Andrew Monroe's Blog

TL;DR: DEAD BY TOMORROW BOOK RELEASE- 12/15/2020 (Click here for Amazon Pre-order)

Wow. I'm really inconsistent with blog posts.

BUT, since my last post/update, I've finished the first draft of book two of The Learner Trilogy, and am 1/3 of the way through on the second draft. It'll probably be February 2021 for the release, but either way, that's not what this post is about.

Here's what it's really about....

Dead by Tomorrow: How to Practice the Art of Today is coming to Kindle and Paperback!

When: December 15th, 2020.

If you find yourself in the same place, you were yesterday, and the week before, and the year before that, this book is for you. Dead by Tomorrow is a mindset practice to help you grow and succeed in your life. We focus on positive practices, including health and wellness, money, work-life balance, and all the tools and tricks I use to get more out of every day.

Learning how to practice the art of today will bring positive, incremental results that add up over time and help you be a happier and better version of yourself. If you're ready to learn with people who are on the same level as you, and not some mega-wealthy, overly advantaged influencer and superstar on how to live a life worth living, this is the book for you.

Daniel Winter, my co-author, and I have been friends and mutual inspirations since 6th grade back at Crockett Middle School. He showed me where the math class was, and I tried to be cool and break in with a pencil. This jammed the lock, and a principal had to come punch the key in until the pencil's graphite was pulverized enough to unlock the classroom. Now, we've written a book on how to be awesome.

Feel free to reach out to us on our ,Website or ,Facebook, and we'd love it if you showed your support on ,Goodreads or ,Amazon. If you're interested in a review copy of either the Kindle or Audiobook version, please shoot me a message!

(yup, that's the cover!)

Ultimately, the point of this is to generate interest so we can increase sales, so if you are up for checking our book out, please follow this link to pre-order a copy of the book! It may change your life

Whether you're interested or not, thank you for reading this far. I sincerely am grateful for your time, and I hope you have an incredible day.

Much love,

Andrew Monroe

P.S. it bears repeating. PLEASE leave reviews on whatever sites you use or at least have an account on. Amazon is wild with their blocking of anyone with any ties to Daniel or I when it comes to reviews. Goodreads isn't but it also doesn't carry the same weight. Either way, both would be awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you

TL:DR- In case you care about nothing but listening to the episode:

Writing on book 2 is coming along well (ish), I'm roughly halfway finished. There was also a house purchase, a lot of updating on said house, and I've been working on some more physical projects with my dad, and keeping

THAT said, here's a podcast where we talk a little bit about just about everything, including

