Business for Authors - by Joanna Penn (Paperback)

About the Book

This is not a book about creativity or the craft of writing. It's aimed at helping you take the result of your creativity into the realm of actually paying the bills. To take you from being an author to running a business as an author.

Book Synopsis

Are you ready to take the next step in your author journey?

Art for the sake of art is important. Writing for the love of it, or to create something beautiful on the page, is absolutely worthwhile and critical to expand the sum of human expression.

But I'm not here to talk about creativity or the craft of writing in this book. My aim is to take the result of your creativity into the realm of actually paying the bills.

To take you from being an author to running a business as an author.

I was a business consultant for 13 years before I gave up my job in September 2011 to become a full-time author-entrepreneur. I worked for large corporates and small businesses, implementing financial systems across Europe and Asia Pacific.

I've also started a number of my own businesses: a scuba dive charter boat in New Zealand, a customized travel website, a property investment portfolio in Australia as well as my freelance consultancy. I've failed a lot and learned many lessons in my entrepreneurial life and I share them all in this book.

In the last six years of being an author, through tempestuous changes in the publishing world, I've learned the business side of being a writer and I now earn a good living as an author-entrepreneur. I'm an author because it's my passion and my joy, but also because it's a viable business in this age of global and digital opportunity.

In the book, you will learn:

Part 1: From Author To Entrepreneur
The arc of the author's journey, definition of an author-entrepreneur, deciding on your definition of success. Plus/ should you start a company?

Part 2: Products and Services
How you can turn one manuscript into multiple streams of income by exploiting all the different rights, various business models for authors and how to evaluate them, information on contracts, copyright and piracy.

Part 3: Employees, Suppliers and Contractors
The team you need to run your business. Editors, agents and publishers, translators, book designers and formatters, audiobook narrators, book-keeping and accounting, virtual assistants. Plus/ how to manage your team.

Part 4: Customers
In-depth questions to help you understand who your customers are and what they want, as well as customer service options for authors.

Part 5: Sales and Distribution
How to sell through distributors and your options, plus all the information you need to sell direct. ISBNs and publishing imprints: do you need them? Plus/ your options for pricing.

Part 6: Marketing
Key overarching marketing concepts. Book-based marketing including cover, back copy and sales pages on the distributors. Author-based marketing around building your platform, and customer-based marketing around your niche audience and targeted media.

Part 7: Financials
The money mindset, revenues and costs of the author business. Banking, PayPal, accounting, reporting, tax and estate planning.

Part 8: Strategy and Planning
Developing your strategy and business plan. Managing your time and developing professional habits. The long term view and the process for becoming a full-time author. Plus/ looking after yourself.

Part 9: Next Steps
Questions from the book to help you work out everything to do with your business, plus encouragement for your next steps.

Review Quotes

"Ready to become CEO of your own Global Media Empire? Then Business for Authors is for you, featuring clear and concise steps to managing your writing career." New York Times and USA Today bestselling author CJ Lyons "I wish I had been given this book when I first graduated from my MFA program, back when the accounting of writing was even more of a mystery to me. With warmth and intelligence, Penn demystifies so much about what it takes to be a writer for life. This is a book that will remain on my bookshelf for the years to come." Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, Author of Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career and Lecturer at Boston University and Harvard University Extension School "The best book I know of for authors who are serious about making their writing into more than a hobby. Joanna Penn writes in an engaging, personal style to lead you through the often-confusing world of publishing for profit, sharing her own hard-won lessons. A boon to self-publishers everywhere." Joel Friedlander, TheBookDesigner.com "BUSINESS FOR AUTHORS ought to be required reading if you're a beginning writer who wants to make money in publishing. You can learn it all the hard way, like I did, but that usually takes years and it usually means that you'll make a LOT of mistakes along the way. Or you can read through Joanna Penn's awesome little guidebook in just a few hours and save yourself a huge amount of time, energy, and money." Randy Ingermanson, author of "Writing Fiction for Dummies" "This book demonstrates why Joanna Penn has become a favorite role model for professional author-publishers, those indie-minded writers who want to turn their passion into their job. In it Penn offers the step-by-step process she has followed to success and covers every aspect of earning a good living from writing. Not a word is wasted and not a lesson offered that hasn't been forged in the hotbed of her own experience. A must-have book for every indie author." Orna Ross, Bestselling author and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors "Business for Authors has now become my business bible. Packed with advice, experience and knowledge, it opened my mind to so much more that I could be doing." Mel Sherratt, Crime writer and Amazon UK #1 Bestseller. "With Business for Authors, I felt like I stepped inside the brain of an entrepreneur. I love how Joanna explored the topic from so many angles, and then provided real-life context of how she worked through each opportunity/challenge." Dan Blank, WeGrowMedia.com "There's no doubt about it, to be successful as an author today you must think like an entrepreneur. But maybe you need some advice and guidance on exactly how to do that? Good news! Joanna Penn's latest book Business for Authors will walk you through everything you need to know for success. It's a comprehensive step-by-step guide for authors, written by someone who walks the walk as a best-selling author and entrepreneur." Jim F. Kukral, Author Marketing Club