What’s the difference between a Debut Author writing a Book and an Entrepreneur starting a Business?

Authors like entrepreneurs begin with a plan, invest their own time, and money, and chase the dream of achieving their goal.  Entrepreneurs start with a business plan, and either find funding for their venture from an outside source, or end up using their own money.  Writers start with an outline or write organically until they complete their first draft, but at some point they too need a plan. 

Entrepreneurs face the same self-doubt that authors do, and if there idea is not well vetted they face bankrupting either themselves or their business.  Authors face the risk of becoming overwhelmed and giving up.

When entrepreneurs talk business they talk about risk verses reward, or profit and loss.  When authors write books they talk about getting good enough to get published.  Both groups have to market their idea to give it a chance to blossom and become rewarding.  Both groups face worry and the need for outside opinions on their finished product.  Both groups face the risk of destroying their hard earned work in pursuit of another better idea only to find out that they’ve wasted their time and should have stuck to their original idea.

While it is possible to start a business without risking one’s own capital it is less than ideal.  A more likely scenario is to take a loan from one’s savings account or retirement account, or convince a friend or relative to sponsor you.

Authors take the risk of putting their original work out in front of the world to see and judge.  While they usually don’t take huge monetary risks they do invest great quantities of time and intellect to write, revise, and polish their works of art.

All debut authors face the same choices on the road toward becoming published.  Luckily for today’s writers there is more than the one path.  We all struggle while completing our novels. We are all faced with the decision of whether to self-publish or pursue a book deal through traditional publishing.   We all have to gage when our book is good enough to begin querying agents or begin marketing it on Amazon or elsewhere.

It is my opinion that Entrepreneurs and Authors are very much the same.  In a way all authors are like butterflies they start as one entity and have to evolve into another.  We all eventually become entrepreneurs.