Look Who it Was Random video

How To Build An Author Business With Helen Sedwick

3,216 views · Published 17 April 2016 · 41:47 · Indexed 18 October 2026

Channel: The Creative Penn · 2016 · Education

Watch on YouTube

Download your FREE Author Blueprint here:
http://www.TheCreativePenn.com/blueprint

Helen Sedwick is a California attorney with 30 years' experience representing a diverse range of businesses and entrepreneurs. She writes historical fiction, and is well known in the indie author world for The Self-Publisher's Legal Handbook and has also recently co-written How Authors Sell Publishing Rights with Orna Ross (which we recently discussed here http://bit.ly/1VdwDsi ).

In this interview we cover:

The maturation of the indie author community.

What an 'author business' means, and the point at which authors should start thinking about their writing as a business.

The mindset benefits for authors around thinking about their writing as a business.

The challenges of the indie author business.

The two types of record-keeping that author entrepreneurs need to be conscious of, and the software available to support an author business.

Pen names, publisher names and imprint names, and what name your books should be copyrighted under.

The ways that an author business can evolve legally and with accounts etc.

On financing a new author business, including when crowdfunding works.

The number one problem Helen sees with self-published books.

Contracts with editors and other freelancers, what authors should look out for, and how to stay out of trouble with contracts.

Things to watch out for if an author is writing non-fiction about other people.

You can find Helen at http://www.HelenSedwick.com
You can find Publishing Business in a Box at http://www.TheCreativePenn.com/box

Other links from the video:
The Self-Publisher's Legal Handbook: http://amzn.to/1S7EvLn
How Authors Sell Publishing Rights: http://amzn.to/1V2fGl1

More from this channel