It's fantastic to learn from authors who are ahead in the game and so I really enjoyed talking to Elle Casey. We both wax lyrical about dictation in writing first draft plus we discuss self-publishing in France and how treating your writing as a business is key to success.

In the intro, I mention my article on 7 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Author Blog And How To Fix Them; the World Reader report on ebook reading in Africa and Asia, Amazon's new crackdown on typos in ebooks, and the MyKitaab podcast if you're interested in self-publishing in India.

Plus, you can join Nick Stephenson and I for a FREE webinar on the 3 step system to automate your author marketing. Tues 9 Feb at 3pm US Eastern (8pm UK). Click here to register and yes, you can get the recording if you sign up.

This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

Elle Casey is the New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling author of over 30 novels across Romance, Urban Fantasy, Dystopian, Sci-Fi, & Action/Adventure. She left her job as a lawyer and teacher in 2013 to become a full-time writer and has put out a book on average every 6 weeks since.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Elle's writing background, her beginnings as an indie author and her relocation to France.

France's slow adaptation to eReaders and indie publishing.

Elle's writing routine and productivity and switching to writing via dictation.

The different skills required when writing via dictation vs. typing.

On writing as a business and switching genres from Fantasy and adventure to Romance, and writing in several genres under the same name.

Kindle Unlimited and whether it helps new writers and those trying to make a living from their writing.

Elle's marketing / promotion schedule and strategy for her books and her areas of focus for 2016.

You can find Elle at www.ellecasey.com and her books on Amazon here.

Transcription of interview with Elle Casey
Joanna: Hi, everyone. I'm Joanna Penn from TheCreativePenn.com and today, I'm here with Elle Casey. Hi, Elle.

Elle: Hello. How are you?

Joanna: I'm great. It's great to have you on the show. Just a little introduction. Elle is the New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of over 30 novels across romance, urban fantasy, dystopian, sci-fi and action adventure. She left her job as a lawyer and teacher in 2013 to become a full-time writer and has put out a book on average every six weeks since which is amazing.
Elle, first start by telling us a bit more about you and your writing background and why you now live in France.
Elle: My very first book was published four years ago just on the 1st of January. So I've just had my four-year anniversary. I was working as a teacher, teaching legal English in France. I was a lawyer in the United States, so I was teaching legal English here. And I started writing on the side in my free time, just to see if I could do something with it. And then within the first few months, I started making pretty decent money out of it and then I just was like writing like crazy. I was so motivated so that's how I started. It was just on a whim, kind of to see if I could do it.

Self-publishing was still kind of new back then and not a lot of people knew about it and we were starting to see articles in the newspaper that were showing up on Google or Yahoo occasionally. So that's how I found out about it. I did not have a Kindle myself or a NOOK or any kind of e-reader. I was a paperback reader and then I saw an article about Darcie Chan. She was the first one I saw an article about,