Book Marketing For Authors Blog 31-Reasons Why We Fail

Reasons Why We Fail

 

We can’t just be writers anymore. There are fantastic writers out there who will never have a book. We can’t just be authors either. There are too many authors out there who have a book that no one but their mom knows about. We self-publishing indie authors have to take the leap over to authorpreneurship and create the mindset of building a business around our book or books, hopefully. When we grow a business around our writing, rather than just writing, we begin to diversify what we do so we can spread the risk and increase the income streams.

You see, too often, when we fail as an author, it’s because we were more of a writer than an authorpreneur or a business person. We fail because we have only one product. We have written a book, and we are so proud of our accomplishment that we think we have reached the mountain top rather than what we have really reached, the mountain base.

One book will never cut it in this business. At least not for long. We have to have multiple products or books to have a chance of success as an authorpreneur. And if we do have a kick-ass book right out of the gate, which is highly unlikely, it might actually sabotage our future success. It will make us complacent. And when those sales from that one book dry up, we’re screwed.

Hey, we didn’t diversify with just one book. We had only one income stream. Would we buy only one stock or mutual fund? No. We would diversify. We purchase multiple stocks to spread the risk and increase the income streams. When one is down, and the others are still up, we’re still okay. Being an authorpreneur is the same business-like ball game as buying stocks. We need to diversify.

It’s a fact. We fail in this business because we only have one product or book. We also fail because we have only one income stream. Hey, the two of them go hand-in-hand. If we only have one book, then we better at least create some kind of service like maybe a done-for-you type of thing where we do some of the leg work in helping others write and publish their books.

At least that way we can have two income steams between the one book and one service. Better yet would be a second book and a second service equaling four income streams. And even better would be a series of three, four, five, or more books that are all connected to each other. Connect them within the same story and through links. Have live links in the back of each book that can help invested readers make that easy purchasing decision by just clicking the link for the next book. Throw in a few extra services as well, and now you have a chance to survive as an authorpreneur because you have a bunch of different income streams.

Another reason people like us fail is that they only have one source of traffic. Well, guess what happens when that single source of traffic dries up? Yup. No more traffic. No more book sales. No more income. That income stream dried up because the traffic source dried up. This is something you should avoid.

Back a while ago, I had an Amazon ad out there that was helping me sell some books. Every day I went on it to see how many books I sold that day. And every day I was pumped that books were flying out the door. But guess what? Eventually, that flow of books out the door began to slow down and finally stopped altogether. I had to stop the ad. Why would I keep paying for an ad that wasn’t selling books anymore, right? Watching that source of traffic and sales dry up was painful. Now, what would happen to me if that was my only source of traffic? Yup. I’d be devastated and out of business, right?

You see, we have to make the paradigm shift from being just a writer or even an author with a book to an authorprenuer who is running a business. Now I know this is going to be hard for a lot of us to do. It’s hard for me. Like most people who write books, I don’t come from the business world. I come from the education world of teaching, coaching, and freely sharing everything I have. I don’t have a business background, which would have helped me understand business, marketing, and monetization. A lot of the authors out there are in the same boat and come from the same place I do. And like me, need to make that paradigm shift. So, what is your return on your investment (ROI)?

Another thing that causes us to fail in this business is that sometimes our expenses get away from us. This authorpreneurship business has a huge learning curve that will literally take the rest of your life to learn some of the ins and outs of it pretty well. Because there is so much to know in this business, we tend to throw money at others to do things for us. And if we haven’t established an income stream yet to pay for these services, then we’re just putting ourselves deeper and deeper in the hole.

Putting ourselves in a financial pit is a bad thing. Become a student of this business who uses a lot of elbow grease and sweat equity to get things done. If you don’t do this, you’ll always be at the mercy of others. And let me tell you something, there are a lot of people out there who aren’t looking out for your best interest in this business. Be careful. You’re swimming with sharks.

If you are having success in this business, also be careful. You may get the urge to quit your day job too soon so you can spend all of your time writing books. That might be a mistake. Remember diversification from above? Remember how you want to spread out your risk and increase your income streams? Well, a lot of things can go wrong in this business. And if something does go wrong and you don’t have the safety net of your day job income, you could be setting yourself up for an early retreat out of this business. Again, be careful. Don’t kill off income streams if you don’t have to.

Hey, I’m sure you’ve already heard this, but I’m going to repeat it. You become the average of the five people who you hang out with the most. So, with that said, have you created yourself a support structure loaded with the human capital of friends who are doing what you want to be doing. You need friends who are a little higher up the mountain than you are. If you’re the smartest guy or gal in the room, you might be in trouble. And your business may be going nowhere. Get around some winners who will motivate you not to throw in the towel with things get tough. They will encourage you to reach down deep inside of yourself for your raw courage and creative genius to succeed.

Even though a high percentage of people fail in this business, you don’t have to be one of them.

*Watch this FREE video lesson on this chapter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apy3ZBjJDQI&list=PL_-39bUXJitwL8cHUpiZ5mO0-JJuaPOVl&index=32

 

              

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