Episode 91: Pivoting & Sustainability in Your Author Career with Troy Lambert

Welcome back to Alchemy for Authors!

In this week’s episode, I chat with bestselling author and Plot Dude, Troy Lambert. Troy shares his own recent experiences with pivoting and gives advice on how to utilise pivoting to create a sustainable author career. Some of the other topics we discuss include:

• Why writing is the easiest job in the world to quit.

• The importance of work-life balance and rest for sustainability.

• Why writing for a living is not a job but a lifestyle.

• Why the people you surround yourself with matter.

• The importance of being you!

Visit Troy’s website here: https://troylambertwrites.com/

Visit the Plot Geek Academy here: https://theplotacademy.com/

Follow Troy on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/authortroy

Follow Troy on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/authortroy/

Listen to Troy’s previous interviews on Alchemy for Authors here:

Episode 52: Making a Living as an Author with Troy Lambert

Episode 47: Plotting with Plottr with Troy Lambert 

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

• Visit Claire Taylor’s website to learn more about the Enneagram for authors: https://www.ffs.media/author-services-all

• Visit Becca Syme’s website to learn more about CliftonStrengths for authors: https://betterfasteracademy.com/

• Grab a copy of the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman here: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books

• Between: A Gothic Novella by Jo Buer. Purchase the eBook direct from me and use the coupon code ALCHEMY to receive 50% off until October 31^st 2024. Go to https://payhip.com/b/mckaF

• Rest Easy Resort by Jo Buer. Buy direct from me for a special discounted price at the checkout. Go to https://payhip.com/b/v6Uu (No code is needed – the discounted price will show up automatically when checking out.)

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe, rate and review. You can also support the show by buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jobuer. Your support helps me keep this podcast going and is greatly appreciated.

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, or a topic suggestion for a future episode, leave a voice message here: https://www.speakpipe.com/AlchemyForAuthors

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If you enjoy Gothic Suspense, you can join my reader’s newsletter and download a FREE copy of my short story collection, Between the Shadows, here. You can find all my books at https://jobuer.com or visit https://Books2Read.com/JoBuer for links to your favourite store.

Find the full transcript of this episode below.

Episode 91: Pivoting & Sustainability in Your Author Career with Troy Lambert

Jo: Hello, hello, my friend. Welcome to Episode 91 of Alchemy for Authors: Pivoting and Sustainability in Your Author Career with Troy Lambert.

I hope you’ve been enjoying a wonderful couple of weeks of writing since you last tuned into the show. I have started Renee Rose’s Write to Riches 8-Week Course, and have been thoroughly enjoying it. I have been digging up and letting go of a lot of mindset blocks that I have around being an author, success, and earning an income from my books. And let me tell you, there are a lot of them. But I’m enjoying the process, the meditations, and the journaling all the same.

Although the course is now well underway, I still recommend to you that you go check out her book Write to Riches if you haven’t already. And if you want that extra support around utilising mindset and manifestation to level up your author career, Renee will also be back on the show to talk about her new book in December, which will build upon the teachings in her book Write to Riches as well, so I can’t wait for that.

The last couple of months I’ve really tried to double down on mindset and creating for myself a healthy author life, and the road has been rocky, and I might add, rather expensive. But I am at the least becoming more aware of my thought patterns and how they impact upon my life, along with considering where my biggest stresses in life are, and what I can do to either eradicate them or minimise their impact. So it has been an interesting journey, on top of also supporting a family member with their own surprise health issues. One book, though, that I just had to recommend to you, it has been really eye-opening on my journey, and, like I said, I highly, highly recommend, if you haven’t, to go check it out already. And that is called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. Now, despite the title, it’s less about time management and more about savouring the time we have here on Earth and working out what’s really important. I’ve been finding it really beneficial and so I just wanted to jump on here and share with you that maybe, if you are like me, and often feel overwhelmed by all the things that you need to do, or know that your mindset needs a little bit of an overhaul, and you need to get a little bit serious about eliminating or minimising some of the stresses in your life, then go check it out. It is an easy to read, eye opening, slightly chilling book.

Alright, my friend, so it is time to get on with the show. And might I add, I have one of my favourite guests joining us today. Troy Lambert is back, and this time he’s talking all about pivoting and sustainability in your author career. Troy’s episodes are always full of gem-like advice to live by. Previously, he joined me in Episode 47 to talk about plotting, and Episode 52 to discuss making a living as an author. Both episodes are well worth re-listening to.

But for now, when you’re ready, grab a drink, find a comfy chair, sit back and enjoy the show.

Hello my lovelies, welcome back to Alchemy for Authors. On today’s episode, I’m chatting with repeat guest Troy Lambert. Troy is the author of over 30 novels and several works of non-fiction. He’s a book coach, editor, and an educator for Plot Geek Academy, and is known in some circles as the Plot Dude. He lives, works, and plays in the mountains of Idaho.

So welcome back to the show, Troy, I am so excited to have you join me again.

Troy: Yeah, so excited to be here.

