Publisher Business - A Disciplined Approach to Selling Books

A publisher business may scare you as a writer if you had no intentions of owning a business. It sounds like a lot of extra work, but as you will soon see, it's not difficult at all.

Starting a publishing business is the key to making a long term income from your writing. When you go at the whole writing and publishing process without a business mentality, you will not have the same driving motivation and dedication as you may need to take your work further than the computer over and over again.

In order to maintain discipline throughout the writing, publishing, and marketing process and life of a book, you must separate your personal life from your writing. Even though your writing may be your purpose in life, you need more direction and focus on achieving all of your writing goals and reaching all of the expectations from your books.

You must think of your writing as a business, plain and simple, otherwise you won't make a lot of money at it. This does many things for you and your books and sets your life up for success as a writer.

As an author, you have a unique product and special opportunity to make a lot of money from your creativity and writing. You are producing a unique work of entertaining or educational art that you can sell to a specific target market, just like every business out there does with their own products and services.

Even if you haven't finished your book or you are just starting out, considering your work as part of a publisher business and it will empower you to do many more things than you could ever do with your writing as just a simple hobby or a "thing to do" to pass the time.

You have a gift. Don't keep that gift to yourself and don't hold back on what you can accomplish with a little focus and steadfast effort.

Wondering if You Should Start a Writing and Book Publishing Business?

I know you are probably confused and wondering why you even need to make a publisher business. Here are some questions to ask yourself before you go any further:

1. Why am I writing?


2. What am I trying to accomplish with my writing?


3. Do I want my writing to compensate me for all of my hard work and creativity?


4. Am I serious about publishing my book?


5. Do I want to publish more than one book?


6. Do I want a life supporting income so I can stop working for someone else?

If you've answered "No" to any of these questions, you really need to take inventory of yourself and determine where you want your writing to be in the future. A publisher business, or a business where you write, publish, and sell books, is a truly easy way to make a living once you know what it is you want from all of it, you figure out an entire process from start to market, and stick to it with dedication, discipline, and excitement.

You are in a great market where your competition isn't necessarily your competition. Each author has their own style, tone, and voice. You are in the book selling market, an entertainment outlet and educational porthole for the entire world!

Reading books is an intricate part of society. Some people love to read for the sheer entertainment value of it. Some people read for education or to learn things they don't know or to solve a problem they have. Books are the perfect product for a successful business because it entertains and is unlike any other product out there! It can also be very low cost depending on how you decide to publish your books.

There's nothing like pure profit in a business you run all by yourself.

4 Criteria to Start a Business of Writing, Publishing, and Marketing Books

The four criteria required for any business to run successfully is simple. As an author, you meet most of them right out of the gate. Here are the four things needed by every business and how they relate to your publisher business:

1. You need a niche area of concentration or consumer market to focus on (otherwise known as your target market). This is your genre of focus with your writing. Genres can be broken down into smaller categories, but may all relate to each other.

2. You have something (a product or service) that nobody else has that people want (something in demand). This of course will be your books and your ideas are certainly unique to you. Your books may be similar to others, but they carry your unique ideas and voice to readers all over the world.

3. You need a product or service that is in demand around the world and that people will pay money for. Entertainment is one of the most sought out products in the world. So is education, especially if it helps a niche group solve a problem they are having within that niche.

4. You want to make money from your product or service. This is totally up to you no matter what kind of product or service you have. If you desire to make a lot of money with your writing, you have the potential for a multi-book publisher business.

If you meet these four criteria, which you have at least the first three as an author already (the fourth one being totally up to you), then you have the makings of great business potential with your writing.

Your Publisher Business and Taxes

Your publisher business is an intricate part of your writing efforts and should blend effortlessly with your book marketing efforts. This will help produce a very strong foundation and prosperous future for you and your book writing.

Just having a business mindset toward your writing will make a world of difference when you decide that it's time to start making some real money from it.

It is very easy to create a book publishing business from your writing, even if you have no previous business experience. Whether you are going to write a book under your own name or you are going to use a pseudonym, you can easily create a business in any country of the world.

Since each country and every state within the United States is different, I can't tell you exactly how to legally establish a business presence for wherever you are from, but in most cases in the United States, especially if you are not writing under your own name, you should obtain an Employer's Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (which doesn't cost you anything) and a fictitious name registration with your state and/or local area (this usually requires a small fee). This will allow you to separate your personal income from your business income when you start making money from your book sales.

The reason you want to keep your personal and business income separate is because you want your business to continuously grow without having to continually reinvest your own personal money into it. By reinvesting the money you make with a publisher business back into the marketing efforts for your books and other writing expenses, you will make even more money (through compounding). Keep reinvesting and making more money until your publisher business is self-sufficient and has enough money left over to pay you every month.

Another great thing about a publisher business is that you can obtain loans or lines of credit for your business so you don't have to pull from your personal budget to get started. The money you spend on business related expenses is taken away from your money from writing and must be reported for tax purposes.

Most writers will be a sole proprietorship and you can combine your business taxes with your personal taxes so you don't have to submit separate ones. Even corporations (with only you as a member), can be taxed through your own personal taxes. I encourage you to research the many types of business entities out there and determine the form of business you would like to use for your writing business.

You should also learn more about taxes and how to properly write off all of your writing expenses such as your computer, software programs used for writing, and fees you pay for ghost writing, editors or cover design. These can all lower your taxable income amount, especially when you are first starting out.

You don't want to earn a bunch of money as a writer and not claim your income, especially if you make enough for Amazon or other companies to report it to the IRS or other tax authorities in other countries. This can end your writing career rather quickly.

Once you've gone through the process of starting your publisher business, you should create a simple publisher business plan to help guide your writing in the right direction. It doesn't have to be elaborate, just a simple plan for your business - where you want to be in the future and how you are going to get there.

Two Types of Publisher Businesses You Can Run

There are two types of businesses you can run as a publisher. The first one is if you want to write, publish, and sell your own books exclusively. A self publishing business can be very profitable. Most people prefer this route because it is easier and with less hassle.

The second type of publisher business you can start is a book publisher business where you publish other people's books as well as yours. These are usually LLCs, but you can publish other people's books and make money from them along with the books you write and publish. This is also a great choice if you are writing under a pen name but still take credit for publishing it.

If you are going to be a sole proprietor (running the business as yourself), your name is your business. Your name will be your "brand", just like Coke is a brand of Coke. People will associate your name with "that great book" they read last week. You want everyone to know your name and you want to protect your name by producing a great product or service.

Your family should be very supportive of your goals and will be your best customers. If they are not supporting you, you are not sharing your true passionate dreams with them or they just don't understand what you are set out to accomplish with your writing. This is very important and you must share all of your goals and dreams with everyone involved. Let everyone know you write fiction and they will want to read your books.

In a nutshell, that's how to establish a book publishing business for your writing, publishing, and book marketing efforts. Explore other ways to make money writing that can be blended into your publisher business. If you have any questions, please let me know.

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