#3 Michelle Miller, How to Raise Venture Capital for a Novel

If you got a Stanford MBA and then worked as an investment banker... what would be your next career move? Michelle Miller decided to write a novel called The Underwriting. But she didn't just write a novel and hope to get traditionally published, she treated her novel as a startup. She raised investment, secured brand sponsorships, created screen savers and playlists, made a video trailer and serialized her novel (a modern Charles Dickens). This week, I interviewed Michelle in the Craftsman Founder Podcast and ask a bunch of questions:

• Tell us about your background

• What is The Underwriting?

• What’s worked and what hasn’t worked well in promoting your novel?

• With your Stanford MBA and then investment banking background, how is writing a novel like doing a startup?

• What can entrepreneurs learn from authors and vise-versa?

• How does an author promote and do marketing for her work today?

• Are you a plotter or a pantser?

• What writing apps do you use?

• Who inspires you?

• Have you considered traditional publishing?

• What attracted you to self-publishing?

• Is fiction a viable investment for venture capitalists?

• Should more fiction authors consider trying to raise venture capital for their novels?

• What do you like best about writing?

• So what’s next for the Underwriting?