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The Three Biggest Challenges for Emerging Authors/Entrepreneurs

The Three Biggest Challenges: Going from Author to Entrepreneur

In all the books, online tutorials, and other guidance that I’ve studied since releasing my latest book (under the Mourning Dove Press imprimatur) over a year and a half ago, not a single source mentioned any of what I found to be the three biggest challenges confronting an author-turning-entrepreneur. Not one! And certainly, none of them has offered a means for dealing with these challenges.

Perhaps its because there’s a certain psychological nature to this. However, I’ve come across many “success coaches” and “business coaches” who address a wide range of “psychological aspects” in their coaching. Not a one has come close to any of these.

So let me dive in. These are the three biggest hurdles facing anyone in the midst of the author-to-entrepreneur transition. I’ll outline them briefly in this post, and suggest specific strategies for mastering the transition – and dealing with each of these challenges – in the next three postings.

The Three Biggest Challenges

Shifting Engagement Strategy: from “Extreme Introversion” to “Extroversion,”
Shifting Focus: from “Tight Inward Focus” to “Ever-Expanding Outward” Locus of Attention, and
Shifting Management Strategy: from “Extreme Simplicity” to “Extreme Complexity.”

Not a one of these is trivial. In fact, any one of these – if not addressed very successfully – will completely derail an emerging author – or a product developer, in the case of a “skunkworks”-type product development scenario.

Why Being an Author is Like Being in a “Skunkworks”

The analogy of being an author to being part of a “skunkworks” team is pretty useful.

SeachCIO defines a “skunkworks”:

Skunk, courtesy of the Village of the Niles.

A skunkworks (also known as Skunk Works) is a small group of people who work on a project in an unconventional way. The group’s purpose is to develop something quickly with minimal management constraints. Skunkworks are often used to initially roll out a product or service that thereafter will be developed according to usual business processes.

The original “Skunk Works” team was a specialized Lockheed Martin team that developed an advanced fighter jet during WWII. While a number of people still think that the “skunkworks” term refers to the hygiene habits of the developers, it really is supposed to refer a moonshine factory in the then-popular cartoon strip L’il Abner. Be that as it may – two “rules” (of the fourteen governing a skunkworks) practically necessitate holding one’s nose:

Very small team: Rule 3 states that: “The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner.” Extremely small team; extreme isolation. In an author’s case, this could mean a team consisting of “me, myself, and I” – and that will continue until the project is far enough advanced to include a crucial few others, such as editor and copyeditor, etc. Many early-stage authors will not have a publisher or agent.
Extreme isolation: Rule 13 states that: “Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled.” Other rules reinforce the themes of tight focus (cutting out any and all forms of bureaucratic interference), together with rapid-development expediency .

The result?

People who excel in a “skunk works” environment are not those who “play well with others.” They live to create their dream. They are at least somewhat obsessive. Perhaps they are very obsessive.

All of this – while leading to successful goal-achievement – is the antithesis of being sociable.

No company would ever dream of putting an effective “skunkworks” person into a regular engineering job, and far less into marketing. However, this is exactly the challenge that confronts any author who is shifting from project-completion to marketing.

Asking an author or product-developer to start marketing their work really is like asking oneself to go from being a “skunkworks” type of person to a “marketing” person, practically overnight.

Challenge?

You bet.

No wonder very few successfully overcome this.

It’s Not Just the Workload, It’s the Complexity

Complexity – when every direction seems “true north.”

No one – amongst all the advice-givers whom I’ve studied so far – has really addressed the core essence of the second and third biggest challenges:

Going from “tight focus” to “ever-expanding” task-loads, and
Going from “extreme simplicity” to “extreme complexity”.

Here’s the essential nugget underlying these last two challenges:

Every direction appears to be “true north.”

There is so much to be done, and all of these different tasks are divergent.

When we were focused on book or product completion, everything that we did was convergent. A task might have been difficult (in some ways), yet it was essentially simple in that it brought us closer to a well-defined goal.

For an author, every step – every thought – is focused on getting just a little closer to that “magic moment” of pushing the final “upload finished work” button. Everything that the author does is convergent – it is directed towards the same goal.

In contrast – in very great contrast – everything that is done after pushing the “upload” button is divergent. Everything “fans out.”

There is a nearly innumerable list of tasks: Develop the website. Create and perform in book signing events, TV and radio interviews, and talks before various audiences. Write press releases. Get reviews, both on Amazon and in media. Get names of people, get them into the database, set up continued connection with them. Build an ongoing “platform” of blogging.