Jo: So last time we chatted it was in Episode 52, which was released in April last year. And I know a lot has changed for you since then. So I was hoping you could share with our listeners, just what you’ve been up to and what your author life looks like at this point.

Troy: Oh man, so at that time last year, I was the education lead for Plottr, and that was one of my main things that I was doing as far as, you know, author education. A lot of the outreach that I did, a lot of the conferences that I did were centred around that particular role at Plottr. Well, since then, a lot of changes have happened at Plottr itself, at the company, which included myself and my education partner, CJ. We made the decision to leave Plottr and to start our own education platform that’s more software agnostic, if you will, so that we can demo a variety of software. We can do a variety of things. We’re not beholden to like a certain platform, certain style, things like that. So we made that decision. There’s a lot that’s behind that decision, but that’s all really complicated. So the simplest thing is to just say that we made that decision and we moved on to doing other things.

So now we’ve started our own education group. It’s called the Plot Geek Academy. But it’s more than about just education, it’s about creating a community for writers. It’s a safe space for them where they can talk with their peers, talk with us, learn from each other, and basically have a good time. I mean, we’re there partly for the learning and partly because we just want to have fun and help writers as much as possible. And so that’s always been a part of my style and my goal is to be very informal, be very real with writers and help them accomplish whatever goals they want to, whatever success looks like to them.

Jo: Yeah. Well, that is really exciting. I admit that it was a little bit of a shock to hear that you had left Plottr because that I think, um, and I hope this isn’t offending you, but that’s something that you’re really well known for in the author community.

So I know you said it was complicated, so you don’t need to go into details there, but the process of leaving it, was there a bit of a, um, cause it was by your choice, but was there a bit of a grieving process that you kind of went through saying goodbye? Or was this really just feeling like the right time?

Troy: There was a little bit. The timing was a surprise to me as well. So it was not, while the final choice was mine, this was a business decision on both of our parts. Essentially is what it comes down to, in that I need a certain amount of work and a certain amount of thing to make that worth my while to work for someone else, because I’ve been self-employed for it feels like, way too long, maybe, or I don’t know. But anyway, in order for me to invest time and energy and stuff in something there has to be a certain amount of return there. And when that no longer works financially for either party, well, then that means that I have to move on to something else. And so it’s not really what I wanted to do, especially the timing of it wasn’t really what I wanted to do, but it was circumstances basically forced that decision. But what the result of it, what’s interesting is there was a certain amount of grieving, like, hey, this was my thing. This was my community. This was one of the things that I did. And really, a lot of the education in the community around Plottr were things that I had built and worked really hard to build, and made some significant sacrifices to do.

And so, it was really challenging to do. However, once I moved on, it was amazing that some of the things that I had in some ways neglected, because I was spending so much time helping other authors, like some of my own writing, and some of my own stuff that I wanted to do, and some of the courses that I wanted to release, but they weren’t exactly in alignment with what Plottr was doing and stuff like that, like, I could do all of those things. So there was a certain amount of a grieving period, but there was also a certain amount of freedom that came after that, that like now I can do things that I wasn’t able to do before and I can focus on some of my own writing. So I was actually able to…

So quick story:

My education partner, CJ and I, one of the last things we did for Plottr was an outlining masters of Mastering the Fundamentals of Outlining workshop. And during that workshop, what we decided to do, by the way, the week before the workshop we said, not only are we going to outline a book for this workshop and show people how that’s done, but we’re going to write the book that we outline together. And in order to make that even more exciting, because it wasn’t exciting enough, we’re going to set up a preorder deadline already. And so you can preorder that book now. It is not finished. We’re progressing well. We’re progressing well, but it is not finished. But we decided to do that as a part of what we were doing with Plottr. Well, of course, then, you know, within about a week of that, we ended up leaving Plottr, but we still have this book that we’re writing together, and by the way, there’s a preorder up so we have to finish writing it. So it’s kind of a good thing that we’re still writing together. But what that did was that writing project in large part has helped both of us reignite our love for our own writing, and to remind ourselves that while we’d love to help writers and while I love to educate writers and work with them, that I also have my own writing career. And I would really, I really want that to be a big part of my focus. And like I say, as a part of Plottr, I had neglected that, in many ways because I would put things off because this is what’s right in front of me is helping authors and doing this, and instead I’ve gone, this is right in front of me helping authors, but I’m only going to give it so much of my time because this is what I really love is writing and creating my own stories as well. So that part of it actually turned out to be beneficial for me in the long run because it helped me reignite that passion, and that’s really where I needed to be.

Jo: Yeah. And I think that’s amazing. It’s something that I think happens a lot is we find ourselves going off track and doing something author aligned or, you know, book aligned, but not actually the core thing that got us into this in the first place. And so I do find that sometimes our journey is a little bit of bouncing backwards and forwards as we have to keep reminding ourselves, no way I got into this to write books, let’s get back to that as a focus instead.

So we had talked about, I think actually in a previous time that you’d come on, you had talked about having a sustainable author career. And I think this idea of pivoting really comes into that. Can you talk a little bit about what a sustainable author career looks like to you and what the role of pivoting might be?

