Q: So, what exactly IS your business?
A: Great questions.
Basically, I’m doing something I would never tell any of my clients to do.
I’m building three different businesses. (Yikes.)
- MPW Fiction Author, selling fiction books (including a Fiction Books & Entertainment Blog).
- Love-Based Copywriting and Marketing company, where you can get support and training on how to write love-based copy, how to market yourself and your business in a love-based way, and how to build a love-based business.
- Love-Based Publishing, where you can get the support and training you need to write, publish and market your nonfiction book.
This site, MichelePW.com, is my “umbrella” site. Whichever “Michele” you’re looking for (i.e. the fiction author, the copywriter, the Love-Based Business author, etc.), you’ll find direction here.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: This page is the best to check for my most up-to-date book project or projects.
Q: How are you able to find the time to do all the writing you do?
A: The short answer is I don’t have kids (which helps).
The long answer is that this is who I am. I’m a writer. I taught myself to read when I was three years old because I wanted to write stories so badly.
Now, that doesn’t mean the writing journey has always been easy for me (in fact, I struggled with my fiction side for years—you can read more about that in my Writing Journey blog series). And I did have to learn how to balance all the different types of writing that I am called in my soul to do.
What helped me a ton is adopting the 15-minute rule, which is something my friend Samantha Bennett writes about in her “Get It Done: From Procrastination to Creative Genius in 15 Minutes a Day” book. When I decided to recommit myself to writing books, I committed to working on my book for at least 15 minutes every day.
I know that doesn’t seem like a lot—or like you could EVER finish a book dedicating only 15 minutes a day to it.
But, it’s remarkable how much you ARE able to accomplish.
Even if you’re skeptical, I’d invite you to give it a try. (What’s the worst that could happen? You don’t get as much done as you’d like? Well, how much are you getting done now?)
Q: How are you able to switch between writing fiction, nonfiction, copywriting, etc.?
A: I like to think of it as a dance. Some days, writing fiction is the priority. Other days, I have to get a blog post done or a copy project completed.
I let the projects dictate how I plan my days with a couple of exceptions. (One of those exceptions is I must spend at least 15 minutes on my current fiction project. This is non-negotiable.)
Rather than focusing on how much I get done in a day, I try and look at my week. If I’m more or less on track over a week, I’m good. (I’ll never be completely caught up as there will ALWAYS be something else to write, which is also why I try to use the weekly “Am I on track?” self-check-in method for staying on top of things.)
Q: How do you come up with your fiction ideas?
A: I read a lot. And I read a lot of books that are outside of my preferred genre of writing. I also like combining different ideas that, on the surface, don’t seem to go together to see if I can turn them into a coherent story.
(But, quite honestly, that’s likely just my ego intervening, as if I have a say in coming up with ideas. I suspect a closer truth is that the “muse fairy” periodically visits me, and for that I’m very grateful.)
Q: How can you be taken seriously as a fiction author?
A: This actually kept me from pursuing my fiction goals for years—this fear that, if I was open about writing fiction, it would somehow hurt my chances of being a successful copywriter, blogger, and nonfiction author.
Honestly, I haven’t found that to be the case. Most people are quite intrigued by the fact I write fiction.
Probably my biggest challenge is balancing all my brands and keeping everything clear in the marketplace, but this is an inherent challenge for anyone who is trying to grow more than one business or brand.
Q: How do you become a successful author in different genres?
A: First, you have to be able to write in different genres successfully. I would highly encourage you to work on mastering your craft, so you can create a high-quality product.
Second, you have to commit to marketing yourself. And, if you write in different genres, you have to commit to marketing those different genres.
There’s no question it’s more work. However, on the flip side, it can also make you more stable as an author. If you have multiple businesses and multiple genres, you have multiple ways of making money. So, if one genre tanks for whatever reason, you can rely on other genres to keep money flowing in the door.
Q: What are some ways you can market yourself as an author?
A: Blogs are an excellent way of marketing yourself as a writer. I would also recommend building an email list of readers as well as setting up a budget to regularly advertise your books in places like Amazon and Facebook.
Q: What is a copywriter?
A: A copywriter writes promotional copy for businesses. (Not to be confused with protecting intellectual property or putting a copyright on something.)
For years, I’ve specialized in something called “direct response copywriting,” which is copy that inspires your prospects to directly respond and take action to the copy piece. Examples of this include emails inviting you to click on a link, landing pages asking you for your name and email address in exchange for a checklist or template or video training, or those long sales pages where you’re scrolling down forever looking for the price and wondering if anyone actually reads them.
Q: How did you come up with the love-based philosophy?
A: For many years, marketers and other copywriting gurus in the online industries used to tell other entrepreneurs that their only choice was to either use traditional direct response copy (that, for many folks, felt sales-y and inauthentic and hype-y), or to resign themselves to having a “hobby” business.
My entrepreneurial friends rejected both of those choices, and wanted me to come up with a new way of writing copy.
At first, my answer was absolutely not. I felt like there was a lot of good, solid copywriting trainings and books in the marketplace already, and I didn’t need to clutter things up.
But then, in 2015, my friend Susan Liddy came up with a special report called “Love-Based Marketing.” I looked at it and thought “Love-Based Copy.” My next thought was, “What is the reverse of love-based copy? Well, that would be fear-based copy.”
And, just like that, the entire love-based copy philosophy downloaded into me.
Needless to say, once that happened, I realized I did indeed have a book inside me after all about copywriting.
Since that day, I’ve discovered that the love-based philosophy applies to more things than just copy, which is why I founded the Love-Based Business Series, which will include many different books that highlight how to do things in a love-based way.
Q: How do you persuade using love versus fear?
A: I wrote a post about this, but the short answer is this: In order to persuade anyone to take action, you must tap into your emotions. And you have a choice. You can tap into their love-based emotions or their fear-based emotions.
If you tap into love, you’re persuading with love.
Q: Why use the love-based business approach?
A: I wrote a post about this as well, but in a nutshell, if you build your business on a foundation of fear, you’re never going to get away from fear when you work on your business. You will also have a level of anxiety or worry or anger or resentment attached to everything your business touches.
If you build your business on a foundation of love, not only will you (mostly) feel peace and happiness in your business, but your business will also spread love and joy.