Lessons Learned from 15 Years as a Full-Time Author Entrepreneur

Fifteen years ago, in September 2011, I left my day job to become a full-time author-entrepreneur. Every year since, I’ve reflected on the journey and what I learn along the way.

My challenges continue to evolve with the business, and you'll likely be at a different stage, but I hope you find my lessons learned useful on your own author journey.

You can read all my lessons learned from previous years on my timeline here.

1. Sometimes you need to step away to indulge your curiosity and fill the creative well

I have just handed in my dissertation for my Masters in Death, Religion, and Culture that I started a year ago as a full-time degree at the University of Winchester (online).

It has been an intense period of study and a shift into academic writing, which has been absolutely fascinating and well worth while, but which at times has stretched my patience for the minutiae of Chicago and/or Harvard referencing!

I’ve written essays on natural burial, the ethics of using human remains to inspire fiction (which also helped inspire Bones of the Deep), the art history of hell, death rituals of orthodox Judaism, assisted suicide, Is death a good thing? And my dissertation was on The Afterlife of Authorship: Consent, Control, Creative Legacy, and the AI Resurrection of the Author. More to come on that topic in the coming months.

The essays were on top of the taught classes and group discussion sessions, which were all online. If you’re interested in the shadow side, then I absolutely recommend the course (which you can also do part-time and from outside the UK. Tell the team you heard about it from me!)

When I went into the course, I was considering a new direction, perhaps adding funeral celebrancy into my portfolio career or pivoting partly into the death industry. I am already a professional speaker, and I thought it would be a good way to help more people in my community at what is always a difficult time.

But interestingly, I soon discovered that the rise of direct cremation in the UK means that fewer celebrants are used these days and the ‘death industry’ is not underserved, at least at the moment!

I also found myself longing to get back to commercial writing after so much academic focus, so I have a backlog of creativity to express, once I have recovered from the intensity of the dissertation process.

Stepping away at least partially has ultimately fuelled my desire to keep going as an author entrepreneur, which is a good result!

2. Sometimes you need to step away to remove yourself from the drama and the noise

As much as I love being part of the creative side of the author community, I do not enjoy the drama online or the social media storms that rage over whatever issue is the latest thing. Over the last 20 years of being an author, the topics have changed, but the noise continues unabated. Perhaps it has grown louder of late, or perhaps my tolerance has decreased, but I am just not willing to spend my time arguing or getting wound up.

So, I curate my inputs very carefully these days and try to stay on the positive, upbeat side of things. There is enough doom and gloom elsewhere, so you won’t find it here!

I am rarely on social media now, and whatever the downsides of that, the huge upside is my mental health, so I am happy with my choices. I share pictures of my travels and my life (as proof of humanity!) on Instagram @jfpennauthor which automatically posts to Facebook @jfpennauthor, and I occasionally post on X @thecreativepenn but that’s about it.

I am also more grateful than ever to be an independent author with my own email list and podcast and websites and community on Patreon, which means I can choose what I write, how I write and publish, what tools I use, how I reach my readers, and how I make my money. I remain more committed than ever to serving my audience, those of you who choose to follow me and listen to the podcast and read my books. Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans remains my guiding principle and seems more relevant than ever.

In this age of AI, it is easy to spin up content and publish books every day if you want to, but it is not possible to replicate 20 years of writing and showing up as a human, so a huge thank you to my community for continuing to be part of my creative and business journey.

3. Stepping away (for whatever reason!) will (inevitably) impact the business

I am a one-person creative business and while I have kept things ticking along over the last year, inevitably doing a full-time Masters has meant less time on the business, fewer books and generally, leaving a lot by the wayside with my focus on the academic side.

I did write one novel, Bones of the Deep, inspired by my essay on human remains in anatomy museums, and also a short non-fiction book on How to Write, Publish, and Market Short Fiction, out now on my store and everywhere from 1 October 2026. I also podcasted every week and continued to serve my Patreon community with live office hours, articles, video and audio.

However, I created a lot less than my usual output and so I am behind in my updated editions for Joanna Penn books, and I am also behind in my usual schedule for my ARKANE thrillers, and I am brimming with other creative projects.

I expected this to happen of course, but I am now feeling the pressure of getting back into it all. It feels like I have a backlog of ideas waiting to get out...