7 steps to thriving as a writer in a changing publishing world

Actionable advice for authors to grow with confidence, beat burnout, and build a lasting creative career.

Russell Nohelty

and

Jennifer Probst

Aug 20, 2025

Hi,

Jennifer Probst

was one of the first seven-figure authors I didn’t know personally who signed up for one of our courses. I remember thinking “Okay, if she doesn’t know me personally and believes in what I’m doing, then maybe I’m not a fraud”.

From that moment on, Jennifer became something of a guiding light for me. If I launched something and she signed up, I felt like we were on the right track.

So when she launched her Kickstarter, I was already cheering. It was a no-brainer to see if she would do a post for us. If you want to peek into the brain of what it takes to do this work for the better part of four decades, keep reading.

If you want to go even deeper, check out the campaign.

Back the campaign

Whether you’re a new or seasoned author, these actionable steps will help you adapt, grow, and succeed in your writing career.

I was really excited when Russell asked me to write a guest post for the Author Stack. I’ve always been a big fan of the work he does here, so I figured it would be fun. Then, I started brainstorming the perfect topic, and quickly got overwhelmed. I’ve been a professional writer for 35 years, so there were a million things I could write about, and my high achiever side told me to cram all of them into one amazing, must-read post that would give you everything you’d ever need!

But then I realized I’ve written multiple books on this exact topic and I’m still not even close to covering everything…

…so, I calmed that part of myself down, and took a deep, centering breath. Besides, nobody needs another 10,000+ word post. I think Russell has that kind of depth covered. What people need is my perspective, and some direction on how to take a little step forward toward their dream today.

After doing this work for the better part of four decades, I’ve learned that the good stuff always happens by taking small, actionable steps. Like when you’re on Chapter One of a new book, staring down the barrel of 100K words, wondering if you just made a huge mistake, and all you can do is type one word after another, taking a tiny bite out of that massive goal with each sentence you finish.

Once I soothed my cranky taskmaster and let my more reasonable self take over, I decided to do the only thing any of us can do and write something from my perspective instead of wondering what any other amazing writers out there might say.

Just me, my view of this career, and how I can help in a small but meaningful way.

I’ve been able to build a successful career and cross off bucket-list items such as hitting the NYT bestselling list, writing over 60 books, making seven figures, and, maybe most impressive of all, being able to keep my joy for this work across three and a half decades.

So today, I want to talk about the cornerstones of building a successful writing career. These are the foundational principles I rely on and trust to keep battling that blank page year after year, decade after decade.

It may not sound as flashy as showing you how to create perfect Facebook ads to grow your Kickstarter (thank you, Melissa Storm and Inkfluence!), or how to craft characters using the Enneagram (I adore you, Claire Taylor!), or manifesting millions (I see you, Lee Savino and Renee Rose!).

But it’s no less critical to your success. If you want to build a joyful, sustainable writing career that makes money, these are the foundational principles worth mastering. I’ve broken it down to seven essential steps I use to thrive in this changing publishing world.

Let’s get to it.

1. Authenticity should be your guiding light

Writers are spinning out these days, trying to do all the things. Sometimes, that hustle comes from a good place. We’re on fire and hungry for success, and the ideas are burning through us. We think, If I just do A, B, C, and D like so-and-so, I’ll finally get there.

The problem? The goalposts are always moving.

We tell ourselves, when I hit this goal or that milestone, I’ll finally be happy, only to find that the minute we get there, another goal pops up. And another. Goals are good, but tying your happiness to them is not.

The antidote? Be yourself. Fully.

Not the writer you think you should be. Not the writer you imagined in your dreams. Ten years from now, the only thing you’ll have to look back on is the work you put out. The money will be spent. The fame will fade. The high will wear off, and you’ll have the books, and the connections they made with your readers.

So, when you write, make sure it’s something you’ll be proud to keep touting in a decade. Don’t make something just because somebody told you it’s the hot new thing. Don’t wear somebody else’s clothes and gaslight yourself into believing you love them.

I get the impulse to dress up, believe me. I always wanted to be the “maxi dress” girl—flowy summer dresses, cute sandals, breezing through errands looking effortlessly chic. Excited for my transformation, I bought a bunch and always planned to wear them.

But I didn’t. Every time I tried, I wasn’t comfortable, or happy. I’m a yoga pants and t-shirt girl, through and through. That’s my authentic self.

It’s the same with writing.

If you truly love romantasy, write it. If you’re chasing it only because it’s hot and you think it’ll make you rich, think twice. If it takes off, you could be stuck writing it for years.

