Post Contents

Becoming an Author* Is Easy

Writing a Book Is Hard

Becoming a High-Impact Individual with a Commercially Viable Book is Much Harder

Do You Know…

Why Most Authors (& Editors) Fail

How to Win the War of Attrition

The 2+2-Part Aware Author Approach

The 5 Author Awarenesses

The 5 Aware Author Core Competencies

Why Being an Authentic, Aware Author Matters

Becoming an Author* Is Easy.

Almost anyone with access to generative AI writing and image-creation tools and a self-publishing platform can quickly and easily “write” and publish a book.

Writing a Book Is Hard.

Doing the cognitive and emotional labor to translate your own ideas into a full-length working draft is hard.

Becoming a High-Impact Author with a Commercially Viable Book is Much Harder.

Writing, pitching, publishing, and promoting a high-impact, commercially viable book is one of the most difficult and rewarding journeys an individual can choose to take.

Do You Know...

• that 4 million new titles were published in 2024 (that’s ~457/hour or 8/minute) and most were self-published?^1,2
• that the average [print] book published today sells fewer than 300 copies and much fewer than 1,000 over its lifetime in all formats and markets?³
• that more than 70% of nonfiction books are ghostwritten by professional writers?⁴
• that less than 4% of authors will land a literary agent and many of those that do will still not go on to secure a traditional publishing deal?⁴
• that many respected traditional publishers accept submissions directly from aspiring authors, no literary agent required?
• why these (and many more) data points and questions matter, to whom, and under what circumstances?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, you’re not alone.

But your success as an authentic author depends on being both aware and proactive. You’re not alone in that either. As every filmmaker knows, creating and distributing a high-impact work of art is a team sport.

Why Most Authors (and Editors) Fail

Experience has taught me that even ambitious aspiring and published authors and professional editors (including me!) flounder and fail at predictable stages and for predictable reasons.

• We identify as artists, educators, or businesspeople and do not respect the fact that we have chosen to participate in the business of art and education. As a result, we are profoundly unbalanced—highly educated and more than competent in some domains but profoundly uneducated and incompetent in others, presenting a threat to ourselves and individuals whose support we need to succeed.
• We don’t know how to determine if the information an individual or organization gives us is accurate and aligns with our age and life stage; short-, mid-, and long-term personal and professional goals; values; personality; preferences; needs; and constraints. As a result, we make decisions that we later come to regret, sometimes too late to undo the damage done.
• We lack the insight and skills necessary to clearly and persuasively articulate our ideas and goals. As a result, our ideas are half-baked, our actions are insufficient, and we are easily dismissed or forgotten.
• We suffer from analysis paralysis, a lack of confidence, burnout, and shut down. As a result, our impact and income related to it are insufficient to meet our needs; and we grieve the loss of our unfulfilled potential.

Compounding these challenges is the reality that most of us do not have the time, energy, cognitive and emotional bandwidth, and/or money to find and hire support staff and strategic partners to compensate for all we lack.

How to Win the War of Attrition

To win the war of attrition—to stay in game and be effective—longer than others requires two things: awareness and competence.

awareness—“knowledge that something exists, or understanding of a situation or subject at the present time based on information or experience”⁵

competence—the least we owe ourselves, our strategic partners, and our readers, which is being “properly or sufficiently qualified; capable, adequate for the purpose”⁶

Because I’ve experienced and witnessed the challenges above so many times and am a realistic, optimistic, and persistent little critter, I’ve been compelled to develop processes and tools to help myself and my clients avoid unforced errors and maximize opportunities. This allows us to learn, grow, and contribute at our highest level without sacrificing our mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.

The 2+2-Part Aware Author Approach

The Aware Author Approach^TM to writing a high-impact, commercially viable book consists of four distinct but integrated parts:

• The 5 Author Awarenesses—5 categories of information every serious author must understand to make complex personal, business, and writing decisions, including The My/Your/Our Zone of Competence Framework^TM which helps us develop the self- and situational awareness necessary to maximize our individual and collective strengths and minimize our individual and collective weaknesses for better short-, mid-, and long-term results
• The 5 Aware Author Core Competencies—a combination of skills required to survive in the highly competitive “marketplace of ideas,” including The 7 Aware Author Critical Craft Competencies

The 5 Author Awarenesses

1. Self- and Situationally Aware—how aware you are of Your Zone of Competence and the predictable obstacles and opposition you are facing and will face as you strive to accomplish your goals

