“Just start writing and keep writing. Continually be working on a new book whether you’re able to do it full-time, part-time, or its a side hustle where you’re getting in 30 minutes to an hour a day. Set some time aside and continually write.”
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Why Listen:
I'm so excited to start off 2021 with an interview that was so much fun to do. Back in 2017 (Episode 95), I interviewed Andrew Watts, who is a military veteran and was a full time author at the time. We reconnected for today's interview and I'm adding in Jason Kasper, and there were a couple things that I loved about this interview. So just for context, Andrew, is a writer who is still a writer, but now also started a publishing company, the Severn River Publishing Company, and he publishes over 20 different authors now. So we talk about that journey since our last interview three years ago. And Jason is a another military veteran, best selling author, and now works with Andrew and Andrew publishes his books. This is a story of the art Veterans becoming published authors and extremely successful ones at that.
What I really appreciated, comparing it to my own background in entrepreneurship, is the number of parallels this has for any form of entrepreneurship, of paving one's own way of taking and making a bet on oneself, of really learning a craft. And I think that's an element that will come through for listeners with both Jason and Andrew, is how much each of them have devoted themselves to perfecting their art and their craft and how much they use persistence and discipline to succeed in their chosen vocation. And so regardless of your career interest, whether or not you're interested in entrepreneurship, or writing or whatever else, I think there is an element here to learn about that discipline about that constant sharpening of one's toolkit to get better.
I do want to give a plug that there is no financial incentive for me to interview these authors, but I really just enjoyed meeting Jason. He has a new book coming out on January 15 2021, called The Enemies of My Country.
About Jason:
Jason Kasper is a former Army Special Forces officer and a USA Today bestselling author. His new book, THE ENEMIES OF MY COUNTRY, releases on January 15, 2021.
About Andrew:
Andrew Watts is the USA TODAY bestselling author and founder of Severn River Publishing. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013.
Selected Resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-My-Country-Rivers-Thriller-ebook/dp/B083Y4KC7Q
May 3, 2017 - BTU #95 - Andrew Watts: Navy to Full-time Author - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-95-andrew-watts-navy-to-full-time-author?rq=andrew
Transcript & Time Stamps:
3:35
Joining me from Mason, OH is Andrew Watson and from Cary, NC is Jason Kasper.
Andrew - how did you make the decision to start your own publishing company?
Andrew: I was seeing the writing on the wall that if I was going to be an independent writer, it would be a really grueling world. I left a good job in brand management at P&G to become a writer. If I was to do that long term, I wanted some stability. As an independent author that’s difficult - there’s a lot of ups and downs. So I made the decision to start my own publishing company in order to diversify my income streams.
9:40
What is it like running your own publishing company?
Andrew: A lot of it is project management. When I was at P&G, when we were developing a new product, what the consumer wanted was driving that product development. It’s similar in publishing. You need to make sure authors are writing content that people actually want.
A publishing company helps authors with selling their book in various markets. They’ll do all the advertising for the book. They also help authors throughout the writing process.
12:00
How does the initial development for a book happen?
Andrew: In the books industry, publishers receive submissions. Writers will submit sample pieces of their work. Publishers will reach out to writers that they are interested in and continue to develop the writing from there.
In the industry as a whole, there are a lot of common storylines but each author will put a particular twist on that storyline.
16:50
How much time do you spend writing vs. focusing on the publishing company?
Andrew: It used to be 50/50. However, as Severn River Publishing Company has grown, I’ve had to spend more time focusing on the company. A few years ago, I wrote about 3 books per year. But since starting the publishing company, my pace has slowed to about 1 book per year. I feel that I’m a better publisher if I continue to write. It gives me a better understanding of what I’m asking of my writers as a publisher.
20:00
How large is Severn River Company?
Andrew: We have four full-time employees, one part-time employee, and five authors. We also work on a contract basis with web developers, audio book narrators, and translators.
25:00
What are the different ways writers can become published authors?
Andrew: There’s traditional publishing - which is a professional publishing company that works with the author throughout the writing process. And then there’s self publishing where an author can publish their own writing.
Severn River Company does really well specifically on Kindle. I think as a publishing company, you really want to focus on writing that will work well on Kindle or audio because that’s really the direction the industry is heading in.
28:00
Jason - how did you start writing?
Jason: I never wanted to be a writer at all. I wasn’t a big reader growing up either. I joined the Army out of high school and eventually was accepted into West Point. I became an adrenaline junkie - doing skydiving and BASE jumping. I would write about those experiences and got into writing that way. After West Point, I continued writing and strung it along throughout my career. After I left the Army, I self published my first book and everything kind of went from there.
Writing a book is like being a movie director in your own head. You can create whatever story you want.
33:50
Can you talk more about your decision to leave the Army?
Jason: I didn’t tell anyone that I wanted to be a writer. The Special Operations community is very sensitive about people writing memoirs about their experiences. So I never told anyone that I was going to be a writer until about a month before I separated. Luckily the people that I did tell were very supportive of me.
In the days leading up to self-publishing my first book, I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I was really anxious about it - it was terrifying. But after I hit publish, that subsided and went right into writing another book. The first book did well but wasn’t very widely read. I self-published another book a few months later. I started reaching out to other authors to learn more about how I could start writing with a publishing company which would allow me to get my writing out to more people. I contacted Andrew and we were able to build a relationship from there. He really helped me learn about how I could profitably scale my writing.
42:00
How long was it from the time you left the military to the time when you felt like you were really earning a living from writing?
Jason: It was about 15 months - that was 3 months after meeting Andrew. He was completely instrumental in helping me learn how to do this for a living.
Andrew: Going through that process with Jason showed me that I could do that for other authors too. It was the impetus for starting Severn River Publishing so that I could help other authors get their writing to wider audiences.
50:10
What is the writing process like?
Jason: I get up at 4:30 and I’ll go straight to the manuscript to get some work in before my kid gets up. During the morning, I’ll do a workout and then keep writing. I also try to stay engaged with my readers and see how they’re responding to my books.
52:00
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Andrew: Read all that you can in whatever genre you want to write in. And then just write. It’s OK if it’s bad. With self publishing, you can publish your work and get feedback from people. You’ll keep improving over time.
Jason: I would add that you should just start writing and keep writing. Set some time aside and continually write. The two big pitfalls I see is that people want to be a writer but they never get around to it. Or someone writes one book and never publishes it. You should get your writing out there and keep doing in order to make forward progress. I also recommend learning about the framework of story structure. That will really help you in your writing.
57:00
How do you know if someone is cut out to be a writer?
Andrew: Usually it just comes down to repetition. You’ll get better and better as a writer with each iteration. So as a publishing company, we just look for people that have written before and are committed to continue to write.