Business Plan for Authors

Introduction:

What is a Business Plan?

This is a companion to the book, Business and Accounting for Authors – Indie Author Guides. The business and accounting book includes more in-depth discussions to set up your business, your business plan, and how to read your financial information.

This book and the companion workbook will guide you through the process of creating your author business plan. It includes information for each section, questions to consider, checklists, and a place to summarize your decisions.

An important aspect for any business owner is to have a plan to guide them in the myriad decisions they have to make to be successful. Note: Success is individually determined. The way you define success IS success for you!

Ideally, your business plan is a living document. It shouldn’t be something that is done once because someone said it was needed, then put aside. Any time you are faced with a major decision, your business plan can help you in making the right one for your business. Each business is unique.

I invite you to take your time, contemplate the questions, and answer them in depth. If you do, you’ll not only have a plan for your business, but you’ll understand yourself, your motivations, and the way you work better.

A business plan is the “what” you want to do, but doesn’t include the nitty-gritty “how” you’re going to accomplish your goals. For instance, the production plan talks about what books you plan on writing and may even include deadlines and such. But it won’t include how you’re going to write the books. The marketing plan is about what you plan to do for your marketing. It doesn’t get into the details of what ads you’ll place or how long you’ll run them.

However, your business plan can include practical steps you need to take to reach your business and author goals.

At the minimum, you should review your business plan at the end of the year to see where you’ve stayed on course or veered off on a tangent. At this time, you would consider the coming year and make any changes and updates to your current business plan. Ideally, you should review your plan every six months, or even better, quarterly.

When you review your plan, you may decide to scrap the old one and write a new plan. This may arise because your focus and motivations changed. Or you have changed what genre you write. The needs, marketing, distribution, and audience for writing fantasy are different from writing cozy mystery, thriller, or romance.

This book will guide you in:

• Creating a new business plan
• Updating a previous plan
• Reviewing the year (or quarter) and making any necessary changes

You may create your business plan in a journal, a word document, or use the companion workbook available for purchase at IndieAuthorBizGuide.com.

This book, and the accompanying workbook, organizes the information so you can easily find it when you’re faced with making a decision. You may want to print your answers to the section questions and the checklists and put them in a binder.

This book is broken down into five parts. Each part focuses on a different aspect of your business plan.

These parts are:

Business Summary

• Structure
• Purpose and Why You Write
• Mission Statement
• Business Goals
• Money Mindset

Product Summary

• Audience
• Intellectual Property (IP)
• Production Plan
• Distribution Plan
• Pricing Strategy
• Team

Marketing Summary

• Marketing Plan
• Product Packaging
• Reader Communications (website and email list)
• Advertising
• Social Media
• Publicity

Financial Summary

• Budget
• Financial/Accounting

Finalization

• Your Business Plan
• Your Plan Review
• Templates