Troy: Oh, so this has hit home to me a lot lately because I advise other authors who do freelance stuff on the side all the time to never put too many of your eggs in one basket because having those multiple streams of income and all of that stuff is what keeps your career sustainable. And at the same time that I was telling authors that, I was putting too many of my eggs in one basket and relying on that too heavily for some of the stability as far as the financial stability. So I think first of all, we all know that publishing is changing constantly. So if we look at the last two years and the role that generative AI has played in author careers, whether we like it or hate it, irrelevant. It’s irrelevant to whether it actually is here to stay and whether we’re going to have to deal with it or not. Right? And so, and I believe there are some ways that generative AI can be very beneficial to authors, and I think there’s some ways that it can be detrimental as well, and you kind of have to balance that. You have to find the balance of those things. But the point of it is that we’ve all had to pivot. And that if you don’t pivot and acknowledge, this is a thing, this is here, this is here to stay, and I have to do something, I have to make a decision about it, then your career becomes less sustainable.

I mean, I remember when we started in like 2007, when kind of self-publishing kind of even became a thing, and Smashwords kind of emerged, and then came Apple, and then came Amazon, and people were like, I don’t like that. And I was like, I don’t care because when I go to the store my debit card works because I’m finding a way to make this pay for me financially so that I can survive. So whether I liked it or not, whether I liked Amazon or liked Apple or liked Smashwords, didn’t matter because this was the new role in publishing. This was something that was here to stay and it was something that was going to be a part of my career, whether I wanted it to be or not. So I had to pivot towards that. Well, all of us who have been in the business a long time can talk about the number of pivots that have happened since then, where we’ve literally had to say, well, back then you could start a group on Facebook, you would post your book and everybody in your group would see it. Now you have to boost a post for 80 percent of the people that you’ve got to follow your page to actually see the post, because it’s become a pay-to-play game. Well, that’s a pivot. Like we had to pivot to that. I don’t like it. But it doesn’t matter if I’d like it or not, because if I want to keep doing this career, I have to do it.

So that’s one part of the sustainability. But I think the other part that’s really important that we, that is so easy to lose sight of, and especially for people like me who, I’m kind of a workaholic anyway, is that work life balance. Like we have to, there’s times when you have to take a break. Because your creativity needs a break. There’s times when you need to establish certain structures because your creativity needs that structure, right? And so there’s times when to be a, for sustainability, first of all, you need to know about yourself and who you are and like, what is actually, like, what works for you long term? How do you accomplish goals? How do you interact with goals? And how do you interact with certain things? Because, and this is I’m kind of rambling here, but I promise that I’ll have a point, is that inevitably as a young writer, you will go to a writer’s conference and there will be someone on stage who’s very well put together, very well spoken, and that person has what you want as a writer, and they are going to tell you about it, and they’re going to tell you how to get it, and they’re going to give you a list of things to do. And God help you, young writer, you are going to write those things down. You’re going to because you can’t help yourself. You’re like, I want what they have so I’m going to write down the list and you’re going to get home and you’re going to discover that about half of those things are things you’re just not capable of. That you can’t do. And you’re going to think to yourself, well, if I can’t do this list of things, I’m never going to be a successful writer like that person.

And it is so wrong because there are so many different paths to go to accomplish this and to be, you know, an actual successful writer. And also you have to define success for yourself and all those different things. So there’s so much more to it than just saying this is a list of things I should do and going down that checklist and suddenly you’re a success. Because it doesn’t work that way and it never has in publishing and it never will. And so I think a part of that sustainability is just being flexible and understanding that what worked for someone else may not work for you at all, in any way, and that’s okay. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.

Jo: Yeah, I, I love that perspective of we have to know ourselves really to be able to create a sustainable author career because we’re not all just, you know, cookie cutter, all the same person. We don’t all work the same way. Work life balance looks very different for all of us. I think from memory, you’re an advocate for Claire Taylor’s Enneagram as well? Am I right with that?

Troy: For sure, yeah. So I will tell you that in the last probably five years especially, the work that Claire Taylor has done and that Becca Syme has done both, she does work with CliftonStrengths. But when you combine Enneagram and CliftonStrengths, you start to get real insight into who you are as a person and what your strengths are and what you really want and what you’re afraid of. You know, because we tend to operate in fear. We tend to walk into a room and the first thing we see is the thing that we’re afraid of, not the thing that we want. And that’s just our survival thing of, you know, you walk into a room, I see what I’m afraid of, I got to take care of the threat before I can think about that there’s a bar over there and I want a drink from that bar, right? But first you’re going to neutralise the threat or establish like that threat is either a threat to me or it’s not, right? Stuff like that. So our brains do that, they respond to fear first. Well, if you don’t know what your core fears are, you can be walking into rooms responding in fear and not understanding why you feel the way that you feel. So when that author stands up in front of you and he gives you that list and that one thing on that list makes you go, Oh man, I can’t, no way. I can’t do that. Right? And that one thing just hits you in the chest. If you know your core fears, you can understand, Oh, that’s why that hits me in the chest. That’s why I hate that thing, and I don’t want to do it. And then you can decide, do I face my fear and do that anyway? Or is it actually perfectly okay if I just don’t do that thing?

