In this episode, I reflect on 15 years of TheCreative Penn, and outline how I will reposition myself for the next 15 years of being an author entrepreneur.

In the intro, We used to do that [Seth Godin]; Penguin Random House has acquired Hay House [Publishing Perspectives]; Business for Authors; Your Author Business Plan; OpenAI has announced a partnership with Axel Springer, the first publishing house globally to partner with them to integrate journalism with AI technologies.

This episode is supported by my Patreon community, who fund my future-focused thinking time. If you join the community, you get an extra solo Q&A show monthly, as well as behind-the-scenes videos on AI and creative business, plus, discounts, early access, and more. Join us for the price of a coffee a month at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn

Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F. Penn. She’s also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. 

Show Notes

• From Joanna Penn to J.F. Penn 
  
  
• From creating alone to the AI-Assisted Artisan Author
  
  
• From digital-focused to creating beautiful physical books
  
  
• From high-volume, low cost to premium products with higher Average Order Value 
  
  
• From retailer-centric to direct first
  
  
• From distance to presence 
  
  
• Pivoting a business is always a risk
  
  
• Will I still be here in another 15 years?
  

Let me know what you think. Are you pivoting your author business? What changes are you making to stay nimble in a fast-moving industry? Do you have any questions?

You can leave a comment below, or email me here.

Introduction

On 8 December 2008, I published my first blog post on www.TheCreativePenn.com. I had already self-published a book earlier that year and wanted to share my lessons learned.

The Creative Penn home page in 2008

This is my third website.

The first was based on my first book, How to Enjoy Your Job or Find a New One (later rewritten and re-published as Career Change), and the second was on learning about money and investments. I abandoned both when I ran out of things to write about. 

But 15 years later, I still haven’t run out of things to write about here! 

I left my job to become a full-time author entrepreneur in 2011 and I’ve changed my business model several times over the years as technology, new service providers, and a growing market have expanded our options as indie authors. 

I still love what I do. I measure my life by what I create. 

I love holding my books in my hands and saying ‘I made this’.

But the pace of change is accelerating and I need to pivot and reinvent myself in order to keep creating and writing, as well as remain useful to my community and the wider indie author industry.

I also need to keep myself engaged.

I’m certainly not the same person I was when I started out, and the last few years in particular have been a period of personal change (as discussed in Pilgrimage and Writing the Shadow). So I found this quote useful from Barbara Bradley Hagerty in Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife,

“Pivoting on your strengths beats starting from scratch. Redefine success according to your values, not those of the rest of the world.”

I’m not going to burn it all down and start anew. I am pivoting!

From Joanna Penn to J.F. Penn

For the last 15 years, I’ve put my Joanna Penn brand first, writing useful books for authors as I’ve learned, and sharing my journey in order to help other authors along the way

Long-time listeners to the podcast and email subscribers will know that I’ve been talking about the Shadow book for almost the entire time, and in 2023, I finally wrote and published it.

Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words is the fulfillment of a long-term creative promise, and alongside How to Write a Novel, and How to Write Non-Fiction, it represents everything I have to share on craft — at least at the moment.

When I started out as an indie author, there were very few voices sharing the way ahead, and all the existing writing industry books were for traditionally published authors, so my books were needed.

But things have changed and there are many wonderful authors sharing tips and strategies and ‘how to’ information these days.

I also think the market for ‘how to’ nonfiction is shifting, which I discussed at length in last week’s episode on the impact of Generative AI Search, so have a listen or a read if you want to learn more.

All this means that I don’t plan to write any new ‘how to’ books for authors. I do intend to make my existing backlist more evergreen, so there will be future editions of some existing books, and I want to re-record some earlier audiobooks as (human) me, so expect those at some point.  

Many of you have told me that you still find The Creative Penn Podcast useful and my Patron community and the download numbers support this. At the time of writing this, the show has had over 9.3 million downloads across 228 countries, primarily the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. Thank you for listening! 

The podcast logo changes as I age!

I considered shutting the show down a few years back as I was bored with the content — but then generative AI took off, and the rise of direct sales started, and now we have plenty to talk about again! 

So I will continue The Creative Penn Podcast weekly, and share behind-the-scenes business, craft, and AI information and inspiration with my community at patreon.com/thecreativepenn 

I’m currently rewriting and updating my Author Blueprint and email list autoresponders, and I will streamline TheCreativePenn.com website content. I will close down my evergreen courses in 2024, more on that below. 

The main pivot is to flip the ratio of my time —  from 75% on Joanna Penn, and only 25% on J.F. Penn, to the other way around. 

I have so much I want to write as J.F. Penn, and it’s time to let my dark horse run! (More on that in Writing the Shadow.)

Of course, I’m not starting from zero with this brand.

I started writing my first novel during NaNoWriMo in 2009, and published Pentecost as Joanna Penn in 2011.

Back in May 2011 with Pentecost — since then I have re-edited, re-covered, re-titled, and changed my author name