First Cup of Coffee – July 1, 2024

A round-up of my very fun weekend with visiting writers and local ones, our wide-ranging conversations, giving and valuing advice, being a caretaker and having friends care, and also coaching from me at Romancing the Vote!

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - July 1, 2024

July 01, 2024

Jeffe Kennedy

A round-up of my very fun weekend with visiting writers and local ones, our wide-ranging conversations, giving and valuing advice, being a caretaker and having friends care, and also coaching from me at Romancing the Vote!

Bid on Personalized Author Coaching with Jeffe Kennedy to benefit the Romancing the Vote fundraiser! https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/74830/auctions/164081/auction_items/5468317

The preorder links for RELUCTANT WIZARD, out August 27, are here https://www.jeffekennedy.com/reluctant-wizard

The posture-correcting sports bra I love almost more than life itself is here https://forme.therave.co/37FY6Z5MTJAUKQGA

You can buy tickets for Wild & Windy in Phoenix (February 2025) here https://www.wildandwindybookevent.com/phoenix-authors

Join my Patreon and Discord for mentoring, coaching, and conversation with me! Find it at https://www.patreon.com/JeffesCloset

You can always buy print copies of my books from my local indie, Beastly Books! https://www.beastlybooks.com/

If you want to support me and the podcast, click on the little heart or follow this link (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jeffekennedy).

Sign up for my newsletter here! (https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r2y4b9)

You can watch this podcast on video via YouTube https://youtu.be/ZxWDgi9stto

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!



First Cup of Coffee – April 22, 2024

Owning your process and still being open to learning from what others do to sustain productive creativity and aggressively refill the well. Some data on BookBub Featured Deals and release strategy, too.

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - April 22, 2024

April 22, 2024

Jeffe Kennedy

Owning your process and still being open to learning from what others do to sustain productive creativity and aggressively refill the well. Some data on BookBub Featured Deals and release strategy, too.

The posture-correcting sports bra I love almost more than life itself is here https://forme.therave.co/37FY6Z5MTJAUKQGA

You can buy tickets for Wild & Windy in Phoenix (February 2025) here https://www.wildandwindybookevent.com/phoenix-authors

Join my Patreon and Discord for mentoring, coaching, and conversation with me! Find it at https://www.patreon.com/JeffesCloset

You can always buy print copies of my books from my local indie, Beastly Books! https://www.beastlybooks.com/

If you want to support me and the podcast, click on the little heart or follow this link (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jeffekennedy).

Sign up for my newsletter here! (https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r2y4b9)

You can watch this podcast on video via YouTube https://youtu.be/XHr22e35xX4

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!



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


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.

First Cup of Coffee – April 7, 2023

My Patreon and Discord community are live! I’m also talking about one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got and how, if you want to be a writer for the right reasons, there’s no fire to put out content.

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - April 7, 2023

April 07, 2023

Jeffe Kennedy

My Patreon and Discord community are live! I'm also talking about one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got and how, if you want to be a writer for the right reasons, there's no fire to put out content.

Join my Patreon and Discord for mentoring, coaching, and conversation with me! Find it at https://www.patreon.com/JeffesCloset

Preorder ROGUE FAMILIAR here https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-familiar

RUBY is out now! https://jeffekennedy.com/ruby FIVE GOLDEN RINGS is now available here: https://jeffekennedy.com/five-golden-rings SAPPHIRE is available here: https://jeffekennedy.com/sapphire and PLATINUM is available here https://jeffekennedy.com/platinum.

THE LONG NIGHT OF THE RADIANT STAR, a midwinter holiday fantasy romance in the Heirs of Magic series, now available!! https://jeffekennedy.com/the-long-night-of-the-radiant-star

SHADOW WIZARD, Book One in Renegades of Magic, continuing the epic tale begun in DARK WIZARD. https://jeffekennedy.com/shadow-wizard is out now! Including in audiobook!

Interested in Author Coaching from me? Information here: https://jeffekennedy.com/author-coaching

ROGUE'S PARADISE is out (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-paradise). Buy book 1, ROGUE'S PAWN, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-pawn) and book 2, ROGUE'S POSSESSION, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-possession).

