The Indie Author Atlas: Author Level Up, #8

By M.L. Ronn

YOUR PASSPORT TO THE FIVE CONTINENTS OF THE WRITING WORLD

 

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information you have to learn as a writer?

 

The Indie Author Atlas eliminates overwhelm and makes the art of learning to be a writer fun. It turns the major concepts writers need to learn into can't-miss vacation destinations. 

 

Ready to get away?

 

• Pamper yourself at the pristine beachfronts at the Strategy Islands
• Get lost in the expansive continent of Craft
• Discover new marketing strategies in the desert continent of Marketstan
• Tap into your inner entrepreneur in the sacred Lands of Distribution
• And more!

 

This quirky and engaging guide is written in the style of a travel guide, and it also has illustrated maps for each continent. 

 

The Indie Author Atlas is unlike any other book for writers you've ever read. Relax and have fun as you wander through the amazing continents of the writing life. You just might learn something.

 

Click the buy button and book your dream writing vacation today!

 

V1.0

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Level Up LLC
• Release date: Oct 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393978701

M.L. Ronn

Science fiction and fantasy on the wild side! M.L. Ronn (Michael La Ronn) is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Modern Necromancy, The Last Dragon Lord, and Sword Bear Chronicle series. In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that storytelling was his #1 passion. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. Every day.

Book preview

The Indie Author Atlas

THE INDIE AUTHOR ATLAS

YOUR GUIDE TO THE FIVE CONTINENTS OF THE WRITING WORLD

M.L. RONN

Copyright 2020 © M.L. Ronn. All rights reserved.

Published by Author Level Up LLC.

Version 3.0

Cover Design by Pixelstudio.

Covert Art © lineartestpilot / Depositphotos.

Editing by BZ Hercules.

Illustrated maps designed by Samia Javed.

Special thank you to the following people on Patreon who supported this book: Jon Howard, Megan Mong, and Lynda Washington.

Some links in this book contain affiliate links. If you purchase books and services through these links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. You are under no obligation to use these links, but thank you if you do!

For more helpful writing tips and advice, subscribe to the Author Level Up YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/authorlevelup.

CONTENTS

What You'll Learn in This Book

The Strategy Islands

Welcome to the Strategy Islands

Purpose Harbor

Tree of Writing Life

Author Salon at The Silver Cove Hotel

Persona Island

The Museum of Reader Personas

News Market

Camaraderie Island

Mentor Hill

The Community Coast

Infinity Island

The Commonwealth of Craft

Welcome to Craft

Lost Quill Province

Dreadwood Nature Preserve

Learner's Lodge

Writerton Province

The Capital City of St. Craft

The Historic Smith-Rusch Hotel

Muse Hill

Author Fraud Bureau

Library of the Eternal Genres

The Neighborhoods of St. Craft

Editoria Province

Three Edits Farm

Fashion Mall

New Influence Province

Map of New Influence

Villages on the Storytelling Coast

The Republic of Marketstan

Welcome to Marketstan

North Funnel Province

The M.A.P. Mountain Range

Marketing Sub-Range

Advertising Sub-Range

Promotion Sub-Range

The Selling Desert

Sells: The City on the Sands

Power Hour at the Email Bar

Autoresponder Palace

Passive Income Solar Farm

Wandering the Desert: Survival Tips

South Funnel Province

The Sacred Lands of Distribution

Welcome to Distribution

Camp Copyright

A Note About the Geography of the Lands

Format Lands

Partner Lands

Pirate Shipwreck

The Tar Pits

The Twin Utopias of Technology and Data

Welcome to the Utopias

Technology

Writing App Trenches

The Booksmith’s Atelier

The Productivity Olympics

Website.Buds Bistro

Boss Labs DNA Test

Emerge TV Studio Tour

Data

Data Literacy Outreach Center

Author Income Dojo

The Data Exchange

The Kingdom of Business

Welcome to Business

Customs in Business: Your Guide to Getting into the Country

Haterfest

Riskmaker's Slopes Ski Resort

Hang Gliding at Idea Cliffs

Ice Fishing at Leadership Lake

Therapy Services at Glacier Ridge

Convergence Point: The Ultimate Destination for Writers

Read Next: The Self-Publishing Advice Compendium

Meet M.L. Ronn

More Books by M.L. Ronn

Appendix A: Reader Persona Questionnaire

Appendix B: Your Personal Copywriting Starter Kit

Appendix C: All Reflection Questions

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BOOK

Let’s talk about the two things you're going to learn in this book.

First, you're going to learn everything you need to learn to become a successful author.

Second, you're going to learn it in a practical way.

This book provides an easy-to-understand, easy-to-act-upon structure for aspiring writers who want to become published writers but have no idea where to start.

