#111: Building Your Author Business by Design

Read Time: 2.5 Minutes

Here's what I wish someone had told my wife and I when we first started in the publishing space:

You don't have to choose between success and living a full life outside of being an author. You can have both.

The authors making "real money" aren't the ones publishing monthly or working every spare waking hour they can find.

They're the ones who figured out that sustainable beats scalable every time.

My wife is just one example of this. She writes one book per year. Zero stress.

She built the business around her life, not the other way around. 

And more importantly...

She's playing her own game, not someone else's.

Lifestyle First, Revenue Second

Back in 2020 when we were trying to get my wife's books off the ground, we were building backwards.

We were optimizing for maximum output and trying to squeeze life around the edges.

At the time, life involved 2 newborn twins who were waking up every hour of the night. I was working on my wife's author business from 3am-9am five days per week, so I could let my wife catch up on some sleep and write her next book during the day whilst I took care of the twins. 

It wasn't too many months into this torturous routine that we made a switch...

We designed for lifestyle first instead of revenue.

Here's our approach today that all stemmed from this switch:

Family time is sacred: Evenings and weekends belong to our kids. Non-negotiable.

Time over revenue: We'd rather make $50K working 20 hours/week than $100K working 60 hours/week.

Systems over hustle: We automate as much of the business as we can and keep everything we need to do manually as simplified as possible. We optimize for efficiency, not activity.

Quality over quantity: We would much rather have 1,000 engaged readers than 10,000 who don't care. And 6 high-quality books is 100x better than 60 shoddy books.

The Author Freedom Framework

If you want to build an author business that serves your life instead of consuming it, here are some principles you can follow that have worked for us:

1. Calculate Your Freedom Number What monthly income gives you the life you actually want? Many authors aim too high and sacrifice too much getting there.

Or worse, have no idea what their freedom number is and just spend their time on scale, scale, scale and never stop.

2. Choose Sustainability Over Growth Every decision should pass this test: "Does this make me more profitable or just busier?"

3. Automate Operations, Not Creativity Use technology for repetitive tasks. Keep strategic decisions and the craft of writing solely in your hands.

4. Create Multiple Revenue Streams Don't rely solely on Amazon eBook sales. Add paperbacks, hardbacks, audiobooks, Ingram Spark, foreign rights, email lists, courses, coaching, speaking, etc. —diversify where you can.

The Uncomfortable Truth

The publishing industry profits when you're anxious, scattered, and constantly chasing the next trend.

Your best work emerges when you're focused, intentional, and thinking clearly about the game you're playing. 

While you're reading this, authors who know less than you are selling more books.

Not because they're more talented. Because they've chosen systems over chaos.

They know their Freedom Number and work backwards from there.

They've automated the boring stuff so they can focus on the creative stuff.

They've built an author business that compounds whether they're working or not.

Most importantly: they've designed their author business around their life, not the other way around.

Your Next Step

Ask yourself: "What does success actually look like for me?"

Not what the industry says success should look like. What YOU want.

Maybe it's:

• Writing two books per year while traveling
• Building a $10K/month business working mornings only
• Teaching what you know while writing what you love

There's no wrong answer here. Only your answer.

Build your business by design. Not by default.

Add constraints, otherwise, your business will take over and you'll forget to live life.

Once you know what you're optimizing for, every decision becomes clearer.

The authors winning long-term aren't the ones working hardest. They're the ones working smartest.

They've designed their business around their life.

Not the other way around.

That's it for this week.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

To Your Success
– Matt