• • understanding of the four relationship domains (the domain of self, the intimate domain, the work domain, and the community domain), especially the defining features of your domain of self:
    • your beliefs, values, interests, goals, fears, personality, preferences, needs, and constraints
    • your current age and stage and roles and responsibilities
    • your current levels of competence related to your highest goals and responsibilities: unconscious incompetence (wrong intuition), conscious competence (wrong analysis), conscious competence (right analysis), and unconscious competence (right intuition)⁷
    • your combination of 7 types of resources: understanding, skill, time, energy, cognitive and emotional bandwidth, money, and relationships)
  • your understanding of the basic structure of the hero’s journey narrative arc and how it serves as a framework for high-stakes, values-aligned decision making
  • your understanding of the difference between strategy and tactics

2. Systems and Industry Aware—how aware you are of how things work, the BIG picture

• • your understanding of the basic structure of the publishing industry, including how and when each party makes and loses money in the business of books
  • your understanding of the standards of excellence for trade-quality books (craft awareness)
  • your understanding of how current policy and politics, rules and regulations, laws, and domestic and global events may impact the publishing industry and assist or thwart you (Remember that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and related laws both protect and limit rights related to free speech; and rules, regulations, and norms related to domestic and international commerce affect an individual writer/author’s ability to distribute their work and make money from it.)

3. Audience and Competition Aware—who you write for, why, who else is doing the same, and your proximity and authority/value related to each

4. Tech and Trends Aware—current events, industry expectations, threats, and opportunities (e.g. the impact that tariffs on China have on the price of print books, the use of AI by agents and publishers to sort pitches, generative AI’s impact on copyright law, etc.)

5. Resource Aware—where to go to fill information, skill, and opportunity gaps

The 5 Aware Author Core Competencies

1. Strategic Planning/Systems Thinking and Risk Management—the skills required to organize and purposefully act upon what you are aware and capable of while avoiding legal, reputational, financial, and other specific and potential threats
2. Project Management & Relationship and Platform Building—the skills required to expand your understanding of others and ability to maintain and expand your circle of support and influence
3. Writing Craft—the skills required to translate head and heart knowledge, purpose and passion into a form that can educate, inspire, and empower your audience; these 7 Aware Author Critical Craft Competencies are:
   1. Identifiable and Compelling Controlling Idea (Theme)
   2. Identifiable Author Perspective and Informed Representation of Other Individuals and Groups
   3. Identifiable Maturation of Ideas and Character Development
   4. Clarity, Pacing, Continuity, and Unity of Theme
   5. Differentiation Within Identifiable Genre and Sales Categories (a unique selling proposition [USP])
   6. Reader-Oriented Navigation and Clean Formatting
   7. Concision and Persuasiveness Related to Queries, Book Proposals, Back Cover and Other Sales and Marketing Copy (pitching and promotion)
4. Focused Execution—the skills required to stay the course despite internal and external distractions, pivoting when required
5. Confidence, Carriage, and Consistency—earned self-belief and the skills required to maintain situational awareness and strength of character when under pressure

Why Being an Authentic, Aware Author Matters

All of this matters because all meaningful communication—written, verbal, and physical—is advocacy.

When we write for public consumption, we are advocating for ourselves, for others, for an idea or an ideal. We are sharing our earned insights and truest selves, which allows us to more meaningfully engage with the people and world around us.

But the depth and breadth of our positive impact and personal satisfaction are limited by our awareness, our skillset, and our ability to stay in the game.

And the higher the stakes, the more aware and competent we must be.

Want to Learn More?

Click here to learn more about how I work with clients: Services.

Or check out this recent blog post: "The 5 Types of Book Editing Every Author and Editor Needs to Understand"

Sources

1 Zippia. "23 Gripping Book Industry Statistics [2023]: How Many Books Were Published in 2022"

2 Dean Talbot “Number Of Books Published Per Year”

3 Berrett-Koehler Publishers. “10 Awful Truths About Publishing”

4  “Why Agents Reject 96% of Author Submissions” (the situation has only gotten more competitive since this post was published)

5  Cambridge Dictionary online. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/awareness (accessed 10 January 2025)

6  Wordnik.com. https://www.wordnik.com/words/competent (accessed 10 January 2025)

7  The Mind Collection. “The Four Stages of Competence.” https://themindcollection.com/four-stages-of-competence/ (accessed 1 October 2024)

copyright Cristen Iris | WriteNow, LLC | March 2025

all rights reserved