How to write lots of fiction and still run a content-driven business

A while back on Twitter reader Robin Hess asked: “Ben, how much time do you spend writing fiction? Or is it quite sporadic? When did you start? Seems like challenging work on top of everything else you do” Fiction is like eating dessert for me. i.e., can’t have my pudding unless I eat my meat first. So I schedule time for it usually months in advance. Example: When I wrote my last novel (Enoch Wars: Serpent Seed) I spent about 5 months getting ahead on emails, offers, sales pages, and other projects to carve out 6 weeks or so to write the first draft. Then I did other work for the next 4 or 5 months to get ahead after that so could carve out two months to edit that novel. Another example: When I had the urge to turn my first novel (Enoch Wars: Zombie Cop) into a screenplay I spent probably 7 or 8 months doing a ho' bunch of other work, offers, emails, sales pages, ticky tack projects, etc before having a good month and a half to do that. Then, I took a couple weeks “off” from it to write the 64-page January 2024 Email Players issue (150th milestone — wanted to go big with it) just to come back and finish it up after that. Yet another example: When I decided to totally rewrite that first novel based on that screenplay (which was not intended, huge pain in the ass, and not just for me..) I spent a month getting ahead on Email Players and other stuff, before banging out the new novel and other work that entailed the last week of December, and the following January this year. Anyway, fiction, non-fiction, whatever it is… I live and die by a schedule. And that means an ever-growing & ever-changing daily list of tasks. I am not sure how people do business any other way. Nor, really, do I care. But when it comes to putting out a lot of content that is what works for me. As far as the how-tos of creating & monetizing content: The entire May Email Players issue is all about just that. It’s King-Sized (32 pages vs the usual 20 pages) to fit everything in I wanted to teach and say, and help my boys & ghouls be way ahead of all their inferior content creating competition fapping to the latest influencer’s listicle or engagement bait or AI-generated nonsense. I’ve been in this game a long time. I also probably create more content in some months than most do in a year. And I am able to monetize & use it in all kinds of ways. I show you some of my best tips, secrets, and ideas for it in the May issue. You can read more about it in the PS below. Or, if you want to make sure you’re subscribed by the deadline go here now: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. Here’s a “sneak preview” of what’s waiting for you inside the May issue: * An “off the cuff” comment the great Matt Furey made on a Zoom call (while we showed him BerserkerMail) that is probably the single most valuable content monetization lesson I’ve heard (and used) in the past 10 years. (He talked about everything from publishing, email, & health… to Bigfoot, aliens, &, yes… flat earth… but this “throwaway” comment he made about jump ropes was something I wrote down, have been thinking about, and have since doubled down on using to move probably even more offers than I normally would have.) * How the world’s greatest living copywriter used ordinary steak knives to sell a small fortune in subscription offers. (He wasn’t selling “content” necessarily — but I have been using this ditty for nearly 20 years since hearing him teach it to sell all kinds of content-related offers. I suspect nearly anyone else in business can, too.) * The Marvel Cinematic Universe secret to selling people on wanting to buy your content literally months (possibly even years) in advance — including before you’ve even created or talked about it! (I noticed Marvel started doing this with its first Thor movie, and it’s been a free education in content offer launches since. Their movies may not be great, but their way of selling irrefutably is.) * A skeevy trick used by the crooked Chicago Democratic Machine for the past 60+ years that legit businesses can use to help make more profits that you can (legally & ethically — no corruption necessary) when monetizing your own content. * One of the “most published” writers on the planet’s bonafide creativity hack for tricking your brain into coming up with ridiculously profitable ideas for all kinds of content (books, courses, videos, audio, anything, really) you want to create. (I’m not usually a big fan of hacks — but even I admit this is one of the most cunning ways I’ve ever seen to create everything from subject lines and headlines to stories to lessons, newsletter issues, courses, and everything in between.) * The exact best time to create content to sell, use as premiums or teachings, for coaching, or probably anything else. (I learned this clever trick from my uncle — a very successful Amway distributor back in the day — and it’s made the content-creation & monetization side of my business both a whole lot more profitable and also a whole lot less stressful.) * A “hail Mary pass” way of using content you’ve created to potentially make more sales in a week than most businesses do in a year. (The downside is you can only break the glass and use this probably one time, so make sure you do it when it counts.) * A little known (inspired by something an old school Marvel Comics editor in chief’s once did) secret for creating bonuses & premiums that can help sell lots more of your other offers — and often without doing any hard pitching in your content or pissing anyone off. (Bonus: doing this can also help make it more likely your customers will be more successful with those offers, use those offers, refer others to those offers, give testimonials for those offers, want more of those offers, and the list goes on. A powerful tip indeed.) * A non-cringey way for using name-dropping in your content to help make it more likely to be consumed, taken seriously, and even back end sell your other offers. (This goes way beyond content creation and delves into what I teach about World & Marketing Universe-building as well… to help make it more likely customers want to enter your domain and not want to leave. I’ve been using this trick for years, and am finally now teaching it in Email Players.) * Clever ways to use “Lore” to help give your business top-of-mind Status amongst your market, customers, & clients. (This also delves into World & Marketing Universe-building as I teach it. And it can also help add depth to the info you teach, create a “mystique” about your content, and potentially make that content inherently more valuable as a result.) * How one of the most prolific writers in history shrewdly used “dangling plot lines” to keep people reading, engaging with, and, yes… buying his content for literally decades… and how to adapt what he did to your own content. * Why the value you create in your content is bull shyt and what is far more useful and beneficial to your customers & clients. (The “give value” shtick was always an illusion used and pushed mostly by people who can’t sell… and has done far more harm than good. Inside I show you what can work far better while helping make you look like a hero to your audience instead.) * The psychology behind how to combine content with promotion in such a way where customers & clients will probably have no idea they are even being pitched and might even thank you for selling to them after. (Combining content with promotion is like a lost art in 2024 — and hardly anyone does it much less can teach it. But the May issue shows you in great detail how this can work and what it can look like straight from one of the most prolific and profitable content creators who ever lived.) * 18 ways for creating content that can give you such a rush of ideas you might even have to quite your brain just for some peace! (These 18 ways are basically like a “sequel” to my best-selling Breakneck Content book —delivered in rapid-fire style inside, and that I use myself to pound out more content in a month than most content creators probably do in a year.) There’s more. It is, after all, a King-Sized issue (32 pages vs the usual 20). But that should give you an idea of what to expect. To subscribe by the looming deadline go here: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 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