A List of Resources for Treating your Writing Like a Business
Being a writer these days requires more than just writing well. Even if you go the traditional publishing route you are still responsible for much of your marketing and the creative decisions about your content. These resources aim to inform and advise you on these aspects of being being a writer.
The Creative Penn Website by Joanna Penn
Joanna Penn is positive, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about all things writing. She shares openly about her writing journey, lessons learned, and what has worked for her. She is particularly helpful in her advice on indie publishing and business for writers. Her “Author 2.0 Blueprint” is an impressive compilation of advice and resources about being a writer today. You can get this for free by joining her email list.
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/
Creative Penn Podcast by Joanna Penn
Joanna Penn’s podcasts contain publishing news, a personal update, and an interview with a guest. The interviews cover a wide variety of topics including craft, marketing, publishing, and author mindset. The podcasts are upbeat and inspiring, particularly if you need a bit of motivation.
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/
Author Earnings Website
The Author Earnings website is a great in-depth, data-oriented look at the money that authors’ are actually making. The website provides regular reports on author earnings. The reports have detailed explanations of the sample-size, the type of data sampled, and how the data was gathered. I found that looking at actual numbers was an eye-opening experience that exposes the financial realities of being a writer.
Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook by Helen Sedwick
The Self-publisher’s Legal Handbook is a comprehensive guide to a range of business and legal topics for writers. Though she focuses on issues for self-publishers there is plenty of information that is applicable to writers, bloggers, and other creatives. This book covers advice on taxes, business set up, rights, and avoiding defamatory or copyright infringement lawsuits. Despite being a legal handbook, the book is surprisingly readable.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22774427-self-publisher-s-legal-handbook
To see resources for improving your writing, check out the Writing Craft Resources page.
To see resources for learning how to edit your writing check out the Editing Resources page.
Photo by Carlos Muza on Unsplash