Business Strategy Plan for Freelance Publishers

Produce for an audience / create for yourself?

What is Point / Publishing Path & Road Map? / Writing and vision

Traditional business strategy plans have components.

Sound a bit theoretical?

Okay, here is the version for the author’s publication:

Life plan / Sales book

What makes your book so special?

Who will want to buy your work?

Competence

Format (s) of your book

How do you plan to promote your product (book / ebook)?

What are your marketing strategies?

Calculations and prices

What is your writing, editing, book production, marketing, etc. hours?

Before we explore the possibilities of author publishing in this series, let’s first take a look at your business strategy plans as a freelance author and the most important question:

Why are you writing?

Are you creating for yourself (as a hobby, just for the fun of writing) or for an audience?

Before posting

Can you answer these questions?

How many books of the same topic / genre are there on the market?

Why should a potential reader buy your book over other identical or similar books out there, perhaps some that have been established for some time (some with good reviews)?

What is the sales ranking of these works?

How are these books priced?

What is the social media ranking of the most successful writers in this genre?

Where are these books sold online and offline?

The advice you read here is based on the assumption that you want to entertain, inform, grow your audience, and eventually make some money from your writing.

If you are producing work for an audience, it means:

• play by at least some industry rules

• worry about what others think of your work

• establish an author platform from which to communicate

• interact with your audience and be available to them

• do things not from your perspective, but out of service to your audience

• take action or adopt some kind of “brand”

• market your work and be visible

If you are creating for yourself, it means:

Writing pays off for you, regardless of who sees your work.

Why should authors have a business strategy plan?

Unfortunately, many writers first create their work and then ask questions. Any freelance author can write a book, but only a successful author knows that they are in business now.

Once again: “Writing is an art, publishing is a business!”

Serious business!

What is the point? Path & Mapping> Writing and vision

What is the point?

There is no point in dispensing with some kind of strategy if your goals are really to build a writing career.

It’s never too early to treat your writing like a business – no one would open an event business without a plan!

Publishing path and roadmap?

A business strategy plan can help new (and established) freelance authors clarify the appropriate publishing path for their works.

A business strategy plan serves as a roadmap, helping to keep the project and related efforts, such as marketing and platform building, on schedule, and for the author to track the results of their efforts. .

Writing and vision

The business strategy plan begins when you start thinking about writing a book, it covers all aspects of your future work.

By the time you start a novel or nonfiction book, you should already have a clear vision of the message, the audience, and even the outlets where it can be sold.

Traditional business strategy plans have these components:

– Executive Summary

– Description of the business

– Marketing strategies

– Competitive analysis

– Financial factors

– Operations and management plan

– Design and development plan

Genre> Competitive> Market

Sound a bit theoretical? OK, here is the version for

Freelance Author: Publication:

Topic / Genre Readers and Target Audience

• The theme / genre of your fiction / non-fiction work

• You address the audience / readers

Competitive parameters in the market

• Your competition online and in bookstores

• The possible contents, extension, format, etc. from the book

Evaluation of possibilities in the market

• Your marketing and promotion strategies

• The expenses you face for publications and promotions.

Sell> Make special> Why buy?

Life plan / Sales book

Having a business strategy plan is vital because you and your books are the products that will sell.

It makes some writers uncomfortable, but without a plan, you can’t figure out how to make your book sell itself. Think of it as a roadmap that will guide you from a hungry writer to a successful freelance author.

What makes your book so special?

There is no use writing a book if you don’t know why or if it is special. Many writers write books that they would love to read, many write books whose marketing studies show readers are buying, some write books because the subject is risky or has never been explored before. Learn why you and your book are special, and most importantly, what is the benefit to readers when purchasing your novel or non-fiction book.

Who will want to buy your work?

Write down all the people who are likely to want your book, why they will want it, and how effective they will be in getting more people to want it. Know who your target readers are. Do you have enough contacts (at least 2,000 in each social media outlet) to spread the word about your book? … and when I say ‘contacts’ I don’t mean other writers, I mean READERS, bookworms, book lovers, book clubs, avid readers, critics! That is the type of audience you will want to seek.

Contest> Format> Promotion

Competence

• Research in bookstores and online, how many and which books will be comparable to the one you are writing. Consult them in libraries, in readers’ forums.

• Visit independent stores and go to the big chains to research these books in all the online stores; Find out what genres are posted, what critics are saying, how your freelance author pages are designed, etc. to get a true picture of your competition and your potential readers. A is a wide variety of options available from the author of this article.

Format (s) of your book

• Books can be sold in many formats and also in many languages. Research at least these three popular formats:

• PDF ePub iBook e-book format

• audio format

• Print format

How do you plan to promote your product (e / I-print Book)?

You know people, hopefully a lot of people. Online and offline. And those people know the people. Unless you can spend thousands of pounds each month on advertising, you need to plan now, before writing your book, social media, book events, interviews, talks, searching for book reviews, and attending book exhibitions. Schedule all these activities in advance, add as many readers as possible to your current accounts on the reader community sites, all social media sites.

Marketing> Prices

What are your marketing strategies?

Okay, your book is available on a major online website or your local bookstore, but where else could it fit perfectly?

Other online retailers where you can sell your book? Stretch your mind and think creatively:

Libraries, book clubs, selling foreign rights … there are so many possible outlets for your book.

Find out what your commissions are and how much you would earn from each sale of your book.

Calculations and prices

Both digital and printed books need to be reviewed, edited and then formatted, not forgetting a really fabulous and attractive cover.

The price of printed books is largely based on the number of pages in the book and the quality of the binding, cover design costs, and book layout. The price is also dependent on whether the printed books are available for wider distribution than just one of the major online book stores. Since a wider distribution is used, books must be priced so that other outlets are offered wholesale prices.

The turbulence in the rapidly evolving world of print and e-books must also be taken into account. Prices may be subject to change based on sales, current price trends, and the need to create an upward movement in Amazon rankings. Books can be discounted if they fit the marketing and promotion strategy.

Don’t forget other expenses such as web design and hosting, advertising, marketing, telephone and internet expenses, travel expenses, etc. The good news: you can deduct them from your writer’s income.

Schedule> Writing> Editing> Production> Marketing

What is your writing, editing, book production, marketing, etc. hours?

Once you’ve discovered your market, your readership, your competition, and your sales planning, you’ll feel much better and have a clear vision of your writing / publishing career.

A business strategy plan need not be scary, especially for a simple business like your copywriting business. In fact, a business plan should be a comforting thing. Explain what you want to achieve, in what time frame, and how you plan to do it.

Cash Book / Budgets

The author of this article can obtain sample spreadsheets.