5 Key Areas to the Business of Writing

by Monique Campbell

The Business of Writing

The business of writing feels, to me, like what Brené Brown defined as “rumbling with vulnerability.”

This quote sums it up:

Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome.

Brené Brown, Dare to Lead

That for me is a day in the life of sales. The brutality and, equally, the beauty of sales. You turn up for meetings, pitches, negotiations without full control of the outcome. Constant anticipation to hear the word yes, however knowing there’s every possibility, at every stage in the sales process, that you’ll hear that dreaded word no. To my fellow sales representative, I salute you! But where’s the beauty I hear you ask? Aha! The beauty is in the journey. The learning of subtle human behaviours. How to get better at paying attention. Active listening. Understanding that sales is a value exchange. There’s a need being met, a problem being solved. A comprehension that requires you, the sales person, to adopt a role of servitude. Being of service to the value you believe you can create by addressing unmet needs. And, equally, how to get better at anticipating the elongated no, and qualifying out earlier in the process saving valuable time.

But I’ve digressed.

The vulnerability for me in the writing business was the process of publishing my novel, Once Bad Intentions. I was putting a piece of work out there for public scrutiny without knowing what impact it could have on individuals. Whether it would be liked or disliked. Whether there would be a financial reward to a novel that was 10 years in the making, or not. Whether the grittiness of its content, the cultural focus, the moral complexity of its characters, would put a blemish on my professional reputation. A lot resided in the unknown, and remains thus.

Yet, the unknown like what I’ve experienced in sales, my everyday work life, is what excites me.

There are five key areas that I’ve thought about in my writing and publishing journey. Within each area I’ve created another blog post that goes into more details:

Area no. 1: How to publish a book – looks at the three publishing approaches: 1) Traditional Publishing, 2) Self-Publishing, and  3) Hybrid Publishing.

Area no. 2: Content creation – explores the marketing and sales philosophy of the value exchange.

Area no. 3: How to monetise writing – touches on five key ways for writers to monetise their writing.

Area no. 4: How to market your book and build your brand – is the idea of building a platform and marketing content in order to build a brand.

Area no. 5: Contracts and rights management – endeavours to enable writers to think and be more savvy in their negotiations. How to consider the long-term impact of business decisions related to writer’s creative endeavours.

Reference Source:
Brené Brown, Dare to Lead. p.17. Published by Random House Inc. in 2018.