What Authors Say About Their Business: Part 1
During the course of revising my book, Business Basics for Authors, I contacted a number of author friends and asked them to answer three questions:
1) What is the most difficult part of managing your book business?
2) What do you think is the most important business issue you have to deal with?
3) If you could eliminate one business chore, what would it be?
The responses to each question will be in a separate article.
I think you’ll find the answers interesting. These answers express what other authors think about the issues you are now facing and can possibly offer some insights into how they run their business.
Some of these authors write fiction and others write non-fiction. Some have a publisher and others are self-published. What they have in common is that they understand getting published means they have a business and they have to deal with business issues.
Here is a list of the authors who responded with a link to find out more about them.
Elizabeth Craig: https://elizabethspanncraig.com/library/
Mark Cain: http://markcainwrites.com/
Elaine Durbach: http://elainedurbach.com/
Anna Faversham: https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Faversham/e/B00A9T0UIY?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1612610936&sr=8-1
Mark Henderson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-P.-Henderson/e/B00J8NECH2
Joylene Butler: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=joylene+butler&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
Dale Lehman: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=joylene+butler&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
Rick Gualtieri: http://www.rickgualtieri.com/
Donna Baier Stein: http://www.donnabaierstein.com/
Stuart Aken: http://stuartaken.net/
Sarajane Giere: http://sarajanegiere.com/
Stephanie Auteri: http://stephauteri.com/
L. Diane Wolfe: http://www.spunkonastick.net/
Peadar Ó Guilín:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Peadar+Ó+Guil%C3%ADn.&ref=nb_sb_noss
What is most difficult part of managing your book business?
Elizabeth Craig: I find reaching new readers to be the most difficult and time-consuming part of my book business. However, I spend time every week to do so: through advertising like Freebooksy, giveaways like Goodreads, translations through platforms like Babelcube, and outreach through Wattpad.
Mark Cain: a successful marketing strategy, both for individual titles and for the more general author brand.
Elaine Durbach: The most difficult part for me is distribution, starting with getting the book into bookstores. While readers can order online, many want to see a book in their local store.
Anna Faversham: Finding the time to manage the marketing. As an Indie I need to do this myself. For each book I draw up a marketing plan to be implemented as soon as it is published. The reality is that I baulk at the idea of drawing up a press release or contacting libraries and much of the list for each of my books has never been done but perhaps you can do better? And one fine day, I shall tackle all that is left undone. Yes, really.
Mark Henderson: The most difficult part is negotiating production with publishers who’ve accepted a manuscript. I find my powers of diplomacy much exercised when I have to reject editorial suggestions that would harm the story and persuade the design team to change the cover and the jacket blurb… in which I’m by no means always successful! (I have to accept that publishers know better than I do what will sell best, but I can still express my reservations.)
Joylene Butler: I have failed miserably at keeping my filing up. I’m an author. I’d rather write then worry about the paper end of my career. If I reach the best seller’s list, I’ll hire an accountant.
Dale Lehman: Marketing is the most difficult part. Writing can be hard, but anyone who doesn’t enjoy writing probably shouldn’t be doing it. Editing can be costly, but you have to have someone else do that anyway. (Or you should. It’s generally a bad idea to try to edit your own work!) Book creation is easy these days, with all the software and low-cost options that are available. But selling is not something most of us writers are good at. It involves an entirely different set of skills from writing and producing books.
Rick Gualtieri: Dealing with the mundane legalities. These are the things a lot of people don’t think about when they start a business such as this — getting an EIN, determining sole proprietorship, LLC, or S-corp, obtaining a business license with their state, maintaining good standing, taxes, etc. It’s not fun, it’s not glamorous, but it needs to be done and done right. These are the things that distract from our writing, yes, but they can’t be ignored. Too many enter the world of publishing and assume that writing is all they have to worry about, and they’re wrong. Being a small business means wearing a lot of different hats.
Donna Baier Stein: selling many books
Stuart Aken: The entirety of the task of ‘selling’ my work is anathema to me. I am a creator, an imaginative storyteller. The whole idea of trying to convince others what I write is worth their hard-earned cash fills me with despair.
Sarajane Giere: The most difficult part in managing my book business is realizing that publishing the book was like having a new birth in the household that must be nurtured in order to survive. It’s not just up to the publisher from now on. Caring and promoting this baby is now MY JOB. Expanding my office space, keeping better track of my e-mails, and spending more time to follow up on contacts and appearances are all part of the process. Reordering my work day to accommodate all this is sometimes daunting.
