How to be an Author
Want to write a book? How to be an Author is your secret weapon. Let professional writing coach Karena Akhavein inspire and motivate you as she teaches you the principles of good storytelling, using examples from her writing coaching practice and from the careers of bestselling authors. If you've been dreaming of finally writing, finishing, or publishing that book or screenplay for a long time now, you'll be inspired to write better, beat writer's block, and finally become an author with weekly writing tips, publishing advice, and mindset resets.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 32 minutes
- Episodes
- 102
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2024
How long does it REALLY take to write a book?
New writers often ask: How long does it take to write a book? Even writers who have been doing the author thing for a while can be curious about how they measure up to other authors in this departmen…
Painful but necessary for all writers: the author platform
If you want to be a professional writer, your job is not simply to write a book. A major, often overlooked part of every author's job is to build an author platform. Self-promotion is never comfortab…
Self-help books are huge: here's how to write one.
As a fiction writer, have you ever looked at the bestseller list and thought to yourself, "Wow, I should probably write a self-help book"? Maybe not- the divide between fiction and non fiction seems …
How to spot and avoid the publishing scams that prey on writers
It happened to me: I was scammed by a literary agent, and by a so-called publisher. Not once, but twice. Shame on me, right? But as writers, we so badly want our publishing dreams to come true that a…
How much does it REALLY cost to publish a book?
One of the biggest excuses I hear from writers working on a book but never quite finishing it is the sheer cost of publishing. Why bother finishing their novel, they say, since their only option for …
Book too long? Too Short? Novel word count does matter!
How do you write that many words? This is a question many non-writers or beginning writers often ask. Newer writers will often ask if word count or number of pages really matter for a book. The answe…
Writers: try these novel dialogue hacks and improve your book
Dialogue. The very word strikes fear in some writers' hearts. For others, there's the assumption that dialogue needs only "sound realistic" to be good. One of the hacks you won't be hearing in this e…
What's right for your book? Self publishing or traditional?
It's one of the most common questions writers ask, whether they are new and just starting on their books, or whether they are more established authors thinking about where to go in their writing care…
Main Character Energy and your Writing
Main character energy: it was trending on TikTok, and confused a lot of writers, who decided that they were not the main character of their own lives, or that their protagonist is not the main charac…
Why defining your book's ideal reader avatar is so crucial
Some writers write for themselves, or write the story they want to read. Fair enough. But if your goal is commercial success: to sell more books, get traditionally published, or market yourself effec…
Authors: your friends and family are not your reader
As a professional writing coach, one of the big mindset issues I frequently deal with is getting authors over the idea that their friends and family somehow owe them attention and support. This one e…
Writing a book: Where do you start?
Writing a book can be daunting. Often, you set yourself up for success or failure before you even start the real writing part. In this week's episode of the How to be an Author podcast we'll be going…
It's a genre: Why you need to know your novel's genre
Genre is how …
Craft a story that sells: the story spine
Top things writers shouldn't worry about
What are literary agents looking for in a book?
Want your book to be successful? Whether you are thinking of self publishing your novel or you are hoping to go the conventional publishing route and hence looking for representation by a literay age…
Novel in trouble? Try Save the Cat!
Outlining is your secret novel writing weapon- but what if you hate outlines?
From idea to story: How to go from premise to plot
