How Publishing, Delusion, and Entrepreneurship Intersect

Plus, exciting announcement tomorrow!

Jul 15, 2024

I’m Tawny, author of Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze, co-host of the Recovery Rocks podcast, and co-founder of the vinegar-based botanical beverage, (parentheses)

What’s in this Issue:

How authors wear entrepreneurial/marketing/publicity hats
How running an NA drink brand is similar to promoting my book
How you can implement these lessons in my upcoming classes
Teaser for tomorrow’s announcement

There’s a lot of overlap between authors and entrepreneurs because authors are entrepreneurs. We have to be. We must also be delusional enough to think our idea for a book is so good that other people (publishers!) should not only read it but give us money in exchange for our words.

The same mentality rings true for getting our NA drink to customers and indie bottleshops. There’s a certain level of delusion required to believe that the drink we spent years developing is worthy of your money and tastebuds. But hey, if you’re not your own biggest fan, who will be?

Chatting with customers at Mindful Drinking Fest

Authors Are Chief Marketing Officers, Too

When it comes to promoting our drink, I oversee all things marketing and publicity while hubby oversees operations. Nick and I wear 100 different hats every day, not unlike being an author.

In the same way that we authors are responsible for our own press, marketing, book tours, websites, newsletters, and posting on every single social media platform all the fucking time—in addition to actually writing the book, we food and drink entrepreneurs are also in charge of our own press, marketing, trade shows, websites, newsletters, and posting on every single social media platform all the fucking time—in addition to actually creating and selling our drink.

The juggle is real, y’all.

Upcoming Classes

I’ve developed a series of classes based on the aforementioned Venn Diagram of authors and entrepreneurship designed to help you get a book deal.

I teach two styles of book proposal classes. Book Proposal 101 is a one-night event covering the basic elements of a book proposal, while my Book Proposal Boot Camp is a six-week intensive for folks ready to write their proposal.

Take My Book Proposal Classes