And if you show up at your desk, uninspired, trapped in this job you created like a cubicle from Office Space, have you really won and succeeded?

Maybe, but probably not. You’re probably just exchanging one chain for another, less stable one.

2. Consistency builds the pace for your career

Consistency does not mean writing every day (unless that works for you). It does not mean creating a schedule that is completely inflexible (unless it helps you thrive).

Consistency does not (necessarily) mean rigidity. You can be an extremely impulsive, flowy type of author who uses consistency to drop surprise releases, show up live on socials, or randomly entertain fans by deliberately not adhering to a schedule.

Look at Taylor Swift. She hints and teases her fans, then drops the surprise album with a BOOM. That is her consistent, authentic self. She finds great joy in the ability to be like that, and it works for her.

Consistency is simply the steady path you walk on a regular basis. You can take vacation days, sick days, and mental health days. You can veer off side paths, then wander back to the main one. But make sure to stay on the writing path, meandering as you might be, building your brand and your books.

Use at least one social media or marketing tool successfully. Invest in your readers by having a newsletter, a Substack, or a platform where you get to reach them. Keep doing the things that help create an author career.

It’s important to note here that some definitions of consistency may grow faster than others. If you post on TikTok every day, and feed the algorithms, your chances of hitting a viral post increase. If you write every day, you’ll probably finish more manuscripts than an author writing in random spurts. If you send out regular newsletters, you may grab more readers than an author sending one out whenever they feel like it. If you post one valuable Substack article per week, your followers may grow faster than one who writes content here and there.

Caveat: There are no guarantees. I’ve seen authors write one book with no social media go huge. But this article is about trying to increase our odds, which usually requires consistent action.

3. Content is king

Writing should be our main focus, especially at the beginning of your career. Each book we write gives us more earning and growth potential. The more books we have out, the more we can earn, and the more easily we can be found by readers.

But it’s not just books. Each social post we lovingly create helps us reach new readers. Each comment we respond to builds trust and authenticity in our community.

We must value all our content, even if we don’t know what we’re going to do with it yet. I save everything. Old drafts, cut scenes, and half-finished essays often resurface in new, unexpected ways. Most of it eventually becomes gold, or at least copper. Every piece of content increases our chances to be discovered.

Caveat: I mean valuable content, not endless drivel meant to game the system. Authentic content that adds something to the conversation and builds connection to our readers.

4. Invest in your career

When I went full-time, I had to start treating myself like an business owner, part publisher and part employee. For years, my writing was considered a hobby by everyone around me. This leaked into my perspective, and I began believing they were right.

Writing was my true passion, but it couldn’t be a career, right? It’s a bit silly to think about it like that now, but in 1990, writing for fun and profit was a radical idea.

I held myself back for years. Then, I attended a Romance Writer’s of America meeting, and realized that people were really doing this, and making a lot of money. On top of that, those that took their career most seriously seemed to be making the most from it.

I returned home with a new outlook and began to ruthlessly protect my writing time.

I also began paying myself.

Even when I made no money from writing, I’d reward myself with something small at the end of the month. Either that or stash a little cash in a drawer from my day-time job. It was proof my work had value. I was also honoring myself for all the time I invested on a day-to-day basis.

As I earned more, I kept reinvesting in courses, ads, websites, and marketing, but I always gave myself a paycheck. You deserve to be paid for your work, and the first person who needs to believe that is you.

5. The power of one

We’re drowning in a sea of to-dos and gurus. It’s hard to decide what’s important in all the morass. By ruthlessly limiting our focus to one thing, we can put more energy into it and move forward faster.

I filmed a module in my Write Naked Course on this concept, which is currently on Kickstarter, but it’s really important to understand that where focus goes, energy (and money) flows.

When we split our attention, we can’t build up the critical mass needed to break through our biggest blocks. Most people diffuse their energy doing a million little things, but the more energy we put into one action, the further we’ll be able to go.

This is where we start. With one story. One reader. One project. So many of us want to work on a hundred things as once, but we’re sabotaging ourselves when we do. You might think you thrive with this type of workflow, but I want you to stop and ask yourself when was the last time you felt movement in your career?

If you’re exactly where you want to be, you can ignore this, but then I would like to buy your course, because I’ve never met an author who was, no matter their level of success.

I’m an ambitious achiever. My mind pings with creative juice all the time, and I’m a course junkie. My Clifton strengths are full of developer, maximizer, and input. My poor, slower intellection usually takes a hit, but when I honor her, I find I actually get more done tackling one task with one hundred percent focus.

