Business Planning for Authors

 

Making a living as an author is almost impossible without planning. Literary work requires daily effort, but the inspiration to write can be fleeting. Still, actually getting book written and published requires careful preparatory work.

Writers need to blend inspiration with preparation. Planning, therefore, is important for would-be authors who want to get their work published. Writers need to consider the business impact of their work as much as any other entrepreneur would.

Strive for Exclusivity

Business planning for writers starts with an idea, but they key is to turn the idea into a concrete plan (for example, doing some research on the markets for different types of books or understanding the impact of evolving copyright laws).

When researching the market for your book idea, you should adhere to certain principles of marketing and business innovation. For instance, exclusivity is one of the crucial components for commercial success. If your idea offers something unique, it has a great chance of success. On the contrary, if you add only slight nuances to existing popular topics, the risk of failure is very high.

Consider Commercial Appeal

What’s better, writing the book according to your taste and then try to sell it, or enlisting the support and approval of publishers before you start writing?

Let’s first consider the concept. An author starts working with an idea he or she loves. Then, halfway into the book, the author starts thinking about how to sell the book and get the maximum commercial benefit. At this point, problems arise.

The author, who has spent a lot of time and effort, faces resistance from publishers. What happens next? The author gets discouraged and loses the inspiration to write. That is, of course, an extreme case, but writers need to consider the commercial potential of their work before they launch into projects. Ideally, an author should sell a book before it is even written by getting interest and support from publishers up front.

Be a Businessperson

Of course, publishers are well aware of the potential negative consequences of buying a non-existent product. Therefore, the idea of selling a book before writing it is most viable if:

  • The author creates a strong desire on the part of the publisher to market the book
  • Sales are guaranteed due to the fame and popularity of the author
  • The author has a sponsor that can cover possible losses

In practice, authors should not necessarily compromise on their ideas but should strive to come up with something that will sell and, to the extent that they can, work with publishers early on to make sure that any books they write will be saleable. Understanding principles of sales and marketing and building them into pitches to publishers is therefore essential. Merely being a talented writer isn’t enough. Authors need to be businesspeople, too.

Lucy Adams is a blogger from Buzz Essay writers service. She’s a generalist able to cover many kinds of topics. Lucy loves traveling, psychology, teaching, marketing, design, and many other niches. Feel free to establish contact with this diligent author and get your blog post written for free!