AUTHOR + ENTREPRENEUR = AUTHORPRENEUR

Sharon C. Jenkins; the Inspirational Principal for The McWriting Services.  Known as The Master Communicator and The Literary Midwife, she has mastered multiple forms of media communications in both writing and speaking. She has a Master’s Degree in Education, is certified in nonprofit management and is a certified Virtual Authors Assistant. 

She is an award-winning and best-selling author and has helped hundreds of authors birth or market their book babies. Sharon has been a featured blogger on Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, Self-Published Author, Afrovibesradio.com, and Book Marketing Tools. For more information, contact her at sharon@mcwritingservices.com.

As a writer, your personal “why” is unique. You might write primarily for financial compensation or just because writing is in your DNA. Perhaps your passion for your message will not let you walk away from the blank page. I am an ex-member of the “bookish” tribe. People in my clan often get lost in the passion of writing, ignoring the practical business elements. What stands in the gap between passionate writer and published author? Sometimes, it’s mastering the art of authorpreneurship. 

What is Authorpreneurship?

To properly understand the word “authorpreneurship,” we must look at the two words that lend value to our definition: “author” and “entrepreneur.” Lying on my desk is this huge red book titled, Webster’s New World College Dictionary. I could have visited Google, but I am an old library junkie, and the rustling of crisp pages makes me smile.

Webster’s definitions:

Author: a person who makes or originates something; creator; originator. They are a writer of a book, article, blog, etc. An author is a person whose profession is writing books.

Entrepreneur: a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit.

My definition:

Authorpreneurship: the business of authoring, marketing and publishing your work. You actively participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the process to create your book, eBook, blog, editorial, whitepaper or article and its distribution as a partner or independent publisher. 

I previously laid the case for what “authorpreneurship” really is. Now let me tell you what it’s not. It’s not selling books out of the back of your car or keeping them packed in boxes in the garage or selling a few to families and friends. Even though some national best-selling authors such as Wayne Dyer, John Grisham and Lynn Harris started out that way, today’s author has so many other alternatives. If this economy has you thinking out of the box and you are looking for ways to increase your book sales, then you will want to master the art of authorpreneurship. 

The extent of your involvement in the process is determined by whether you are self-published or published by a traditional publisher. A self-published author, often practices authorpreneurship, because they organize and manage the content creation, publishing, marketing, sales and distribution of their end product. As a self-published author, you are more in control of the overall management of the book writing process, its publishing, and distribution process, therefore mastering Authorpreneurship is critical to your continued success as a writer.

If you have a contract with a publishing house, your exposure to authorpreneurship will be quite different. The publisher will take on the responsibility for some of the elements in the authorpreneurship process, and you will form a partnership to successfully complete the process.

Writing is serious business! The goal of this blog is to alert you  to the importance of “handling the business side of writing.”

When you sit down with pen in hand, if you are writing for profit, you must begin with the end product in mind. “If I write it, they will come” is not the best philosophy for a writer in a troubled economy. Daydreaming about having your book featured on TV is also not going to get you financially where you want to be. So, if you are writing for money or need money to write, you must have a plan of action that will get you there.

Often writers simply turn the business side of their trade over to the “experts, “such as virtual assistants, ghostwriters, print-on-demand publishers, etc. Experts cost money. Prudent business owners desire to get the best value for their investment. It has been my unfortunate experience that if you don’t do your research to identify creditable then you may end up assuming a loss. On the other hand, the “do it yourself route” can cripple your chances of success if you are not well versed in authorpreneurship. Whether you choose the “do it yourself” route or pay for help, you can still achieve your objective, but you first must master the art of authorpreneurship. Simply speaking, authors take care of your business and it will take care of you!