Here’s the magic structure that helps me:

Focus on one thing.
Create massive action toward that one goal.
Analyze results.

When I wanted to run my first Kickstarter two years ago, I got stuck. I spent too much time learning every aspect of Kickstarter (I actually took Kickstarter Accelerator and bothered Russell a lot). I wanted to do it perfectly because I’m that type.

I need to feel capable before I can jump, so the learning part was important, but if I overfeed my input nonstop, I spin out, and never get to the action phase. This is a problem, obviously, because only by launching a book can we make money on that book, right? If we want people to read our work, we have to put it out into the world.

I finally realized my block, launched, and then put all my energy into supporting the Kickstarter. I did ads, networking, backer update swaps, endless posts, newsletters, etc. I lived that Kickstarter for thirty days and way beyond.

After it was done, I looked around, and analyzed my results. I asked hard questions. How could I do it better? Was the profit worth the work? Was the whole experience of learning worth the loss? What would I change?

Sometimes, a loss on paper can be a win. For me, I wanted the experience, I wanted to test out a new platform, and I wanted to make a little money.

6. Think outside the box

Is there anything more cringe than when somebody says to “think outside the box” Isn’t this term so annoying? It’s like editors, publishers, and agents urging us to “Write something fresh! Something with a new twist!”

And yet, here I am saying it, but let me give you a new perspective that might make it less trite and cliche, even if just a little.

Thinking outside the box doesn’t have to be something no one else has ever done, just something you have never done. Something that makes you a bit giddy, or starstruck. Something you’d love to do but don’t think you could pull it off.

Here’s an example from my own career that made a huge difference.

My Sunshine Sister series was set in Cape May, a small beach town I adored. The summer my book launched, I hired a plane to fly a banner back and forth over the beaches every Friday afternoon. All of those readers lounging on a blanket could hit their Kindle and order the book immediately. The local bookstore stocked the books, and I used that plane for two glorious summers.

The bookstore consistently sold out.

I also did a billboard. One day, I was driving down a highway, reading all these boring insurance and lawyer billboards and wondered why no one did anything fun anymore. Why weren’t there book billboards?

Ding, ding.

I called a billboard distributor, found a perfect one in my town, had art created, and ran it for three months. I highlighted the fact that I was a local romance author while keeping it fun and snappy. It was a great boost for my sales in the Hudson Valley. Even if I couldn’t pinpoint a number, it was an amazing branding opportunity.

We can’t be afraid to try new things, even if they fail spectacularly. These were both big-ticket actions, but creative ideas can come from any type of budget.

7. Protect the work

Your career will ebb and flow like the tides. Some years you’ll be up and others you’ll be down. The higher you rise, the more distance you can (and probably will) fall. Once you grab a taste of success, no author wants to go back to the beginning, or lose recognition. But, it’s bound to happen. Nothing goes up forever. Our books tank, we lose collaborators, personal crisis snatches our focus and time, and big projects fail. It’s all part of the ride.

Through it all, there’s a simple mantra I have posted to my computer so I’ll see it every day.

Protect the work.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on fire to write, opened up my laptop, and was immediately distracted by a notification. Suddenly, I’m answering emails for two hours, and then spend another hour scrolling through Tiktok.

I figure I’ll check just one thing, a quick task to scratch it off my endless list. I tell myself I’ll focus much better after one task is done. I click on a button, am dragged out of my safe world, and within minutes my good mood or intentions come crashing down.

By the time I open the manuscript, I’ve lost my heart. Things feel hard or hopeless. It’s easier to go back to the book later.

The outside world is just too…much.

That’s when I look at my handwritten phrase, sticky-noted to my screen. (Yeah, I really need to frame it!)

Protect the work.

And I remember my purpose. It’s to deliver great stories and radiate out my view of the world to readers. It’s to claim my space. I close my eyes and focus on my breath until I’m calm and focused.

When the world is blowing up around you, open the page.

These are my steps not only to thrive, but protect my joy, motivation, and creative spark. I’d love to know if any of these resonate with you in the comments!

And if you want to dive deeper into these concepts, I’m currently running a Kickstarter for my brand-new Write Naked course and my new book, Write Free—which isn’t available anywhere else.

The course is real, raw, and personal, with one-on-one videos that share the truths I’ve learned from decades in the industry. It’s ending soon, and I’ve got some exclusive rewards you may like.

👉 Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jenniferprobst/write-naked-the-official-course