Podcast 3: Venture Funding a Novel with Michelle Miller

If you got a Standford 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
• Serialized her novel (like a modern Charles Dickens)

This week, I interviewed Michelle in the Craftsman Founder Podcast. Here is just the audio podcast for those who are interested in listening on:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• RSS Feed

Show Notes

• What is The Underwriting? A weekly serialized novel that is free from the website the underwriting.com for 24 hours and then and distributed on Amazon and other bookstores for $1.50
• What’s worked and what hasn’t worked well in promoting your novel? Probably the most popular thing has been the screensavers and the audio playlists
• What can entrepreneurs learn from authors and vise-versa? I have always been fascinated by the fine line between art and business. See Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson and Jim Henson: The Biography for more about this topic.
• What can entrepreneurs learn from authors? It’s all about story and the stories of how customers find your startup.
• Who inspires you? Working on wall street during the occupy movement was really fascinating to have empathy for both sides and understand both arguments
• Is fiction a viable investment for venture capitalists? I think that in many ways the big traditional publishers are some of the original venture capitalists
• Should more fiction authors consider trying to raise venture capital for their novels? I am not sure. Raising money is very hard, but for a variety of reasons, it was the right choice for me at the time.
• So what’s next for the Underwriting? We’re in conversations about development into television, and are about to announce a traditional print deal with a major publisher for The Underwriting and it’s sequel, both of which will be release in 2015