I follow Orna Ross, Director of the Alliance of Independent Publishers (ALLi). I have attended several of her workshops, am a Patreon supporter, and am in her group for Planning for Authors. I find her experience and passion for independent publishing a wonder mentor for getting me started in my new career creating and publishing projects.
Orna divides the hats that self-published authors wear into 3 main categories
- Manager
- Marketer
- Maker
The Manager makes sure all the business of being an author gets done, including assigning tasks to the Marketer, and the Maker. Making purchases, paying the bills, getting paid, etc. are all the responsibility of the Manager.
The Marketer is in charge of all things marketing, i.e. finding the audience and getting the project in front of that audience. The marketer understands social media, the publishing platforms, and working with technology to create the content copy for the marketing aspects of self-publishing.
The Maker creates the assets that are sold in the marketplace. Those assets include eBooks, print books, audio books, video, merch, courses, consulting, etc. If it can be sold, the maker makes the goods.
In Orna’s class we check in every week with intentions and accomplishments. Following is my check in for the week.
Manager:
- I just purchased 10-ISBNs from Bowker. I listed one of my websites (https://edrawingboard.com) as an imprint. That was exciting. My comics and drawing projects will be through that imprint. Now to work on the logo.
- I attended the AI workshop with Joanna Penn and Joseph Michael. I purchased a subscription for ChatGPT Plus (version 4), and began playing with it. Very interesting.
- I’m on the W3C EPUB 3.0 Community Group. We just had a meeting about accessibility in Fixed Layout versions of EPUB. So, all this information is rolling around in my head as I move forward with the story and illustration.
- I intend to create a wonderful user experience, therefore understanding the technology and its limitations is important. One of the leads from Kobo Writing Life is in the same group. It is nice to be able to network with someone who understands the tech and is a fan of comics. Score!!
Once I figure it all out, I can become a resource to ALLi, and other creators in general. I love learning new things in this new career, so I’m excited and engaged in the process. Yay.
Marketer:
Played with ChatGPT to nail down my audience, genre, and pricing for my first book. ChatGPT concurred with Orna (doesn’t that make you happy Orna?) that my project does not fit neatly into one genre. However, it assured me that is a strength as it enables me to market across multiple audiences. The BOT helped me play with several value-added ideas I’ve been considering for the book. It seems to think my ideas are value-adds, and if implemented, will increase the selling price, and attractiveness, of the book.
Maker:
Continuing to move forward on the eBook version of the project. Thinking about how to implement the value-adds on the print version. I’m learning that although I know how to plan, this project is more of a discovery process. I’m finding that to be fun. Different ideas bubble up and find their way into the project.