe that it’s better to attract attention through great sales, than to go ‘cap in hand’ and beg for it.  I like the Hocking, Locke and Konrath models where they were offered deals after creating success themselves. Konrath is publishing with Amazon directly now which would definitely be the best outcome in terms of what sales they can achieve with the global platform. So my goals are to continue to write great fiction and indie publish for now and see what happens. I’m not chasing a book deal and I love the empowerment and freedom to create indie gives us!

8. Your book Prophecy has just come out. Tell us more about it. 

Here’s the blurb:

The prophecy in Revelation declares that a quarter of the world must die and now a shadowy organization has the ability to fulfill these words. Can one woman stop the abomination before it’s too late?

From the catacombs of Paris to the skeletal ossuaries of Sicily and the Czech Republic, Morgan Sierra and Jake Timber must find the Devil’s Bible and stop the curse being released into the world before one in four are destroyed in the coming holocaust. Because in just seven days, the final curse will be spoken and the prophecy will be fulfilled.

My novels have been described as Dan Brown meets Lara Croft with a splash of Indiana Jones. Prophecy is the 2nd in the ARKANE series. If you like an impending apocalypse with a race against time to stop a curse reaching mankind, you’ll enjoy the book. It has 16 reviews averaging 4.5 stars on Amazon right now and is $2.99. It can be read as a stand-alone novel but the prequel Pentecost is only 99c on the Kindle if you fancy trying it out as well.

Thanks for having me guys!

Have a question for Joanna? Leave a comment below.

Joanna Penn writes about writing and publishing at  The Creative Penn. You can follow Joanna on twitter @thecreativepenn   

At Ghostwriter Dad, editor Matt Garland challenged readers to boil their product, business, or story down to just three words. We also interviewed author Jeff Goins, about his writing habits, his recent book deal, and his most important piece of advice for new writers.

Big news of the week: The comic provider Graphicly is making news this week with what could be competition to Apple’s recently announced iBooks Author, which is drawing criticism for restricting content made with its software to Apple’s store. Graphicly is offering a service to create comic books, graphic novels, children’s books, photo books, cook books, and pretty much anything graphic-heavy, which you can upload to the major services or sell directly on your website or Facebook via widgets. IGN Comics interviewed the company’s CEO and founder Micah Baldwin about the new service, which seems to have some spiffy sharing and analytics features that give authors and publishers more information and interaction with readers.

One “AMEN HALLALUJAH” quote from the interview we love is this one:

“There is something fundamentally wrong when a publisher or author is spending their time and money marketing a middleman versus their own brand. It should be “come to MY website. MY Facebook Page. Come see MY books. Not go to Graphicly or some other app. Authors and publishers should be spending their time marketing and promoting their own brands, not providing free marketing to middlemen” – Micah Baldwin

We should have posted this last week, but it’s still relevant. You’d think that author and indie writing hero J.A. Konrath gets a lot of sales because of his popular blog on self-publishing, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, right? Think again. Check out his great post on the value of publicity versus the value of writing. Guess which wins. This is a must-read.

Publishers Weekly has a rundown of some of the discussions that went on during the last day of Digital Book World this year, including how publishers’ attempts to stay relevant and seek new revenue streams. Publishers Weekly also talked about the battle between librarians and publishers over eBook lending.

Chuck Wendig posted 25 Things Writers Should Know About Agents at Terrible Minds.

Why did Breakout indie writing star Amanda Hocking turn Amazon’s book deal down? She discussed that, and the $2 million dollar deal she did sign, in an interview with Futurebook.

Catherine Ryan Howard has a hilarious post about how some reviewers take things a bit too literal. I feel bad that she’s putting up with such dumb comments and reviews, but it makes for such a funny post (and story to tell) that it had to be worth it. (update: I sent Catherine some new “literal” covers, which she posted on her blog today. Check them out — after you read her first post)

At Write To Done, David Masters of Inkably did a guest post on the secret to writing secrets of prolific authors (surprisingly, it’s not an IV drip of caffeine), in which he quoted our own Sean Platt.

David Gaughran had two great posts on editing this week at his blog. Self-Editing: Back to Basics, Part I – Guest Post by Karin Cox and Edit Like A Pro: Guest Post by Harry Bingham

Speaking of David Gaughran, he was interviewed on the subject of indie empowerment by Joanna Penn (who is also the upcoming Eight Questions subject this week) for her podcast, which you can check out here.

What stories are you talking about this week?

Photo by Ashley Goins, courtesy of Jeff Goins

Jeff Goins is the man behind the popular writing blog, Goins, Writer. Jeff is a writer who believes that “words matter and communication can change the world.” Born and raised in Illinois. Several years ago, he moved to Tennessee to “see about a girl.” He now lives with his wife in Nashville with their dog, Lyric, and are expecting their first child.

We interviewed Jeff about his writing habits, his recent book deal, and the role of social media in writing.

1 – You had a great 2011 – growing a popular writing blog, guest posting regularly in high profile places, and you recently signed a book deal. What are your goals for 2012?

