Six Facets of Thinking Like an Entrepreneurial Author

1. Think new. Try to come up with fresh ideas that haven’t been done before. People like to try new things. New ideas can excite people more than ideas that have been done before even if they were successful. If you and your networks can’t dream up something new, use your creativity to give old ideas a new twist
2. Think inclusively. Create ways to bring people together in a way so enjoyable they will tell friends about it before and after the event.
3. Think big. Look at the promotional opportunities your books create with the same breadth of vision you use to look at your books in the largest possible way. Then pare your ideas down to what you can accomplish. Promotion, like politics, is the art of the possible.
4. Think ideas through. Balance the time and energy you need to execute ideas against the potential gain in sales and publicity
5. Think of a way out. Set benchmarks in time and energy to see if you’re making the progress you need to make an idea worth implementing. If in the course of trying to follow through on an idea you become convinced that the payoff won’t justify the effort, let it go and move on to the next idea.
6. Think of ways to be a giving enterprise, not just a taking one. Make a virtue of commerce by helping your community while you promote your book. Schools, libraries and charities always welcome help raising funds. You will feel better about your efforts and so will others involved with them. And the media are more likely to cover a charity event than a purely commercial one.