For the emerging author (or the entrepreneur with a new product), the challenge is that every single one of these tasks is important. There’s not a single one that can be deferred indefinitely.

In a sense, any single one of these can become the “most important thing” – the “organizing theme” for activities. Any one of these – or all of them – can seem to be “true north.”

The result? Confusion. Efforts in one arena, then another.

No one of these is the answer, of course. And yet, they all are.

Also – no single one of them is typically “income-producing.” Certainly not to the extent that an author/entrepreneur would get sufficient feedback to say, “Yes. This is it. This is the path that I should follow.”

Conestoga wagon, in B&W, by Ross Sharrock.

Not surprisingly, many give up during this stage. The author/entrepreneur simply burns out – not from overwork, but from confusion-based exhaustion. The lure of a regular day job, with a well-defined structure (in addition to a well-defined salary and benefits) becomes too much. Then, a well-done book or product is abandoned.

It’s reminiscent of some of the sadder (and perhaps more grisly) stories from the pioneers crossing the plains. Their Conestoga wagon – the vehicle that was supposed to get them to a new life in the “promised land” – was abandoned. And all hope was lost.

This sense of “all directions being true north” is what can make our time in our own “Valley of Death” or “Red Waste” – going from just-published to wildly-successful – prolonged and potentially fatal to our enterprise.

Solutions and Strategies

We now have a sense of the magnitude of the challenges confronting a new author or emerging entrepreneur. It’s not just the conversion from a “skunkworks”-type personality to a “marketer.” It’s not just the shift from “convergent” to “divergent” tasks. And it’s not even the complexity-management.

The most crucial challenge is finding “true north”: Finding a consistent direction that will lead you – the author/entrepreneur/self-employed professional – out of the “Valley of Death” (what Sun Tzu called “Death Ground”), and into your realm of success, stability, and prosperity.

This is possible. There is a strategy.

This strategy will be the subject of upcoming blogs.

Join me – “Opt-In” using the form to the right. I’ll give you a “heads-up” when I publish the next strategic step that will help you decide on your own personal “true north” – and successfully survive your own “Valley of Death.”

Special Note: If you want to succeed with this strategy – the only one that I believe to be effective for the long haul – go back to the first blog in this series, Kingmaker, and do the exercises. Seriously. They count.

For the next posting in this series, go to:

The First Major Challenge in the Author-to-Entrepreneur Transition.

Surviving the “Valley of Death”

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For Authors, Entrepreneurs, Speakers, and Business Leaders – Surviving the “Valley of Death” (Until Your “Kingdom” Can Support Itself)

In the Game of Thrones (Season 2), young heroine Daenerys Targaryen, her dragons, and her loyal followers nearly die during a passage through the Red Waste.

Daenerys Targaryen, from the Game of Thrones, nearly dies in the Red Waste

The Red Waste is by no means the only challenge that young Daenerys has confronted, as she seeks to become the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. In fact, of all the contenders to the Iron Throne, it is Daenerys who both has the greatest right (by legitimate bloodline), and yet – at the same time – the weakest position.

Of all contenders for the Iron Throne, Daenerys has the fewest followers, and (by the end of Season Two) has dealt with both losses and betrayals. She has, practically speaking, no money. All that she has – besides her royal lineage – are her three young, vulnerable, fire-breathing dragons.

Her dragons are not ready to conquer any kingdoms for her. They are more like toddler children, dependent on her for food.

How Are We Like the Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen?

We may, like Daenerys, have what Sun Tzu described as moral influence. Daenerys has royal lineage and three fire-breathing dragons. You may have a visionary insight and your own “creative fire,” and perhaps a newly-launched product, service, or book. What you offer may (figuratively) be a “fire-breathing dragon-weapon,” but if it is still young (as are Daenerys’ dragons), this product/service/book will need tending, much more than it can actively support you.

If you are starting from scratch, and building up your newly-launched business, or book or product launch on a shoestring budget, you will be more like Daenerys than will be comfortable. The reason?

You’re on what Sun Tzu has described as Death Ground; your own equivalent of Daenerys’ Red Waste.

Lessons from Sun Tzu on Death Ground

In The Art of War, Book XI, Sun Tzu describes nine different kinds of “ground,” or terrain.

As we know from the previous post, Kingmaker, terrain is essential to our survival. In Sun Tzu’s world (and in that of many military leaders), terrain was physical. Over the past many decades, corporate leaders have defined terrain in terms of market share, shelf space, number of franchises, and retail sales.

For us, living in the world where ideas and information are dominant, our terrain is mindshare – an elusive and valuable commodity.