 So it looks like, you know, Becca Syme’s, uh, Writer, You Should Quit. You know, it’s not you should quit writing, but is there certain things you should quit or not even start in the first place, because it’s not serving you. It’s not moving the needle for you as an author. It’s not moving you forward and it’s also personally, it’s challenging. It’s causing you stress. It’s causing difficulty for you just because of who you are. And that core who you are as a person isn’t something that you’re gonna change. Like you’re not gonna change that tomorrow and be like, well, I was an Enneagram Seven, but now I’m a nine. No, no. That’s just not gonna happen, right? You just don’t transform that way. Anyway, so I’m a big fan of those type of things so that you understand like who you are. Understand your strengths. And if you don’t fully understand them, get a coach, it’s worth it to go and have somebody who’s trained in that area, like Claire or, you know, like Becca Syme, sit down with you.

I had Becca sit down with me and sometimes I’ll be messaging back and forth and she’d go, let me check out your Strengths. Okay. And then she explains, Oh, well, this is why you’re feeling that way. And I totally, then I go, Oh, yeah, totally. That’s how I’m… that’s why I’m feeling that way. So that gives me a path forward. Because I can understand this is why I’m reacting that way. This is why I’m doing this this way. And so now I need to, you know, find a different way to move forward. But now I know how to navigate it because I know what’s going on inside my head. So, that’s super useful because to get a sustainable author career you have to know like, what your motives are, why am I doing what I’m doing? Why do I react this way? And that can help you make decisions. Like, how do I navigate this writer life? And I think it’s really important, a super important thing, you know.

Jo: Yeah. I would agree with you. I absolutely love both Claire and Becca and all the work that they have done. And I think having that, like educating yourself and learning about yourself and getting that coaching and that, because you’re right, sometimes we can’t, we don’t always have that insight into ourselves that we think we do. We can have some blinders on. So having an outside, you know, somebody to talk to about that, it’s really, really useful.

And then of course, there’s also just experience, right? So when you’ve been in the author game for a while, you start to see trends and things that you do, or traps you fall into, and that as well. So you can start to with that awareness, start to kind of piece together maybe what you should and shouldn’t be doing or that kind of thing. Would you agree?

Troy: Oh, yeah, for sure. And you start to see patterns like, um, and this is one thing like, for instance, like cash flow. Like authors, one thing as a business, you need to understand cash flow. Where there are trends every year and like mystery and thriller and you can watch them. Like when sales go up and down for summer reads. When they go up for summer reads and then the beginning of September they drop for a few weeks, sales drop for a few weeks. Almost every year without fail, when the kids go back to school and so mom isn’t reading a book, mom’s going ah. And then she’s going sweet, sweet freedom. I’m actually going to clean my house finally, and cleanse it of all the spirits of all these children and, you know, whatever, sage and all the things that they do, you know. Um, my kids are gone now. Thank goodness. They’re all out of the house. But anyway, um, but so as an author you have to understand, okay, that’s a moment when cash flow drops for me, when sales dropped for me every single year, so I need to just plan for that. Or I can plan strategies around, well, let me have a see. If I have a book promotion around that time and I put some things on sale, will I smooth that dip out every year? And maybe. Maybe not. There may be a way you can influence it. But the knowledge, the data of that, helps you understand it.

Also knowing your patterns of the person, like every, you know, going, well, every September I get really depressed until the end of September, and because you know, summer’s going away now falls coming. And then fall comes, I’m like, I’m happy again and I can write. And so maybe you have patterns in your writing as well. Things like looking at the patterns of when’s the best time of day for you to write, and when are you the most productive. And then protecting that time religiously, if at all possible, you know. And that may change as you go through stages of life. And like, I don’t have any kids at home anymore, but when I had kids at home, my schedule was completely different because I had to deal with these little munchkins running around. And, you know, the fact they wanted things like to eat, they couldn’t support themselves, you know? Things like that, you know what I mean? But now when they’re out of the house, then I don’t have that responsibility. I have different responsibilities. I have a different schedule, things like that.

So knowing yourself, like just the stage of life you’re in. What’s your genre looks like? What’s your life works like? How your writings comes and goes and flows throughout the year is really important because there’s very few people that can do this sustainable where I’m gonna release a book a month, every month, every year for ten years running. Most of the time that person is gonna burn out eventually, right? Or they’re gonna have seasons when then they don’t write nearly as much at all because they’ve used up all that creativity and they need a break. They need rest. And so knowing those things allows you to structure your writing life in a way that you can keep doing this forever.

Writing it, I always tell people that this is the easiest job in the world to quit. There are plenty of other ways to make a living, right? This is, this is the easiest job to quit. And I cannot tell you the number of writers that I have seen that have risen even almost to bestseller and stardom type level and then have quit. And they’ve gone back to a day job. They’ve gone back to doing something else because they’ve said this, sustaining this, now that I’ve got this bestseller status, now I’m working full time as an author, it’s just too hard to sustain. I can’t do it. And so it’s, if you want to sustain this, you need to be careful and protect yourself, protect your career, just like you would anything else.

