If you want to be a successful indie author these days, you need to get to grips with technology. Whether it's writing, publishing or book marketing, there are lots of different tools that can make the author life easier ... if you're willing to learn.

Today I talk to Ron Vitale, author and technology expert and we geek out on all kinds of useful stuff :)

In the intro, I mention the new Audible snippets functionality, How I Have Iterated And Optimized My Author Business In The Last Year, and the new Self-Publishing Formula Podcast. Plus, my progress on Destroyer of Worlds, ARKANE #8.

This podcast is sponsored by the Creative Freedom Course; A Step By Step Guide to Making a Living with Your Writing, based on my own journey from one book to multi-six-figure author entrepreneur. Creative Freedom is about empowering you as the creative and giving you the tools and skills necessary to make a living with your writing. Click here to learn more.

Ron Vitale is a fantasy and sci-fi author, as well as a web technology director in higher education and a marathon runner. Here's his round-up post on lessons learned as an author in 2015 which we talk about in the show.

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.

What Google Analytics is and why it matters for authors.

Writing blog and website content aimed at the specific audience Google Analytics is telling you is visiting your site.

The next steps after Google Analytics, including enabling demographic aspects and asking readers what type of information they want more of.

Google Tag Manager and its uses for authors.

Why measuring information helps us to manage it and these Google tools help authors create more diversified streams of income.

A brief overview about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the future of web searches, including how algorithms are learning from what we search for.

Why longevity matters to Google.

The future for writers who want to create in new arenas like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

An explanation of Accelerated Mobile Pages, how authors can apply this technology to their sites and why it matters for global growth of ebook sales. Read The Next Web article on AMP, and also this article about Wordpress plugin for AMP.

On work-life balance and not being able to do everything at once.

Lessons from marathon running that can be applied to the writing life.

You can find Ron at www.ronvitale.com and on twitter @ronvitale.

Transcript of interview with Ron Vitale
Joanna: Hi, everyone. I'm Joanna Penn from TheCreativePenn.com, and today I'm here with Ron Vitale. Hi, Ron.

Ron: Hello. Welcome. I'm so happy to be on the show.

Joanna: Oh, no. It's great to have you here. So just a little introduction, Ron is a fantasy and sci-fi author, as well as a web technology director in higher education, and also a marathon runner.
Ron, start by telling us a bit more about you and how you got into writing.
Ron: Sure. One of the things that's not well-known about me is that I actually have an English literature degree, a French degree, and a Masters in English literature.

Joanna: Wow. There we go.

Ron: So what is very interesting is that when I was going through university, the economy at the time was not doing so great, and I went into medical publishing rather than teaching. During all my school years, everyone always said to me, "Don't become a novelist. Don't become an author. You will never make any money. You need to find a day job." Unfortunately, I listened to them. So I put all my writing on hold. I wrote a novel, my first novel, when I was a teenager and just kept reworking it and rewriting it, and rewriting it, and it just sat in a drawer. I tried to shop it to get it published for many, many, many years and just never did anything with it.