Episode 453 - The business of being a writer with Jane Friedman

'The foundations of how authors build visibility, build a readership... while the tools change, the principles don't.'

Jane Friedman has been commentating on the business of books for many years, and her classic The Business of Being a Writer has demystified the industry for thousands of authors. So on the release of its second edition it seems a good time to ask: what has changed over the seven years since the first edition?

It turns out that while the specifics of platforms and tech tools have moved on, the principles of writing and promoting a good book are pretty much as they always were: the fundamental challenge of persuading people to care about your writing still remains, and it's arguably harder than ever in the face of what Jane calls 'the tremendous fragmentation of attention across so many different channels'. And as a writer you need to engage with those channels, in fact you should even be asking if you should be focusing there instead of on a book.

But in any case, one channel that remains powerful for authors, and which Jane herself uses brilliantly, is the newsletter: we talk about how to write a good one, and how and when to migrate to paid subscription.

She also shares her own systems and processes for writing, including how she's integrated AI tools. It's part reality check, part masterclass, and it's wholly worth your time.