Erik
Hanberg is an entrepreneur based in Tacoma, Washington with a wide variety business
experiences and skills. He’s the Metro Parks Tacoma Commissioner, he renovated
the business structure of a long-standing theater, and, most prominently, he
has written and published several books which span multiple genres.
Erik’s
writing began with the sci-fi novels “The Lattice Trilogy”. He was happy with these
early works and they sold relatively well, but he soon decided to branch out to
writing non-fiction books for a hyper-specific audience of company board
members. He eventually looked back on this decision thinking it might have been
best to stick with the profitable, exciting sci-fi books. His newer non-fiction
books were very helpful to a small set of individuals but didn’t have the same broad
appeal and so didn’t sell as well.
One
of Erik’s biggest regrets now surrounding his book business is his choice to
use the same author name for all his books across different genres. Currently,
when readers search for his name on Good Reads or Amazon, mystery, sci-fi, and
business books all appear. He is now planning to distinguish his writings in
distinct genres under different pennames to avoid confusion as people search
for more books of his to read.
These
books and publishing business are an example of leveraging what Erik called “multiplier
skills”. These are broadly useful and scarce skills that give anyone in edge in
what they do, such as writing, design, marketing, and psychology. Erik
explained that a tried a true way to start a business is to have developed
skills in one of these areas and publish related content, often online.
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