The Profitable Author Life Is the Good Life
How building sustainable author income overlaps with 2,000 years of philosophy on human flourishing
When philosophers from Aristotle to modern thinkers ask What constitutes a good life?, they’re not talking about comfort or ease. They’re talking about eudaimonia—human flourishing. A life well-lived. A life of meaning, growth, and excellence.
In my career as a publisher, entrepreneur, author coach, and business strategist (all indirectly the result of dropping out of a philosophy graduate program), I’ve come to this conclusion: The framework I observed and developed for building profitable author businesses isn’t just about making money. It’s a practical pathway to the good life for creative people.
The seven pillars of a profitable author life you love map directly onto philosophical concepts about human flourishing that have endured for millennia. Whether you’re a well-established author or just getting started, this framework serves something deeper than your bank account.
The Seven Pillars Meet Ancient Wisdom
Pillar 1: Know It’s Possible
Aristotle’s ethics and theory of action teach that we should only pursue what we believe is achievable. The Stoics emphasized the power of our judgments about what’s possible. Modern psychology calls this self-efficacy—the belief that you can accomplish what you set out to do.
Before you can build anything, you must believe it can be done. This is not a naive optimism. It’s grounded hope based on evidence, the evidence of others who have done it before you, under circumstances both better and worse than yours.
Philosophy calls this practical wisdom (phronesis for the Greeks). Understanding what’s possible in the real world, not just in theory. [Admission: I just finished Ryan Holiday’s book, Wisdom Takes Work, which prompted some refreshers on Aristotle and the Stoics.]
Pillar 2: Make the Commitment
The existentialists understood that authentic human existence requires commitment. Not passive drifting along, but active choice. You must decide what you’re building and stake your claim. The Stoics similarly stressed that we can only control our own choices and commitments, not outcomes.
Back to Aristotle. His virtue or excellence (arete) requires conscious deliberation toward a goal. Making a commitment to your author business is an act of self-authorship in the deepest sense. You’re choosing what kind of life you’ll live, what you’ll prioritize, what you’ll become.
And back to existentialism. This is Sartrean radical responsibility, self-determination. You are the author of your life, not just your books.
Pillar 3: Customize to Fit Your Life
The heart of Aristotelian ethics is that human flourishing looks different for each person. A good life for you must align with your nature, your strengths, your circumstances, your values.
The ancient Greek concept of know thyself wasn’t about navel-gazing. It was more practical wisdom: Understand your nature so you can build a life that works with it rather than against it.
When you customize your author business around your strengths, interests, values, and actual life circumstances, you’re practicing this ancient concept. You’re not trying to be someone else. You’re building from who you actually are.
And this is also authenticity in the existentialist sense, i.e., living in accordance with your own nature rather than adopting someone else’s script.
Pillar 4: Do 5 Things Daily
Aristotle wrote that we become virtuous through practice: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
The Stoics practiced daily exercises to train themselves in wisdom and virtue. Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a daily practice of philosophical reflection.
Modern psychology (and habits master James Clear) also confirm what ancient philosophy knew: Identity and skill are built through consistent, repeated action. You don’t think your way into a new identity. You act your way into it.
Daily practice—doing 5–10 things every day to promote your work, books, business, expertise, authorship—isn’t just marketing strategy. It’s character formation. It’s becoming an author-entrepreneur through the habit of being one.
Pillar 4 is virtue ethics in action. You become who you practice being.
Pillar 5: Build Business Savvy
Back to phronesis—not abstract knowledge, but the ability to navigate real-world situations effectively.
Aristotle distinguished between practical wisdom and theoretical knowledge (episteme). Knowing business concepts is episteme. Knowing which concept to apply in your specific situation is phronesis.
You’ve heard me say it: I know building an author business is possible and not in a theoretical sense. It’s possible (pillar 1) because I have seen hundreds of authors do it in their own way (pillar 3).
You build phronesis through experience. You learn by doing. You develop judgment through making decisions, seeing results, adjusting, and iterating.
The modern growth mindset concept studied and popularized by Carol Dweck echoes ancient philosophy. You’re not born knowing. You can learn. You will make mistakes. That’s how growth happens, mastery develops.
Building business savvy “as you go, from where you are” is practicing phronesis, becoming wise, and capable, through action.
Pillar 6: Up Your Mindset Game
The Stoics built an entire philosophical system around the principle that your judgments create your experience. As Epictetus instructed, “It’s not events that disturb us, but our judgments about them.”
Modern cognitive psychology validates the same. Your thoughts create your emotional experience, which drives your behavior, which produces your results.
Working on your mindset—rewriting limiting beliefs, developing resilience, practicing self-compassion, expanding what you think is possible—is ancient Stoic practice updated for the modern author business.
The Stoics also encouraged self-examination (knowing where you’re stuck) and daily practice (meditation, journaling, perspective-taking) to develop inner strength.
This pillar isn’t woo-woo metaphysics. It’s 2,000 years of philosophical wisdom about the examined life applied to your author career.
Pillar 7: Cultivate a Network of Support
Aristotle taught that friendship (philia) is essential to the good life. Humans are social creatures. We cannot flourish in isolation.
