Self Publishing Success Stories | @Author Level Up Host Michael La Ronn

About this video

This is the first installment of Dale’s Indie Author Spotlight / indie author stories series, a Facebook Live interview with Michael La Ronn, host of the Author Level Up YouTube channel, whom Dale introduces as having written over 40 books. Michael recounts starting out writing literary fiction, being rejected by publishers, agents, and literary magazines, and giving up — until 2012, when what he thought was food poisoning after a dinner with his wife turned into a month-long hospital stay with a potentially life-threatening infection. Lying in a hospital bed, he swore he would become a writer no matter what, dropped his perfectionism, and turned to the commercial fiction he enjoyed reading; he published his first book in 2014 and never looked back. He argues his books have not suffered from being indie published, doubts traditional publishers would have taken his work, and values self-publishing’s freedom and the representation it allows. His most successful niches, he says, are space opera (a nine-book series, Galaxy Mavericks), urban fantasy (Modern Necromancy, co-written with Justin Sloan), and dark fantasy (The Last Dragon Lord); poetry under a pen name was not successful, and his nonfiction for writers — published under the name M.L. Ron to keep the brands separate — performs about equally with his fiction. He balances writing with a full-time job, a young daughter, and evening law school classes. He describes starting Author Level Up in 2015 as an experiment after the ‘be everywhere’ advice led him into Google+, and credits Joanna Penn inviting him onto her podcast after seeing his videos with greatly expanding his exposure; his most successful video is ‘How to Outline Your Novel: Ten Ways.’ His advice to aspiring authors: take the leap of faith and publish, and learn to sort advice into three types — advice meant for you, advice not meant for you, and advice you are not ready for yet. His biggest mistake, he says, was launching a channel, podcast, and blog at once with content that built no emotional connection with his audience.

Key takeaways

• Michael La Ronn’s turning point was a month-long, life-threatening hospital stay in 2012; he abandoned literary-fiction perfectionism, self-published his first book in 2014, and has written over 40 books alongside a full-time job, a young daughter, and evening law classes.
• His most successful niches are space opera (the nine-book Galaxy Mavericks series), urban fantasy (Modern Necromancy with Justin Sloan), and dark fantasy (The Last Dragon Lord); poetry under a pen name was not successful.
• He keeps fiction and nonfiction under separate names (nonfiction as M.L. Ron) as a deliberate marketing decision so readers get clear choices and cohesive cover branding; he says the two brands perform about equally.
• YouTube drove his exposure: Joanna Penn discovered his Author Level Up videos and invited him onto her podcast, and his video ‘How to Outline Your Novel: Ten Ways’ remains his most successful even through a hiatus.
• His advice framework: sort all advice into three types — meant for you, not meant for you, and not ready for yet — and build an emotional connection with your audience rather than just pushing content, the mistake he made launching a channel, podcast, and blog simultaneously.

Episode details: published November 3, 2018 · 34:15 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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