Author Entrepreneurship: 7 Ways The Most Successful Writers Pursue It
If you dream of becoming an author, pursuing author entrepreneurship is one of the best ways to make a successful living. As of 2023, it was estimated that the odds of an author getting their work published stands between 1% and 2%.
Even if you are determined to succeed, those odds likely feel like a gut punch. However, before you lose heart, there are ways to succeed as a writer. It’s extremely rare to make a living off your debut novel, but this doesn’t mean you can’t make a living writing.
Author entrepreneurship: what’s covered
Is an author an entrepreneur?
Not every writer is an entrepreneur, but many authors choose to pursue author entrepreneurship in order to fully devote themselves to their writing career.
Author entrepreneurship is a key component of a successful writing career. In fact, Entrepreneur states that, “An author creates his product; which is her or his manuscript, ensures that it will give readers some value and finds, connects and interacts with the potential target readers.”
For serious writers, gone are the days of typing out a book and then sitting back and dreaming up your next title. If you’re an aspiring author in today’s publishing world, you must learn to take charge of your creative passion. In other words, pursue author entrepreneurship.
How do you become an author entrepreneur?
Pursuing author entrepreneurship starts with developing a growth mindset, specifically as it pertains to your target audience. What are the steps to author entrepreneurship? And perhaps most important, why should you take them? Below are seven steps with an explanation as to why you should take these steps.
Take note of the successful authors you see taking these very steps, and learn form their journey.
1. Articulate what you offer
Understanding yourself as a writer drastically increases your ability to create what you actually care about.
When I first started my work as a copywriter, I had the privilege of working for a company that solely focused on writers.
However, the more I branched out in my creative writing work, the more I realized that finding my precise niche would help me provide the best content for my audience.
Knowing what I had to offer would not just help me feel more fulfilled but also allow me to better help others. This leads into step two.
2. Understand who you can help
Why do you want to pursue author entrepreneurship, or as some call it, authorpreneurship? There are many types of jobs and career paths you could take. Why author entrepreneurship?
The creative space is a fantastic avenue to create change. Change takes many forms. You can:
Help a company grow through effective copywriting
Reach a broader audience through SEO
Inspire readers through creative writing
Becoming an author entrepreneur does not demand that you make a living by strictly selling books. You can make a living writing in many ways. Once your book sales take off, then scale down.
3. Conduct a deep competitive analysis
While you’re waiting for your fiction or nonfiction books to gain traction, find your specific niche. What writers are in the market with you? How do they stand out? What knowledge base do you have that sets you apart?
The more you can learn about others in the market, the better you can assess what you have to offer and how you should promote it.
4. Set a goal to reach for
When it comes to making it as a writer, taking a proactive stance is crucial. Whether you want to become the writer who shares daily writing tips or the copywriter who helps brands reach their full potential, set a long-term goal.
Ideally, where do you want to be in one year? Five years? Ten years? This brings us to point five.
5. Define your daily tasks for success
Understanding what you need to do is the first step to determining what action you need to take to succeed.
Here are a few examples: If you want to become an author, start by committing to write 500 words every week day.
If you want to make a living as a writer and don’t have a book published yet, build a website. This will help you establish yourself as credible as you work to land your first copywriting gig.
If you want to become a writing coach, study the industry. Learn everything you can about writing and publishing. Try spending 15 minutes every day educating yourself on publishing topics.
6. Research how to best market yourself
Know your competition so you can identify your unique selling position, or USP. Once you pinpoint your USP, you can combine the first five steps to determine how to best market yourself.
Imagine a writer who wants to become an writing coach marketing themselves for their copywriting prowess. It simply wouldn’t work. It may bring in leads, but very few of those leads would convert to customers. Why? They simply aren’t marketing the right way.
Research your competitors, then identify how to use marketing to set yourself apart.
7. Firmly grasp your financials
Because I’m actively seeking to develop my own author entrepreneurship skills, I entered into a business mentorship with a professional much further along than I am.
One of his recurring questions is: how will you bring in revenue?
Taking time to understand where you are financially and where you want to be helps reveal the gap between the two.
Once you know where you are and where you want to be, simply fill in the missing steps. Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a great way to wade into financial literacy.
Now, two brief points before wrapping up.
What type of business is an author?
Many authors choose to operate as a sole proprietorship or form an LLC. Talk to a credible advisor to choose what’s best for you, and in the meantime, start reframing your mindset from “I’m just a writer” to “I am a business.”
Can authors be self-employed?
Authors can most definitely be self-employed. In the eyes of the IRS, if you are a freelance writer or independent contractor, then you are singularly responsible for paying your self-employment taxes.
Take this factor into account when considering step seven, firmly grasping your financials. When you establish your rates as an freelance writer/independent contractor, be sure to add a certain percentage to help you accommodate taxes.
Because self-employed writers and authors are responsible to pay self-employment taxes, it’s beneficial for your billing to reflect these additional expenses.
Author entrepreneurship: start your journey today
Now that you have a seven-step guide on how to make a living as a writer, it’s time to focus on your ultimate goal of a full-time author. To help you pursue your long-term goal, take a small step and download this free Writer’s Toolkit!
