The Creative Penn Has Much to Offer Writers

The Creative Penn Has Much to Offer Writers If you are a writer looking for information about the process of planning, writing, publishing and marketing your book, The Creative Penn is an excellent resource. In fact, it was voted one of the top 100 sites for writers by Writers Digest and offers over 1,000 articles and 100+ hours of audio and podcast information, as well as multiple downloads and bonus material. As the mastermind behind the website, Joanna Penn is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers under the penname J.F. Penn and offers valuable advice through several free and paid resources available on the website.Navigating the siteWith easy-to-navigate links and enough white space to make the text-heavy site readable, The Creative Penn suggests that visitors start here with a page full of great resources for novice and expert writers alike. At the top of the page, Penn offers her free eBook and video series, Author 2.0 Blueprint, in which she shares everything you need to write, publish and market your book, as well as how to become an author-entrepreneur. Her websites visitors will need to provide and confirm their email address to download the free resource.WritingNext on the sites navigation is a link to Penns free resources on writing and editing. On this page, she offers articles and tips based on the following topics:How to Write Fiction: 7 Steps to Write Your NovelHow to Write a Non-Fiction BookHow to Find Time to WriteHow to Find and Capture Ideas for your NovelHow to Research your Book and When to StopSelf-doubt and Imposter SyndromeYou Have PermissionOn Writing and The Fear of JudgmentWhat is your Definition of Success as a Writer?How to Write More and Create A Daily Writing HabitHow to Use Dictation to Write Faster and Become a Healthier WriterProductivity for Writers: 5 Ways to Become More Productive5 Ways to Get Your First Draft Material Out of Your Head and Onto the Page8 Ways Scrivener Will Help You Become a Proficient WriterUsing Different Author Names or a Pseudonym as a WriterEditing, Revisions and Proofreading: What Happens After the First Draft?How to Find and Work with a Professional EditorTutorial: How to Improve your Writing with GrammarlyMy list of Recommended EditorsAfter following some of the links along this extensive list, I found a wealth of information on all aspects of writing and locating the right professional editor for your work. I particularly enjoyed the information she provides on setting goals and deadlines for yourself to stay productive as a writer and get more accomplished in less time. Many of the links also show videos of the author and guide the reader toward additional resources (both free and paid) that are available online and through Amazon.Self-PublishingThe next page full of links on The Creative Penn relates to self-publishing. In this section, the topics she goes into in depth include:Self-Publishing Overview and TipsPros and Cons of Traditional vs. Self-publishing5 Important Steps Before You Self-PublishWhat is Your Definition of Success? How Will you Measure it?How to Self-Publish an EbookHow to Format an Ebook and a Print Book with VellumThe Pros and Cons of Exclusivity with AmazonHow to Self-Publish a Print BookHow to Self-Publish an AudiobookHow to Record Your Own AudiobookWhat if you need help self-publishing? How to Find the Best Service and Avoid Getting Ripped OffSell More Books with Boxsets and BundlingTurn your Non-Fiction Book into a WorkbookHow Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish?Successful Self-Publishing Tips with Joanna Penn and Mark DawsonTop 5 Mistakes of Indie Authors and How to Avoid ThemThis section contains anything and everything you could ever want to know about how to self-publish your book, including information on recording your own audiobook and creating a workbook for your nonfiction book. I especially liked watching the videos she includes on many of these links, such as this one.Its obvious from Penns easygoing instruction and exp ertise that she knows what shes talking about when it comes to writing and publishing a book, and its nice to have a sort of insiders glance at the world of self-publishing from someone who has done it often and become successful at it.MarketingThe marketing section of the blog is where Penns expertise really shows. In the first part, she discusses the basics and prerequisites for author marketing success, followed by the polarities of book marketing and where you sit on the scale, the book marketing mindset for authors, when to start marketing your book and how to balance your time.She follows that section with topics such as how to attract readers with a great book sales description, how to choose the right categories and keywords for your book, pricing books and offering free copies, using author pseudonyms, using box-sets and bundling, and