How can you move past your limiting beliefs to find success as an author? How can you successfully self-publish in Germany? Andrea Wilk shares her thoughts in this episode.

In the intro, how to cope with writer conferences [Ink in Your Veins]; Author Nation schedule; Conde Nast signs a licensing deal with OpenAI [Hollywood Reporter];
Breaking down AI misconceptions [Brave New Bookshelf]; Blood Vintage Kickstarter.

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This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com

This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn 

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Andrea Wilk (AD Wilk) is the German author of more than 30 books across romance, thriller, and non-fiction. She's also the author of the book in English, 15 Keys to Set your Creative Mind for Success and Happiness.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. 

Show Notes

• Germany's book culture





• Why write a book in English?





• How to take control of your author career





• The impact limiting beliefs can have on your writing career — and how to shift them





• Obstacles faced as an indie author





• Common money blocks with authors and creatives





• Tips for generating multiple streams of income and for selling direct via your own Shopify store





• Using AI models as part of a translation process

You can find Andrea at AndreaWilk.com.

Transcript of Interview with AD Wilk

Joanna: Andrea Wilk is the German author of more than 30 books across romance, thriller, and non-fiction. She's also the author of the book in English, 15 Keys to Set your Creative Mind for Success and Happiness. So welcome to the show, Andrea.

Andrea: Thank you so much for letting me be here. I'm so excited.

Joanna: I'm excited too. Obviously, we've been connected for years now, and you've shown us things on the Patreon, but for anyone else listening—

Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and self-publishing.

Andrea: Yes, I'd love to. I'm Andrea Wilk. I'm from Berlin, Germany. I started writing seven years ago. Well, that's not true completely, because I started writing when I learned writing. When I was 14 years old, I did not win a writing competition, and so I gave up that dream of becoming a writer!

Then 20 years later, when I was 34, I reconnected to that dream. Since then, I've been writing. A year later, I published my first book, and I got to make a living from it almost immediately. I appreciate it so much, and I feel so grateful for it.

I've learned so much from other people, people like you, so I feel like sharing what I learn and my experience is part of my journey, and it belongs to me. This is why I also write books for authors, and I have a YouTube channel in Germany, and I'm going to start one in English as well.

Joanna: So you mentioned there that you started writing properly at age 34, and then quite soon you were making a living that way. So some people will be surprised at that. So tell us—

How did you start with self-publishing?

Did you go traditional in any way? How did you go from nothing to making a living?

Andrea: So I've been self-employed for 17 years now, so back then I was already 10 years. I knew from the start that I wouldn't want to go with a publishing house because my freedom means a lot to me, and I'm kind of impatient, so I wanted to have this done as quickly as possible.

I took a year to learn a lot about self-publishing, everything I got to know. This book I published back then, it was a romance book, and that story had been on my mind for forever. So it was a special book, and I think that readers connected to it because of that.

I did a lot of marketing. I did a lot of everything I could do back then without using a lot of money. So I worked with bloggers, and this was 2018, and self-publishing in Germany really started in 2012, so six years ahead.

So people already knew that self-published books could be read, but it wasn't the beginning of that market. So I feel like I've done a lot, and I've learned a lot, and I studied a lot about self-publishing, but of course, there was a little bit of luck in there.

Joanna: Tell people a bit about Germany's book culture.

Because it's a very traditional book culture, isn't it? So I feel like romance and fantasy and things like that were underserved by the traditional market.

Andrea: I wouldn't say so. The German market is quite wide considering books because we love books. Germans love reading.

We have a third of the market of the US in books, which is huge. People tend to read a lot of books. Not only one book, but they tend to read a lot, and the bookstores are big. So I wouldn't say that romance was under-served.

Joanna: Okay. There was a point where, like in English language, when Kindle first launched, then later on KU, and the earliest people on that store did really well because there was nothing for people to read digitally. So it was kind of a new thing.

I think 2018, I think I might have come to Frankfurt Book Fair that year, or I was getting involved in the German scene around then, and there wasn't so much like in the Kindle store as there is now, for example.

Andrea: Yes, that's true, because now it's like a lot. It's crazy.

Joanna: This is the first point for people, so often, everyone obsesses about the English language market, which I guess is the biggest. In France, for example, in Spain, Italy, other countries, the Netherlands, these countries haven't had so many books for so long.

I think Germany is still a few years behind what's happening in the English-speaking market.

Andrea: I think what's different for self-publishing compared to the traditional publishing market is that ebooks are way cheaper from self-published authors.

In Germany, I don't know how this is in the English market, but traditionally published ebooks are way more expensive than self-published books. This is why so many people buy self-published books because they can just read more by spending less money.

Joanna: That's completely true. There are some publishers who've gone with the cheap model, but certainly the big ones, it might be the equivalent of like 13 euros, 15 euros for an ebook.

Okay, well, we're going to come back to publishing, but let's get into your book in English. So, I mean, that would be the first question.

Why write a book in English?

Andrea: Well, I didn't write it in English. I just translated it to English. I feel so connected to the English language. Of course, for German authors, it's a dream to have your book published in English because the German market feels quite small compared to it.

So it was a dream. It has been a dream for years. Two years back, a colleague of mine and I, we discovered DeepL. So back then we decided, well, we have to go into the English market, but things happened, and so it took us some time to get here—or me, she's not there yet—but it took me some time to get here.

Joanna: Yes. Well, let's get into the book now. You open it with the importance of taking personal responsibility. I really love this because this is also what changed my life back in the day, a book called <a href="https://amzn.to/471jlb9" target="_blank" rel="noo