If you want to support me and the podcast, click on the little heart or follow this link (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jeffekennedy).

You can watch this podcast on YouTube here https://youtu.be/Iq-Vorpqbak

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!



Announcing My Mentoring Patreon! Also Health Insurance

Exciting news! I’ve officially opened my Patreon: Jeffe’s Closet, A Mentoring Community for Newbie, Intermediate, & Expert Authors. The Patreon leads directly to a Discord community where all kinds of conversations will occur. I’m super excited to make this into a vibrant community. Right now the Discord is open, but pretty quiet – which means you’ll get a lot of personal attention from me. Come and join in!

As far as our topic this week, what we do for health insurance, I self-insure. As a full-time author, I have no employer to provide me with health insurance (or other benefits). My husband took early retirement from his career and was insured through them for quite some time, though each year the premium was sucking up more and more of his retirement stipend. Soon we were going to have to pay in – ugh! Then the concierge health insurance service became available through SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). SFWA collaborated with other writers’ organizations to make this service available to our members. I was able to transfer my husband onto insurance via the Affordable Care Marketplace – and both of us together ended up paying over $1K LESS EVERY MONTH. I’m a fan! Thank you, Obama – seriously.

First Cup of Coffee – July 17, 2020

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - July 17, 2020

July 17, 2020

Jeffe Kennedy

I'm happy to have the heron fountain back in action. Also about being generous and dealing with a community of writers. 

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!

First Cup of Coffee – April 3, 2020

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - April 3, 2020

April 03, 2020

Jeffe Kennedy

Reflecting today on how sometimes you can't write a book any faster than it wants to go. Also, I'm considering trying doing Instagram Live as I record - but the logistics are baffling!

Katherine Addison's essay on the women of The Lord of the Rings is here (http://www.fantasybookcafe.com/2014/04/women-in-sff-month-katherine-addison/).

My blog post on missing out on Big Chances is here (https://blog.jeffekennedy.com/2020/04/01/why-this-wasnt-your-one-big-chance/)

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!


First Cup of Coffee – February 25, 2020

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - February 25, 2020

February 25, 2020

Jeffe Kennedy

Reporting in on the rather amazing effects of staying off the internet for the first 2 hours of the day, and thoughts on our new effort to cut down on screen time in the evenings, too. It's quite remarkable feeling my brain chemistry change.

You can listen to the interview with Tawna here (https://blog.jeffekennedy.com/2020/02/24/first-cup-of-coffee-february-24-2020/). The book I mention, A Lesson in Thorns by Sierra Simone, is here (https://www.thesierrasimone.com/a-lesson-in-thorns).

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!


First Cup of Coffee – November 20, 2019

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - November 20, 2019

November 20, 2019

Jeffe Kennedy

#PantsNaNoWriMo day 20: Talking today about the business and money end of being a writer - and how your goals affect your priorities and decisions.

For those interested, you can look at my Author Coaching packages here: https://jeffekennedy.com/author-coaching or in the website store here: https://jeffekennedy.com/store

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!

First Cup of Coffee – November 17, 2019

I love these #shelfie pics – ones readers send me of my book spotted in the wild. This one is from a Kroger grocery store in Anchorage, Alaska. Pretty awesome company it’s keeping, huh?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Mentoring: my mentors, ways I’ve mentored others, how to do it right, how to do it wrong, and whether it’s possible to lone-wolf this writing journey. Come on over for my answers!

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - November 17, 2019

November 17, 2019

Jeffe Kennedy

#PantsNaNoWriMo day 17: On our literary estates and great cautionary tales. Also: why you shouldn't edit (yet).

The author I refer to is actually John M. Ford (eesh, my bookbrain...) and the article is here. https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/john-ford-science-fiction-fantasy-books.html

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

Support the show

Contact Jeffe!

Find me on Threads
Visit my website https://jeffekennedy.com
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
Sign up for my Newsletter!
Find me on Instagram and TikTok!

Thanks for listening!