Meet Jonas Saul

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonas Saul a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonas, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
Doubt is a traitor. My optimism comes from a lack of doubt. I learned a few decades ago that doubt was thinly disguised fear. It masqueraded around in my head rent-free. So, I kicked it to the curb. I removed doubt from everything, and it liberated me. Will I write a book? No doubt. Will I find readers? No doubt. Could I ever get a Hollywood deal? Again, no doubt.

All of those things have happened. I’ve written almost sixty novels, sold millions of books, and now have a contract with a major studio in Los Angeles.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m the author of almost sixty novels. I’m a freelance editor as well. When I’m not writing/editing, I’m a local tour guide on the Greek Island of Amorgos and a retreat coordinator for a company called Imagine Greece Retreats.

Author: My Sarah Roberts Series is almost forty books long, and I’ve got fifteen standalone novels.
Editor: I work with brand-new authors and bestselling ones as well.
Local Guide: I live on Amorgos in Greece eight months a year, giving hiking and monastery tours to tourists visiting the island.
Greek Retreats: I’m a coordinator for Reading Retreats and Writing Retreats, as well as yoga, art, and hiking retreats. We do roughly seven retreats per year, and we’re super excited about the June Reading Retreat with guest Jennifer Hillier and the September Writing Retreat with guest C.C. Humphreys.

So much exciting stuff happening in 2024!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Discipline: As an author, the absolute number one thing every writer has to do is write. I realize this is obvious, and it may be easy initially, but if you want to finish a book or write one after another, the only way to do that is to form a discipline. I write a lot of words per day, per week, per year. That’s the only way I got to 57 novels so far. Discipline.

2. Dream: This is the opposite of doubt. Dream big. Imagine yourself where you want to be and visualize it. Goals are like magnets – everything you do works toward them. However, make sure it’s what you want. Otherwise, the goal will be impotent. There are no lazy people – there are just people with impotent goals. Dream.

3. Study: Write and Dream. Sure. But study the craft as well. I’ve written over fifty novels and sold millions of books. Yet, I still read books on how to write. There’s always another way, a new perspective, a new way to look at things. I read books on self-editing, even though I’m an editor. Hone your skills. Study.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The book that changed everything for me is “On Writing” by Stephen King.

I read it when it came out over twenty years ago and decided to take the nearly fifty short stories I’d written and create a novel out of them. I was further inspired to write a full-length piece of work. It was during the summer of the year 2000 that I wrote my first novel. And now, twenty-four years later, I’ll have sixty novels published by the end of this year.

I encourage every new writer to read or listen to “On Writing” by Stephen King.

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