The 1:1:5 Author Business

It's been almost 4 years since Lori and me went all-in on self-publishing. And in that time, I've spent 1000's of hours behind-the-scenes learning and building the business:

– Ads

– Website

– Email Marketing

– Reader Magnets

– Book Formatting

– Promotion and Lauches

– And latterly, Direct Sales

– The list is (almost) endless

Some days, some weeks, some months, I've spent way too long learning or working on something, only to find that it wasn't the solution we'd been looking for.

I've also been 100% guilty of falling for shiny objects and lost a lot of time down rabbit holes I should never have even entered in the first place.

Since our 3rd son, JJ, was born in July 2022, I've really started focusing on making Lori's author business as simple and lean as possible.

The 1:1:5 Author Business

Not the most creative name, I know, but I was trying to come up with a simple way to describe my approach to running Lori's author business.

And here it is:

1 Person (You, or your spouse, partner, etc)

1-2 Hours Per Day on Marketing/Ads/Business

5 Figures Per Month in Royalties

For the past 18 months or so, this is how we've been running Lori's author business.

And providing you're not trying to be everywhere and do all the things, this is 100% possible on your own.

Less is more.

Of course, your books still need to be written.

What I'm talking about here is the marketing, advertising and business side of things.

Many authors I speak to love the writing part of being an author (naturally), but shy away from the marketing, the ads, the audience building, the emails, the business stuff...

Essentially, all the things that enable you to continue doing what you love... writing.

Without marketing your books, no one is going to read them. Period.

We can all find 1-2 hours per day to work on our business, instead of in our business.

Sure, there are going to be phases when the workload increases:

– Launches

– Promotions

– Building a website

– Writing an Email Autoresponder

But in terms of maintenance, 1-2 hours per day is all you need.

It's what I've done for the past 18 months or so and has helped us build Lori's income to 6 figures per year.

I've put a "cap" on how much time I spend on this stuff, which means I avoid distractions because I don't have unlimited time.

I've put the blinkers on anything that isn't a priority.

I focus on the actions that work, the actions that drive results, the actions that allow us to live the life we want to live.

Because that's what we're doing this all for, right?

It took me a long time to realize that when I was working 12-16+ hours per day, I was completely missing the point of this business model.

I had it all backwards.

We've intentionally done a 180 on how we run the business today.

We've designed the business to fit around our life, not our life around the business.

Could we do more, scale more, earn more?

Sure.

Do we want to? Maybe, a little.

But we don’t want a huge business with employees or a remote team, agencies, payroll, etc.

If that sort of thing inspires you though, and lights you up, cool, go for it. You do you.

For us though, family comes first.

If you’re like me from 18+ months ago and get caught in the weeds of running your author business, putting out fires, and trying to spin way too many plates, I encourage you to take a step back.

Breathe.

And ask yourself why you’re doing all of this. Who you’re doing all of this for.

If it’s for you, cool.

If it’s for your family, cool.

If it’s for the fame and fortune, cool.

Once you know why you’re doing what you’re doing and where you’re headed, the clarity you gain will be immense.

You’ll no longer be flapping around from task to task, doing “busy work”.

When you have clarity on where you’re headed, it will become abundantly clear that 80% of the stuff you think you need to be doing is actually not moving the needle; it may even be moving you in the wrong direction.

Don’t spend months or even years climbing the ladder that’s leaning on the wrong wall.

That's a wrap for today. Hope you got some value out of this and gave you some food for thought.

Today, once the kids are breakfasted, dressed and ready for the day, I’m excited to be testing out something new with Lori’s Facebook Ads; will report back in a few weeks on how it went. 

To Your Success
– Matt