I don’t do goals. At least, not this year. I spent five years setting goals, making resolutions, and demonstrating other forms of insanity without ever seeing any fruit. I was deceiving myself. I was dreaming. 2011 was so great for me, because I didn’t set any expectations and didn’t talk about what I was going to do. I just started writing. Every day. No matter what. Without excuse. And in the process, I created some habits that are staying to pay off — in terms of a book contract and other cool stuff happening. My hope for 2012 is to continue the habits I started last year and start a few others — namely, focusing more on long-term writing and not getting so distracted by the Internet. Eventually, I’d like my writing and speaking to pay the bills. I don’t know how far off that is and am not completely in control of that. So I’m just doing what I can with today, enjoying the process, and trusting the outcome.

2 – You say you struggled with thinking of yourself as a writer. What are some of the ways you’ve gotten past your insecurities? What steps have you taken over the years to make yourself a better writer?

It was actually pretty sudden. Steve Pressfield calls this “turning pro” and can vividly remember when it happened for him. I can relate. A year ago, a friend asked me what my dream was. My reply was this: “I’d like to be a writer some day.” He laughed at me (because he had read my writing) and said, “You don’t have to dream of being a writer. You are a writer. You just have to write.” So I started writing. I’ve been calling myself a writer ever since.

There is a second part to this, though — the insecurity of the writer’s life, of creating and sharing your work and always wondering if people will discover you for the fake that you are. That fear haunts me regularly. So I try to overcome it by treating the craft with respect. I read a lot (books, not just blogs), practice regularly, and look for feedback. Plus, I have a really affirming wife, which helps.

3 – What is your writing and production schedule like?

I laugh when people ask me how I’m productive. If I see a shiny light, you’ve lost me. The bottom line for me is this: Productivity methods only work if I trick myself into them. No amount of discipline or diligence can make me do what I don’t want to do. So I have to find ways that to do what I must that feel immediately gratifying. An example of that is writing my first book. Pushing out a 500-word blog post every day is easy for me. I can procrastinate and rush to finish at the last minute. But not with a 40,000-word manuscript. If I don’t write for months, I’m screwed when the deadline arrives. So I started setting daily and weekly goals and blocking out an hour per day to meet them. Naturally, I’d still wait until the last minute, but I always met the goal. I would sometimes have to make myself coffee or listen to a certain type of music, but the one promise I made to myself was that I couldn’t leave the desk without having written (even if I wasted the first forty-five minutes and rushed to meet my goal in the last fifteen minutes).

My methods are kind of ridiculous and probably wouldn’t help anyone else, but they work for me. I also don’t have a “production schedule.” I just try to write every day. I am always capturing ideas, so I never feel like I’m starting from scratch — I’m always tweaking something. I think for me the thing is I just love the act of writing. It’s not about production or productivity (although I respect a good deadline); it’s the fact that I love creating things with words. I’m always finding an excuse to write and share what I’ve written.

4 – How much of a role does social media play in writing success these days?

Gosh, I’m not sure. Certainly, you can look at authors who are succeeding without it, but I think it provides a resource that wasn’t here even ten years ago. For me, it’s been invaluable. My blog (amplified by networks like Twitter and Facebook) has been invaluable for me finding a group of people who resonate with my voice and want to hear what I have to say.

For people who want to write books, you’ll need some kind of a platform (if you actually want to sell something) and social media can help you do that — essentially, for free. I wouldn’t have a book or an audience without it.

5 – You recently announced that you signed a book deal. Can you tell us a bit about the book and how the deal came about?

Sure. The book’s called Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life. It came about in a kind of odd way. The book was inspired by the work that I do with missionaries — how they go into the developing, gain a new paradigm, and have trouble fitting into how life used to be.

However, as I began to share these stories and this process of “getting wrecked,” I hear other people having similar experiences — not just overseas but in our own backyards. So I thought I’d write a book to describe the process and why I think everyone needs to get wrecked by a need bigger than themselves. With all the self-help garbage out there, I figured this would be the opposite: how to find your life’s purpose in the broken, ugly, dirty places of the world.

I wrote a short manifesto about this for ChangeThis.com a few years ago, but it wasn’t very popular. When my blog started to grow this past year, I went ahead and posted the link to that manifesto on my resources page (http://goinswriter.com/resources/). A month or so later, a publisher found it, read it, and contacted me. We’re now turning it into a book.

The process itself went really quickly. They made me an offer, I decided to get an agent, we signed the contract, and I got a deadline. It’s been a lot of fun, as I don’t know much about traditional publishing, so I’m chalking the whole experience up as education.

6 – A lot of writers, us included, blog about writing. It’s what we’re interested in and it appeals to other writers. Yet many authors don’t want to write about writing. And some simply want to write more to their fiction audiences. How does a writer find the right niche that fits their readership?

That’s a good question and one I have myself. My friends who are fiction writers are all struggling to reach their audiences online. Those who are struggling less are writing about writing.

