As creatives business is often the last thing we want to think about. I hear writers say they just want to write, they don’t want to have to worry about all of that other stuff—that other stuff being the business end of things.

Unfortunately, the moment you decide to publish you become a business whether you want to or not. If you are only going to publish that one book and you don’t really plan to do any advertising or care how many copies you sell, well, then you can call it a hobby, but you still have to keep up with things like taxes and receipts. 

Now, I’m not giving business advice. I don’t hold a degree in Business or anything like that. However, I have spent the last several years learning all I can about small businesses and large businesses and what it takes to transition between the two. I’ve learned about copyright and EINs (Employer Identification Number) and DBAs (Doing Business As) and accounting and a ton of other little things that go into running a business. I’ve learned the importances of having your own ISBNs (International Standard Book Number). And yes, I know there are going to be a bunch of self-published authors out there who will say you don’t need ISBNs to publish and technically they would be correct. You can publish without your own ISBNs, but by having one you ensure that YOU are the publisher of record for that book. The legal system hasn’t really caught up with technology yet. None of us know what the future holds as far as things like digital copyright laws. Or copyright laws in general, for that matter. I plan to do everything I can to safeguard my IP (intellectual property) now and in the future. I’m a worse case scenario planner. I always try to think of the absolute worse thing that could happen and then plan for it. That way, if it ever did happen I would already know what to do or how to respond.

I’m also a look to the future kind of planner. While I think about the here and now, I also think about two years from now… five years from now… ten years from now. I think of where I want to be and what it would take to achieve those things.

As much as we would all love to just be able to write and not worry about anything else, that’s just not realistic. Writing is as much a business as it is an art form. Before I did anything else, I sat down and wrote out a business plan. I was honest with what I hope to get out of this career—in the short term and in the longterm. I went into details about certain things and was more vague with others, because I know that those things are more fluid. 

I think the most important thing, however, is to be realistic. The odds of my publishing my first book and hitting the NY Times Bestsellers list is slim to none. It does happen, but it’s rare and to my knowledge has never happened to a self-published author. Saying something like, I would like to break even, financially, would be a realistic goal. Of course, depending on how much you put into the cover design, marketing, editing, ISBNs, etc., that might not happen on your first book. Or your second. Or even your fifth. It could take several books before you break even. It could take double that amount before you start making a profit. Or, you could make a profit on your first book in the first month.

One thing I know for sure, there are NO guarantees in publishing. Just like any other business. You have to built a business that can sustain the ups and downs, that can weather the storms. For me, that means being realistic with my goals and never being exclusive to any one platform. While growth may be slower and it might be a bit more work to publishing across platforms, you are building a more sustainable business by doing so. As easy as it is to get caught up in the moment, you should always keep an eye to the future as well.