Updated May 2026 to reflect current data.

Richard Lowe, The Writing King, joined Biblio Files to talk about the side of authorship most writers would rather skip: writing as a business, book promotion, and the common pitfalls that quietly sink otherwise good books. His through-line is blunt. A book is a creative achievement, but a successful book is the product of a business, and the writers who forget that are the ones who struggle.

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In this episode

Treat it like a business

The mindset comes first. Most people approach a book purely as a creative project, write it, publish it, and wait, and then wonder why nothing happens. The authors who actually get somewhere treat the whole thing as a business: a plan, a budget, a schedule, and a strategy for getting the book in front of people. None of that diminishes the craft. It’s simply the difference between a book that exists and a book that works.

Pitfall one: expecting it to sell itself

The single most common pitfall is writing a book and assuming it will sell. It won’t. Almost no book finds readers without deliberate promotion, and the trap underneath that is aiming at the wrong target in the first place. Chasing bestseller status as the goal sets most authors up to feel like failures, when for the majority the book was never really about sales rank. It’s a tool, the credibility that earns press, speaking, and recognition, and judged that way it can be a roaring success even with modest sales.

Pitfall two: never actually finishing

A book can’t do any of that work if it never gets written. Procrastination is its own quiet pitfall, the manuscript that’s perpetually almost done, the project that keeps slipping because it isn’t treated like a real commitment with real deadlines. Treating writing as a business means the work gets scheduled and shipped, not endlessly postponed.

Pitfall three: cutting the wrong corners

Money is where good intentions go wrong in both directions. Some authors under-invest, hunting for the cheapest possible help and getting work that shows it, the same mistake as hiring the low bidder on a renovation. Others overspend, pouring money into promotion they don’t understand, ads that drain the budget with nothing to show. The fix for both is to treat promotion as a skill: experiment cheaply, learn how a channel actually works before you fund it, and spend where the return is real.

Find Richard Lowe at TheWritingKing.com.

Common questions from this conversation

Why should I treat writing like a business?
Because a book that isn’t planned, budgeted, and promoted almost never sells. The craft gets you a finished manuscript; the business mindset is what turns that manuscript into something that actually reaches readers and does a job for you.

What’s the most common pitfall authors fall into?
Writing a book and expecting it to sell on its own. Without deliberate promotion, even a good book stays invisible, and many authors compound it by chasing the wrong goal in the first place.

Should becoming a bestseller be the goal?
Usually not. For most authors the book is a credibility tool, the proof behind their expertise, the door to press and speaking. Measured as a sales rank it often disappoints; measured as a tool it can be a major success.

How do I avoid wasting money on promotion?
Treat it as a skill rather than a gamble. Experiment with small, cheap tests, learn how a given channel works before you spend real money on it, and put your budget where you can see a return.

Is going with the cheapest option a mistake?
Often, yes. Under-investing in the writing tends to show in the result, just like hiring the low bidder on a renovation. The goal isn’t to spend the most or the least, but to invest sensibly where it matters.