Building a 7-Figure Business as a Ghostwriter, Author and Substack Bestseller

Veronica Llorca-Smith

and

Amy Suto

Dec 05, 2025

My creative North Star

My creative journey started when I was unemployed during the pandemic in Australia. Back then, I had no clue what I was doing, but I planted a seed, and that’s exactly how every new path begins: with a tiny seed, a baby step.

It’s been 3 years and guess what…I’m still figuring things out. But today, I have a business that gives me purpose. I write, turn ideas into books, keynotes and courses, test, fail, experiment and keep moving forward. And I even have my little creative corner now!

This week, I read somewhere that life’s purpose is finding purpose in your life. I couldn’t agree more.

And mine is to help you turn your creativity into your lifestyle: write that book, launch that course, get on camera, do the thing!

I’m biased but I truly believe that the world would be a better place if every one of us spent less time complaining and more time creating. So let’s create…

Every month, I choose a theme for The Lemon Tree Mindset. It helps me stay focused and gives my writing a creative North Star. And December is all about inspiration.

As we are preparing for the new year, I want to bring you new voices, inspiring stories and trailblazers to help you break ceilings and boundaries and reach new heights.

Ditching Hollywood

I have a pretty cool lineup of talent and we are kicking things off in style with

Amy Suto

, in this live session about building a writing career.

Amy started hers as a screenwriter in Hollywood, but she became disillusioned with the shrinking writer’s rooms and small paychecks. She pivoted into full-time freelance writing and built a seven-figure business as a memoir ghostwriter, author, and Substacker.

Amy’s leading publication, Make Writing Your Job, is a Substack Bestseller with over 1,500 paid subscribers - yes, paid - and is generating close to 200K US$ in annualized revenue. Talk about inspiration.

The software for building an empire

If you want to take your writing and creative career to the next level, I encourage you to listen to this chat and take ~~notes~~ action.

We talk a lot about the mindset, the software.

If you want to grow 2X, you need a change in processes.
If you want to grow 10X, you need a change in mindset.

As writers and creators, the hardest part is to unlearn: ditch the narrative of the starving artist, stop charging peanuts for our creative work and no more waiting to be discovered while we put our heads down…

I used to think that I had to charge my fees for one hour of work, but I unlearned that old narrative that didn’t serve me and today I charge for the value I deliver in one hour.

Charge for time → Charge for value

In her new book, Write for Money and Power, Amy talks openly and apologetically about this: how to value yourself and your work first because if you don’t, who will?

The hardware

But a good operating system is not enough: you need the hardware, the strategy.

How to laser focus and be crystal-clear on who you are writing for, what they need and how you can help them.

And just like a good Hollywood movie, once you nail the main character, and you know exactly what they really want, the story flows.

What I love about this story is that once upon a time, Amy was the underdog too: struggling to make a living from writing but she was able to rewrite her script.

Her strategy is simple: no gatekeepers and full agency over her work and her life:

She self-publishes all her books on her terms.

She decides who she works with as a ghostwriter.

She has a business that requires no permission.

Agency is the SEO keyword here.

I was super inspired by Amy’s story and we decided to keep it FREE so that you can all benefit from this amazing seed 🌱

If you enjoyed the conversation, please pass it forward: comment, share, support our work so that we can all keep growing our lemon trees 🌳🍋

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Thank you

Caitlin McColl 🇨🇦

Josh Friedland

Jayne Allen