Self-Publishing Mini-Lesson #1: The Business Mindset
Welcome to the new series of mini-lessons about the business of self-publishing. The first one is on the business mindset, because that is the foundation of everything which will follow.
These mini-lessons consist of ideas and concepts which have occurred to me in the 12 years that I have been writing, selling, and publishing books. I’ll also be posting mini-lessons in writing fiction and nonfiction, but I want to focus here on everything else apart from the creation of works.
Many of us spend our lives working for somebody else, but when you start your writing journey – if you have an ambition to make money at this – you need to change your way of thinking.
No matter what emotional attachment you may have to your story, whether it’s a memoir or an essay or a full-length book, at the end you holding your hand a product that must be packaged and sold.
If you intend to make money at this, especially if you’re going to deduct your business expenses on your tax return, you have to start thinking like a business owner and less like an artist.
Even if you intend to turn over the business decisions to a partner, a spouse, or a publisher, keep an eye on what they’re doing. There are way too many object lessons of artists who have signed away their rights and their money to unscrupulous people. Just ask Chuck Palahniuk.
Elements of the business mindset
Here’s what I mean the business mindset:
1. Keep track of your work. File your stories where you can find them. File away any contracts you signed where you can find them. Make backups of your work, preferably multiple backups on paper or CD.
2. Keep track of your expenses. Open a separate business checking account. Get a credit card that you use only for business expenses. Record your expenses, whether on paper or on Excel.
3. Keep track of your daily tasks. You need to prove to the IRS you are operating a business. If they’re not convinced, they’ll classify what you’re doing as a hobby and disallow your business expenses, and you’ll be left with a whopping tax bill to pay.
4. Adopt a cold unemotional eye. No matter how much you love your book cover, if it doesn’t catch your readers’ attention, if it’s not genre-appropriate, if it’s not what readers in that genre are seeing RIGHT NOW, consider replacing it. No matter how much you love your prose, if readers disagree, consider ways of improving your writing.
Why we resist change
Recognize that people default to doubling down on their decisions and beliefs. We resist reconsidering them in light of new information. When it comes to your favorite sports team, author, or movies, this is not necessarily harmful.
Believing that you’re writing career is on the right course despite low sales and negative reviews, however, will hurt you financially and emotionally.
(At the same time, don’t let one person’s opinion sway you. Or even everyone’s. History is full of examples. Did you know “Casablanca” was a B-movie potboiler that no one thought would work? Or that “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was a box office bomb? Or that J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter was rejected by multiple publishers, and it was the publisher’s daughter who recommended acquiring it?)
It boils down to that line from “The Godfather”: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.” When bad things happen to you, you need to bounce back emotionally. Adopting the business mindset lets you distance yourself from other people’s decisions and opinions will help safeguard your ego and give you the mental energy to push on.
We’ll go into bouncing back from adversity in a future mini-lesson. But when you’re not neck deep in your next story, look at your business like a boss, not an employee.