I agree that you don’t want to just write for other writers, but I do think there is merit to reaching people who can help you reach other people. Bloggers are an excellent example of this.

My thought is this: Find a niche, and reach it. But don’t feel like you have to be stuck there. On occasion, I’ve veered off topic on my blog, and my audience has really enjoyed the content I’ve shared. I’m learning that for them, it’s not so much about the subject; it’s about the voice, the worldview. That’s why they read my writing (I think). And it’s certainly why I read other writers.

The trick is finding what initially resonates with people (because just writing about everything doesn’t) and gradually honing your voice through that process. That’s what I’m trying to do, anyway.

7 – If you collaborate with any writer, living or dead, who would you choose and why.

Ernest Hemingway. I aspire to be like him. I want to learn how to be punchier. He would help me. (And then it rained.)

8 – What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting out in self-publishing?

Be generous. Don’t underestimate the importance of giving away your work for free. It will surprise and delight people, and you may instantly find an audience. Then, you can build on that and release other work (not for free). I’ve tried to build my entire platform on generosity — giving away all kinds of ideas, opportunities, and services for free. Sure, it’s been costly, but it’s also paid off tremendously well. Every time I ask something from my audience (which doesn’t happen very often), they are always so receptive.

Helping people — whether you write fiction or nonfiction — is the best way to build a reputation and draw an audience that will stick with you.

Check out Jeff Goins’ eBooks, Every Writer’s Dream and Before Your First Book now at:  http://goinswriter.com/get-published If you use the promo code “stopstalling” this week, you can save $2 off the already great price!

Check out Jeff’s blog at  Goins, Writer. Or follow him on Twitter @jeffgoins

Got a question or comment for Jeff? 

Leave it in the comments below.

Can you clearly state your opinion on a specific subject in three words?

Such brevity is extremely difficult. It requires surgical precision, and a sharpness of grit, brains and persistence. Most importantly, it demands an authentic and deep understanding of whatever it is you’re attempting to explain.

I’m fascinated by this “three words” exercise of over-exaggerating the need to simplify our thinking, and thereby our expressions. Like scientific curiosity; if we can understand the building block elements (e.g. atoms) of a creation, we can understand its many parts and advanced forms.

The riches of thought-leadership and persuasion go to those who can achieve this acute level of thinking and expression.

Which brings us to you.

You want your writing to penetrate deeper into the hearts and minds of your readers. Whether you’re pitching a product, selling a service or entertaining imaginations, your writing must be born from core elements and clear meaning.

Do you know what those are for you?

That’s the challenge: Describe your writing’s purpose in three words. There are no “rules” other than a word-count of three, no more and no less.

For my editing business, its purpose is: winning reader loyalty.

I’ve shared mine. Now share your three words in the comments.

Also, for bonus points, I’m curious to know what you think lies ahead for the future of books. Share your vision in three words.

My vision for the future of books? Reader commissioned stories.

What’s yours?

At Ghostwriter Dad, we had a guest post from Betsy Talbot in which she delivered 3 Strategies to Better Market Your eBook, we interviewed author David Gaughran: Eight Questions: Interview With David Gaughran, and Sean made the case for really bad music with his post, LMFAO: Context is EVERYTHING.

Elsewhere on the web:

Apple is making a huge splash in the self-publishing world with its new iBook Author program, designed to help you create feature-rich eBooks on your mac. (We’re excited here at Ghostwriter Dad!) Check out Mashable’s hands-on review. Also check out this story at the Los Angeles Times. Macworld also has an in-depth look at iBook Author, and a podcast regarding Apple’s Education event where iBook Author was unveiled.

One small problem with the iBook Author program . . . it doesn’t let you sell your creations anywhere other than iBooks. Check out this post calling out Apple for its audacity. (In other words, don’t give up your other eBook authoring tools. We love Scrivener!)

Jonathan Fields posed a question about the future of publishing at Tribal Authors, Publishing Chicken: Who’s Gonna Blink First?

The Creative Penn has a great interview with fantasy author Michael Sullivan chock full of great advice from the author who had given up on writing after 10 years of rejection, only to find success when he applied what he’d learned in those 10 years! Check out the interview in audio or video here. Writing Epic Fantasy And Being A Pro Author With Michael Sullivan

Bubble Cow has a free tutorial showing you How to Write a Fiction Book Proposal.

David Gaughran has a confession – his latest book wasn’t selling too well. What did he do? Find out here and apply some of these tips to your book: Why Is My Book Not Selling?

Andrew Sullivan dishes on the publishing industry, what’s wrong with it, and what some people are doing right in this video. He followed up with a letter from Tim Anderson, who wrote Tune In Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries. Tim talks about the hell he went through trying to sell his book, how he eventually self-published, then attracted a great review in Publisher’s Weekly, which then got him a book deal with Amazon (even though his self-published book was NOT a bestseller.) Check Tim’s story out here.

Got any thoughts on this week’s news or news that we missed? Leave a comment below.

See you next week with more writing and self-publishing news, tips, and interviews.