As an author, the dream is to see your name in print. But these days, it’s no longer enough to be a good writer to achieve literary financial success. You have to act like an author, but think like a business. You need to invest time and energy into marketing your work. That means understanding the literary marketplace and using sound business principles in your writing career. While writing books and doing the business side of it can be daunting, how can you achieve literary and financial success without costing much of your time and money? In today’s episode, bestselling and award-winning author Joylynn Ross talks about achieving literary and financial success as an author. As a literary consultant, publishing coach, author of Act Like an Author, Think Like a Business: Ways to Achieve Financial Literary Success, and CEO of Path To Publishing, Joylynn has helped and continues to help individuals write, publish and sell their books, as well as help them achieve their literary goals and reach their measure of literary success.

Website Links:

https://www.pathtopublishing.com/conference

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Act Like An Author, Think Like A Business With Joylynn Ross

Our guest is exciting. She’s a repeat from 2020 and a high-energy lady. Before we get started, remember to go over to Breakthrough Author Magazine at BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com and get your free subscription to our monthly magazine, with lots of tips and tricks. If you’re getting ready for 2023, join us for our ten-day author platform-building challenge. You can find that at www.BreakthroughAuthorNewsletter.com and that will take you directly into our LinkedIn newsletter. No opt-in is required. Just subscribe and you can play right along. We’re done with the whole opt-in thing so no obligation.

Our guest is Joylynn Ross. She was on the show on 2020 with super high energy. She talks fast and knows her stuff. She was a great guest so we’re going to have her again. She is a BLESSEDselling author, E. N. Joy. That’s what she’s known as. She’s a national bestselling award-winning author and a literary consultant, publishing coach and author of Act Like an Author, Think Like a Business: Ways to Achieve Financial Literary Success and the CEO of Path To Publishing.

This lady has got a lot going on. Joylynn has helped and continues to help individuals write, publish and sell their books as well as help them achieve literary goals and reach their measure of literary success. We’re talking to her because she has an event coming up, Act Like an Author Think Like a Business. We’ll talk about it a little bit more in the interview but if you want to find out more upfront, you can go to www.PathToPublishing.com/Conference. See what it’s all about. I am one of the speakers so transparency there. I will be promoting this event as well. Let’s go.

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Joylynn, I’m so happy to see you again.

I’m so glad to be back. Thank you.

Joylynn was a guest back in 2020. She was so high energy like she came with her stuff ready. I’m excited to talk about your upcoming event, Act Like an Author Think Like a Business because so many authors don’t talk about that.

For some reason, there are things to be this unspoken war between art and money. I don’t know who started that war but I am bound and determined to win it. Win the battle, the war, the fight or whatever you want to call it. We got to think outside the creativity and artistic aspect of it. We want to help and serve but it costs to do that. We need to make money to move our message because it takes money to move the message.

Part of this started with all of the spiritual books because I find with the spiritual books that come to us that these people have a message but are not focused as much on the money. That is crazy. When we start working with authors, it starts with a plan.

When you think about success, a lot of times we can relate success to money. With artists and writers, there’s literary success and financial literary success and you can have both. To achieve them both, you have to have a plan because we all have our measures of success. You have to know what that looks like, feels like, smells like, tastes like or else how do you know when you’ve reached that? You got to know that end game.

I write fiction, as well as nonfiction. When I’m writing fiction, I always write my ending first because like with life, if you know where you want to end up at the end of this thing, then you have a better sense of what steps you need to take to get there. If you know where you want to end up as a writer, author, literary artist or literary entertainer, then you can say, “This is what the end game looks like.” Even if the end game is 1 goal because once we reach 1 goal, we’ve got more. You have to have some idea of, “How am I going to reach this end game or end goal?” A plan.

Not only the plan but we also need an audience. That plan has to include building that audience as you go along. We call it author platform building but in the true sense, it’s building the community around yourself and what you’re going to sell at the end. When you work with your authors, how do you do that? How do you get them to make the plan and then build on it? A lot of them say, “I need a plan,” but then they don’t execute the plan.

Act Like an Author, Think Like a Business: Ways to Achieve Financial Literary Success

That’s one thing that I teach at the conference. I don’t do the fake compliments thing. I’m like, “This conference is the literary blueprint. We have amazing information and experts.” You’re one of our expert presenters, not people who know how to do something or people who are Walmart greeters by day and book chauffeurs by night.

Not that there’s anything wrong with Walmart greeters. I loved them. You make me forget how I had a headache before entering the store with your happy wave and smile. Nothing against Walmart greeters but there is a difference between knowing how to do something and being an expert at doing something. Having the book ideal is great because when you think about it, every business starts with a thought, an idea and a concept. Every book starts with a thought, an idea and a concept. It only makes sense for our books to be our business.