He identified three types of friendship: utility (we help each other), pleasure (we enjoy each other), and virtue (we make each other better). All three matter.
The favors economy, reaching out daily, asking for help, showing up for others—these aren’t networking tactics. They’re the practices of human connection that philosophers have identified as essential to living well.
Martin Buber distinguished between “I–It” relationships (using others as objects) and “I–Thou” relationships (genuine connection). Cultivating a true network means treating others as fellow humans, not just utility. [Admission: I’m reading I and Thou now and it’s devastatingly boring and disappointing; will stick to secondary sources on Buber from now on.]
Community isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a requirement for human flourishing.
Why This Matters Beyond Making Money
Here’s what philosophers from nearly every tradition agree on. The good life requires…
living in accordance with your nature (Customize to fit your life);
developing excellence through practice (Do 5 things daily, Build business savvy);
self-knowledge and inner work (Up your mindset game);
meaningful relationships and community (Cultivate network of support); and
agency and authentic choice (Know it’s possible, Make the commitment).
Sound familiar? These are the seven pillars of a sustainable, income-generating author life you love.
Building a profitable author business using this framework doesn’t just make you money. It makes you more fully yourself. It develops your capacities. It forces you to examine your beliefs and values. It requires community and connection. It demands personal growth.
This is eudaimonia for creative people in the modern economy.
You’re not just building a business. You’re building a life. A way of living that integrates your creative work with sustainable income, that develops your character while serving your readers, that requires both inner work and outer action.
The Practical Meets the Philosophical
The Stoics understood something modern self-help often misses. Wisdom without action is worthless. Philosophy must be practical or it’s just entertainment or blowhard sophistry.
These seven pillars work because they’re both philosophical and practical. They address both inner game (mindset, commitment, self-knowledge) and outer game (daily action, business skills, relationships).
Aristotle taught that virtue exists in the mean between extremes. My framework for an income-generating, sustainable author business you love embodies this:
belief balanced with action (Know it’s possible + Do 5 things daily);
commitment balanced with flexibility (Make the commitment + Customize to fit);
independence balanced with interdependence (Build your business savvy + cultivate support); and
inner work balanced with outer work (Up your mindset + Build your business savvy).
This is both/and wisdom. A profitable author life and eudaimonia.
What the Good Life Looks Like for Authors
The good life for an author isn’t:
waiting for your big break,
sacrificing everything for your art,
staying small to stay pure, or
operating in isolation.
The good life for an author is:
building something sustainable that fits your actual life;
developing skills and wisdom through daily practice;
growing both your craft and your capacity;
contributing to your community while being supported by it;
living with agency rather than victimhood; and
becoming more fully yourself through your intentional work.
This is what the seven pillars deliver. Not just income. A way of living.
Where Philosophy and Profit Meet
Some people resist treating author work as business because they think it corrupts the art. Or they just don’t like the idea. Or want to do it. Others resist the inner work because they think business should be purely practical.
Both miss the point.
Philosophical traditions and modern psychology teach us that the good life requires both material sustainability and inner development. We need food and shelter. We also need meaning and growth. We need community and we need autonomy. We need skills and we need wisdom.
The seven pillars address all of it. They’re not just business tactics. They’re a framework for living well as a creative person who also needs to pay the rent, to thrive and not just survive.
The profitable author life is the good life—not because money equals happiness, but because this framework cultivates human flourishing.
So, stay with us here on this site. You’re not choosing between art and commerce. You’re integrating creative work with sustainable living. You’re not choosing between inner work and outer success. You’re developing both simultaneously.
This is the examined life. The intentional life. The life of continuous growth and authentic choice.
Eudaimonia for authors.
Recommended Action for This Week
Return to the seven pillars and ask, Which pillar am I neglecting?
Know it’s possible. Do you truly believe your author business can work?
Make the commitment. Have you actually committed, or are you dabbling?
Customize to fit your life. Is your approach working with your life or against it?
Do 5 things daily. Are you taking consistent action?
Build business savvy. Are you learning as you go?
Up your mindset. Are you doing the inner work?
Cultivate support. Are you isolated or connected?
Pick your weakest pillar and work on it this week. Not because it will make you rich, but because it will help you flourish. Because building a profitable author life isn’t separate from building a good life. It’s one way of doing it.
The Good Life Is Beyond the Margins
Join us for our monthly Zoom Beyond the Margins power hours. Each one is a little bit business know-how and a whole lot of community brainstorming, support, inspiration, and ideas for your particular challenges and questions.
We meet next on Wednesday, February 18, 1pm–2pm CT, when our theme is: 7 Steps to an Author Business You Love: Build what you actually want (not what you think you should).
RSVP here.
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This mapping of the 7 pillars to ancient philosophy is brilliant! The connection between phronesis and business savvy really clicks - its not just theoretical knowledge but actual judgement from experience. Love how you brought in the both/and wisdom of the mean between extremes. The inner/outer work balance piece is where alot of ppl get stuck in my experience. Great reminder that we need the examined life AND the sustainable income, not one or the other