There comes a point in every writer's career when they need to start making decisions about what their writing means to them. They need to examine their goals and strategize on how to get there.
For many writers, there is a shift in mindset, where writing moves from being a hobby to being a business.
Before I go much further, I do need to stress that there is nothing wrong with writing as a hobby. I know of a few hobby writers, and they are extremely knowledgeable about the craft. However, if you are looking at publication with the intent to sell your books (and I do mean books plural), then you have migrated past being a hobbyist and into the realm of running a writing business. Exactly how that business looks will depend entirely on your goals and ambitions.
This decision about making writing into a business can come very early within a writer's career, and it should. It doesn't mean that it has to suck all the fun out of writing your stories, but it will help you focus your activities, hopefully becoming more productive and working towards your goals.
So, let's take a look at what writing as a business really means.
The shift in mindset
When most writers start writing, it's just a spark of inspiration.
"I have this idea that would make a great story."
"I really like the books by [pick an author]. I can do that."
"What was that dribble I just read? I can do better than that."
"OMG, this story idea just won't leave me alone. I better put it down on paper since it's so insistent."
Whatever the reason you start on your writing path, in the beginning, for many of us, our writing activities don't really contain any purposeful structure. It can be all consuming, or it might be just here and there. But for the most part, we write to our own schedules and when we feel like it.
Then we create this…thing…that seems to have taken a life of its own and we start wondering what it will take to let it loose on an unsuspecting world. We might look into publishers and agents, or we start looking at Amazon and self-publishing. We start putting the numbers together and...
BAM!!! We have moved from being a hobbyist and into the realm of writing as a business.
But we don't see it as that. Not yet anyway. We're just writing for fun, but we want to publish our stories.
Sound familiar?
Almost every single writer I know has the same origin story, but told with different highlighting events. Exactly how that idea of just writing for fun shifts into being serious about publication is different for everyone, but we have all been through it. And the speed at which we've come to the conclusion that we need to treat our writing as though it was a business is also different—but again, we all eventually get there.
But what does writing as a business actually mean?
Well, it means treating your writing with the same respect that you do your day job. It means showing up every day and putting in the hours. It means meeting deadlines, even if they are entirely self-imposed. It means connecting with others in your field and networking, sharing ideas. And it means occasionally taking the time to have a holiday to recharge your batteries and enjoy time with your loved ones.
For many early-career writers, this is all it is. Just getting the writing done, working every day, and facing the wrath of the family as we seem to have forgotten the last point—taking time to recharge. But the simple mindset of writing is my job sometimes is all we need to keep going.
So, it just happens to be a job that we thoroughly enjoy and we don't get paid a lot of money to do it. It can happen. But we still turn up every day to write.
If you speak to writers who have been doing this for years, and have published many books, that's really the key to being successful. Doing it every day. It's your job, but it's a job that you love doing. All other aspects of the business will come, but the mindset of writing as a business is fundamental to it all.
Other aspects of the business to do your head in
So, the first step, and the most important one, in turning our writing from a hobby and into a business is to recognize that it's our job and that we need to put in the hours. But what about the rest of it?
For those who are pre-published, majority of your time (and we're talking upwards from 90%) should be on learning your craft. Write, then write some more. Get feedback, learn that new technique, then write some more. Edit, rewrite, and write more. It might seem like an endless road of always writing (and editing) and never getting anywhere, but through all that writing, you're developing your voice which is uniquely you. With each bit of feedback you get, you're developing the confidence to put it out there—and you're forming those vital connections that you will need to take the next step.
As you move into the publishing stage, then the amount of time you write will need to drop as you move into the wonderful headache world of marketing. Social media and websites become part of your routine, perhaps a little blogging. You start to examine the financial side of things, and if you're anything like me, you'll likely have the odd panic attack or two.
There's the concepts of copyright, contracts, and taxes… Oh, my…
The dreaded taxes.
Accounting, conferences, editors, and the list goes on.
But here's the joy of it… YOU DON'T NEED TO DO IT ALL AT ONCE!
It takes time to build any business.
In the beginning stages, it's vital to focus on the core product of the business. For us writers, that's the writing. It's our job.
There is a saying: You're only as good as your last book. The way I chose to take this is that I need to always be looking towards that next project. I have to always be writing that next story. And I need to turn up at the job and write every day. So I do.
The social media and the dreaded marketing get scheduled into the ToDo lists. Same with the accounting and the other paperwork. And yeah, the taxes, as much as I hate doing them, get included into those ToDo lists too. But every day, I have writing and editing on the list, and I force myself into that chair to just get on with it.
It's a mindset. It's a self-created job that earns me very little money, but it's a job that I love and wouldn't give up for the world.