It’s easier to say than to teach. How do I get authors to implement and execute? You can get and hand in the blueprint at the conference every year. Experts like yourself, you give your clients the blueprint but it is up to them to implement and execute. One of the first things I like to do and this is with any business is getting your audience first. That’s so easy to do with social media and that the world’s opening back up.

We’re going to build relationships. That N-word is almost like a cuss word, Networking. Reciprocity, you don’t have to work at McDonald’s or a fast-food restaurant. “How can I help and serve you?” We all say that to each other. Get your customer first. Don’t wait for your book to get ready. Get ready for your book.

If you reverse that and you’re not waiting for your book to get ready and say, “What’s the plan,” which makes it even more frustrating to implement and execute, if you start with the implementation and the execution first like getting ready for your book, then it makes it a lot easier to convince, at least with me. It’s easier to convince my clients that it makes more sense. It positions you and your book for much more success. Get the audience first and get ready for your book. Don’t wait for your book to get ready. It might be some psychological tripping up there but it works.

Here’s the other thing. We see so many people that write business books because they want to generate more business. They think that the book will do that for them but the truth is it’s that audience all the way through. Marketing and building not only bring people to your book but bring more business in. In a way, people have gotten that a little bit backwards.

Let me be transparent. I’m sharing information with certain organizations, let’s say my chamber of commerce. I’m a member of my local chamber of commerce. It’s like the fraternity and sorority for businesses. I say that first line that’s catching that everybody thinks and hears. “Since books are the new business cards,” that’s going to attract them but I’m saying what they want to hear.

When you’re saying what people don’t want to hear, if I say, “Books aren’t the new business cards,” they don’t want to hear that at that point. They want to hear, “The books are new business cards.” That’s what we lead with but it’s the book that is the foundation. There are so many more bricks you have to lay on top of that and build.

We stay with their advertising but since books are their new business cards. It’s not false because a lot of people are using their books as business cards but would you randomly start passing out your books like business cards? I think about the cost of printing and design so I’m not passing things out. I have a plan. I love the P word that you started us off with.

Think Like A Business: There’s a difference between knowing how to do something and being an expert at doing something.

I have intentions on what I want to do with my business card. If you have a plan and intention on what you want to do with the business card that you can get from Vista Print for $0.05 or $0.10 each, what about that book you’re getting ready to invest in? There’s so much money in building. Would you do that? Would you pass that out carelessly without a plan or intention?

Books can be a business card. They bring credibility and validate your area of expertise but it’s just the foundation. There are so many other bricks that you have to lay up on that but that’s me being very transparent. I will use that line when I’m talking to businesses. “Books are the new business cards.” You get them listening because that’s what they wanted to hear then you tell them what they need, the want for the client, customer, author, artists, writer and then the need to be successful or for the book to be successful and for you to be successful.

The other thing about that as well as we always call the book a nurture tool. You and I do the same thing. You do a little bit more book development than we do. We have a book developer that we refer to. A book is a nurture tool but inside of that nurture tool, you and I do the same thing practically but there are hundreds of people that do what we do. That book as a nurture tool is a way for people to get to know you. “Do I want to work with that person? Is that person my person?”

You and I could say the same thing but someone might gravitate to you because you got more power in your personality than I do. You’ve got that excitement and enthusiasm. I’m more of a workhorse. “We’re going to get this done. This is the strategy.” People get to understand through the book how you work and if it resonates with what they want to do to work with you as well in a business sense. When you’re saying that a book is the new business card, it’s also that nurture tool to get those people to that next phase that will monetize for them.

You’re so right. Think about when you go to a conference or some type of event and you have the keynote speaker. They were so inspirational. You have people who say, “I’m an inspirational speaker.” Inspiring people is great. I’m all caught up and emotional because that’s what inspiration is but when you leave that stage, what do you have for me? Going back to what you said about executing, what do you have to incite me? That’s what I’m about. You can be inspired for free. Tony Robbins has so many free YouTube videos that you can be inspired by. I want to be incited. There’s an action that goes with that. Your book should drive and calls that action.

Not just non-fiction, even fiction authors. I deal with fiction authors as well. What we say in the fiction world is, “Write what we know first. We research what we don’t know and make up all the rest.” Somewhere in there, whether it is your experience or the time you put into researching, you have some level of expertise in there. Some things or subject matter. Something maybe even newsworthy that you can pull out of that book and share, nurture, teach, add benefit and add value to someone else’s life. Plan and nurture are the words for the day.

Execute too. How many people do you see go to one event and are so excited but they say, “I’m going to do this,” and then they pull the trigger? At the last event I went to, I sat on the plane on the way home and wrote down the to-do list to mark off to get those things done. When I got home, I started the to-do list. It’s not just a matter of being inspired. You have to execute those things. You may not execute them well but that’s the whole learning curve.

