How to Make a Living with your Writing by Joanna Penn

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Joanna Penn is something of a guru in terms of self-publishing and she knows what she is talking about, so I simply had to read her new book How To Make a Living with your Writing.

Penn puts forward a business model in this book and is quick to point out that the book is not a get rich quick scheme. I would add that it is also not a how to write book. Instead, this is a book that is stuffed with tips on how to make a living from writing and is based on her personal experience.

Penn starts out by comparing traditional, indie and self-publishing, setting out the pros and cons of each one. She considers herself an indie author (independently published), and considers there is a difference between self-publishing and indie publishing. Self-publishing is doing everything yourself, and usually falls into the category of a hobby. On the other hand the indie works with top freelance professionals, such as editors and cover designers, to create a quality product, and is thus a business. An author has to decide where they fit on this spectrum, as not every approach will suit all authors.

One of the main themes, and one that she stresses is of the utmost importance, is that writers have the ability to develop multiple streams of income from each of their books. She quotes, ebooks, print books, and audio books, but she does not stop there. She goes on to suggest other aspects of earning a living from writing – things like product sales, affiliate income, consulting or coaching, professional speaking, advertising and sponsorship, and she has used all of these methods to maximise her income.

She sets out a series of first principles:-

Authors should –

1) Think of themselves as entrepreneurs.

2) Focus on creating scalable income – with scalable income you create once and sell the finished article over and over again. The time is spent once but the income continues.

3) Develop multiple streams of income and not just rely on the sale of ebooks and print books.

4) Think globally, both digital and mobile.

5) Decide on their definition of success, whether it is literary success or commercial success.

Penn presents a fair amount of information that is probably common knowledge, but she also expands this into interesting new ideas, and avenues of income generation that many authors may not have considered.

There is a lot to like in this book which is written in an easy conversational manner that makes it a pleasure to read.

Chris Longmuir

You can buy Joanna Penn’s book at Amazon.co.uk, and at Amazon.com

Review of 'All That Lives: The Poetry of Sex, Death and Pathology' by Valerie Laws

Valerie Laws is a wonderful and multi-talented writer.

Valerie Laws

The first book I read by her was Lydia Bennet's Blog: The Real Story of Pride and Prejudice. I expected to be amused - and I was. It made me laugh out loud a lot. But it was much more than a light amusement - I finished the book full of admiration not only for Ms Laws' wit, but for the skill of her inventive plotting and her deep understanding, not only of the book she parodied, but the social politics of its time.

Lydia Bennet's Blog by Valerie Laws

But don't let me put you off with this serious stuff - it's very, very funny, and the narrator, Lydia, is immensely likeable.

Next, I read the crime stories, The Rotting Spot and The Operator. (Also available in paperback.) They are set in the North-East of Britain, but here thrills mix with the sharp observation and wit. The setting is vivid, the characters varied and lively, the dialogue cracking. The tightly controlled heroine, Erica - a diet-watching runner, a bit of a control-freak - is off-set to great effect by her side-kick, an over-weight, uneducated, coarse but very canny Geordie lass with an eye to the main chance.

Now I come to Valerie Laws poetry, in her book 'All That Lives: The Poetry of Sex, Death and Pathology.' And I am so impressed. I am filled with admiration all over again.

'All That Lives', of course, must die. And the book opens with a dedication:

With love to my mother Sheila, who died of Alzheimer's Disease, April 2005, and to my father Lindsay, who died suddenly of an Aortic Aneurysm, March 2006.

Witnessing their deaths drove me to discover the science of dying down to cellular level, to celebrate the terrible beauty of the process and tell the story of the body's final journey.

'All That Lives' by Valerie Laws

Throughout, the examination of death is mixed with continuing life - as death always is. When reflecting on how her mother's Alzheimer's made her convinced that another man was living with her and her husband, Laws says, 'She has gained an extra husband, While the one I had is gone...'

The next poem, The Incredible Shrinking Brain is one of the most moving. It is repeated seven times. Each repetition has words removed, imitating the holes in Laws's mother's brain and memory, until the seventh repetition is reduced to one word - 'gone.' I didn't know whether to cry at its emotional punch, or applaud its cleverness.

This is followed by The Groucho Marx Guide To Dating (I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member,) which sets a completely different mood, with its jaunty, bouncing rhythms and insistent rhymes. In it Laws is astonished and disbelieving that a younger man 'fit as a lop' apparently wants to date her.

...He's flaky,

A psycho, a stalker, he's after my daughter,

Or after my money. No, on your bike honey...

All That Lives must die - but in the midst of death we are with life, and life goes on.

This up-beat poem is soon followed by the heart-breaking Senior Last Moments, which details the progression of Alzheimer's...

Your brainstem's on auto, the dinosaur relic

That keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing air

And where now are you, do you hear, are you in there,

Do you know they are crying and holding your hands? 

But right after this comes the erotic Flirting At The Funeral. That fit as a lop younger man is still around, life still goes on...

I said to my mother's heart, stop

Please stop.

The first line of the next poem, Telling My Mother's Heart To Stop revolves around the fact that 'death is a process, not an event.' This is a poem recording and observing some of the most painful emotions we will ever feel. It took me back to the bedsides of my dying parents: and there was some comfort in the proof this poem offers that the pain is universal.

And then, He Runs Ten Miles To My House - another erotic delight. The narrator is being well-behaved at a hot summer garden party when her lover texts her to ask if she's in, because he's going to run to her house.  'I tap out the code/ that sets him in motion/ And sit tight a spell, knowing... he is running, running/ To me, and it's me that's sweating...'

I could go on and on quoting poems from this book. I haven't even touched on the poems about Laws' father's death, or the moving poems about the pathology specimens, the malformed foetuses, suicides - grim subjects, perhaps, but wonderful poetry.

The other amazing thing about this book is its price. It's only 99p as an e-book, or £6.26 as a paperback, which must be close to the cost of production. These are give-away prices - for all that thought, observation, and work.

Highly recommended

All That Lives