Editor’s Note: I am pleased to feature this interview with Chris Guillebeau.

Chris is a travel hacker, entrepreneur, speaker and founder of the World Domination Summit.

Chris is best known worldwide for his writings. His latest book – The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future – is now available, a must-read, and currently #13 on Amazon in all of books. (Yes, all of them.)

Meet Chris and learn more about The $100 Startup at a book tour stop near you.

MG: From blog articles to digital manifestos to published books, your writings are highly proficient and popular. Have you found that developing your writing skills for one form (say books) has informed and strengthened another (say blog articles)? And now, with so much achieved, how are you continuing to challenge yourself to become a better writer?

CG: I’ve certainly learned that writing books is a lot different from writing blog posts. That’s one of those things that is seemingly intuitive, but until you go through the process you don’t necessarily realize how different it is. I’ve also learned that it’s good to divide the writing and editing process with longer projects, something I tend to combine with blog posts. Thankfully, there are also some similarities, like the need to keep pushing ahead and getting words on the page.

I’m not sure I’ve achieved “so much” yet. Challenge is a good word. I hope to keep writing and making things for a long time.

Editor’s Note: I am pleased to feature this interview with Jonathan Fields.

Jonathan is an accomplished blogger, speaker, entrepreneur and author of two popular books: Career Renegade and Uncertainty.

He’s also the founder of Tribal Author, an elite book marketing training program built for the most determined authors who want access to the smartest strategies and sharpest tactics for launching books, building author platforms and more.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter @JonathanFields.

MG: Besides being an accomplished writer and speaker, you’re widely recognized as a book marketing thought leader. With so much experimentation and transformation taking place in the publishing industry, what guiding principles remain firm and trustworthy?

JF: Not many. We are in a time of MASS disruption! The good news is – if you’re an author or aspiring author, there’s never been a better time in the history of publishing to reclaim a huge amount of power, control, freedom and, gulp, even money. But…you’ve got to be willing to be not just an author, but an enterprise. If you’re not willing to do that, you are very likely in for a very tough road ahead.

Quality writing is the application of language in skilled form. Nouns are vivid. Verbs are sharp. Sentences strike with precision. Paragraphs sign with emotion. Quality writing showcases the whole – whether verse, chapter, article, or story – as accomplished for its considered structure and delicate care.

Valuable writing is the utility of language in practical form. Copy compels action. Chapters propel plot. Arguments persuade opinions. Stories kindle understanding and empathy. Valuable writing always advances the work – whether book, magazine, sales letter, script or other – toward its intended goal.

Valuable writing is inherently quality writing. The opposite, however, isn’t true. Quality writing isn’t guaranteed to be valuable writing. Most writers understand for former and confuse the latter because they don’t see the relationship between quality and value for what it is: a parent-child relationship.

Editor’s Note: I am pleased to feature this interview with Julie Clow.

With a Ph.D. in behavioral analysis, Julie specializes in team effectiveness, leadership, organizational culture and development programs.

After eight years in a stiff, traditional corporate culture – followed by five years at Google – she condensed her learning about freedom and autonomy in careers and the workplace into the book, The Work Revolution.

You can follow Julie on Twitter @clowjul.

MG: Much of the organized working world is undergoing some form of transformation. What do you feel are the universal catalysts driving such change, and how does your new book The Work Revolution uniquely contribute to and positively influence this movement?

JC: First, the globalization of work is transforming our organizations so that work is now a 24-hour a day prospect. For the last 6 years, I’ve worked in organizations with colleagues sprinkled across the world in different offices, so work literally never stops. Second, the democratization of technology has accelerated the pace of innovation, and information overload is our new reality.

Editor’s Note: I am pleased to feature this interview with Laurie McLean.

As an agent, Laurie McLean represents adult genre fiction as well as middle-grade and young-adult children’s books.

For more than 20 years Laurie ran a multi-million dollar eponymous public relations agency in California’s Silicon Valley. Laurie is also the dean of San Francisco Writers University at www.SFWritersU.com and a key member of the management team of the San Francisco Writers Conference, www.SFWriters.org.

Learn more about Laurie at Agent Savant. Follow Laurie on Twitter @agentsavant.

MG: You represent an amazing range of adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, etc.). Do you find that reader demand is increasing or decreasing for these types of stories?

LM: Absolutely. In fact, most of the success stories in self-published fiction are authors who write genre fiction. Pulp fiction, if you will. And that can be tied to the horrible economy to some extent. When things in the real world get tough, readers seek an escape.

A great mentor once told me that you serve yourself better by running toward opportunities, not running away from challenges.

The distinction is slight, though it makes all the difference. One looks forward while the other looks back. One is constructive while the other is cynical. One forges a character of resolve while the other promotes a character of laziness.

For all the nuance being talked about within the swirling publishing industry, the clear (though demanding) choice between these two attitudes underpins everything. Are you running away from traditional publishing because it’s too daunting? Or are you leaning into self-publishing because it empowers you with more freedoms and responsibilities?

Editor’s Note: I am pleased to feature this interview with Joanna Penn.

Joanna is the author of action-adventure thriller novels Pentecost and Prophecy in the ARKANE series. Her site TheCreativePenn.com helps people write, publish and market their books and has been voted one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers two years running.

Follow Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn.

Thanks for joining me, Joanna.

MG: You have become a loyally followed, deeply loved and successful indie author. What helped galvanize your rise that surprised you the most? And how do you continue to win the hearts and minds of your readers, legacy and new?

JP: That’s lovely of you to say, as it’s certainly something I wouldn’t claim for myself yet! We all have different definitions of success.

I started my indie author career four years ago with non-fiction. I made many mistakes that cost me time, money and heartache. Those experiences led me to start TheCreativePenn.com, where I share my lessons learned so other writers wouldn’t have to make the same mistakes. For example, I didn’t know about print on demand when I started and thus spent money on a print run at a time I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t know anything about marketing either, so those books didn’t sell. That was me four years ago!

Editor’s Note: I am pleased to feature this interview with Thom Chambers.

Thom is the founder of Mountain & Pacific, a micropublishing house that creates online magazines for the restless.

In Treehouses is the flagship publication, a beautifully produced magazine focusing on freedom businesses. The Micropublisher is the second and more recent magazine, one devoted to teaching you how to make a living with words.

Follow Thom on Twitter @ThomChambers.

Thanks for joining me, Thom.

MG: Your digital micropublishing house, Mountain & Pacific, is devoted to the “restless.” It’s a powerful, visceral word that I wager many in the indie publishing movements self-identify with. Why do you feel this quality is of such importance and vivacity now given the state of affairs in books and publishing?

TC: After graduating from university, I worked in a bookshop in central London. Every day, we’d have people come in and ask for shelf space for their self-published book. There was plenty of tenacity in these people trying to find a buyer for their “sequel to Pride and Prejudice”, but there was also desperation and delusion. Rather than try to improve their writing or find different ways to reach their audience, self-published writers wanted to imitate what worked for others: shelf space.