A Browse Through My Bookshelf: Embracing Change—How Authors Can Thrive in Uncertain Times

Imagine if the subject of this article was that Amazon was getting out of the book business in 90 days. How would you feel?

It would be a shock.

That moment of change is shocking as we face uncertainty, but it doesn’t matter.

The transition is all that matters

I’ll show you how I work through a transition, starting with the book Change: How to Make Things Happen. I picked this book up twenty years ago when it was suggested to me by a guy I respected in a mentoring group I belonged to. At the time, I was in my early thirties, and he was in his fifties with extensive experience in turning around businesses.

The author, William Bridges, opens his book with this passage:

It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions. They aren’t the same thing. Change is situational: the move to a new site, the retirement of the founder, the reorganization of the roles on the team, the revisions to the pension plan. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological; it is a three-phase process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the details of the new situation that the change brings about. Even though you probably won’t find it in the change document, transition isn’t some optional “if-you-get-around-to-it” add-on to the change; it’s not icing on the cake that can be forgotten until things ease up and you’ve finished with the important stuff. Getting people through the transition is essential if the change is actually to work as planned. When a change happens without people going through a transition, it is just a rearrangement of the chairs. It’s what people mean when they say, “Just because everything has changed, don’t think that anything is different around here.” It’s what has gone wrong when some highly touted change ends up costing a lot of money and producing disappointing results. But as important as going through transition is to getting the results that organizations are seeking, they lack a language for talking about it.

Change is constant, and as storytellers, we are drawn to the inciting incident—that moment when everything falls into place, intentionally or by chance, leading to an irreversible change.

But that’s just the start of the story. The meat of the story is navigating the uncertainty and making the most of the uncharted territory. It’s about how we adapt and grow in the aftermath.

A big mental shift is realizing that this isn’t happening to you but for you. It is happening to give you new opportunities, to shake you out of the status quo.

The life cycle of change and renewal

Every business goes through phases. It’s common for leadership to require change at a company because the founder isn’t comfortable when he’s no longer the upstart and is now the establishment.

Author Nation was born out of this cycle of change. It was one possible outcome based on where its predecessor stood. The other was the show ceasing to exist.

The focus needs to be on what it takes for renewal.

The very thing you may need to let go of is what got you this far.

This is the gotcha of any successful transition and why a change in management is often necessary. The key to success that has become the standard operating procedure now is the system that strangles you.

When I take on authors and look at their business, all too often, it’s the fear of stopping what was successful in the past that is driving the decline.

They perceive reducing advertising expenditure as hastening the decline in sales, whereas I view it as a means to enhance profitability and cash flow while identifying how well advertising actually is impacting the business.

“It’s worked for so long, and while it’s not working as well now, it can only be worse if we stop.”

Or, this is part of a transition to a new phase. I didn’t say it would be easy or wouldn’t require difficult choices.

It’s easier for an outsider to see things that could change, but there also needs to be an ear open to hear why things were done a certain way. Only objective evaluation can see all the second or third-order consequences that come with the change.

Communicate the transition from here to there.

After the changes have occurred, a crucial aspect of navigating a transition is establishing regular communication—not about what is changing and why, but about what the transition will achieve.

For Author Nation, the inflection point came when Craig stepped down from the Las Vegas conference.

His choice to end his Vegas conference drove the change, but it’s not the transition.

The transition is where we live now and is all about where we seek to go.

Using the show as an example, we started as the largest indie authors congregating to talk shop.

Is that what the show will remain?

Yes and no.

For some, just an author conference wasn’t enough. We risk losing an important part of our tribe if we don’t meet their needs.

Additionally, in assessing what it could be, we see that there is potential to become something more valuable.

For me, this is crafting an experience that, when done right, will compound on itself—a positive feedback loop.

This brings me to trying to capture the model as a diagram.

For our community, it must be rooted in the driving force of the reader-writer relationship. If we can align with that and amplify it, our journey will be exciting and pull us toward it (you’ll learn more about the forces of tension next week).

I have never met an author who says they have enough readers.

You’ll see this concept reflected in the model below:

If we do this, supporters like influencers and industry participants will want to be included to distribute that value, bringing more reach and support. The growth can be scaled, and stronger bonds can be formed between community members.

In short, the transition is from an author-centric event to a joint reader-and-author event.

Let’s face it: every penny from sponsorship dollars or ticket sales stems from readers who pay for stories or authors investing their own capital to get those readers—follow the money.

Now, the mission becomes clear. We are moving toward an event where the reader-writer relationship takes center stage.

In 2023, I was able to run a limited marketing campaign to find readers. It resulted in the largest RAVE reader turnout to date.

This brief campaign kickstarted our reader marketing early. You know I like to give time for work to compound. Starting earlier is important because, just like the first $100 in a savings account, those initial readers will have more time in our system to compound.

What you are reading is the best example of transparent communication that I can think of. I am explaining to you where we are going and showing the results of the work required to get there.

While the list of RAVE readers is still less than 1,000, it is no longer zero.

My goal is to create the largest reader event in the world, where readers will pay a premium to hang out with their favorite authors.

Would such an event interest you?

Choices and mistakes were made.

The first forty-eight hours of the transition were bumpy.

First, we chose not to open a Facebook group for communication. This decision was a tradeoff on quickly building a group based on interest in the previous conference, but it could also bring the most vocal and toxic group members with it.

I then introduced the VIP ticket without fully communicating the rationale behind it. This announcement resulted in some imagining the worst. That ticket level should have been left out of communications until the bigger ideas of drawing a reader group and having a shared event were socialized.

These things happen, and it’s crucial to stay focused on the overall objective without being swayed by the emotions of the moment.

The solution involved a long period of answering emails, as this was the only way people could communicate. I’m more than happy to address a person’s concerns one-on-one; I just didn’t want a mob interjecting.

One outcome is that some people will choose not to be associated with the new show. That is their choice. I’m confident that the Author Nation experience will deliver what the greater community needs.

As an author, you face similar issues with your community. When the most vocal are voicing their opinion, see if it comes with a solution or an offer of help.

It rarely does…

Change as the norm

This idea may be the hardest to swallow. We live in an age where changes happen more often, and the pace can put us in an endless loop of transitions.

What if this is the case?

You can take your ball and go home. That’s an option for all of us.

If you want to play the game, then change must be embraced.

Your self-talk during transitions

I’m built for this!

At times when it would be easy to bitch and moan, I remind myself I’m built for this.

I choose to run to the fire, not away.

Ninety-nine percent of reality is my perception of it. How I choose to talk to myself and the way I frame the situation is what creates my viewpoint.

One more thing…

WBS: Work Breakdown Structure

For you PMPs and Project Management Nerds, this is my way of doing things, so I apologize if it isn’t how you learned things.

I have created a work breakdown structure as part of communication with the Author Nation Team.

A work breakdown structure is a project management method that helps you understand the components of a complex project.

The next level (level 2) is the subsection of major work, which I refer to as the “rocks.” For example, under “pre-game,” we have “Management Team Formed 01.1.”

Below that, we have main tasks such as “Select Team 01.1.1.” These main tasks may have sub-tasks or a to-do list.

Author Nation consists of three interconnected events requiring significant team planning and interaction with our outside support network.

Creating this structure helps visualize the different parts and how they fit together. I do this in conjunction with our project management software to assign due dates and responsibilities.

Read: Navigating Tension and the Extraordinary Power of the Principle of Least Resistance