Authors: Do you think of yourself as an entrepreneur? Not all authors do.
To help you with this, here’s an important question: What is your book’s function?
- Is it a vehicle to thought leadership?
- Is it the top of your marketing funnel?
- Is it a lead generator?
- Is it a profit center on its own?
- Is it support for your core (non-book) business?
- Is it to bolster your brand?
- Is it a giveaway at speaking events?
- Is it a way to get your ideas out there?
- Is it a part of your overall content strategy?
It could be any (or all) of these things, but it helps to examine your goals up front because it will impact the business decisions you make. Yes, your business.
As an author, you are a startup and your book is the product. It helps to think of it as its own business, or as support for your primary business. Either way, you will be more successful if you think of it as an entrepreneurial endeavor.
Your business needs two basic things:
- You need a good product.
- You need a good brand.
Let’s examine why. First, you have to build a good product. Without a good product (your book), your startup is going nowhere. It’s the primary means of connecting with your audience, and may be even a profit center too.
But it’s very hard to make money from a book itself, especially as a new author. But perhaps the book is not intended to be a direct revenue source. Perhaps you use the book as a means to get other work. Many authors think of their book as content marketing for consulting work or speaking gigs. For professional speakers, consultants, and other practitioners, the book is a way to “extend” their sessions and cement their ideas, post-engagement. They might sell it at speaking gigs or simply give it away after a consultation.
That’s where your brand comes in. Your brand as an author is really important, just like any company’s brand is really important. A consumer is less likely to trust the product if they don’t trust the company. The same goes for an author and his/her book. As a non-fiction author, what you’re really selling is yourself. People have to trust you.
Your product will contribute to your brand, but there is a lot more to it than just your book. It’s all of the supporting content around your book, plus the conversation that happens around you and your book by others as well. This is called a content strategy, which I define here: What is a Content Strategy for Authors? in a brief podcast.
For your product to take off, you need to have other people recommending it to their own network willingly. It’s very hard to see significant growth without this. When selling you or your brand, others are far more credible than you are. I call this C2C (for “customer to customer”), and though it’s the most difficult to achieve, it’s the most effective growth engine.
Your book is your business—it’s time for you to think of it that way.
Don’t just believe me, though. What I’m touting here is not an original idea. Some shoulders-of-giants shout-outs to plenty of other folks who think of authors as entrepreneurs:
- Guy Kawasaki is probably the predominant voice. His book, Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, is geared towards self-published authors, but I think it’s valuable to any author. If you want a nitty gritty how-to, this is your go-to.
- Another favorite of mine is Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger. He talks about today’s authors as digital media producers and urges you to “build your audience before you need it.”
- And Peter Armstrong, co-founder of Leanpub, who designed a process for publishing an in-progress book, getting feedback, and iterating until you find “product-market fit.”
- I’ll include Joanna Penn, too—because she’s smart and successful and I like her style. There are plenty more players who are contributing to the drumbeat. Here are a couple bonus articles by Eric Hellman and Kristen McLean.
Establish your goals, because it will help you make better business decisions. Don’t settle for anything less than a professional product. And while you’re building the product, forge meaningful bi-directional connections with your audience. It’s your business, your choices, and your effort. Do the work and don’t leave anything to chance.
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For more about Content Strategy for Authors, please see the “For Authors” section of this site.
To hire me for specific help with your content strategy, please see my “Helping Authors” page. I specialize in non-fiction authors, and the first “orienting” session is always free. Or if you just want to support my writing, please use Gittip.
Photo credit: “Waiting to write…” by Angie Garrett is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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