While gaining physical control over physical terrain has required armies, and huge supply lines and command chains to keep these armies going, we work in the world of ideas, knowledge, and influence. Our ability to capture terrain – mindshare – requires that we get top-priority attention in people’s minds.

Unless we start off with an unusually strong position – that is, we already have a strong and loyal customer base – we are in the position of Daenerys. We are on Death Ground.

Sun Tzu (The Art of War, Book XI, Phrase 10) describes Death Ground:

Ground in which the army survives only if it fights with the courage of desperation is called ‘death’.

In commentary (also in the Art of War, right after Sun Tzu’s statement), Li Ch’üan says:

Blocked by mountains to the front and rivers to the rear, with provisions exhausted. In this situation it is advantageous to act speedily and dangerous to procrastinate.

Why So Many Authors Sell Only 200 Books

A common (and somewhat frightening) truism among the emerging-author community is that most books sell only 200 copies. The reason?

“Circles of Influence,” from “The Democratization of Social Influence,” by Todd Wilms, SAP, appearing in Forbes Magazine, 06/08/2012.

The “circle of influence” for most authors reaches only about 200 people.

Think about it. If you comb your email list, you probably have about 200 names and email addresses. Likewise, you probably have about 200 people with whom you connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

There are about 200 people in your immediate social circle; those whom you see on a regular or semi-regular basis. This includes your family members (telephone connections count), college chums and former roommates, current and former work associates, professional/civic/non-profit organization connections, and people whom you see at regular church, temple, mosque, or synagogue services. Count them all up: people whom you know by name, would stop to say “hi,” catch up.

It’s about 200, right?

Now, if you were to present each of these with your new service, product, or book, you’d get a certain fraction to buy. Let’s assume, just for fun, that you “convert” 50%. That is, out of your “circle-of-influence” of 200 persons, you close sales with 100.

Then, over time, by diligently working to expand your circle, you make another 100 sales.

These new sales are to people whom you have not know before; they come to you strictly because of your unique service/product/book, and not because they already know and like you.

Your “reach-outs” include every media that you can think of: public appearances, press releases, articles for trade magazines, and regular and religious postings on Facebook and other social media. You appear on radio and/or TV. You are, in short, religious about spreading your word.

And – over a year’s worth of time – you have made about 100 additional sales.

Your resources are exhausted; you’re dispirited. And you’re about to give up the dream, and go back to a “day job” as the only means by which you’ll survive for this lifetime.

You’re on Death Ground.

Surviving Death Ground – An Advance Preparation Strategy

The “Valley of Death” – a deadly journey for emerging authors and entrepreneurs

The goal of Mourning Dove Press is to help authors bridge the gap – from a life-threatening 200 sales – to a robust, on-the-way-to-success 2,000 sales, and greater. At 2,000 sales, we figure, you’ll have your “machine” in place. You’ll know what to do, and will be somewhat skilled in doing that-which-needs-to-be-done. And you’ll be almost ready to bring in some more professional, heavyweight talent who will support you in moving to the next level; publicists and more powerful IT teams, etc.

Simply put, at the level of 2,000 sales, you’ll have enough revenue from the sales themselves to help you support your own infrastructure.

The challenge is to get from the nearly-predictable 200 to the far-less-predictable 2,000. This is your own, personal, private “Valley of Death.” Your own version of author’s hell.

The next blogpost will give specific survival strategies.

There are things that must be done – that WILL be done – by any successful author, professional, or entrepreneur. These are necessary, and they take time. They are part of why it DOES take time to get through our own “Valley of Death.”

However, there are things that we can do – at the outset – that will lead to building our “kingdom” (our “tribe”) even as we go through the “Valley of Death” stage. If we do these things right – and if we do them in the right order – and if we start early enough – we have a chance of surviving. Our book/product/service will go on to start generating income. We will actually reach the other side – to Daenerys’s city of Qarth. To the pioneer’s West Coast. To the Hebrew people’s “land of milk and honey.”

Our goal is simply to survive the journey through the desert (on manna and miracles, or so it will seem), and to shorten the timeline. Our goal is to we can cut the “time in the desert” from Moses’ forty years to less than a year. If we can do this, we will, as military strategist and Sun Tzu commentator Li Ch’üan advised, have “acted speedily.” Then, we will have not only survived, but will be likely to succeed.

P.S. Are you fascinated by the character Daenerys Targaryen from George Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s series the Game of Thrones? Peter Schmidt, Professor of English Literature at Swarthmore College, has written an interesting and in-depth profile of her. Read Peter’s blog: Some Reasons Why Daenerys Targaryen’s Character Is Even Better in Game of Thrones Than in Song of Ice and Fire.