5 Business Savvy Books Every Author Should Read

1. "How To Make A Living With Your Writing" by Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Arkane thriller series, but she’s best known in the writing community for the Creative Penn Podcast, where she explores issues of craft as they pertain to marketing and self-publishing. Similar to her online work, this book focuses on turning creativity into cash by identifying the milestones along the road from author to entrepreneur. Although Penn stresses the importance of pinpointing one’s personal definition of “success,” she shares an overview of her income stream as a guideline to goal setting, and outlines what percentage comes from traditional versus self-publishing, as well as the pros and cons of each model. Penn also offers tips on writer productivity and the author mindset. However, the bulk of the book covers the growing number of ways authors make money on the web, such as sharing their expertise in a one-on-one consulting capacity or building evergreen courses and e-guides that sell over time. Penn’s honest reflections on what it takes to become a full-time writer make this book a must read for aspiring artists, but be sure to browse her other resource guides such as How to Market a Book and Business for Authors.

2. "The Business of Being a Writer" by Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman is a former publishing executive and editor who has written several how-to books for writers including Publishing 101, What Editors Do, Literary Publishing in the 21st Century, and the Beginning Writer’s Answer Book. Her latest work encapsulates her experiences into one comprehensive guide aimed at helping fiction and nonfiction writers discover how to set realistic goals for achievement and how to market themselves once they’ve targeted their niche. To achieve this feat, she divides the book into five sections—establishing a writing career, understanding the publishing industry, getting your book published, laying the foundation for entrepreneurship, and making money as a writer. Friedman writes with the belief that while business savvy may not compensate for mediocre work, an understanding of the publishing industry from the inside out will reduce author frustration and lead to a more productive career over the long haul.

3. "Behind the Book: Eleven Authors on Their Path to Publication" by Chris Mackenzie Jones

Behind the Book profiles the journey of eleven contemporary first-time authors (agented and unagented) as they navigate the road to publication. Presented as a narrative rather than a clinical set of interviews, the book touches upon some of the concerns writers face when preparing their book for sale, such as finding a marketable story idea, developing a writing process, building a support network, pursuing an agent, dealing with rejection, promoting the work, and transitioning to the next project. What makes this book interesting is that Jones selects a range of novels—a travel memoir, a paranormal romance, a children’s picture book—so the reader can see how market forces and reader expectations shape each book in different ways. While the path to publication for each author is unique, Jones believes writers of all levels and disciplines can benefit from examining the challenges, triumphs, and mistakes of others.

4. "Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye" by Katharine Sands

This is one of those guidebooks writers love to hate because it’s a compilation of advice from forty top-tier literary agents in the areas of fiction and nonfiction. Often, books of this nature do nothing to assuage the reader’s frustration over the varying opinions that inevitably emerge. However, Katharine Sands makes a point of highlighting each agent’s common preferences while downplaying the differences she considers a mere side effect of the human condition. Regardless, Making the Pitch Perfect provides a competitive edge to those facing the gauntlet of professional publishing. With chapter titles such as “Curb Appeal: Staging Your Literary Work for a Sale” and “15 Minutes to Fame: Pitching at a Conference,” this book helps authors develop a strong hook, draft a clever query letter, pitch with confidence, and create an author platform that not only highlights the writer’s personality, but also her professional credentials and business acumen.

5. "The Author’s Guide to Email Marketing" by Rob Eagar

Rob Eagar is a marketing consultant who has coached over 600 authors and worked with some of the most prestigious publishers in the business such as Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and HarperCollins. While his clientele heavily favors the nonfiction side of the literary divide, this book includes a myriad of manageable strategies for fiction authors interested in low-cost web promotions. As with the authors on this list, Eagar encourages his readers to identify their key message, establish an area of expertise, and target a specific demographic before they start to build their brand. He even provides several exercises to help explore those initial steps and offers free supplemental materials on his website. Yet, the main focus of Email Marketing—the first in his three-book “author’s guide” set—is to help authors monetize their personal websites and to share online strategies for audience growth. These are important tools to cultivate now that social media platforms like Facebook favor algorithmic structures that keep authors from reaching their full fan base, that is, until they purchase a paid advertising campaign—something not every author can afford to do. Eagar tackles this conundrum by offering fresh insights on well-worn topics like book launches, newsletters that produce sales, and word-of-mouth marketing. This book is a wake-up call to any author who still believes that the key to success lies simply in writing a good novel.