Jo: Yeah. I find that really interesting that, you know, some people can find that they can, they have everything that they need kind of aligned to sustain this is as a career. And then others, just can’t. Do you think there are main core things that help with sustainability, particularly if newer authors or somebody starting out. Things that they should maybe have at the forefront of their mind right from the beginning to ensure that they can actually last in this?

Troy: Well, one is, one of the biggest ones is learning how to rest and telling yourself that it’s okay to rest. And I am a horrible example of this. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. I sleep an average of between six and seven hours a night. Because that’s just what my body sleeps. And I work constantly. But that’s because I love what I do and I love the hustle. But there are plenty of people who do not love the hustle. And I do not blame them at all because it’s, it’s very difficult to sustain. So I’d say, first of all, do what you can when you can, but understand that writing, so writing for a living is not a job, it’s a lifestyle. But those around you need to be on board with that lifestyle. If you love your family, and you love your partner, then you want that person to be on board with the fact that there are sometimes when I’m going to disappear into that writing cave, I’m not going to come out on my own anytime soon, and I need you to be okay with that. I need you to be okay with that every year in September, the first half of September, my income drops. And there’s almost nothing I can do about that. And that is literally just the pattern. So I need you to be okay with that. I need you to be okay with the fact that sometimes I’m going to go to these conferences and I’m not going to make money from the conference. In fact, I’m going to lose money, you know? That type of thing.

So I’m like, you know, there’s, that’s a part of it is that you as the creative need to be in alignment with those around you and they need to be in alignment with you. Or now, if you’re, if there’s so much opposition to that and you can’t resolve it, then that may mean you need to make some changes in your life, and that happens. And I’m not going to tell anybody to end a relationship or anything like, but I’m going to tell you that. It depends on how badly you want to do this, you know? and how badly you want to make this a part of your career. But like, you have to align with those people around you and help them to understand you, and what you need and say, this is not only what I want, but this is something that I need in my life, even if you’re just going to write as a hobby.

And that’s the other thing to understand is that levels of success are different. And if you choose to pursue the fact that you’re going to write for a living, it changes everything. It changes everything because now you become dependent upon this thing that you love to do for the way that you make money and buy groceries and pay rent. And that’s different than if you just do it because you love it, right? So it’s, I tell people, compare it to golf. So if your spouse says, you making any money from that writing thing yet? Go, are you making any money from that golfing thing yet? But you buy lessons, you buy equipment, you go to tournaments, you know, all that kind of stuff, right? It’s the same thing. If this is a hobby to you, that’s perfectly okay. You can still spend money. You can still do stuff around writing without having to add that additional pressure of I have to make a living at it. Now, if you do, and you can make a living at it, then it’s glorious, but it does mean you’re transitioning to a business model as opposed to a fun model, you know?

Jo: And I think it’s easy to, so many people want to have being an author as their main income earner. You know? Their main form of income. Yeah, income and everything like that. But then there is the danger too, of losing the passion or, like you’ve experienced a little bit too, maybe focusing in on the wrong things, that you’re not doing as much of the things that brings you the joy. So, yeah, I can see that being a danger if we forget the reason why we want to write in the first place.

Troy: Right. And well, and also define, make a living. I mean, let’s be real. The majority of authors, first of all, authors are not rock stars. You know, for the most part, first of all, you’re not going to be walking on the street, people are going to recognize you and you’re going to be doing the wave. Yeah. Things like that. Nobody in my town knows who, you know, that I’m am, you know? Very few people. And even though I’m very active, like in the author community, people know who I am, but in the writing community, they might’ve read one of my books. They might know my author name, but if they see me in person, they don’t recognize me. That’s not the kind of fame you’re going to get as an author. Unless maybe you’re Stephen King, you know? But I tell people most of the time, like if R. L. Stine walked behind me on the zoom call, you’d be like, is Troy’s dad in there? What is he doing? You would have no idea who the guy is, right? You’d have no clue. But you’ve read his books, right? So that’s the kind of thing that authors get also. And also, you’re just not going to, you’re likely not going to get super rich doing this. You can make a decent living, but you’re, I mean, it’s possible that you’re six figures several years in a row. It’s quite, it’s possible, but that’s the minority of authors that are writing for a living. Most are somewhere in the middle, you know? I’m like I tell people I drive a 2007 Ford, pull a 2015 camper when I go camping, Like I’m, you know, this is not the high life over here with the lambo money, you know, and stuff like that. But I don’t care because for me making a living as a writer means I keep my living relatively simple.

Jo: Yeah.

Troy: I keep my life relatively simple so that I can continue to do this as a way to make a living. But if I go and get that big mortgage or get that big car payment, then my life also changes in another way that adds another level of stress, that it, for me, that’s not sustainable, so I’m not going to do that. You know? Until the movie deal, you know? James Cameron, come on, buddy, go ahead and buy out the script. Right? Whatever. You know, go ahead, buy out the options. But I mean, until something like that happens, that’s not the kind of lifestyle that you get. So manage your lifestyle expectations. And again, the expectations of those around you. If you have a partner, just make sure they understand. Even if I start making money from my writing, this is not going to be J.K. Rowling money at first. You know? This is going to be Troy Lambert money, you know? Which is okay, but it’s not, there’s no glamour there.

