Lindsay - January 30, 2020This week, non-fiction and thriller author, creative entrepreneur, and podcaster Joanna Penn joined us on the show.
Chances are, you’re already familiar with Joanna, but in case you’re not, she writes non-fiction for authors and is also an award-nominated New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author under J.F. Penn. She is the host of The Creative Penn and Books and Travel podcasts. Her site, TheCreativePenn.com has been voted in the Top 100 sites for writers by Writer’s Digest.
Since Joanna has a new book coming out (Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies), we spent some time asking her about changes coming to audiobooks, podcasting, and what authors need to be aware of as we enter a world where potential buyers are looking for books with audio searches as often as typing in terms on Google or Amazon. We also wanted to ask her about her business model and how she makes money from her website, podcasts, books, courses, and more–she has over 200 different streams of income–so we started with that.
Here’s a list of what we asked her:
- How has your background in theology and psychology shaped your writing and does it come into play at all with your marketing?
- How did you first get your start in podcasting, blogging, and creating courses and non-fiction for authors?
- Do you find the author services/author advice niche saturated, and should fiction authors thinking of branching out into non-fiction try to find another market?
- When writing non-fiction, how do you go about building yourself up as an authority in your niche?
- As a non-fiction author, how do you avoid just regurgitating what’s already out there?
- Some of your income comes from affiliate programs. How do you choose programs that mesh with your business and add value for your audience while also earning money?
- How big was your site and your podcast following before you were making substantial money from affiliate programs?
- In your new book, you talk about how there’s growth in both audiobooks and podcasting and also the audio-first eco-system. Could you explain that for us?
- Is voice search something we need to worry about/prepare for as authors?
- For authors who want to record their own audiobooks, how feasible is it for them to make high-quality enough audiobooks to be accepted by Findaway Voices/ACX without a dedicated studio?
- Does it make sense for fiction authors to start a podcast? It seems like fiction and fiction-related podcasts struggle to find a decent listenership.
- In your book, you say, “There’s more to the voice ecosystem than just podcasting and audiobooks.” Then you proceed to outline some of the main technologies that might be useful to authors. Would you give a brief overview on that?
- Now that Bookfunnel has given people a relatively easy way to sell short audio directly, and may one day give an equally easy way to sell full audiobooks, how has that changed the landscape? Are direct sales something to keep in mind?
- You mentioned you have 200 individual streams of income. How has that come about and how do you keep everything organized?
- With so much to keep abreast of, and you writing fiction and non-fiction and producing two podcasts, how do you choose what to focus on?
You can find Joanna Penn and her podcasts, books, and courses for authors at The Creative Penn. You can find her thriller novels at J.F. Penn and the Books and Travel podcast on its own website. If you’re interested in her new book, you can find the links to Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies on her main site.
You can also join us in our Six Figure Authors Facebook group to chat with us and other listeners of the show. If you have a question for a future show, you can leave it here in the comments or ask in the group. Thanks for listening!
