Libbie Hawker Shows You How to Outline a Page-Turning Novel

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Libbie Hawker is a novelist who writes historical fiction. Since launching her career, she’s published over 20 novels and novellas.

In this episode, I talk to Libbie about her bestselling non-fiction book, Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing. In her book, she shares the approach she uses to outline her novels. It’s an approach that has enabled her to drastically improve her writing productivity.

In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground:

She dives deep into the outlining approach she discusses in her book, which is essentially a method for planning your novel to ensure that it has all the elements in place for a story that your readers won’t want to put down.
Libbie also shares her advice for encouraging readers to leave reviews and for dealing with negative reviews.
She talks about advertising on Facebook and other sites and when the best time is to invest in advertising your books.
And, Libbie talks about what it’s like to pursue a hybrid publishing strategy: while she still publishes independently, she also has a contract with a traditional publisher as well.

It’s a fun conversation that’s packed with advice for novelists and nonfiction writers as well.