When you're done reading, you'll know exactly how to become the writer you’ve always wanted to be.

No more trying to figure out if advice is good or bad…

No more sifting through dozens of websites, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, and books on writing trying to make sense of it all…

No more trying things that seem successful but aren't helpful to your situation when you apply them…

You'll know where to go, what to do, and how to thrive.

I learned the lessons in this book the hard way in the course of writing over 50 books of science fiction and fantasy and self-help books for writers. When I was a beginning writer, I wish someone would have given me a book like this. It would have eliminated headaches and saved me a lot of money.

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Why is Learning the Writing Life So Hard?

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The Information Age is the greatest time to be a writer, but there's so much information that it can be paralyzing.

Consider this: you wake up one day and say, I want to be a writer.

What's the first thing you do? You go to Google, of course!

Searching how to be a writer yields 1.1 million search results on Google, 3,000 results on Amazon, 1,000 YouTube videos, and 300 podcasts on the topic. Where do you start?

Complicating your quest is the fact that the authors of the various search results don't have the same background as you: some are traditionally-published authors whose career path is nothing like the one you want to walk; some are literary agents; some are overnight success stories; some are people claim to be writers but who are just writing BS articles for money; some are writing gurus who have only written one book but think they know everything; some are even artificial intelligence bots.

All these voices are shouting at you, trying to catch your attention and persuade you that their way is best. You don't know whose advice is right or wrong for you. So you follow the advice that seems like the most sensible, which begins the process of what I call information surfing.

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Information Surfing: The Wrong Kind of Surfing

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Information surfing works like this:

You find an influencer who resonates with you, so you follow their content, which helps you a little, but it's not enough. You still have questions.

You then search for more content, following the same pattern and therefore learning incrementally.

At some point, you wipe out and get tired of learning, feeling as if there's nothing that can help you. You’ll discover that some of the old content that once seemed helpful actually wasn't helpful at all. You might even have been scammed.

You keep surfing new waves, hoping to find the one that will change everything for you.

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Your number one goal as a new writer is to avoid aimless information surfing. You’ll waste time, lose money, and find yourself on the edge of burnout.

You need a good filter to exclude the noise to help you focus on what’s important. You need structure. And most importantly, you need practical help.

Let's trade that surfboard for a boat. I'm going to teach you how to be steady on the waters of the writing life no matter how treacherous the waves are. You're not going to wander aimlessly anymore.

Raise the sails, fellow author. We’re going to travel this strange new world with a purpose.

But first, you’re going to need a map. Several maps, actually.

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This Book is an Atlas of the Writing World

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Writing is what we call an intangible medium.

This means that everything we do happens in the ether...

If a plumber installs a new toilet in your bathroom, you can see and feel the toilet.

If you buy a coffee maker, you can hold it.

Toilets and coffee makers are tangible.

Sure, books are tangible too (in print), but when the reader starts to read, the real action happens in their mind.

All the skills that a writer has to learn are intangible. You can’t see them, but they exist.

If you read a book by a bestselling author versus a high school amateur, there’s a difference. But while that difference is special, it can be hard to understand how to replicate it for your own purposes.

When you have so many intangible skills to learn, their invisibility increases your stress level. At least a plumber knows what tools to use. We can’t even see the tools we need!

This book takes a unique approach by turning the intangible knowledge of the writing life into a collection of maps. It takes the invisible elements of writing and makes them visible for all to see.

Maps have existed for centuries. Looking at them gives you a sense of space and place.

Most importantly, with a map, you know:

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where you are

what’s around you

where to go and how to get there, and

what to avoid

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Isn’t that a wonderful metaphor for learning?

Additionally, in the world of business, a knowledge map is a visual representation of where knowledge can be found in a company and who has expertise in certain areas. It is similar to a mind map.

If knowledge can be mapped, why not make an atlas out of it?

My hope is that this book is a different kind of writing book—one that doesn’t lecture at you (too much), but instead shows you the lay of the land so you can navigate it.

After all, writing is a lot like traveling. Frequently, you find yourself in unfamiliar territories with different customs and terrain, and you need a map.

For example, if you decide to publish your books into audiobook format, you’ll find yourself in the figurative equivalent of another country. Producing audiobooks is much, much different than ebooks and print books. Audio has its own customs, vocabulary, and geography.

If you receive an invitation to speak on a podcast, but you’ve never done a podcast interview before...new country.

If you get an offer for a film deal and have to work with film producers and attorneys to negotiate the deal...new country.

Think of this book as part atlas, part travel guide, part mentor, and part writing book. It will be your best resource when you find yourself in a new place.

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A Little About the Mapmaker

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My