As we near the end of the year, the Alliance of Independent Authors AskALLi team wanted to use December to look back at 2020 and the range of ultimate guides and posts we've created to help you write, publish and market your books. Today, we've collated all of the business posts, podcasts and books from the team to help you improve your business skills. Here are the best business tips of 2020.
For those of you new to the blog, or those wanting to make the most of it. The blog is written and compiled by ALLi advisors, members, and team and edited by Orna Ross, ALLi Director and Blog Manager, Sacha Black. It offers advice across the seven processes of publishing:
There’s also advice on making a living as an author and running an author business, as well as weekly news bulletin by Dan Holloway about all that’s happening in the indie author world.
If you can't find the answer to a self-publishing question, you can do one of two things. First up, you can use the search bar at the top to ask a question. You can also view the categories on the right hand side to view more posts on that particular topic.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Outsourcing and Help
If you continue to grow your business, there will come a time when you're unable to grow without getting some kind of help. But fear not, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to hire members of staff. There are a plethora of ways you can get help in order to free up time and invest it in the core activities that grow your income. That's the topic Orna Ross and Sacha Black tackle in this podcast all about getting help in you business.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Leveling up your Author Business
Once you’ve been publishing for a while there's a good chance that you have a few books to your name, you’re making some money and you might want to make a go of being a full-time author. This post is for advanced self-publishers and explores business growth and development.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Selling on your Website
Selling books is bread and butter for any author. An increasing number of indies are making their websites the hub of their publishing business, with other online sellers as outposts. For example, the Alliance of Independent Authors has a bookshop on this website where non-members can buy its books (all are free to members who can download by logging in allianceindependentauthors.org and navigating to the BOOKS menu). In this post, we show you how you can do the same in the ultimate guide to selling books on your author website.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Getting your Business Back on Track
Each Wednesday, Tim Lewis hosts a Twitter chat on behalf of ALLi. In this particular chat, Tim talked to Rebecca Wood all about how to get your author business back on track with a particular focus on the impact coronavirus and lockdowns have had on Indies and the industry as a whole.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Creating Multiple Streams of Income
In this podcast, Adam Croft and Sacha Black look at what multiple streams of income are and why every creative should have them. They explain what multiple streams of income means. Why you should have multiple streams even if you just want to write all day. The methods and means of multiple income streams and how they differ between fiction and nonfiction. Potential streams outside of writing and much more.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Rights Licensing
When you reach a certain point in sales, your eye naturally turns towards licensing as an option. It's hard to sell books in a language you don't speak, or if you don't have the skill to create audiobooks perhaps licensing those rights is a way to create revenue. Or perhaps you want to license merch or sell film and TV rights. Whatever your desire, once you surpass 50,000 sales of a book, rights buyers become interested. ALLi ran a six month rights program that aimed to open up the rights buying industry to indies. You can read more about that here. In addition, there's an excellent podcast from Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on rights licensing which you can listen or or read here.
Best Business Tips of 2020: Ultimate Guide to Selling Book Rights for Indie Authors
Over a six month period, the Alliance of Independent Authors’ ran a rights program, to open up translation rights licensing for more self-publishing authors. In this post, is a summary of the program and, together with our book on the topic, it forms the ultimate guide to rights licensing for indie authors.
Selective Rights Licensing: Sell Your Book Rights At Home and Abroad gives you everything you need to begin successfully and selectively licensing your publishing rights for sale.
ALLi members can download their complimentary ebook copy of Selective Rights Licensing: Sell Your Book Rights At Home and Abroad in the Member Zone. Navigate to allianceindependentauthors.org and log in. Then navigate to the following menu: BOOKS > GUIDEBOOKS. Other formats are available to members and non-members in ALLi’s Bookshop.
Thanks for the overview!