Top 13 Ways an Author Can Survive a Recession—Things You Can Do Today

by Michelle Dunn

Authors are sometimes already struggling to make ends meet so when the threat of a recession starts to become something to worry about, authors can panic. There are some things authors can do to survive a recession with a positive outlook and some specific actions.

1. Network online and offline: Networking is something many authors shy away from, now is your time to get out there and meet people and keep yourself in everyone’s minds.

2. Invest in education: Continue to learn all you can about writing, marketing your book or articles and read every day. Read anything, newspapers, magazines, books about how to market your book, but make the time to read.

3. Follow the market: Read the papers or watch the news, know what is happening and stay on top of it.
   
   
4. Pay off debt: If you can pay off any debt, now is the time to do it. Dealing with a recession is hard enough, but if you have a boatload of debt on top of that, your stress level will go through the roof and you might not be able to pay it a few months down the line. Pay cash for anything you need, if you don’t have the cash, ask yourself If you really NEED it or do you just WANT it? Put your credit cards in the freezer or cancel them and cut them up.
   
   
5. Cut back on extras: Do you spend more money than you make at the café where you like to drink coffee and write? Is there anything in your life you can cut back on, such as extra features on your home phone or cell phone, can you cut back on going out for meals, or carpool to events or meetings?
   
   
6. Build your online presence: Every author should have a website, blog, newsletter, articles and even a press kit available online. Join online networking groups with other authors and exchange links and ideas.
   
   
7. Specialize in something and give free talks about it: What do you write about? What is your genre? If you write romance novels, call your local library, schools, rotary and chamber and ask if you can give a free talk at a meeting or a luncheon about romance and valentines day, which is coming right up. Pull something special from your book and focus on that, specialize and you will gain a greater target audience.
   
   
8. Create bundles and sell them on your Web site: If you have published more than one book you can bundle them up and sell them on your website, offer a savings. You can also offer them as an e-book or you can take excerpts and give them away or sell them to potential customers. If you have one book, or a special report or some articles, approach another author in your genre and see if they want to sell your book along with their book and you do the same.
   
   
   For example, I have two other authors that write the same type of books as I do and we all sell each others books along with our book on our websites as a “book bundle” It is all done in e-book format, but someone can get all three books for one price lower than if they purchased them separately and we each pay each other quarterly. If you do this be sure to have a signed contract with whoever works together.
   
   
9. Update or make your press kit: upload it to your website, print some out and put them in clear report covers to send to your local papers and genre related publications. Get new author photos taken now if you can.
   
   
10. Market to past customers: Use your mailing list of people who have bought your books, signed up for your newsletter or showed an interest in you or your book. Use email or direct mail to offer a coupon or discount. If you don’t have a mailing list, start a newsletter or quote of the day or tip of the day relating to your genre and advertise this in your email signature, on your website, and on everything you mail. As people sign up for this you add them to a list and use that to keep yourself on their minds.
    
    
11. Follow up on any new leads and all old leads: Pull out all the business cards you have collected from trade shows, chamber meetings or any networking event. Get back in touch with everyone on your list. Send them an email asking them what they have been doing and telling them about your work. Just get back in touch and maintain those relationships.
    
    
12. Offer outstanding customer service: If you sell and distribute your own books or articles, focus on having the best customer service out there. This will help you stand apart from the crowd in a huge way.
    
    
13. Aggressively work on your marketing plan: Send out press releases about everything you are doing, keep yourself in the eyes of your target audience during the recession. Since you may have less work and less money than is normal, this is a great time to do this. Nothing may happen now but in six months you will see results and six months after that you will keep seeing results. Never stop marketing.
    

A 20-year debt collection industry veteran, an entrepreneur, an award winning author, one of the Top 5 Women in Collections for 2007 and 2008, and one of the Top 50 most influential collection professionals of 2007,Michelle Dunnis the founder of her 10 year old Credit & Collections Association, the author of 7 books and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal. Learn more at www.Credit-and-Collections.com and www.MichelleDunn.com.