Working Smarter Not Harder in Your Author Business

Focus on these things that make a real difference.

What is an author business? For our purposes, an author business is an entity of any size or scope, part-time or full-time, casual side hustle or professional organization that you as a creative approach as a business and can sustain over time, eventually generating meaningful income for yourself.

Now, what things make a real difference? And, where and how can you work smarter, not harder?

Establish and Work the Three Pillars of Author Life

Many aspiring and new authors think about becoming an author and the publishing process sequentially and organize their activities and goals along a linear timeline: 1) Write the book. 2) Find a publisher or choose a publishing route (as in self-publishing or hybrid publishing). 3) Create an author platform and begin marketing.

Yes, these are the three main pillars of author life. But the order is wrong. The thinking is wrong. The path is harder this way.

It is the thinking and approach of a wannabe author. But you don’t wanna be a wannabe. You want to be a working author. And a smart working author manages and works all three pillars at the same time.

You don’t have to wait to be published to be a working author. And you shouldn’t wait. Declare that you are a working author and begin acting like it, and you immediately put yourself on firmer ground and in a more productive headspace. It’s as if you’re an author, and you are!

Think about the timing and identity implications of this contemporary reality: while you may be waiting to be an author, waiting for industry gatekeepers—an agent and/or publisher—to ordain you an author and publish your book, countless others are self-publishing, and with a click of a few buttons, voila, they are authors, off and running.

Here’s the thing. Once you announce that you are a working author and decide you will behave like one by navigating all three areas at once—writing, publishing logistic, and marketing/sales—you have to figure out the how and the what.

How will you structure your time and activities to juggle all the moving parts? What will that look like and what are the things of each area for you?

Read about some essential components of each of these three areas here.

Put Profit First

Creating profit and a paycheck for yourself from Day One is an exciting thought … and a reality that you can bring about starting with the next amount of book or author money that comes your way.

All you have to do is follow the system outlined in the book, Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine, by Mike Michalowicz. I have been self-employed since I was 16 years old, and I’ve never had greater profit, steadier take-home pay, less financial stress, and more financial confidence and security than since I implemented Profit First some years back. This is way smarter and better than all the “harder” that came before.

At first your profit and paycheck will be small, maybe even tiny, but grasp the significance and impact of Profit First. You will be a success and your numbers will bear it out from the moment that next amount of money comes to you. From there, continue to use and maintain the Profit First method. Your profit, paycheck, and business will grow from there.

Renowned business trainer Harv Ecker says, “The habit of managing your money is more important than the amount … if you only have $1, manage the dollar.” On the one hand, the paltry sum of his example is a little too close to home for some authors, on the other, it drives home the importance of managing whatever amount you have appropriately. Profit First shows you how to manage that dollar.

Develop Habits and Formulas

Numbers and processes matter and understanding why and how they matter and how to work with each is fundamental to working smarter not harder.

Here are the favorite numbers and formulas I give clients on repeat:

• Combine the 30-40 rule with the 80/20 rule. The 30-40 rule is from the book Influencer, and it suggests that one reason we fail at our goals is that we don’t use enough strategies. What’s enough? At least 30 to 40 things. Combine that with the 80/20 rule, The Pareto Principal, which states that you get 80% of your mileage and results from the top 20 things, and you are working the real magic of numbers.
• Do 5 things a day every day to promote your books. That’s it. Easy. But can you do it? Will you do it? Very few do and yet it’s the most effective, flexible, customizable marketing guideline I’ve heard in publishing in 30+ years. I’m using it myself to promote my new book.
• Use this proven outreach formula to get the work/income you want. Do you need a full-time income? Reach out 4 hours a day to strong and weak ties. A halftime income? Make that 2 hours? A quarter-time income? Work on outreach one hour a day. All good? Maintain income and work flow with 15 minutes of outreach a day.

To work with the above rules of thumb, keep a running list, or lists, with all your book marketing ideas and names of those you want to connect with (to ask for help, to present your book, to pitch and propose some of the biggest sources of author income—events, volume sales, and partnerships/sponsorships.