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQTE-_avK-c&feature=youtu.be

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Much love fam,

Andrew

Here's a list of questions (and the responding answers) that I had a bunch of far too smart kids ask me this week. I wish I was half as clever at their age.... Q. What inspired your writing? I like sports There were a lot of interesting experiences that I wanted to let other people experience through my eyes. Along with that, I was and am hoping to help inspire people to push past challenges. (I also like sports) Q. What made you want to go into writing books? I really enjoyed reading, and still do. At some point in high school, I made the decision that I wanted to try and translate all of that reading into writing my own stories. Q. What was your greatest writing experience? I may be misinterpreting your question, but the greatest experience I had while writing was in Scotland. I had the chance to grab a coffee and write at the same coffee shop J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter in. It was pretty crowded with tourists like me, but still really cool. Q. How old were you when you started writing or wanted to start writing books Thinking back to when I made a conscious decision to finish a book and make the time every day to work on it, I had just turned 20. Q. What is your greatest memory of writing a book and what is your favorite book that you have written? Since I only have the one published, I'd have to say A Leaf and Pebble since I actually finished. Greatest memory would have to be the Scotland writing experience. Q. What inspired you to want to write the book, “A Leaf and Pebble”? Honestly, I loved a book called The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, so much that it made me want to write for real. Q. What made you get into writing? Besides wanting to share stories, I realized after I was out of school that as a person, I needed a creative outlet. Writing had been a passion, and I wanted to pursue it. Q. What made you want to write books? Mostly reading a lot of books, and loving how they grew me as a person. I also won a persuasive essay contest in 3rd grade that made me feel like I was pretty cool. Q. When did you start writing? I kept a little journal back in high school for stories and ideas I wanted to write. I'd make little starts on them before chickening out. Right before my 20th birthday, I kicked over into making a committed effort to writing a book out. Q. Will there be a second book? It's coming along slowly, but it is on the way! Q. Was it your dream since you were a little kid to write and make books? I always thought being an author would be cool, but I wanted to be a magician or an actor when I was a kid. Q. Where did you get the idea to write “A leaf and Pebble”? It was a mix of Avatar the Last Airbender, and a book called Lies of Locke Lamora. by Scott Lynch, I wanted to combine the two, at least some of the broader brushstrokes, into a story of my own creation. Q. Have you always liked reading? I have! Growing up, my family was not really well off, so books were one of my only forms of entertainment. Plus, theres so many good stories out there! Q. What made you start writing? Mostly a mix of reading and adventure leading to me wanting to share stories and books being the only way I knew how. Q. When you write about someone's interpersonal thoughts do you Italicize or do you quotate? I try to not write from someone's inner thoughts generally. I like First person limited or third person limited. That said, I think you're technically supposed to go for italicized words for thoughts. That way if someone's thinking about something another person said, you can have the italics and quotations. Stylistic grammar choices range though, so just own what you do if you're writing your own story, and try to be consistent. Advice from a guy who's made lots of mistakes on that front, and even published a book with a few still in it. Q. When you began writing did you ever experience writers block? And if so how did you overcome it? I never really experienced writers block. For me, it was generally a lack of motivation. That said, I hear walks and forced boredom are both really good for getting past writer's block. Q. If you got the chance to work with any other author who would you work with and why? I'd really like to work with someone like Neil Gaiman or Brandon Sanderson. Both of them are some of the best writers the world has ever seen, and it would be cool to see how their minds work and what the nitty gritty of their process is. Plus, it sure wouldn't hurt my reputation. Q. Who was your #1 supporter during your writing process and how did that help you write? This is embarassing now, but for most of the time period I was writing, I didn't tell anyone that I was doing it. Let me be clear- that is exactly the wrong way to go about it. But, I was embarrassed to be seen "trying" and didn't want people to judge me for either not finishing, or finishing poorly. It's easy to come up with excuses and reasons, but you should totally tell people if you start writing a book. That said, my family as a whole was really my strongest support group when I actually confessed to wanting to be a writer, though I also had some really important friends that helped me along the way as well. Q. Did you grow up enjoying to write? Not necessarily. I always liked stories, and I loved playing games. For a long time though, writing was something that you did at school, and I didn't realize how much freedom and fun could be found in writing for myself. Q. On a scale of 1/10 how much did you relate to the book? At some points, I was 100% a one. There were parts that I specifically wrote because I wanted to explore something I'd never experienced. But, there's also plenty of moments that come directly from my experiences, and that would be 10/10 on the relatable scale. Overall, I'd average it to a 6/10. Q. What was the most difficult part of writing a book? The daily effort. For me, writing is something I have to make time for every single day. It's fun and rewarding, but just like practicing an instrument, or learning something new, it can be hard and emotionally draining. A lot of days come by in which I'd rather play video games, read a book, or just go stuff my face full of cereal while watching Netflix. Getting past those feelings and sitting down to write consistently is incredibly hard. Q. What was the publishing process like? I went the Indie Writer route. If you want to learn more about actual publishing, Brandon Sanderson has a really great YouTube on the topic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa7p.... The self publishing/indie writer option is rewarding and terrifying. For one, all the marketing efforts, cover creation, sourcing and such were on me. I had to ask friends to edit for me as I couldn't afford a real editor, and that embarrassed me a little. Apart from that though, it's cool to know that all of your efforts are directly affecting you, and you have the ultimate choice in what happens with your art. Q. What inspired you to write? There wasn't any one thing that pushed me over the edge. I loved Rothfuss' book, and the beautiful prose it had. I wanted to create stories and have an impact on people like I'd been impacted by other authors. I was and am hoping to find a career that doesn't have as much The Office feel to it like a lot of people end up with after finishing school. I also just really wanted an excuse to read more books, and being a writer seemed like a great way to make that a reality. Thanks a ton for all of the questions guys! You are all too kind, and it was my pleasure to get a little introspective here.

Feel free to reach out if you have any further thoughts, questions, or comments!

Much love,

Andrew Monroe

You know what I loved as a kid, and still love to this day?

Giving friends a book I enjoyed, especially right after reading it. This was how I participated in a lot of different friendships, especially pre-Facebook days.

So what does that have to do with modern writing?

Digital purchases generally come with something called DRM on them. You can click the link there to learn more deeply about it, but essentially, this is a bit of coding that prevents you from sharing or pirating a digital product. It's not a bad idea when it comes to piracy. The age of the internet means there's a lot of products out there that you can get online that you really should be buying.

