As I’m sure you’re already very aware if you have plans to be an author, you need to treat it like a business. But what exactly does that mean? Is that just filing the paperwork? Creating the books and figuring out how to sell them?
It’s a lot of different things, but the whole idea of being a business can be incredibly overwhelming. What you need at the start is not to just jump in and do it all. You need a business plan. Which… is also very daunting. But not to worry, I have an outline that you can use to help guide you through the process!
Author business plan
Publishing name
The name you will publish under.
The pitch
In the days of office jobs and elevators, there was a concept known as the “elevator pitch” or the sales pitch you could give to someone important as you took the elevator to your floor. What you are looking for here is about a tweet-length (240 characters) description of what you as an author bring to your audience that is different from anyone else and why they should read your books.
Description
This is a longer explanation of that pitch. Pretend you have 5 minutes to explain who you are and why someone should check out your books. You might also be able to look at this as your biography.
This is ultimately a description of what you as an author and your books are, what they stand for, and what that pitch you wrote really means.
Product description
Here is where you talk specifically about the books you’re writing. What makes them different and unique. Why would someone want to read them? What do they have in common and why will someone who picks up one want to read all of them?
This is also a good place to talk about the audience that you are looking to attract. Be specific, and do feel free to talk about the books in the context of the people who will read them and how your words will satisfy their needs.
You may also want to consider some specifics, such as format (ePub, paperback, audiobook) and what the price point might be for each of those formats.
Release schedule
Have at least a general idea of when you want to release books and how often. Knowing this can help you not only with planning your marketing efforts, but give you a more realistic timeline of when you need edits in, how quickly you need to write, and a general understanding of what it is you’re going to need to do monthly, weekly, and even daily!
Competitive analysis
Though you are unique, it is good to have a few people who are like you. Find other authors who your ideal audience also like and take a good look at what they’re doing. How they are marketing their books, how often, and even what their fans love about their books. You can use this to figure out how to market your own books and use it in your marketing as well! After all, if you can say someone will like your book if they already like another popular author’s book, then it’s a lot easier to find your audience.
Finances
Money! It is an important part to include as part of a plan. You want to split this into two sections:
What you make
What you expect to be getting from the sales of the books. You can start with a general estimate at first, but be sure to be realistic about what you think you can actually sell. Do feel free to do projections and what you think you will make in your first few months, your first year, next three years, and next five!
What you spend
This number should not be more than what you make for too long! You can expect to spend more than you make at first, but you should be able to make that up sooner than later. **You are a business, after all, and businesses should be profitable! But do include any expenses you think you’ll have, from marketing to editing to the little things like office supplies. That notebook and fancy pen habit? That’s a business expense now!
General author marketing strategy
With all the information that you already have, this should now be a lot more straightforward. You know what your books value proposition is (Pitch and description), how other authors like you do their marketing (Competitive analysis) and what you can afford to do (Finances) so put that all together into a high level plan to figure out how you want to present yourself to the world.
This is also a good time to look at potentially creating some kind of branding guide. Some kind of general guideline around fonts, colours, and the voice that you use (Not your physical voice, just the way you talk and phrase things) that you can lean back on when you are doing all of your marketing.
And those are the basics for you as an author! The books are another plan that we can tackle another day. Did I miss anything here? Or have you done this already, and did it help you?