First, your lists are repositories, places to hold every idea that occurs to you or that you observe or learn about so you can find a good one when you have time and space to implement and test the next idea. Second, your lists give you options so that on any given day you can select things to do and people to call based on priorities, low-hanging fruit, what’s most likely to generate income, what you want to do, or what you have the energy for.

Paying attention to numbers is part of building smart processes into your author life. Business processes are intentionally crafted, systematized approaches to carrying out everyday business tasks to achieve desired outcomes consistently. So, doing 5 things a day every day to promote your books to maintain and build marketing and sales momentum is a business process. Spending 15 minutes a day reaching out to business contacts to develop and nurture valuable relationships is a business process.

Why do business processes matter?

• Each process is a working solution you can count on.
• They are efficient; there’s no need to keep re-inventing the wheel.
• They are teachable and can be implemented by others.
• They can be continuously refined to the point of excellence.
• They can deliver consistency in service and results.
• They can ensure you’re tending to legal requirements.
• They can provide cushion, structure, and predictability to your business, allowing for innovation and growth.

There’s a business maxim that stresses attaching to process and detaching from results. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about results. It means that when you focus on creating and repeating processes that work, the results will take care of themselves. This frees you from every little up or down blip in your day taking you on an emotional roller coaster ride.

Make Sure All Your Marketing Efforts Do 3 Jobs

Leverage everything you do to work smarter not harder, starting with making sure all your marketing efforts do at least three jobs.

This practice will:

• Help you focus your time and tasks appropriately.
• Spark an awareness of what all is possible in a given situation, for a given activity.
• Create a habit of making the most of tangible and intangible resources.
• Instill the discipline of maximizing and optimizing practices.
• Encourage you to then find 4, 5, 6, and more ways to expand your efforts.

Let’s apply this to just one example, book signings. Every book signing you do at a bookstore from here on out will be a success, whether or not anyone or an abundance of people show up, because you will create at least three meaningful opportunities for yourself based on the situation at hand. You could …

• Take photos for social media—on your own, with customers, and/or with store staff;
• Ask your audience for sales, event referrals, social media posts, online reviews;
• Hand out bookmarks, postcards, and flyers for other events;
• Have attendees sign your mailing list and email them within the next couple of days;
• Introduce yourself to as many staff members as possible and learn what additional promotional opportunities may be available for you and your book. Special displays? End caps? Newsletter mentions? Can you supply bookmarks or postcards for bag stuffers?;
• Ask staff members if they know other bookstore owners or event opportunities in town—and, can they make an introduction or share a name and contact info?;
• Get a testimonial from a staff member if your event was a hit;
• Book a second event if this one was underattended (bad weather?) or if it was so popular that there may be demand for another or if you have an idea for a different type of event (e.g., cooking demonstration, slide show, writing class);
• Arrange to sign additional books if permitted so they can be included on an “autographed copies” table or have an “autographed copy” sticker added; or
• Other amazing thing you think of next.

Customization for Your Life Is Key

Customizing sales and marketing to holistically fit with your life and your author project is a working smarter not harder no-brainer. There are eight areas I’ve observed over the years where enterprising and successful authors and book marketers mine to create personalized sales and promotion plans that support enduring, sustainable author success:

• Their strengths;
• How other people see them;
• Their interests and skills (those they have and those they want to develop);
• The needs of their books, their content, and their customers;
• Their values and priorities, what matters to them;
• Their short- and long-term goals, their desired benefits of being an author;
• Their connections, how other people can help them; and
• Their current life and schedule, their desired life and dreams.

To understand these eight points in greater depth, go here.

Tend to Your Mindset

Anything that improves your mindset—and your ability to maintain a positive, productive attitude—and expands your inner tool box makes everything in your author business easier and more effective. Here are mindset resources just for authors.

Pay Attention to What Actually Works for You and Your Books

Finally, working smarter not harder means doubling down on what works for you and your books, dropping or modifying what’s not working, and not (necessarily) copying off shiny new marketing objects and offers and what works for your author colleagues. Test, forge, and enjoy your own path.

Adapted from the new book, The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business Around Your Books (Everything Goes Media, 2025).

*Feature image by fran_kie (Adobe)