OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Four years ago in Sept 2011, I gave up my job as a business consultant to become a full time author entrepreneur.
Things have definitely changed since I started out!
In the last month, I have reported on the breakdown of my six figure income and I have hired my husband out of his corporate job to join me in the business.
Here's what I have learned in the last year.
Lesson 1: Understand and embrace Plato's Chariot
I have written before about the struggle of maintaining my two author brands and the two halves of my business. I have attempted to divest myself of some things in the last year. I even considered giving up the podcast (shock horror!) but recently, I think I have finally understood why I need both halves to be happy.
The lesson of Plato's chariot is that there is a dark horse and a white horse and both must run together, in parallel, in order that the chariot may run straight and true and win the race.
J.F.Penn, my dark horse, writes stories.
She loves to get lost in a world of research and adventure and she is happiest alone, plugged into the sound of rain and thunderstorms, writing words that create books that readers can escape into. J.F.Penn is a chronic introvert, she does not play well with others. Her role model is Stephen King, beloved dark fiction author of millions of readers.
Joanna Penn, my white horse, is passionate about creative entrepreneurship and the empowerment of the creative.
She loves to teach people about how they can write, publish and reach readers as well as make a living with their writing. She loves to help writers realize their potential in this new world of digital opportunity. Her role model is Tony Robbins, self help speaker and changer of millions of lives.
Plato's chariot allegory is about the soul, but it works just as well for these aspects of personality. I need both of these to be whole. You mainly see Joanna here, happy and smiling but I also embrace what emerges when I let J.F.Penn run free on the page.
Now I understand I need both, I have begun to allow them equal space.
Can you apply this same idea of balance to your life?
For example, what about writing vs marketing? Or the artist vs the entrepreneur? Or your writing life vs ‘real life?'
Lesson 2: The indie movement is diverging from the traditional industry
It's almost as if we are living a parallel life, creating and selling in a shadow industry that is not even measured by the traditional industry statistics. We are also less bothered about what the other lot is up to, increasingly focused on our own separate business models.
I think that the term shadow industry as applied to self-publishing was first coined by Joe Konrath, but has also been picked up by Author Earnings to describe the 30% of ebook sales that do not have an ISBN.
However much some people may care about ISBNs, many indie authors don't use them anymore.
You don't need an ISBN to publish an ebook on Amazon, where the majority of indies make most of their money. You don't need one to publish direct on Kobo, iBooks, Nook or Draft2Digital either. You can get a free one from Smashwords. You can get a free one from Createspace to publish a print book, but ebooks are where the shadow industry really lies and these ISBN-less indie sales are not counted in any reports trumpeted by the publishing industry media.
Indies can just get on with writing books that readers want to buy, selling them through the distributors and making an income entirely ‘off the grid.'
More and more I see indie authors who are doing well just getting on with it under the radar. You don't know their names. You don't have to. They are not submitting to publishers or agents. They are reaching readers and making money on their own terms.
And I believe this will become the model for more and more creatives over time. I make a good living without a publisher, without a ‘job,' as do many others.
As Orna Ross writes in her brilliant manifesto for self-publishing,
“I do not ask anyone for permission to publish, or for a pat on the back, or for a contract that insults my skills and existing readership … I acknowledge that I am more nimble, and closer to the reader, than any other player in publishing. I understand this gives me more power than any other individual publishing stakeholder (though only if I claim it) … I am proud of my self-publishing status.”
My plan for Author Entrepreneur Year 5
My plans and focus for the next year include:
- Continuing to build my fiction body of work as J.F.Penn. I have more in the ARKANE series to come, as well as a spin-off series from that. I'm working on my first co-written novel and will hopefully do more of that as I am learning the importance of collaboration. I also have a ton of other ideas to work on. Now my process is more organized, I expect to put out 4 more novels in the next year.