Jo: Yeah. No, I think that’s all really, really good advice. I like how just a little bit earlier you said that being an author, it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle. And I totally resonate with that because it seems almost impossible to keep it separated from the rest of your life. Like it really does permeate everything. So I thought that was really cool that you brought that up.

Troy: Yeah, it really does. And it’s, like I say, it’s helpful for those around you to understand that that moment when the car, when you go quiet and you’re like, watching, it’s just you, this, some idea came, whatever happened and you’re processing, and they just need to let you process.

Jo: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So we’ve talked a little bit about how it’s almost inevitable that, well, it is inevitable really, that people will need to pivot throughout their journey because publishing changes all the time. Sometimes though, I know we kind of get locked in our own minds of just continuing the way that things have always been, even if the, you know, neon signs are there saying time to change, time to pivot. Is there anything that you would recommend that we should look out for that kind of indicates maybe we need to be changing things up a bit?

Troy: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of signs. There’s a lot of signs that you might need to pivot. I mean, one of them is if your joy is gone and your passion is gone. And because here’s the thing, this writing thing is tough enough. Right? It’s one of the toughest jobs in the world, bar none. And we’re held to impossible standards of perfection that doctors and lawyers are not held to, you know? You get four typos in your 70,000 word book and somebody’s going crazy. And you’re like, that’s 99.95 percent efficient.

Jo: Yeah.

Troy: That’s more efficient than you are in your job. I almost guarantee. But anyway, so we’re held to these impossible standards and all this other stuff, but like you need the joy of the actual writing process itself in the things that you’re doing. And also, I would say that you need to find the joy and stuff in marketing. If marketing somehow is just totally a pain to you and totally dragging you down, then you probably need to pivot your marketing efforts to something that you enjoy more. This is a hard job. You should like it. You should like as much of it as you possibly can. Now there’s things you’re going to have to do that are not going to bring you joy. Okay, but that’s the same with almost any job in the world, right? But you should enjoy, you should have as much joy as you can in this job.

So that’s one thing. The other thing to just watch is things like if your sales are dropping, and you’re like, and you want to do this for a living and your sales are dropping. Well, it’s probably time to pivot because something is wrong. Like your target audience is wrong, your marketing is wrong, or maybe this series has just run its course and that’s as much as you’re going to sell in that series, you need to pivot to a new one. Or something along that line. So watching market trends and watching what’s happening with your work can also be a good indicator that it’s time to change. And then sometimes the pivot is just because your life itself has changed. So I’ve had more than one friend of mine that were authors that have gotten, that have had like diagnosis of cancer. Well, guess what you don’t do when you’re on chemo? You don’t do well? Write. Like writing takes a backseat at that particular point. What that means is maybe at that point you become more reliant on your backlist for a little bit until you can create again. Right? Something like that. Like you need to pivot.

So physical, there’s physical and mental health challenges that you will face that mean you need to pivot. There can be relationship challenges that mean you need to make a pivot. Almost anything where you would make a pivot in life is a way where you would need to make a pivot in your writing career as well, and in your writing. Because that’s just the way that life works. But it’s easy for us sometimes to stay the course even when something’s not working because well, I want to finish this series. Okay, just understand that there’s consequences for not making that pivot, you know? And maybe that’s okay for you for your lifestyle, but you have to make that decision.

But the other mistake that I see people do is sometimes they pivot too much. Because the industry changes so fast and things like that, they’re like this genre isn’t working for me I’ve been doing it for six weeks and it’s not even happening, so I’m gonna pivot and now I’m gonna write reverse harem dinosaur erotica because that’s what the latest trend is. Right? And so I’m gonna do that. And so they pivot to that and well that doesn’t work for six weeks either, you know, they don’t give something a chance long enough to work, or they just pivot too quickly. It’s sort of like they panic, they’re acting out of fear, whatever the case may be. And so there are times when you need to look at things and say, maybe I do need to stay the course for a little while longer. Maybe it’s not quite time to change yet.

Jo: Yeah, I think that’s really sage advice because I think you’re absolutely right. And it’s something that we don’t often think about too much is that pivoting too much. But yeah, I can absolutely see where that could be a problem for some people. Some of us, I think, get stuck in the same kind of way of doing things as we’ve always done things, whereas others – just jumping around too much.

So it’s finding that middle ground that kind of feels right, I guess. Yeah. I like that. So I would like to talk a little bit—

Troy: That kind of feels great and works for your career. Yeah. Go ahead.

Jo: Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit, um, well I want you to talk a little bit about Plot Geek Academy. So you mentioned a little bit about it at the beginning of this episode, but if you can just talk a little bit more about some of the offerings you have for authors and you were talking about making it more of a community. So what does that look like?