Stephanie Auteri: Actively keeping my book at the forefront of people’s minds, especially when a.) more recent projects seem more pressing and b.) it seems so spammy to keep plugging a book that pubbed over two years ago… even though I know I gather new followers online every day.
L. Diane Wolfe: Marketing is always the most difficult. What works for one book doesn’t work for the next, or situations in the world change, or the authors’ abilities vary from one to the next, etc. It’s also incredibly expensive. The Big 5 can throw a lot of money at marketing, whereas a smaller publisher like us has to be very frugal.
Peadar Ó Guilín: Quality control. Editors are expensive and deserve to be too.
What do you think is the most important business issue you have to deal with?
Elizabeth Craig: Sadly, reaching new readers, the most challenging part of my business, is also the single most important. I have a good number of readers now, but to maintain and increase readership, I have to commit to activities that expand my base.
Mark Cain: Handling the tax aspects, making estimated tax payments, maintaining receipts, preparing tax materials for the IRS. It’s not rocket science, but it’s tedious. And necessary.
Elaine Durbach: I suppose the most important business issue is finding a way to earn more than I lay out — and hopefully to justify the earning time spent on writing. That feels almost unattainable at the moment even though I write pretty fast!
Anna Faversham: Making sure that legalities are attended to, such as paying tax.
Mark Henderson: Arranging book signing and promotion evenings and manning book stalls at festivals etc. It’s not something publishers do for authors; they expect us to be proactive — quite properly, of course.
Joylene Butler: I’ve been told it’s marketing. Seriously, I understand why that is. But I am not comfortable marketing myself let alone my books. Best selling authors don’t have that problem. I don’t want that problem. I suppose that means I better write a best-seller.
Dale Lehman: This is a bit of a toss-up. Clearly (in keeping with #1), marketing is extremely important. But equally important is having a good product to market. I therefore consider both developing my craft and becoming better at marketing as equally important.
Rick Gualtieri: I like to think that a well written book will rise to the top, but the truth tends to be a bit different. Take a masterful piece, exquisitely written but poorly marketed, versus a work of lesser quality but with a well thought out marketing plan. 9 times out of 10, it’s the latter that will dominate the charts. There is a luck element to becoming a bestseller, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, but via marketing we can affect how likely it is that lightning will strike.
Donna Baier Stein: juggling writing time v. book promotion time.
Stuart Aken: All ‘selling’ is tainted with dishonesty, and that is my biggest barrier. I promote my books from time to time with excerpts from the stories and from reviews I’ve received. But it’s not a task I enjoy or spend much time on.
Sarajane Giere: The most important issue I must deal with will come when I’m selling the book at local festivals and have to deal with the accounting side of marketing. If these Covid restrictions abate, I hope to be selling my book face-to-face with prospective readers at different venues such as book stores, libraries and literary festivals. So far, I’ve had some success doing this in small settings, such as two Zoom book-talks with sales following my presentation.
Stephanie Auteri: Being proactive about doing live events I can then tie back to my book. Back when my book launched, I found that people who saw me live at readings or workshops or conferences immediately wanted to buy my book. I guess I’m charming despite my crippling social anxiety? The thing is, my crippling anxiety holds me back from actively pursuing new and similar opportunities.
Also, being proactive about pitching new stories I can tie back to my book. I’m a journalist but, in the two years after my book pubbed, I felt depleted, and I leaned heavily on a part-time editing job. As a result, my byline stopped appearing everywhere… and my byline is one of the things that keeps my book in front of people’s eyeballs.
L. Diane Wolfe: The most important thing for any book is reviews. More reviews mean more sales. It’s just the most effective marketing tool. We send out review copies 5–7 months before a book’s release, both print and eBook. If a book can hit release date with a lot of reviews, then it will hit the ground running with momentum. Reviews are also needed for the back of the book and the interior of the eBook. Plus a good selection of reviews opens up more marketing options. Sending out review copies is simply the most cost-effective way to promote a title. Authors who skimp on this step are really doing themselves and their book a disservice.
Peadar Ó Guilín: Quality control. Editors are expensive and deserve to be too.
That’s it for question 1. The other two questions and answers will be in subsequent articles.
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The Writers & Authors Resource Center has solutions for many pain points: https://hanque.gumroad.com/