In this episode of listenN, we talk with award-winning author and self-publishing entrepreneur, Vince Font. Highlights include:

What happens when writing is the only thing you can do with any level of competency?

How teachers helped him understand he could write, and write well.

How a late-night internet music radio show would lead him to writing a book that would change his life…for the better.

How being a David Bowie fan and watching a movie that had an amazing David Bowie song in it took him down a rabbit hole. This became a lifelong fascination with a story that would firmly establish him as a writer and much more.

What it feels like to be given the opportunity to do something extraordinary.

How Edward Snowden exploded and ignited a press frenzy around the subject of his book, while he was in the middle of writing it–and how he almost lost the chance to finish it

What it feels like to have a couple of mavericks turn down Simon & Schuster because they trust you to tell their story.

What “good book but we don’t know how to market it” is code for.

How when the world doesn’t come calling you have to Build It Yourself.

How running out of his own material to publish he turned his new found skills into helping other writers self-publish, and a company was born.

How the passing of David Bowie would forever imprint the name of his company.

How David Bowie’s song Glass Spider started out with him telling a story, and how that has influenced Vince to stay true to how and why he started his company.

75 books in over 5 years!

The significance of knowing why you are writing.

How success as a writer is defined in many different ways.

No matter who you are, nobody knows how to catch lightening in a bottle.

If you publish, they will not come, you have to go to them with your book.

His tips on how to publish and promote.

What he would tell his younger self, and the first question he asks every single writer he meets.

How nobody is interested in falling in love with a band that has only one album because if they fall in love, they have nowhere else to go. The same is true with books. Successful authors need to publish!

How it used to be that you couldn’t be a writer unless somebody told you you were a writer, but now you can if you say so, and how that’s a powerful thing.

The importance of taking matters into your own hands and stop asking for permission.

How the book industry is still operating under 1900 practices, and the democratization of publishing is happening as we speak.

How it is important to use the power of the internet, it is more valuable to have your book on BarnesandNoble.com as opposed to having it on a shelf in a Barnes & Noble.

How by being a writer first, it is important to him that the authors he helps keep their publishing rights.