Troy: So what it looks like right now is obviously the things that we’re building right now are content for people and following, right? So we have a number of courses already available in our community. If you go to https://theplotacademy.com/, you can find us. But we also have a community where you can like chat, comment with each other, uh, things like that. Kind of just basically talk over things that are happening to you in the industry, ask a question if you want, things like that, and then get feedback and interaction from your peers. And our goal is to build that community to a larger space. For instance, we’re going to be doing a thing in November called the, we’re just calling it the November Novel Challenge. We’re avoiding the NaNo poop pile that happens to be there right now until they get that straightened out if they ever do. But we’re avoiding that while at the same time saying one of the cool things that we can do with something like that is we come together as a community for a month and we all write. And we all hold each other accountable and we do things like that, right? So we’re doing that challenge, not because we’re going to sell a whole bunch of courses and make any money from that, but because we want to build that community.

Now, at the same time, we do charge for things that we do because I do not believe in the starving artist myth. And so because I don’t believe in that, I don’t want people to believe in that for themselves, for their own careers. But also, like, I’m not going to just give people everything. Because then it doesn’t work. But we do have a thing that, first of all, every one of our instructors that comes to anyone does any one of our courses, is a working writer. If you’re not a working writer who’s actively writing, actively publishing books, you don’t teach for us. And the reason is not because there’s not subject matter experts out there who are not working writers, but because it’s different when you’re sharing with someone how to do something, if you’re actually doing it and you can prove that, you know? So that’s one of our rules.

The other thing that we have is we have a lot of events, online events that are essentially pay what you want. So we’ll have a minimum for the event, you know, of like ten dollars or whatever, and if ten dollars is all you have for a four day seminar, you’re going to get a four day webinar for ten dollars. But if you see the value of that and you want us to help other people as well, then you can donate and pay more for your ticket. Which enables us as a community and as a group to invite people in who don’t have ten dollars. Or invite, get more people in because that’s all they can afford. And we don’t want to be exclusive and exclude people by saying, well, you have to pay this much for this thing. Now, some of our courses, like our premium courses are a little more expensive because that’s the reality of the situation.

But as much as possible, we’re creating a space where this is affordable. It’s welcoming. It’s a safe space for you. And really, if you are struggling, tell us. You want one of my books because you can’t afford it? Tell me, I’ll send it to you. Because to me, that is more important to give people the tools and the opportunities that they need rather than me making a few bucks off every single thing that people do. You know, I always feel like that comes back to me in spades and I win anyway. So it doesn’t matter.

Jo: That’s amazing. I love that. Just the way that, you know, your generosity towards supporting other authors on their journey, I think it’s phenomenal. And I love the concept that you’re doing a November Novel Challenge, because I think that’s kind of a space that needs to be filled at the moment, unfortunately, but yeah, so that’s really good. So you talk about this as a community and so you’re having webinars and things like that. Do you have a group chat? Like, is there a Facebook page or something set up? Like how, how does that kind of…

Troy: We have both. So we have a Facebook page and we have a group chat that’s on our website as well, that you find once you go into the course community. You’ll find that chat section and that community section. And basically, that’s just open to anyone who has taken one of our courses or who has done anything on our website. As soon as you join that space, that community is always free for everybody. And same with the one on Facebook. The main reason we have one separate from Facebook, too, is so that if you hate Facebook and don’t want to go to Facebook, you don’t have to go to Facebook. But, you know, if you do, there’s just opportunities, both places to connect with us. But also, to connect with your peers. We want you to talk amongst yourselves. Like, I don’t have to be in every conversation. And we also, so our webinar software that we have is a software called Be Human. And it’s very much like an in-person conference in that between sessions and stuff like that, there’s a lounge area with virtual tables, and you can sit and talk with your friends. And even most of the time in our things, we have it enabled where you can create a private chat and only invite your friends to that. And so you’re on, you can be on video or not be on video, audio, whatever you want to do, but you can invite just four people. You say, we want to talk about marketing and we don’t want to talk about it with everybody else. And you form your own little marketing room, and you invite people over to it the same as if you were at a conference. And you guys decided to go to a private room or have your own table and talk over things and not have other people there.

And so it provides you with a sense of community around every single event, that you can very much just chat with people the same as you would if you were in an in person conference. And the entire reason for going that way with that kind of a software instead of Zoom or something like that is to allow you that possibility to network, and that possibility to connect with people. Because it’s not about me up there or anybody else up there speaking and giving you some kind of wisdom from on high. But it’s about you taking that and discussing it with your peers and applying it, and then going forth and doing wonderful things. And I mean, to speak to the community thing, one of my number one things that I hate it when somebody becomes really popular and then they get their prices raised for everything that they’re doing, right? I don’t like it because I’m like, when I have plenty, when I am at the position where I have plenty, it is my job to build a longer table, not build a higher wall. So I want to bring more people in rather than raising my prices and rely on, oh, I’m going to increase my lifetime value of my customers. Who cares? You know? Because that’s not why I’m doing this. That’s not my why for doing this. It’s not the why for anything that I’ve ever done when it comes to helping writers. It’s not been, money is a factor and it is a thing, but it is not the only thing by far. And so the more affordable, the more accessible I can make training for authors, the more I’m going to do that, you know?

