One of my favorite ways to make money online is through writing romance. But, I soon discovered that I had accidentally increased my workload with a ton of important tasks related to running my romance empire. If you’re reading this and wondering why an author would need a virtual assistant what a Romance Author Virtual Assistant would end up doing I think you’ll be surprised at the list of tasks out there that romance authors need help with. Before getting into the details, I also want to bring up that by specializing in a virtual assistant niche, it will help you find clients fast because they won’t have to guess if you understand their business model.
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10KVA
If you’re looking for a helpful resource to get you up and running as a virtual assistant, the 10KVA course is the resource that I recommend. The course creator also happens to be a friend of mine and someone that I trust and have watched grow their virtual assistant business over the past 5 years. Kayla Sloan has the goal of helping future virtual assistants be successful and develop unique online virtual assistant businesses that give them lifestyle flexibility and consistent income. Check out 10KVA today and tell Kayla that Michelle Jackson sent you.
What Does a Romance Author Virtual Assistant (Actually) Do?
Many romance authors find themselves constantly navigating the complexities around writing their books, connecting with their readers, managing social media feeds and marketing their book backlists. If they are also working an additional job, have a personal life or have other things that they have to take care of managing an author profile takes a lot of work. This is where a romance virtual assistant comes in.
One thing to consider is that each author will have slightly different needs. But, if you’re a fan of romance and respect the work that these authors do, it will be easier for you to design services to assist your romance author clients.
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5 Tasks Romance Author Virtual Assistants Can Takeover
- Social media marketing-Technically, this could be a separate virtual assistant role. But, it can also be a part of a romance author va’s duties. Tasks could include-general responses to fan queries, scheduling marketing collateral for different books, designing marketing funnels that get fans off of social media and onto the author’s email list and more.
- Twitter tasks could include (but aren’t limited to) the following: scheduling tweets, setting up author lists or topics to keep track of, designing a unique hashtag, or setting up a branded resource for authors in their unique niche.
- TikTok-BookTok has become an incredibly lucrative way for many authors to sell their books. But TikTok can take up a lot of time answering followers and connecting people with content. VA’s can help design TikTok content on a 3rd party app like CANVA, respond to comments, keep track of data related to each video and find other authors to follow. The key here is to figure out a way to access the author’s profile. Research the right password management service to help with that process.
- Instagram-Similar to other social media platforms, a VA will find themselves scheduling content on the Instagram feed, potentially designing reels, or sharing branded stories on the author’s feed.
- Facebook-Research the different niche specific groups related to the type of romances your author(s) are positioned in. Manage their Facebook page, moderate their closed fan groups, or set up and monitor Facebook ads are just a few of the tasks that can be undertaken on the Facebook platform.
- Scheduling in-person or virtual events-For the author who is public facing, they may find themselves invited to discuss their work on a panel or session. As the virtual assistant you may be in charge of the planning and logistics for those events. Or, may be in a support role that collaborates with the other industry professionals who will be attending those events.
- Schedule in-person book signings and manage the logistics that make these events memorable. This could include: sending a small number of books to the venue, decorating the space, speaking with the onsite staff and arrange for refreshments when needed.
- Email swap outreach-Email swaps are a great way to get readers in front of an author’s books-but, they can be time consuming. This task could include going on Facebook and researching the different authors who are interested in doing swaps, scheduling the swaps and setting up the newsletter that will share the other participant’s books.
- Email in-box management-For many people, in-box zero is a dream. But, having a VA who can manage the author email profile and is comfortable prioritizing emails as they come in, would take a huge task off of an author’s shoulders.
- Manage day to day logistics-There are a number of logistics that influence the smooth running of an author’s business. This could include lending support as an author moves into book launch mode, assisting with sales and marketing, setting up spreadsheets detailing important metrics that help give the author a better understanding of the health of their overall business.
Romance Author Virtual Assistants
There are a few important considerations to think about before launching your business.
- Do you have a clear onboarding protocol for your clients? It’s likely that you’re being hired after an author has found themselves swamped with managing their business. How can you make the onboarding process as pain-free as possible?
- What is a successful work relationship between you and your clients? How do you keep them happy?
- How many clients would you be comfortable working with?
- What would you like to charge for your services? I will strongly advise against hourly rates and encourage folks to design packages.
- Boundaries-What are they, how do they show up in your business and how do you communicate them to your clients?
- Payment terms-Once you’ve designed your services and the packages for them, how would you like to be paid?
- What systems do you have in-place to always be attracting new clients and promoting your work?
- At which business stage is an author a good fit for your services? Beginner/Mid-Level career/Advanced stage in their career
Romance is the most popular fiction genre read in the world. There are hundreds of thousands of authors creating romantic works in different niches every single day. The well-positioned (no pun intended LOL!) Romance Author Virtual Assistant has the potential of finding a steady number of clients who are in need of their services. Will that be you?
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