writing a series.Following this, she offers a great tutorial on how to build your author website in under 30 minutes. Having set up websites on my own and knowing the amount of work that goes into it (especially for a website design newbie), I decided to pay special attention to this section. As with other articles on her blog, Penn offers helpful resources such as a YouTube video and a free downloadable PDF to help authors set up their sites. She even offers a discounted affiliate link through BlueHost.com, which is the hosting platform she suggests for other authors.Its important to keep in mind that to build the website in 30 minutes, as Penn suggests is possible, you have to have a blog already set up on WordPress. Her instructions include a WordPress plugin through Blue Host that allows your WordPress site to basically transfer over. So yes, Im sure this can be done in 30 minutes but if an author is starting from scratch (without a blog already published on WordPress), they should not expect the site to be done within that timeframe.From an online marketing perspective, Penns advice on building and maintaining email lists for steady income includes a case study showing how she grew her own email list as and author. This particular resource is chock full of helpful advice on some of the finer points of automating email marketing campaigns. Penn explains that she went 603 people on her email list in November 2014 to 2,255 in January 2015 following this series of steps, which she clearly lays out for her reader. From a marketing perspective, I found the content to be extremely helpful to decode some of the confusion around email marketing campaigns and their usefulness.EntrepreneurIf you want to know how to make writing your day job and successful career, theres no better person to ask than someone who does just that. Based in Bath, England and a self-proclaimed travel junkie, Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author who has written over 27 books. She is also an international professional speaker and award-winning creative entrepreneur. She has also written and se lf-published several nonfiction titles related to writing, including How To Market A Book, Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, How to Make a Living with your Writing, The Successful Author Mindset, The Healthy Writer, Successful Self-Publishing, Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and Other Introverts, and Career Change.The Creative Penn PodcastFor writers who prefer to listen to interviews with authors and tips about writing, the podcast available on The Creative Penn website is free and available on RSS, iTunes, Android, Stitcher, and YouTube. With a combination of interviews, inspiration and information, the podcasts are posted every Monday and there are currently over 350 podcast episodes available to listen to and/or download.Some of the most recent podcast episodes listed are:#386 – Foolproof Dictation and Zero Social Media with Christopher Downing#385 – How to Write Effective Injuries For Your Characters with Samantha Keel#384 – The Artists Journey with Steven Pressfield#383 – Tips for Editing your Book with Natasa Lekic from NY Book Editors#382 – Redesign your Life to Prioritize your Writing with David Kadavy#381 – Writing with Depression with Michaelbrent CollingsCoursesThe Creative Penn website also provides access to three courses taught by Joanna Penn: How to Write a Novel, How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge Into Words and Creative Freedom: How to Make a Living With Your Writing.The How to Write a Novel course is described as a step-by-step guide to understanding story structure and the elements of a novel, and then writing and editing your manuscript. The price at the time of this review is $297 or $50 per month for six months. According to Penn, it contains downloadable audio and PDF slides to allow students to learn at their own pace, with five modules along with extra QA videos with Joanna Penn.The How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge Into Words course, accordi ng to Penn, will save you time, effort and frustration on your author journey. Penn describes the course as one in which she shares the business models of writing non-fiction, mindset issues around writing, the details of how to research, write and edit your book, dictation and productivity tips, as well as publishing, product creation, marketing and more.The Creative Freedom: How to Make a Living With Your Writing course is designed to be used to build a long-term sustainable business as an author entrepreneur and is an advanced-level course, available for writers who have already published a book. According to Penns description, it is specifically designed for writers who have a book or books but arent making money from them or writers who currently make some money from their writing but not enough.