Jo: Amazing. Honestly, this just sounds fabulous. And I love this idea of the setup, the Be Human setup that you’ve got with the different conference rooms and everything. Everything you’re doing, it just sounds absolutely phenomenal. So it sounds like you’ve got a very exciting, you know, next year and that ahead as well. So that is really cool.

Just as we wrap up here, is there any other advice you’d like to, or top of your mind that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Troy: Oh, man, the only advice that I would say at this point is be you because everybody else has taken. And that leads to your author’s life as well. You can follow, and I would argue that maybe you need when you first start out, to emulate somebody else’s process and follow somebody else’s process to use that as a tool to figure out what works for you. But eventually you’re going to have what I always call the “and then” moment. And the “and then” moment is when you’re going to say, I took Troy’s process and then… and you’re going to tell me how you made it your own. And that is the moment that matters in your writer life more than anything else, is the moment when you decide how you are going to do it and how you are going to make it work. And that’s why number one advice to you is just be yourself and find your own path.

Jo: Awesome. Best advice there is, I think. That’s so fantastic. So how can people find you? How can they find Plot Geek Academy? Yeah. All that good stuff.

Troy: So you can find Plot Geek Academy, our website is https://theplotacademy.com/. We also have our course website, which is a little bit different is https://www.theplotcircle.com/, but you can get to that from our main site as well. You can find me at https://troylambertwrites.com/, or you can google me. I’m kind of available everywhere. And if you have any questions just email info@theplotacademy.com if you have any questions about that, and we’re happy to answer them. We’re also happy to work with your group if your group needs a presentation or needs a space to have some kind of event or whatever. We’re happy to work with you as well. Our main thing is that we want to help writers and reach as many writers as possible.

Jo: Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming back on the show and sharing with us all your pivot really and your new directions. And it’s just sounds so exciting. So I really appreciate you coming to chat about that.

Troy: Well, thank you for having me again. I appreciate it.

Jo: Here are some takeaways from today’s show:

1. Be adaptable. You may not like the changes in the publishing industry, but being adaptable and open to pivoting allows you the best chances at creating a sustainable and successful author business.
2. Know yourself. How do you accomplish goals? What works for you? What do you like? What is your definition of success? An aspect of sustainability is knowing that what worked for others may not necessarily work for you, and that’s okay.
3. Both Troy and I are fans of Claire Taylor’s teachings on the Enneagram and Becca Syme’s teachings on the CliftonStrengths. Check them out if you’re looking for more clarity on who you are, your strengths, and your fears, so you can better align your author career for success.
4. Pay attention to trends with your cash flow. Plan for it and make changes as needed, including pivoting.
5. Not enjoying writing can be a sign that you need to pivot. Not enjoying marketing can also be a sign. Where do you need to change things up?
6. As a creative, you need to be in alignment with the people around you, and you need to surround yourself with people who are in alignment with and are supportive of your author goals.

And most importantly…

7. Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

So there we are my friend. I always come away from chatting with Troy hugely inspired and our chats are often ones that I’ll revisit. If you’ve missed him being on the show before, you can, of course, go back and listen to Episode 47 of Alchemy for Authors, where Troy talks about plotting, and Episode 52, where he shares his experience and advice on making a living as an author. Links of where to find Troy will be in the show notes, along with other resources that may be beneficial for you.

As authors, we are also readers, so I just want to share that a couple of my Gothic Suspense books are on sale until the end of the month when you buy direct from me off my website. Between: A Gothic Novella is 50% off when you use the coupon code ALCHEMY at the checkout, or you can grab yourself a copy of my full-length novel, Rest Easy Resort: 50% off will apply automatically when you check out.

If you’re a fan of Paranormal Cozy Mysteries, I encourage you to go check out Season 2 Episode 7 of the Magic of Cozies podcast, where I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on the show and I shared some of the inspiration behind my Paranormal Cozy Mystery, Hades’s Haunt. And, between you and I, I am expecting the eBook of Hades’s Haunt to be going on sale for a very short time over Halloween. So make sure to follow me on social media for details about that closer to the time or sign up for my reader’s newsletter, and I will keep you in the loop.

So I really hope that you enjoyed today’s show as much as I did. I would sincerely appreciate if you left a review on your favourite podcast platform. That really does help to boost the algorithms and furthers my reach with this podcast. Telling a friend about Alchemy for Authors would also be absolutely amazing as well. If you wanted to support the show with a small donation, you can absolutely do that by going to https://buymeacoffee.com/jobuer. That goes a long way to supporting the sustainability of Alchemy for Authors by helping to subsidise my time, software, all the subscriptions, and everything I use to put these episodes out into the world. Just as a reminder, I really do appreciate you tuning into the show and choosing to hang with me. You, my friend, are a big reason for why this show exists. So I am wishing you an inspired writing week ahead. Keep being you. Bye for now.

author life, author mindset, indie author, pivoting, Sustainability