Time to hear my thoughts on being a hobby author vs. a business focused author. This one might be hard to hear for some, but I feel like it contains a lot of truths that beginning authors need to hear so that their expectations are measured when it comes to publishing. The publishing journey, and author journey is long, so let’s talk about being business focused vs. hobby focused.
Two paths of authorhood
There are two main paths of authorhood. Being an author as a hobby and for fun. Being an author because you want to run a small business and make money.
A lot of people are hobby authors, which is awesome. We need those. But they have desires to be business authors but… the work to be a business author feels like a lot.
So lets talk about the pros and cons really quick of those two things.
Business Author pros and Cons
Pros:
- You get to learn many things like marketing, networking, and improving your skills
- You get to do a lot
- You’re busy
Cons:
- A lot of your time is taken up by administrative tasks
- Carving out time to write is harder
- You can’t just focus on writing, you have to think of writing like a business
Potential rewards:
- Financial success
- Book deals
- Creating a large and loyal following
Hobby Author Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Write what you want, when you want to
- You write stories that you enjoy
- You focus on the joy of writing
Cons/tendencies:
- less likely to learn the things to market or network to really make your book productive
- Has a hard time focusing on authorhood as a business, and gets frustrated, so focuses on writing a lot
The main difference
Did I make some generalizations about the pros and cons? Yes, yes I did. Because here is what I’ve learned.
- If you want to REALLY get good and run an author business you can’t just focus on writing the books anymore. You need to study and learn to love marketing. You need to write a GOOD book that is really marketable. You need to be able to see things from a CEO perspective.
- A lot of authors get really frustrated with the administrative side of authorhood. Because of that, and because they don’t want to jump in and learn and really dedicate time to learning this side, they get frustrated and stuck. We are CREATIVE we don’t want to *have* to do the admin tasks…
So this is where we find the main difference between successful business authors and ones who stay more in the hobby area.
Successful business authors accept that:
- They have to learn how to market. Social media marketing, growing their newsletter, finding what tropes, quotes etc. draw in readers, are all things a successful business author learns
- They learn that they have to create a BRAND – something that they stick to 100% of the time. For me, that’s sweet and clean romance. 100% of the time. People will ALWAYS know that I write sweet and clean romances.
- They have to think about marketing, writing, collaborating, sharing, everything they do from a Business CEO mindset. They won’t collaborate with authors outside of their genre or with different spice levels because they know that that will hurt their relationship with their target audience. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, we’re people pleasers, but a successful business author things about the long term effect of their business choices.
- They think long term and build reader loyalty. Good businesses are customer focused. They’re about writing the next best book for their customers. They’re about giving the customers what they want 100% of the time.
- They network with people who will help bring them forward not back. Authors who write in the same genre with same romance levels. Authors who champion the same values and types of books. They make author friends, and they support those author friends because then they can share an audience.
Being Business minded is hard
Why? Because it’s not about YOU as an author. It’s about THE READER and delivering them a product that they will love continuously, again and again.
Business authors study their target market which takes time and effort. Business authors study authors in their niche who are doing well and find ways to emulate them. Business authors reward their loyal readers through newsletter goodies, and through things that keep them coming back again and again. Business authors know that once you become an author it’s about becoming a better writer and making better and better books so your loyal readers keep coming back.
Making those decisions. Putting that time into those things… Yeah it’s hard. But it’ll be worth it IF you want to become a successful business author.
Being a hobby author is also hard
Because your goals are different. Why you do what you do is different. You’re thinking about writing and publishing for fun.
But you might fall into the comparison game. You might get frustrated with a lack of progress or sales.
Which is fine, just remember… if you want to become a business author then… you might need to put more work in, in other areas, that will stretch your abilities.
You might not like it.
But there’s wisdom in what business minded authors do… and why they do it.
Takeaway
Be whatever type of author you want to be.
But if you want to make it a business, make sure you know what you’re signing up for.
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