When you start out as a writer, it’s all about creativity, planning and writing your stories – basically, the fun stuff. But when you decide to self-publish, all that changes. In your author business, you’re the boss and you have to wear several hats. Orna Ross, from the Alliance of Independent Authors, describes these as maker, manager and marketeer. And you have to wear each hat at different time depending on what activity you’re doing.
When you’re creating a book, you’re a maker. That’s simple. But you also have to wear the manager hat, making sure the money is coming in, tax records are being kept and your business plan is on track. The last one – marketeer – is, for me, the hardest. This job means creating a marketing plan (surprise, surprise) and also the resources to promote the books.
How do you balance the three roles in an author business?
Juggling three roles is always going to be tricky, particularly because you’ll have one hat that fits better than another. But there’s no getting away from it – you will have to wear one of the three at any point when you’re doing work associated with your writing business.
For me, the maker hat fits best. Writing books is what I do best. I’m not a natural business person and I find pushing myself forward incredibly difficult, but I have no choice. As an indie author, I’m responsible for all of this and every decision comes down to me. A scary thought, isn’t it?
The good news is that the skills you need for each hat are things you can learn. Even better, the indie author community is incredibly generous. If you ask for help, you’ll always find someone who can guide you along the way.
So, where do I get my information?
The Alliance of Independent Authors – this is by far and away the best money I ever spent. Subscription to ALLI gives you access to so much information, whether that’s on their website, forums or their annual conference. If you buy one thing with your business hat on, this has got to be it.
Wide for the Win – this community is designed for writers who are ‘wide’; in other words, not exclusive to Amazon through KDP Unlimited. I’ll talk about my decision to go wide in another blog post, but when I did, this group was an amazing find. People are so supportive and I’ve had brilliant responses whenever I ask a question.
Books – this one is general, but there are a few experts I will always turn to for business guidance:
- Joanna Penn – she’s written many books on writing, including How to make a living from your writing and Your Author Business Plan
- James Scott Bell – he’s also written a book called How to make a living as a writer
- ML LeRonn – Michael is new to my stable of experts and The Indie Author Strategy Guidehas given me some good pointers
The future for Readthrough Press
Running a business needs strategy and planning. Tomorrow I’ll be writing about a key plank of my strategy, choosing to go ‘wide’ rather than staying exclusive to Amazon with my ebooks. My aim for Readthrough Press is to maximise income and make the business grow to allow me to produce more books and build a long-term career. Being wide enables me to build a stronger platform because I won’t depend on one shop for sales. Amazon is still one of my top platforms, so the next stage for me will try to build an audience elsewhere so that I have multiple sources of income. I would also like to move more into selling directly from my website.
These decisions are not easy, but it’s the only way to build a stable business. Watch this space!
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