Imposter syndrome sometimes tells you the truth.Sometimes, you really do need to get better at the task in front of you to succeed. Many gurus will tell you that you already have everything you need. You just need to pay them money so you can be successful. But in the real world, success requires the hard work of improving your craft. Now, it's true, sometimes imposter syndrome lies, but deep down, you know you can improve.But how do you know where you need to improve? And once you find out, how do you get better?In this week's episode, you'll hear from Brad Pauquette about structuring a novel and improving your craft. He's a 15-year industry veteran who's helped hundreds of authors write and publish their best work, hit bestseller lists, and win awards. He's also the author of The Novel Matrix: The Complete Novel Writing Guide.You'll learn
· Three phases of improving your craft
· What feedback to implement or ignore
· How to ensure your writing is accurate and believableListen in or read the blog and discover insights on balancing creativity with structure, interpreting feedback wisely, and staying true to your Christian values by continually inviting the Holy Spirit into your work.

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In college, I took a class on entrepreneurship, where our big project was to write a business plan. That same semester, I was also working on a book proposal, and I realized that book proposals are business plans.
Fundamentally, they serve the same purpose. A business plan helps you convince investors to invest in your business, and a book proposal helps you convince publishing companies to invest in your book.
To be traditionally published, you need to think like an entrepreneur and to be independently published, you need to be an entrepreneur.
In this week's episode, we'll hear from Kara Swanson. She's a successful fantasy author, entrepreneur, and the co-founder of The Author Conservatory, an online college alternative for aspiring writers.
You'll learn how to
· Build a financially sustainable writing career
· Build your skillset for marketing your book
· Build a schedule that balances creativity and business
Listen in or check out the blog and learn how to become an author entrepreneur by leveraging transferrable business skills to build a sustainable writing career.

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I'm excited to announce that tickets are now for sale for the 2025 Novel Marketing Conference. The conference will be held in Austin, Texas, on January 17th and 18th. This event is not a typical writer's conference where you learn how to write and publish a book. Our conference is focused on book marketing, and our goal is to help you make 2025 the best year of your author career so far!
In this episode, you'll find out
· Three special ingredients that make the Novel Marketing Conference unique
· How this year's conference will differ from last year's
· Why we've made certain deliberate choices for this year's conference
Listen in or check out the blog version of this episode to get details about the 2025 Novel Marketing Conference.

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