That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help you with that. People tell me all the time, “You give away so much information.” I don’t mind teaching people everything I know. I have no problem with that. In this business, unless you want to end up in the ER, somebody’s couch or meds, which I’m on about 2 out of 3 of those, trying to do this by yourself is mentally, physically and spiritually draining. What I know is that you are going to need some type of help, whether you choose to engage in getting help or delegate those tasks. That’s one thing but I have no problem sharing.

Think Like A Business: Don’t wait for your book to get ready. Get ready for your book.

This is what you do. I never want to hold anyone’s success hostage. If I could even describe the conference and Path to Publishing in one word, it would be access. That’s who we are. Our brand is excellent but the word to describe is access because everyone has a story, message or testimony. Most of us need the tools, the information and the resources to be able to tell it in excellence. That’s what we want to do. We want to provide access. No gatekeepers. No strings attached, just access for you to have the information. As you said, “What are you going to do with this information now that you have it?”

I read a statistic once that 95% of the people that you give information to will never act on it. I find that so interesting when we work with people building their platform, we always tell them, “Don’t be afraid to give stuff away for free like the content, your knowledge or all of that because there are very few people who will pull the trigger on it and act on it. That 5% are your people that will pull the trigger and say, ‘I want to do this.'”

That is so amazing. I’m excited about the event. I’ve not had my presentation. I had merged some presentations to get it up to an hour. The longest keynote I’ve done is 45 minutes. Where do we find the event? How do we find you? What do we mean to know about the event that you probably haven’t spoken about yet?

It is the 5th Annual Act Like an Author Think Like a Business Conference. It typically takes place in the still fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada but COVID still tends to rear its ugly head because when you’re having an event, you start marketing about a year out. In 2021, people were still a little like, “I don’t know if I want to travel.” In 2022, it is 100% online. 2021 was hybrid. You can learn more about it at www.PathToPublishing.com/Conference. It’s taking place on September 22nd, 23rd and 24th. All times are Pacific.

Think Like A Business: You don’t have to be passionate about writing to be the author of your own story. You have to be passionate about the results, the lives you will change, the benefit, and the value you will add.

Speaking of access, we lower the ticket price tremendously in 2022. One, it’s all virtual. We don’t have the overhead of the facilities and the venue. We started by having it at the Rio Hotel and Casino. We’ve got that price point down so that more people can access it. Typically, when you register for the conference, you get lifetime access to the curriculum taught in the main sessions. In 2022, we removed that as well to bring the price point down even more.

Let’s at least get the people in the seats and make it accessible. Let me tell you another little secret. You don’t have to be passionate about writing to be the author of your story. You have to be passionate about the results, the lives you’re going to change, the benefit and the value you’re going to add. You can find more information about it by visiting the website. You can find me on Facebook, Joylynn M. Ross. When I’m not adding my two cents to other people’s literary careers, I’m an author myself. I write fiction under the name BLESSEDselling Author E. N. Joy. If you find her and then find this other name, Joylynn M Ross, I’m the same. I’m out there on social media.

Maybe you’re not interested in the conference. Maybe you want to have a better idea of, “What’s this publishing thing look like they’re talking about?” You can visit the company home page website, www.PathToPublishing.com. We have a free publishing map and it’s 100% free. You do not even have to give me your email address because I don’t want to have to convince you that there’s one way to do this, which is the right way. I don’t want to have to get your email address, send you all kinds of sequence emails, convincing you that there’s a right way to do this. If you truly want to deliver your message, then I’ll see you on the other side of that publishing map.

That is so amazing because I’ve been promoting our ten-day challenge and I’m doing it with the LinkedIn newsletter. I’m like, “No opt-in. I’m done with opt-ins and sending you all emails.” I do send out a weekly email but the list building is no obligation. Show up, take the value and we hope to see you executing it. Joylynn, thank you. I’m excited to be speaking at the event. Thank you for sharing it.

Thank you so much.

Important Links

• BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com
• www.BreakthroughAuthorNewsletter.com
• Act Like an Author, Think Like a Business: Ways to Achieve Financial Literary Success
• Path To Publishing
• www.PathToPublishing.com/Conference
• Joylynn Ross – Previous Episode
• Joylynn M. Ross – Facebook

About Joylynn Ross

Joylynn M. Ross, also writing as BLESSEDselling Author E. N. Joy, is a national best-selling and award-winning author. As a literary consultant, publishing coach, author of Act Like an Author, Think Like a Business: Ways to Achieve Financial Literary Success, and CEO of Path To Publishing, Joylynn has helped, and continues to help, individuals write, publish and sell their books, as well as help them achieve their literary goals and reach their measure of literary success.

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