Being an indie-author requires being a brand and business, too.
Not so long ago, the only way to publish a book and make money was via traditional publishing. To get there, the main path was to get a literary agent, who would then get you past the gatekeepers and through the doors to the publishers.
Anyone who has tried to get an agent has likely received multiple rejections. Sometimes, now just two or three, but dozens. Even if you land an agent, it’s no guarantee that you will get your book to a publisher.
There are lots of stories of authors who got rejected time and again and again. Before they made it big, they were constantly rebuked and disregarded. It’s very hard not to take this personally.
This is especially true when you get a form letter from the agent you’ve queried. Hell, I’m pretty sure the top agents have admin assistants that screen you out early on and transmit those.
Once in a very great while, a major publishing house opens to submissions. While that can be amazing, it’s an even more challenging crapshoot than landing an agent.
I was fortunate to land an agent for a time. The trouble was that my genre – fantasy and sci-fi – wasn’t really in his wheelhouse. After that association ended, the book was properly edited, and my overall knowledge and skills as an author were improved.
Since I started down this path, the landscape has drastically changed. This is why I’m self-publishing now.
Being both an artist and a business
I started writing a long, long time ago. The art of taking an idea and turning it into a book has captured my imagination for most of my life. Over the past three or four years, I’ve been acting on that to make being an author my primary vocation.
This turned me from just the author to the author and publisher. That’s not all, though. I’m also the head of marketing and PR, sales manager, and head cheerleader for the business.
MJ Blehart – Author isn’t just me the writer, but me the brand and business. Despite creating a name for my publisher – Argent Hedgehog Press – that’s just an affiliate of my brand to add a layer of necessary detachment.
Why? Because I might be one person, but I have three distinct personae. One is me in the real world whom my friends and family know and associate with. Another is my medieval persona, a version of myself invented over thirty years ago to encompass me in the medieval reenactment society I’m part of. The third persona is this one – the writer/brand/business.
When I first began self-publishing on Amazon, I did it partially as a novelty and partially as a proof of concept. That’s why, initially, I was publishing both nonfiction and fiction under the same name. Then, when I started to dive more into it and go further in turning it into by vocation, the need for separation became clear.
The nonfiction element received a new pen name, Murray “MJ” Blehart, and less focus and attention. As MJ Blehart, I put my focus on fiction.
The creative process and my brand
In 2020, as the pandemic changed the world and how we worked (at least for a couple of months), I put a great deal of effort into publishing 3 books. While doing this, I also took a different approach and planned out a new sci-fi series in detail. Having always worked as a pantser before, writing as a planner was a very new direction to take. Rather than slow or impede my work, it gave me a much stronger plot and opened the way to writing even faster overall.
Thus, in 2021, I published 6 books. This continued one series (Void Incursion) and included a whole series from start to finish (Forgotten Fodder), both sci-fi. Now I had a dozen works of fiction out in the world.
This is where the business end kicked my ass. Cover art isn’t cheap, and neither is professional editing. I spent money on both to produce the best, most polished works I could. My brand became established, but it still isn’t a widely-known quantity.
The creative process I have down. However, reconciling that with being a brand and business is still an ongoing challenge.
There are always new things to learn. This is true not only of writing and creating but also of business and branding. What’s more, the landscape is frequently changing. What works today might not work tomorrow. Then there are other new tools being developed that will impact this world of writing, editing, and publishing for both good and ill.
Thus, if I’m taking my creative process and turning it into a brand and business, there are elements to consider beyond the work of writing.
Marketing is never one-and-done
Whenever I talk to someone about the work I do, personally or professionally, I’m marketing. When I can attend and participate as an author at a con (such as Farpoint in February), while I’m there I’m marketing myself and my books current, past, and future. To all intents and purposes, when I’m talking about my books or my ongoing process, I’m marketing.
Sales are the result of marketing. It’s nearly impossible to sell without marketing. With the exception of a few very set niches, if you don’t market, you can’t sell because nobody knows your product is available for them to buy.
Marketing is an ongoing process. There are lots of different approaches you can take to it. One is book pre-sales.
With my upcoming Savagespace sci-fi series, this will be a factor. My current plan is to create ancillary marketing materials and to have the book cover (possibly all three covers) done sooner rather than later. As of this writing, the earliest I plan on putting the Savagepsace books out is Fall 2024.
Another factor will be how I publish this new series. Rather than start out on Amazon alone, Savagespace will likely be published for wide distribution at the outset (and possibly even set up for direct sales on my website).
As evidenced by the above, marketing is an ongoing, never one-and-done process. Probably the biggest challenge I face with this is seeing it as an opportunity more than a chore.
The creative process and my brand are one
My brand is the result of my creative process. Without creating these works I haven’t a brand to put out into the world, do I?
For a long time, one thing I’ve considered doing with my professional life was starting an entrepreneurial enterprise. More than once I considered going into a business, but it never seemed to materialize. I’ve been aboard multiple entrepreneurial ventures over the years, wearing more than one hat as such tends to dictate.
It took me a while to realize that I have become an entrepreneur. Specifically, an authorpreneur. Everything that I do in my creative process is part of my brand, some directly and some indirectly.
Seeing the creative process and my brand as one allows me to maintain the necessary blend of attachment and detachment to make the most of what I have and am creating. Artist, businessperson, semi-crazy person creating stories of other worlds, the creative and the brand are one.
How do I reconcile the creative process and my brand? The answer for me is to treat them as one and the same, apart from me but still a part of me. Who knows where that might take me now and into the future?
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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