Introduction

This book is designed for the artist/writer, the creative type. I will use terms and concepts that I, as an artist/writer, understand better than the business terms that the rest of the world uses.

In addition, although I think of myself as an artist, this book is primarily for the writer who is just starting and is in their first few years of seriously writing. It's to help you start becoming a professional writer. I define a professional writer as someone who is interested in earning money, possibly all their income, from their writing.

I've always intended to be a professional writer, to earn all my writing from my writing. My first novel was published by Roc (a New York publisher) back in 2003 (yes, the dark ages). My next two novels were published in succeeding years, 2004 and 2005.

Things happened then, as they do in any career, and I stopped writing and publishing for about five years.

Meanwhile, the indie revolution happened.

I published my first ebook in 2011. And I've never looked back.

For twenty-odd years, I supported my writing habit with a day job. I did technical writing. I became an expert at translating programmer-ese into English.

In 2014, I went to the Advanced Master Publishing workshop. It occurred to me, talking with the writers there, that my expertise in translating could be useful to other writers. However, instead of translating computer-related things, I could translate business-ese into artist-ese.

When Dean Wesley Smith came up with the title for this series, "Business for Breakfast," it all fell into place.

Why did he suggest that name?

In 2013, I went to a different workshop about publishing. It was a weeklong. It spent an entire day on corporations: S-corp and C-corp and company structures, etc.

I knew nothing about corporations. In addition, the instructors used a lot of business terms that were completely unfamiliar to me.

And yet, I consider myself a something of a business person. I run three successful small businesses:

•Fiction writer

•Small press publisher

•Vacation rental owner

I knew I needed to educate myself on these terms if I wanted to continue to grow my writing and publishing businesses.

So I bought one of those big business books from NOLO press. You know the ones. The huge tomes that are pretty much a guaranteed cure for insomnia.

I knew that sitting down and trying to read something like that from start to finish was impossible. Expecting myself to do that was guaranteeing failure.

Instead, I made it a habit to read this book in chunks. Twenty minutes, every morning, while I ate breakfast.

Doing that, I was able to get through the momentous tome of Incorporate Your Business: A Legal Guide to Forming a Corporation in Your State. As well as The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs To Know. And The Freelancer's Survival Guide.

NOTE: See the recommended reading list in the Appendix.

This book is also designed to be digested in very small chunks. None of the chapters are longer than 1300 words. You can read each one in twenty minutes or less. Perhaps over breakfast. Thus, the name of this book and this series.

By the end of this book, my goal is to have given you, the artist/writer, enough information that you understand what it means to be a professional business person as well. How much of this information that you use is up to you. Your business, as well as your career, will be different than mine. You have your own choices to make.

There are many paths to the mountain. This book will help you figure out the right equipment for you.

I hope to see you around the breakfast table.

Leah
Jan 2014