- Now I have my husband, Jonathan, working in the business, we are going through a process of streamlining and organizing TheCreativePenn.com site which is pretty huge after nearly 7 years of content in the form of text, audio and video. We're redoing email lists and will be changing the design as well as loads of other things. It's a big piece of work! I also have more non-fiction on the way and expect to do more collaborations with that too.
This indie movement will only continue to grow as it expands into the rest of the world, so I am preparing for massive growth in the coming years.
I look forward to sharing the next year with you!
Please do leave your comments below and join the conversation – I value each and every one!
View Comments (56)
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1 2 3 4 Next »Lately there was a thread on one of the writers' forums I frequent, asking what folks wrote to make 5k a month. Although some was erotica, there were a lot of slices of fantasy and science fiction, as well as cozy mystery and thrillers. All of them promote aggressively.
I found it very encouraging. If they can do it, I can, too!
absolutely :) It's just about finding your rhythm, creating more and over time, working out which marketing tactics work for you :)
Best of luck in the coming years, Joanna. You have and will continue to be an inspiration to indie authors everywhere.
Thanks so much Steven :)
It's really inspiring reading these posts from you and seeing how you've grown and it's all coming together for you. Like Kessie I was reading the posts about the authors making $5k a month, and it gives me hope that I can do the same. I admire you, and those like you who balance the business and the art, and make it work.
I hope you have a great year and things continue improving for you.
Thanks as always for your support, Shen. It's just all about day by day, year by year - doing what we love :)
You are such a huge inspiration, Joanna! This post was just what I needed to read today as my horses have run amok, and I kept thinking I should only have one horse in front of my chariot!
I have recently branched out to the international market and trying to keep it all up in Danish and doing my more spiritual business on the side, and now doing the whole writing, blogging and marketing thing in English as well? I felt like I was sitting in a very wobbly chariot with no control over those horses!
Then I come here and read this post and all becomes calm inside. It IS about balancing the creative and the entrepreneurial side and you show us it can be done - so thank you!
And now I'm off to listen to one of your podcasts while doing some adult colouring in my colouring book - that's my everyday evening ritual.
Adult coloring definitely helps calm the brain :) and all the best with managing your horses!
You went 'solo' just as I was starting my current job so I see an interesting parallel between how much you've achieved and how little I have - but that's a good thing because I work best when I put myself under pressure! You're a real inspiration, and it's wonderful how affordable you make your products. You make what you've learned accessible to the rest of us. Here, it's not a competition, it's a conversation.
Thanks for your support over the years, Icy - and I work best under pressure too, in my case, it's the pressure I put on myself :)
As a new follower to the Creative Penn. I'm looking forward to your new courses. I'm not quite ready for publication but I'm soaking up everything you have to offer!! Thanks for making newbies feel so welcome.
I so love the Plato's chariot reference. It explains exactly what I'm going through and now I don't feel disturbed by it. It's time to embrace the ying and yang of my writing! Thanks so much, Joanna. All the best. Looks like a busy next 12 months for you and yours! But I'm sure you'll have fun.
It's so exciting to see how far you've come on this journey. I'm about 18 mo into living the independent author life. I just have to keep reminding myself to look at the big picture and know in a couple of years, I'll be there :)
Always enjoy your posts, Joanna. Been following you for some time. I took the jump into indie about 4 years ago. I write historical fiction and that can be tricky, but I've won some awards and notice. I recently received a silver from the WILLA Literary Award for my historical novel. During the phone call, the board member congratulated me and then said, "I'll call your publisher. Oh, you don't have a publisher." I'm the only indie (as far as I can find) for this wonderful honor. I'm writing mystery novellas for the Lei Crime Kindle World which is a lot fo fun and rewarding. But more historical novels coming. Still occasionally pitch traditional , but only for certain books. Best wishes for the your next 4 years.
Thanks for sharing this Joanna, and keep up the amazing work. I love the horses metaphor although I think I might have a stable of them that need, er, reining in ;-)