Creative Business Planning for Authors & Poets

I no longer provide one-to-one consultancy or mentoring. Instead I run a small-group, private Go Creative! in Business monthly membership for indie authors who want to focus on reaching more readers and increasing their income, influence and impact–the creative way.
To facilitate personal attention, places are limited in this premium-level membership that offers monthly workshops, a growing suite of resources, dedicated attention, and a proven sequence of success–all for a tiny fraction of consultancy costs. I'd love you to join us.
JOIN ON PATREON HERE

Creative Business Planning For Authors: The Method

The Go Creative! in Business planning method is not just business as usual. As an indie author, you are running a global, digital, creative business, a business that is powered by passion as much as profit.

Your books and your business are unique because they are expressive of you: your hopes, your dreams, your intentions, your imagination. (And your flaws and failings too!)

Such businesses are a new phenomenon. Born through the power of digital publishing, they are changing how business is done. Yet so much business advice remains mechanical, one-dimensional, and purely data-driven.

As an indie author, any business planning method you adopt must allow for the fact that you are motivated by money and meaning, profits and purpose. It must account for the creative rest and play that are very much of any artist's creative work. And it must be flexible enough to allow for intuition, spontaneous insights, inspired deviations, and taking the road less traveled.

Creative Business Planning For Authors: The Membership

The Go Creative! in Business membership is managed through Patreon and that's where you register. It's based on exercises in my book Creative Self-publishing: ALLi's Guide to Independent Publishing for Authors and Poets and my Go Creative! in Business book and planners.

The membership offers:

A small group, member-only, monthly workshop
Downloadable, printable Go Creative! in Business planning resources
a closed Go Creative! in Business Facebook group where we map our creative intentions for the week on Mondays–then on Fridays come back to log what we've accomplished.

Creative Business Planning For Authors: Resources

Downloadable, printable tools, based on the exercises in my book Creative Self-Publishing and the sequence of success for indie authors. These resources cannot fail you if you follow them.

Quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily planners
Creative practices: f-r-e-e-writing and inspiration meditation.
Intention maps and accomplishment logs
Creative business planning worksheets, playsheets, practice reminders, habit logs, and more

Workshops

The workshops run in via Zoom on the last Friday of each month at 5pm UK time.

This is not a large webinar of thousands but a small-group, private workshop on Zoom, where you can ask questions and receive direct advice. You receive personal attention including feedback on your current project.

I completed there worksheets and then, so you leave with work accomplished and clear guidance on what to do next. Everyone gets a chance to speak and no question goes unanswered.

Replays are freely available in Patreon and the learning is supported by an active Facebook group (see below)

Facebook Accountability Group

Not unmoderated chatter, but a structured accountability group to map your creative intentions and log your accomplishments weekly, under the three hats an indie author must wear: maker, manager and marketeer. In this group we also discuss what's arising for members from the monthly workshops.

Creative Business Planning For Authors: Join us

I started this membership because so many indie authors are struggling to integrate the three big skills they need to have–writing, publishing and business–into one successful enterprise.

That's what it's designed to facilitate.

It's not for everyone, as it does take a particular approach to business planning, that centers on ensuring your heart and soul, not just your mind and ego, are embedded in your business intentions. It requires emotional and imaginative as well as mental labor. It encourages you to go deeper and achieve more by doing less.

While the benefits of the membership accumulate across time, it's set up so you can opt in or out as you need (places permitting)–so why not try it for a month and see how you go?

The membership, including full access to all resources, workshops and the Facebook group costs $25 monthly. Opt out any time.
JOIN ON PATREON HERE

Creative Business Planning For Authors: Testimonials

Joanna Penn, **bestselling author, award-winning entrepreneur, and host of The Creative Penn podcast**

Orna’s events have been life-changing for me. With wisdom, kindness (and the occasional kick in the pants!) she is able to cut through the noise and focus on what’s really important for creatives. Her f-r-e-e-writing exercises have helped me with my books and my business. I highly recommend her.

**Mark McGuinness, award-winning poet, creative coach, and host of The 21st Century Creative podcast**

Amid all the hype about the latest tools and technologies, we don’t hear so much about wisdom, compassion, and hard-won experience. Orna Ross has all of these in spades, and is generous in passing on her knowledge. I value my conversations with Orna and always come away with a valuable new perspective on things. I’m sure you will too.

Suzanne Power

Orna Ross is a genius. She combines incisive knowledge of publishing, huge appreciation for words, great humanity for the writers producing them, and invaluable materials – all to get to the heart of your writing life, and provide the scaffolding of your writing business. She has worked with me as both mentor and as a facilitator and I think the world of what she does and how she does it. No ego, true presence and a brilliant talent.

Her ethics and her examples are ones to trust and to follow. I will continue to do so and consider myself lucky to have the chance to.

Dave Cohen

I spent nearly four decades working in comedy thinking my precious art should not be sullied by anything as vulgar as marketing. In the last couple of years Orna has taught me that if you can think creatively about it, keeping control of and marketing your work is as important to a writer's career as the work itself.

Karen Dodd, Suspense Author

As the author of two books and one on the way, I feel fortunate to have found Orna and her coaching at just the right time in my author career. She has a way of winnowing in on exactly what the intimate, small group needs as we went through our various challenges together. Orna presents information clearly and through her willingness to answer all questions, she fosters a trusting and compassionate relationship between mentor and participants.

Our group is made up of authors at all stages of the process—some were even traditionally published. After each session, we leave with our handouts and a written plan that we can implement immediately. I can’t recommend Orna’s Go Creative sessions highly enough.

Archana

Orna has exhaustive experience being an authorpreneur both from her own personal journey navigating the publishing space as an author and working with/mentoring other authors who are walking the same path. I find these workshops to be a distilled essence of this highly specialized knowledge that she has gathered through time.

As a result, this is highly effective and beneficial for an author in terms of the multiple hats that we wear as an authorpreneur. Orna defines them as – maker, manager and marketer. The pay yourself first approach that I got to learn from the workshop is how I'm going to be structuring my business as I believe it's going to set me up for success. Also appreciate the flexibility of attending only the workshops on topics that I most want to learn about and the Q&A time at the end of the session.

Beth Ball, Epic Fantasy Author

I learn so much in each of the sessions, and I really appreciate all of the work you do to help us with both strategies and mindset on the indie author journey.

Beth Ball is an epic fantasy author spinning stories of druidic magic and the power of nature that span the realms of Azuria and Eldura.

Belinda Strotheide, Writer and Business Trainer

I just wanted to take a few minutes to say how much I appreciate your creative planning training. My college degree is in business, I’ve spent years listening to entrepreneurial training, I’ve helped businesses, nonprofits and communities think through the process and formulate their plans and goals. You have helped me see the process in a new way. A way that lets me view it creatively, with the business aspects as a framework rather than the focus of the activities. Thank you! Also, thank you for your sensitivity and respect toward the individuals in the meetings. I also like how you push us to go for the deeper truth of who we are creatively and address the real reasons we may get stuck. A really BIG THANK YOU. What you’re doing is so very helpful.