Tag: Jeffe Kennedy’s First Cup of Coffee

Beyond Book Sales: Other Ways to Earn Income as an Author

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog


This week at the SFF Seven, we’re asking about book-related income that is specifically not from book sales.

There was an asterisk to that, specifying that the question was in relation to the Authors Guild 2023 Income Survey, which I didn’t read. (I have Opinions about that survey, which I won’t go into.) But I assume the question comes from the survey dividing author income into book-related and not, and the person asking is wondering what the “not” might be. It’s a good question because I’m a firm believer that long-term success in this fickle business relies on diversifying income streams.

I actually have a line on my income spreadsheets that says “Other Writing Income,” as opposed to the “Book Sales” line. What kind of income is that?

  1. My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JeffesCloset. This is how I offer mentoring and coaching to other writers. Plus, it’s a great little community that’s truly supportive and positive in a non-toxic way.
  2. Other kinds of coaching. I also offer various kinds of one-on-one mentoring and coaching.
  3. Workshops, presentations, and master classes. I love giving talks and I especially love it when they pay me!
  4. Articles and similar nonfiction writing. Love getting paid for those, too!
  5. YouTube. I have a podcast, First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy, with enough subscribers that I earn income from the views.

Jeffe’s Top 5 Writing Resources

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re sharing our Top 5 Writing Resources. Charissa and KAK have already shared some excellent ones. Mine are below. But first, check out this great fundraiser sponsored by Romantic Fantasy Shelf. It goes through January 6, 2022 and the response has already been amazing!

Jeffe’s Top 5 Writing Resources

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)

Charissa mentioned SFWA’s Writer Beware already, but I feel – as the current President of SFWA – that I should recommend the entire organization. I’m clearly biased, but I think SFWA provides all kinds of tremendous resources for writers. Go check it out! 

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my own podcast! Four days a week I chat for about 20 minutes over my first cup of coffee about being a career author. I talk about my own process, the ups and downs of that and my career, the business side of writing and occasionally industry gossip. I even answer listener questions!

Synonym Finder

This is my absolute favorite paper resource. Mine is falling apart. Forget the thesaurus, every writer should have the Synonym Finder!

David Gaughran

Whether or not you self-publish, David Gaughran is an amazing and generous resource. His books and free newsletter are chock full of up-to-date information. Highly recommend!

Friends

I can’t link to this one but… Get you some author friends and nurture that circle. They are the most invaluable resource you’ll ever have.

Adjusting Those Variables for the New Year

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re sharing thoughts about the changing of the year.

I like the reflection the end of one year and the beginning of a new one brings. You all know I’m into metrics, so the end of a year – however arbitrary a measure – provides me with a milestone to group data. I can look back at the past year, compare it to previous years, and make plans for the one ahead.

Am I a maker of resolutions? Some years more than others, yes, but mostly I look on the process as adjusting my variables for the year ahead. Life is an ongoing experiment this way. We try stuff, see how it works out, then make changes accordingly. This is how all experimentation works: make a hypothesis, test it by gradually adjusting variables, and keep track of the resulting data.

I know a lot of people react negatively to the concept of new year’s resolutions, especially given the daunting statistics about them. For example, from this article, after 6 months, only 46% of people who make a resolution are still successful in keeping it, and by the end of the year only 9% feel they are successful in keeping it.

Interesting to me, a third of the people who failed to keep their resolutions didn’t keep track of their progress and another quarter of them forgot about their resolutions. This may sound funny – I laughed! – but it’s actually super easy to forget those aspirations in the tumult of daily life.

One year I tried writing down goals for the coming year and sealing them in envelopes to be opened on New Year’s Eve, so I could see how I did. People, I’m telling you: if I hadn’t made myself a reminder to open the envelopes, I’d have forgotten they existed! Reading my goals from Past Jeffe of only a year before was truly eye-opening. It almost didn’t matter which goals I’d met, exceeded, or fallen short of – simply comparing the reality with my aspirations taught me a great deal.

This is partly why I’m a believer in tracking all kinds of metrics about myself. Remember, a third of the people who failed to keep their resolutions didn’t track their progress while another quarter forgot about them! That’s 60% of the failures that might have been successes if they’d had daily tracking and reminders.

So, I’m doing a series on my podcast this week about the metrics I keep – particularly regarding my writing process – along with the how’s and why’s. Feel free to ask questions!

And Happy New Year to all!!

Grabbing Those Great Ideas

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is all about Ideas. How do you write down or remember those great ideas that you get mid-shower/dream/car drive? If you lose them, how do you get them back?

It’s funny this came up now because I talked about this very thing on my podcast, First Cup of Coffee, just recently – and even commented that I liked what I’d talked through so much that I should transcribe it. So this gave me the impetus to do that – and edit the transcription, which is the time-consuming part.  Come on over for more!