But do books count? I don't think so. Of course, I think of this as a way to lend a book to your friend, not thousands of strangers all at once. For a lot of authors, that would be akin to stealing from them. I won't say there wrong, as they've probably thought about it far more than I have. For me though, I HATE the idea of DRM on my books, so I made sure it wasn't included. If you're not following, that means any Kindle copy of A Leaf and Pebble is stripped of anything that would prevent you from downloading the file, and sending it to a friend to share. In my opinion, DRM really only hurts the paying customers. It makes it harder for you to have the book you bought on multiple devices, and also doesn't allow you the real freedom that buying a product normally offers a consumer. I think that's wrong. If you have any questions on why I think this is important, hit a brother up!

Hope this is somewhat enlightening! Thanks, and keep sharing those stories around :)

Much love fam,

Andrew Monroe P.S. (and unrelated) If you want to hear me talk about friends and TV shows, you should check out www.deadxtomorrow.com, specifically episode 5: A Case For TV. Since giving people books shifted as the world evolved, TV shows and Movies became my love language in making friends. Don't worry, I still give them books. But I have to meet new people somehow before I can give said literature to them.

OKAY- A little background on Sales Funnels, as requested by the group on Facebook. First of all, let me add a little incentive- despite being a writer (albeit a freshly minted one), my background is actually in marketing and I've helped grow a few businesses through a variety of digital frontiers. This post will be specifically how I'm running it as a writer but works for just about any business. Here's a picture of what I'll be covering for those visual learner types: 1) LEAD MAGNET/AWARENESS Sales funnels, specifically the digital kind, generally start on Facebook. What're you're looking for here is that awareness factor. You need a large number of eyes on a post or ad you put out so people actually see what you're doing. Generally, I run a promo, like a free book, to get people looking at my information. This can be called the lead magnet, like the picture shows, where people are interested in what I'm pushing out there. This is the tip of the iceberg that everyone sees.

2) AWARENESS/ENGAGEMENT Once someone drops that email address (it's the gatekeeper to getting the free offer or whatever I've put out there) they're dropped into an email sequence. I'm sure you've seen this in your own inbox. You either bought something, or grabbed a freebie online and then received a thousand emails from that company. It can be annoying, right?

Well, that's also part of the awareness/engagement stage. Sure, you may be annoyed, but if that same email goes to 500 people, now you're looking at 10% of them considering buying whatever you're selling, or wanting to engage deeper with your brand. For instance, reviews are a huge thing to me, along with audiobook sales. So, my sequence that people who grabbed the free book go into are now being peppered with links to said audiobook and requests for reviews. 3) ACQUISITION If you have enough contact with enough interested people (you know, the ones you found with the lead magnet/awareness), you'll start to find your actual clients and customers. Maybe you're selling homes, or books, or some kind of monthly service. In the end, it doesn't matter. You talk to them enough, and sooner or later people will decide to spend money on that product they were initially interested in. Sometimes, you can get this process all at once, and sometimes it can take months and months. But, it's an almost guaranteed way to sell. 4) THE EMAIL LIST All of the above is important, but whether or not your sales funnel has a product actually in it or not, the list is INCREDIBLY important. A lot of this takes place on Facebook, and to play the Facebook game costs a fair bit of money. For example- I've spent nearly $3,500 on ad spend to bring in roughly $3,000 of book sales. That's technically a loss, right?

But here's the thing- when someone purchases my books on Amazon or wherever, they're now Amazon's customer. I can't contact them because I have no idea who they are or what brought them there. If I get an email first though, I now have the ability to circumvent social media ad spend, and talk directly to a potential customer at any time in my career. You think when that sequel comes out I won't be sending a few emails to all those people who claimed a free copy of the book? You know I am. And it will save me roughly $3,000 in just the first few months, money I'll be able to spend on marketing without biting the bullet as hard the second time around. Want to know more?

Here's a link to my other site where you can get yourself a free guide on spinning up your own marketing (either for a business, or as a marketing agency if you have the desire:
https://www.axeandbow.com/diy-marketing Not only does that link send you some information that will hopefully be valuable, but it's also a great example of this sequence building process that'll you'll see firsthand. Don't care about that jazz, but want to support your favorite author?

Here's that book: https://amzn.to/2JrY5kQ Much love fam,

Andrew Monroe P.S. If you're truly interested in this kind of stuff, absolutely feel free to reach out and I'll try to give you as much advice and information as I can. A rising tide lifts all boats.

How being a creator requires mindfulness in your day to day life. If that's you, give it a listen/view.

The Audible audiobook for A Leaf and Pebble is now out and available!

ENTER THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY FOR A LEAF AND PEBBLE

Thanks to all those who helped Andrew Monroe release A Leaf and Pebble

Andrew's favorite books he's reading right now, so you can get them to and chat about it.