Last week, I was pleased to be a speaker at the London Book Fair as a member of the panel discussing “The Rise & Rise of the Authorpreneur”, chaired by Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors and champion of indie authors everywhere.
What’s an authorpreneur anyway?
It’s an author who treats their writing like a business – and, crucially, makes money from it!
Orna invited me to be part of the line-up to represent what’s known in the trade as the hybrid author. That means someone who self-publishes some of their books while licensing rights on other books to traditional publishers. Thus, they have a foot in both camps.
That’ll be me, then!
- As you may know, I started out as entirely self-published, but after self-publishing nine novels, I licensed the English language rights for them to Boldwood Books, and other language rights selectively to other publishers around the world. My agent, Ethan Ellenberg, pitches my novels via his network of sub-agents around the world, and has so far won me five contracts in four languages – German, Italian, Japanese and Russian.
- I still self-publish my short fiction – which falls outside of Boldwood’s business model – and non-fiction.
Another box I tick as an authorpreneur is that I have other income streams, not only as a paid speaker at events like the London Book Fair (and two more last week – more on those in a moment), but also by teaching and mentoring for the global writers’ group, Jericho Writers.
If you’d like to know more about the five different business models open to indie authors, read Orna’s definition here.
Of course, there is another more traditional and historica model: to have your work published solely by traditional publishers. It’s very common for that kind of author also to boost their earnings by doing other paid work.
These days, though, publishing is no longer binary – it’s increasingly common for writers like me to be a bit of both, so as to combine the autonomy of indiedom with the arguably wider reach of the traditional industry.
Why I’m an authorpreneur
When I stepped down from my last full-time day job in 2010, I was conscious that contracts and royalties wouldn’t come pouring in straight away. So, I took the very 21st-century “portfolio career” approach. This meant pursuing opportunities to earn money in other ways related to my writing, while I built up my fiction catalogue.
As someone who is relatively cautious about money, knowing I have other income streams to smooth out the inevitable ups and downs of royalties makes it easier to relax and enjoy my writing at my own pace. To me, the hybrid route is a safer and more realistic way of pursuing writing ambitions, rather than giving everything up to write in your lonely garret and crossing your fingers that your work will be discovered and sold before you starve to death.
In Other News
The London Book Fair was just the beginning of a busy three days of events.
Indie Author Lab for ALLi
On Wednesday, I attended the Indie Author Lab (also organised by Orna Ross and the Alliance of Independent Authors aka ALLi) in Kensington Town Hall. At this action-packed, interactive day, about 150 indie authors enjoyed a series of talks by leading members of ALLi, such as Joanna Penn and Sacha Black, who shared the latest thinking and the likely future shape of self-publishing.
My part in the event was to head an “expert table“, answering specific questions from a group of delegates, all writing in different genres and based in several different countries.
In between the official sessions, I really enjoyed catching up with old author chums from ALLi whom I hadn’t seen for far too long.
My agent, Ethan Ellenberg, was also there to chair an expert table. As he’s usually based in New York, the event was a welcome opportunity for me to catch up with him too. I’m kicking myself for not taking a selfie with him, not least because he was wearing a very beautiful mauve jacket!
All in all, I came away inspired and motivated, with a clearer idea of my own future as a writer.
Self-publishing Q&A for Jericho Writers
Then, on the Thursday evening, back home at my desk, I answered further questions from a different group of authors at a Self Publishing Q&A, hosted by Jericho Writers, for whom I’m a course tutor and mentor. This was also an international group, with writers joining us from as far afield as the USA and Australia – and one even cited their location as “Middle Earth”, which made me chuckle.
My next Simply Self Publish course is due to start on 7th April – click here to find out more about it. This course runs twice a year (April-June and October-December), and I really enjoy helping my students to achieve their publishing ambitions.
And finally…
In between all of those events, I somehow managed to fire up my new Substack account, after a false start a few months ago. If you’re on Substack, I’d love to connect with you there. You can find me at https://substack.com/@AuthorDebbieYoung.
What I’m Reading
I’m still soldiering on with Andrew Graham-Dixon‘s extraordinary new biography of Vermeer, which is so dense that I can only handle a few pages at a sitting (very worthwhile, though) – so Jay Larkin’s latest light-as-a-feather collection of cosy mini-mysteries was the perfect foil when I needed something a bit less taxing.
Secrets of Appletree Lodge by Jay Larkin
A series of short mystery stories that together have an overall plot arc about cleaning lady Freda Starling’s move to help her friend run a seaside guest house back in the 1980s. With not a murder in sight, Jay Larkin still manages to intrigue the reader with old-fashioned puzzles, set around various aspects of life in a small English seaside town. With a different adventure in every short, bite-sized chapter, this makes perfect reading for winding down before bed or for a quick coffee-time treat. It’s very refreshing to get the mystery without any dead bodies along the way. A fun spin-off from the equally gentle Aunt Audrey’s Angels series by Jay Larkin.
Order your copy online here if you fancy giving it a try.
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