Writerly tips from an exclusive interview with blogger and author Jeff Goins
Author and blogger Jeff Goins graciously agreed to be one of the expert guests I interview for those enrolled in my Beta Author program. Our 55-minute conversation was so provocative that I want to share some of the highlights with you.
Listen to the audio or download the PDF transcript
Click here to download or listen to the MP3 file.
Click here to download the edited transcript of our 55-minute conversation.
Jeff is a popular blogger, writer and speaker who has both self-published and traditionally published several books, including Wrecked and the forthcoming The In-Between. He is especially interested in voice in writing.
In Jeff’s words, you know you’ve discovered your writing voice when it represents “the intersection of what deeply satisfies you as a writer and what resonates with (your) audience.”
That is a very provocative statement. It means that you need to be striking a chord in your readers with what you are writing. You can’t just write about what you are interested in if you want to be a successful blogger or author.
Why writers need a worldview
We also talked about:
– Why you need a worldview as a writer. It’s what makes your topic stand out even if you’re writing about sales and marketing as thousands of other writers do.
He gave Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell as two examples. Seth’s worldview is that “the system is broken and we can fix it.” Gladwell’s is: “There is scientific proof for any phenomenon that we see in the business world.”
– How to identify and articulate your worldview (it’s not what you think)
– Why he self-published his first eBook, You Are a Writer Now (So Start Acting Like One)
– How he wrote the eBook (this will surprise you)
-How he crowdsourced the cover, editing and formatting
– How he got over 30,000 downloads of You Are a Writer
– What percentage of his income comes from selling information products vs. writing books (over half)
– Why he does not write every day
The perfect mix of grace and discipline
And my favorite comment from Jeff: “What sustains any writer is the perfect mix of grace and discipline.”
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