#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?