Writers, About Your Willingness to Learn Business…
You have the capacity and the ability to learn entrepreneurship, now choose it.
Today we have a special guest post from book business expert Sharon Woodhouse. Sharon is a former indie book publisher and current owner of Conspire Creative, an agency that offers coaching, consulting, project management, and business support services for authors and indie publishers.
Whether you’re considering self-publication, embarking on an author career, or simply curious about the ways you can champion your writing, there’s something here for you.
Over to Sharon…
“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.”
― Brian Herbert, Author, Dune, House Harkonnen
Writers, you have the capacity and the ability to learn entrepreneurship, now choose it.
As someone who has observed authors my entire career, I’m both impressed and amused by most writers’ ongoing obsession with craft. Their attention to improving and refining the art and science of writing from every angle. No stone unturned.
A commitment to mastery, continuous development, and new creative explorations are hallmarks of any professional, any artist/literary career. But here I want to insert my yes, and. Yes, the craft of writing matters and it’s not the only craft that matters for reaching your author goals and having the writing career of your dreams.
In fact, once you reach a certain level of skill, an obsession with craft could actually be distracting you from what your author vision really needs.
If you are a literary giant, if you are exceedingly lucky, if you fluently skip from mega-trend to mega-trend in your work, perhaps you can skip what I’m about to say. Everyone else, listen up. Once your writing is good enough to earn you a dime, you also need to start working the crafts of business, entrepreneurship, sales, and marketing into your learning and development action plan.
Learning and applying business skills to your writing goals will take you further faster and lay the groundwork for a sustainable, income-generating writing life you love. When approaching your writing and/or author career as a business, you will be predicating your writing life in reality, making it less dependent on whether or not you make the best-seller list or sell your film rights for an A-lister production. You will be making a living as the writer you currently are as you work on expanding in both literary prowess and business acumen.
Start this by willingly choosing it. Understand its value and make the deliberate effort to pursue this parallel track to your writing craft.
Learn business.
“Business is an open book test but most people are too lazy to copy the answers.”
— quoted by Ayodeji Awosika
Awosika is right. The thing about business is that the lessons are all there, out in the open, there for the taking and the copying. They’re laid out for you in books, podcasts, websites, professional organizations, classes, and other sources of business education. And they’re there for you in the lessons you learn from testing them. Trial and error. Evaluating your results and making your next decision from there. Being honest about what works and what doesn’t. Persevering while the lessons reveal themselves over time and stack up in your favor. Don’t be too lazy to copy the answers, to read the tea leaves!
Now that you’re willing and choosing to learn business for your author life, where do you start? There’s one launching pad and trajectory for all comers: Build your business savvy as you go, from where you’re at, with what you have. And don’t stop. It will be enough.
If it helps, treat business like your new adult hobby.
If you’re unsure, feeling a tad inadequate, and overwhelmed by the task, start by putting any imposter syndrome into perspective.
Then, lower the bar on your expectations to make yourself right, right now. Feel good about where you are on the journey.
The practice of practice, the learning of business incrementally, as you go, on your own terms and own timetable are all enough…once you choose it.
Sharon Woodhouse is a former indie book publisher and current owner of Conspire Creative. She writes about all aspects of creating holistic, income-generating author businesses you love and finding your place in the vibrant ecosystem of books on the Profitable Author/An Author Business You Love Substack and in her new book, The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books.
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