The Four-Tiered Class System of Feudal Japan

The Four-Tiered Class System of Feudal Japan Between the 12th and 19th centuries, feudal Japan had an elaborate four-tiered class system. Unlike European feudal society, in which the peasants (or serfs) were at the bottom, the Japanese feudal class structure placed merchants on the lowest rung. Confucian ideals emphasized the importance of productivity, so farmers and fishermen had higher status than shop-keepers in Japan, and the samurai class had the most prestige of all. Samurai Feudal Japanese society was dominated by the samurai warrior class. Although they made up only about 10 percent of the population, samurai and their daimyo lords wielded enormous power. When a samurai passed, members of the lower classes were required to bow and show respect. If a farmer or artisan refused to bow, the samurai was legally entitled to chop off the recalcitrant persons head. Samurai answered only to the daimyo for whom they worked. The daimyo, in turn, answered only to the shogun. There were about 260 daimyo by the end of the feudal era. Each daimyo controlled a broad area of land and had an army of samurai. Farmers and Peasants Just below the samurai on the social ladder were the farmers and peasants. According to Confucian ideals, farmers were superior to artisans and merchants because they produced the food that all the other classes depended upon. Although technically they were considered an honored class, farmers lived under a crushing tax burden for much of the feudal era. During the reign of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, farmers were not allowed to eat any of the rice they grew. They had to hand it all over to their daimyo  and then wait for him to give some back as charity. Artisans Although artisans produced many beautiful and necessary goods, such as clothes, cooking utensils, and woodblock prints, they were considered less important than farmers. Even skilled samurai sword makers and boatwrights belonged to this third tier of society in feudal Japan. The artisan class lived in its own section of the major cities, segregated from the samurai (who usually lived in the daimyos castles) and from the lower merchant class. Merchants The bottom rung of feudal Japanese society was occupied by merchants, which included both traveling traders and shopkeepers. Merchants were often ostracized as parasites who profited from the labor of the more productive peasant and artisan classes. Not only did merchants live in a separate section of each city, but the higher classes were forbidden to mix with them except when conducting business. Nonetheless, many merchant families were able to amass large fortunes. As their economic power grew, so did their political influence, and the restrictions against them weakened. People Above the Four-Tiered System Although feudal Japan is said to have had a four-tiered social system, some Japanese lived above the system, and some below. At the very pinnacle of society was the shogun, the military ruler. He was generally the most powerful daimyo; when the Tokugawa family seized power in 1603, the shogunate became hereditary. The Tokugawa ruled for 15 generations until 1868. Although the shoguns ran the show, they ruled in the name of the emperor. The emperor, his family, and the court nobility had little power, but they were at least nominally above the shogun, and also above the four-tiered system. The emperor served as a figurehead for the shogun, and as the religious leader of Japan. Buddhist and Shinto priests and monks were above the four-tiered system as well. People Below the Four-Tiered System Some unfortunate people also fell below the lowest rung of the four-tiered ladder. These people included the ethnic minority Ainu, the descendants of slaves, and those employed in taboo industries. Buddhist and Shinto tradition condemned people who worked as butchers, executioners, and tanners as unclean. They were known as the eta. Another class of social outcasts was the hinin, which included actors, wandering bards, and convicted criminals. Prostitutes and courtesans, including oiran, tayu, and geisha, also lived outside of the four-tiered system. They were ranked against one another by beauty and accomplishment. Today, all of these people are collectively called burakumin. Officially, families descended from the burakumin are just ordinary people, but they can still face discrimination from other Japanese in hiring and marriage. The Transformation of the Four-Tiered System During the Tokugawa era, the samurai class lost power. It was an era of peace, so the samurai warriors skills were not needed. Gradually they transformed into either bureaucrats or wandering troublemakers, as personality and luck dictated. Even then, however, samurai were both allowed and required to carry the two swords that marked their social status. As the samurai lost importance, and the merchants gained wealth and power, taboos against the different classes mingling were broken with increasing regularity. A new class title, chonin, came to describe upwardly mobile merchants and artisans. During the time of the Floating World, when angst-ridden Japanese samurai and merchants gathered to enjoy the company of courtesans or watch kabuki plays, class mixing became the rule rather than the exception. This was a time of ennui for Japanese society. Many people felt locked into a meaningless existence, in which all they did was seek out the pleasures of earthly entertainment as they waited to pass on to the next world. An array of great poetry described the discontent of the samurai and the chonin. In haiku clubs, members chose pen names to obscure their social rank. That way, the classes could mingle freely. The End of the Four-Tiered System In 1868, the Floating World came to an end, as a number of radical shocks completely remade Japanese society. The emperor retook power in his own right, as part of the Meiji Restoration, and abolished the office of the shogun. The samurai class was dissolved, and a modern military force created in its stead. This revolution came about in part because of increasing military and trade contacts with the outside world, (which, incidentally, served to raise the status of Japanese merchants all the more). Prior to the 1850s, the Tokugawa shoguns had maintained an isolationist policy toward the nations of the western world; the only Europeans allowed in Japan were a tiny camp of Dutch traders who lived on an island in the bay. Any other foreigners, even those ship-wrecked on Japanese territory, were likely to be executed. Likewise, any Japanese citizen who went overseas was not permitted to return. When Commodore Matthew Perrys U.S. Naval fleet steamed into Tokyo Bay in 1853 and demanded that Japan open its borders to foreign trade, it sounded the death-knell of the shogunate and of the four-tiered social system.