Zach and J. are back with a new podcast called "Men in Black Shirts" with T.W. Piperbrook!

The Final Episode: LIVE! This is it. The final episode. We hope you’ll join us at the Writers, Ink podcast! The Career Author Podcast is a podcast where co-authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon share their struggles and successes as full-time authors, advice for improving your writing craft, and honest discussions of what it takes to build a successfu…

Knowing When to Walk Away As The Career Author podcast winds down, we’re reminded of how difficult it can be to avoid sunk cost fallacy and remove things that have been a big part of our lives for so long. Whether it's a relationship, business deal, friendship, or podcast, walking away is never easy but sometimes necessary and inevitable. In this c…

ADVANTAGE with Joe Solari We’re all looking for an advantage as it gets more challenging to find and retain readers. In a rare interview episode, the guys invite Joe Solari on the show to discuss how you can harness a cumulative advantage in the winner takes all publishing market. From Amazon.com: The top 2.5% of high performing authors… …earn 64% …

The Golden Age of Independent Publishing Has there ever been a better time to be an independent author or publisher? The guys don’t think so. Whether it's the tools available to publish books or the ease of finding readers, there’s never been so many literate people on the planet. J. and Zach discuss the reasons why, despite J.’s pessimistic outloo…

Publishing on a Budget There’s no way around it. Publishing a book that is presentable enough to ask money for is going to cost some cash of your own. But do you have to break the bank in order to publish a good book? In this conversation, J. and Zach discuss ways you can publish your book on a budget. What are the expenses you can avoid, and which…

Relief from Your Writing Rut Do you feel a dip in your enthusiasm for that WIP? Are you procrastinating by working on another project instead? Sometimes it's hard to diagnose the problem, to tell if you’re burnt out or in a writing rut. Spoiler alert: They’re not the same thing. In this conversation, J. and Zach talk about the difference between bu…

Technology and Publishing It’s crazy to think there was a time not too long ago where the only way to read a book was by picking up a physical object and reading real, paper pages. Or when audiobooks were called ‘books on tape’ because you had to pop one cassette at a time into a tape deck in order to hear your favorite book read to you by a narrat…

The Dialogue Doctor: Jeff Elkins Do you suffer from mono-mouth? Are you experiencing side effects such as decreased reader engagement, poor sales, and a lack of energy? If so, it might be time for a house call from the Dialogue Doctor, Jeff Elkins. In a rare interview on The Career Author Podcast, J. talks to Jeff about his most recent manuscript, …

Genre Hopping Most people don’t enjoy watching only one kind of movie, eating one type of food, or wearing the same clothes every day. Okay, maybe Zach likes that last one, but either way, it’s not uncommon for writers to want to explore writing in different genres. But should you? On this ‘landmark’ episode, the guys discuss the pros and cons of g…

What is a Career Author (August 2020)? What does it mean to be a career author? This is not an easy question to answer and one that involves a deeper discussion on how we define this elusive creature. Every writer with aspirations of making money from their words has a different definition of success. For some, it’s all about the “x-figure author,”…

Character Backstory We all have a story. The unique events that each of us experience build us and make us who we are. And the characters in your stories should be no different. Backstory is crucial for helping your character feel relatable to the reader. But what memories should you include in your books? And how do you deliver the information to …

Hooking the Reader with Your First Chapter If you’re walking through the grocery store and an employee offers you a free sample of a new brand of cheese. You’re likely to taste it. If you like the cheese, you might buy some. But if it tastes terrible, you won’t buy the product. Reading behaviors aren’t any different. Hooking the reader with your fi…

Writing Short Fiction In the indie community it’s often said that the best way to make money is to write novels, specifically in series of three or more books. But what about writing short fiction? From short stories to novellas, there are several different types of short fiction. Each offers not only a different reader experience from a full-blown…

Sharpening the Saw: Doing the Things We Hate Doing As career authors or even part-time writers, we all have to do things we hate. In a perfect world, authors could sit in a cabin in the woods, happily slapping the typewriter without a care or concern. But that’s not reality, and with the exception of a few authors, it’s never been how the industry …

Launching an Amazon Bestselling Fiction Book in 2020 Indie authors often talk about the “gold rush” era of self-publishing when a smaller pool of authors and Amazon’s looser algorithms made it easier to sell books on their platform. But with increased competition and the push toward a play-to-play marketplace, is 2020 too late to have success selli…

Talking with Tara from Kobo There’s value in “going wide” and one of the most trusted and thriving marketplaces is Kobo Writing Life. J. and Zach invite Tara Cremin on the show to discuss everything Kobo has to offer the independent author. We all know what Amazon can offer but exclusivity isn’t the only choice. As an indie, we have the ability to …

Why You Need a Passion Project No matter how much you love being a career author, you will definitely need a break from the work at one time or another. It’s easy to cram writing and marketing into the few available hours you might have and it’s hard to walk away when you’re the only one managing your time. J. and Zach have an open and honest conve…

Nailing Your Amazon Book Page Being a Career Author in 2020 requires more than simply writing words and finishing books. You’re running a business. And there’s perhaps no place that demonstrates that more than your book’s Amazon page. This is where readers will likely come to buy your book, and if you want to convert sales, it’s important to know h…

Authors Services as a Revenue Stream Selling only fiction is tough. In fact, only a small percentage of authors (both traditional and indie) make a full-time living solely from fiction. Therefore, you need to think more like a business person if you want to be happily self-employed. In response to a listener question, J. and Zach break down the dif…

Sticking with a Series Until the End You’ve probably heard it all the time. If you want to make money selling books, you need to write a series. But planning a series isn’t the same as a standalone novel. And how do you prevent yourself from burning out halfway through a series? More than that, how do you keep readers engaged and what do you do if …

The Publishing Industry Panel In our fast-paced digital world, things are always changing. And the publishing industry isn’t immune to these changes. Join publishing experts and leaders from Kobo, Google Play, Draft2Digital, Reedsy, and Vellum as they explore the future of publishing in this unique and enthralling panel discussion. Send us your way…

An Hour with Draft2Digital Dan Wood, Kevin Tumlinson, and Mark Lefebvre recently joined J., Zach, and the attendees of The Career Author Summit to answer questions and discuss some of the awesome tools available for authors at Draft2Digital. Please enjoy a replay of this informative and entertaining presentation. The Career Author Podcast is a podc…

An Hour with Google Play Books In the week leading up to The Career Author Summit, the awesome folks over at Google Play Books spent an hour with our attendees answering questions and discussing some of the cool new things they are working on with the platform. Please enjoy a replay of this informative presentation led by Sabrina, Amy, and Ryan fro…

The Career Author Summit Recap After a fantastic weekend (and week-long) at The Career Author Summit, the guys are here to share a recap of the event as well as the most pertinent takeaways from all of the presentations. J. and Zach also share some details about the forced pivot to a virtual event and how they’re thinking about the future of live e…