Hypothetically, of course. Anything else might get me into trouble.

In my ebook, the Grymm & Epic Guide to Blogging, I talk a lot about figuring out what to blog about. A successful blog strikes a balance between writing about what interests you, and writing that helps you find and build an audience – the right audience. The audience that will go on to buy your art. And sometimes, that audience isn’t whom you’d expect.

A lot of artists get stuck in the habit of writing about the business of selling art. Often, they’ll get quite in-depth, writing epic 2000 word posts about their successes and failures at craft fairs, etc. These posts will be extremely useful for other artists, and they’re profoundly interesting for the artist writing them, because they offer the chance to put thoughts about business down in a cohesive way and analyse what is and isn’t working. But whenever I see an artist with a blog that’s all about running an art business, I wonder if the artist knows whom their audience really is.

Who wants to read a blog about how to run an art business? People who want to become full-time artists, of course. And yes, many people who are full-time artists want to support other artists and love to buy art, but they are a small slab of an infinitely larger pie.

Read On…

In Monday’s Epic Interrogation, NYT Best-Selling urban fantasy writer Jeaniene Frost talked about honestly about her first failed attempt to quit her job – you can read the full story in Jeaniene’s interview, but basically, she quit too soon, thinking the money would be coming, and the money didn’t come. She had to go back to her day job, just to make ends meet.

Imagine how scary that must be, not just for Jeaniene, but for her family, too. Luckily, she’s now doing so well she’s been writing full time for two years with no sign of stopping.

You can quit your day job and make a living as a creative entrepreneur. There’s work aplenty out there for artists, writers, musicians, sculptors, actors, dancers and designers, if you learn about the business side of your art and apply yourself to finding it. You can find more joy than you’ll ever know working for yourself and spreading your unique creative message all over the world. But how do you avoid quitting too soon?

I am not a full-time writer. I’ve been running my freelance business part-time for nearly seven years now. When I’m not writing, I work for a non-profit creating braille books and resources for blind and low-vision NZers. As I’m legally blind myself, this job is especially important to me, as I know firsthand how hard it can be to access things you want to read if you can’t actually read them. Full time work may suit me some day, but right now it doesn’t, because I love what I do.

However, here’s what I would make sure you had in place before considering quitting your day job:

Read On…

I‘ve got vampires on the brain.

I blame it the kobo website, who has cottoned on to the fact I like books about bloodsuckers, so sends me daily emails about the latest fanged thrillers. I blame Poppy Z Brite, whose book Lost Souls restored my love of erotic horror, after it had been shattered by the Twilight books (which, to be fair, had a lot of the erotic but not nearly enough horror). And I blame today’s guest, New York Times Best-Selling author of steamy vampire urban fantasy, Jeaniene Frost, for getting my vampire on four years ago with Halfway to the Grave.

But Jeaniene Frost isn’t just an author, she’s in part responsible for bringing vampires and urban fantasy back into the mainstream, and her legions of fans worldwide (her novels have been translated into seventeen languages) attest to her remarkable ability to write amazing books and get them in front of the people who want to read them. I’m thrilled to sparkling bits to have Jeaniene here today for an Epic Interrogation about how she kicks ass with her creative business:
Firstly, we’d just like to know who you are, what you write, and what’s new in the world of Jeaniene Frost?
Thank you so much for having me. I’m the author of the Night Huntress series and Night Huntress World novels, which are urban fantasy romances containing vampires, ghouls, ghosts, demons, and a sprinkling of black magic. The most recent novel to hit the shelves was This Side of the Grave, and my next novel is One Grave at a Time, which releases August 30^th.

Read On…

I don’t talk a lot about my eyesight, since it seems kind of irrelevant when we’re not talking face to face. If we were, you might notice that I don’t make eye-contact, that I seem to stare at a spot over your shoulder, that I blink all the time, and that when I go to inspect the coffee shop menu, I look as if I perusing it with my nose, perhaps believing it has a scratch and sniff function.

(Wouldn’t that be awesome? Scratch-and-sniff menus – one of you clever folk go invent that).

Recently, James from Men with Pens asked me to write a piece about how I write without being able to see color. And here it is: How I Write Without Color. I would be particularly honored if you were to go over and read it, and maybe send it out to your folk, or tweet it, or tell out people about it. I think it’s one of the best pieces I’ve ever written online, and I hope you agree.

Love you Long Time, you wonderful and inspiring creative, you!

Don’t miss all the fun! Sign up to receive blog updates by RSS or Email, and while you’re in a signing-up mood, check out the Grymm & Epic Gazette – you’ll get my FREE ebook “Unleash the Beast: Release Your Inner Creative Monster”, as well as a weekly dose of creative inspiration. Grymm!

There’s no Epic Interrogation this week. Instead, I’ve got an announcement. A lot of people write to me saying they’d love to hire someone like me to work on their site, but they don’t think they’ve got the budget. I don’t like advertising my rates, but I’ve been thinking of creating some special writing packages especially for creative wonders like you, just to show you how affordable it is.

The four packages, with graphics designed by the amazing Vail of FutureNoir, are the Tentacle, the Epic Etsy, the Blog-Shoggoth and The Great Cthulhu. You’ll find them all under the Copywriting Packages tab of the Grymm & Epic shop.

Custom packages are available and, if you want to get started but can’t afford right now, I do offer payment plans. Just email me at steff AT steffmetal DOT com and we’ll suss something out.

Be prepared for an onslaught of lovecraftian, multi-tentacled writing packages of DOOM!

Love, lust and puddling crust
Steff

Don’t miss all the fun! Sign up to receive blog updates by RSS or Email, and while you’re in a signing-up mood, don’t forget the Grymm & Epic Gazette – you’ll get my FREE ebook “Unleash the Beast: Release Your Inner Creative Monster”, as well as a weekly dose of creative inspiration. Grymm!