Creating Intellectual Property Assets Through Writing Can Change Your Life

Joanna’s Australian property

My husband and I had tried to build up a property portfolio in Australia but with the global financial crisis and the Queensland flood, it didn’t quite work out as planned. I’m sure many of you have similar stories.

Overall, I was looking at our time in Australia as one that reduced our assets considerably.

But my husband then pointed out that I had left Australia with a business, The Creative Penn, and this site, which now earns income through the sale of courses as well as my speaking. I had also invested in my own education in terms of internet marketing, writing and publishing that was probably equivalent to another Masters degree.

Plus, I have two novels and several non-fiction books that are intellectual property assets that will continue to earn money for me over time. I also have a business model to add to this IP with more assets that will create scalable income.

[Scalable income is when you create something once but the number of sales can be 1, or 1000, or 1,000,000. It’s not dependent on your physical time. Books, and especially ebooks, fit this model.]

Clearly, I am as guilty as anyone in terms of forgetting to celebrate success!

This realization of creating intangible assets was a profound one. I hadn’t seen my creations as actual assets before, as I thought the word applied more to physical things like property. But an asset is “anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value” Wikipedia.

You might think I had learned that lesson already but trust me, the penny has taken a while to drop.

That is incredibly exciting as we now have the tools to publish and market these ourselves, connecting directly with customers. We can create our assets and use them to create ongoing income, with much lower risk, lower overheads and lower cost of entry than something like property. [I’m not discounting property forever, but it is a good example in this financial climate.]

Books are intellectual property. They are assets. They create income.

 Joanna’s correct books are assets and create income. Books are lovely!

Carol Topp, CPA