Brave New Bookshelf Episode 57: Turning Your Pen Name into a Six-Figure Business with Kanika Bailey

In this week’s episode of Brave New Bookshelf, Danica and Steph sat down with author and strategist Kanika Bailey, who writes contemporary steamy romance under the pen name Joi Jackson. Kanika brought a fresh, entrepreneurial perspective to the writing life—one that challenges authors to think beyond books and view their creative work as a scalable, sellable business.

Kanika has built a thriving author career in the Atlanta area, supported by her involvement in the writing community through organizations such as Georgia Romance Writers. Drawing inspiration from the Side Hustle Nation podcast, she treats her author IP like a digital asset—one that can grow, evolve, and eventually be sold for significant profit. Her approach offers authors a path toward financial flexibility, career pivots, or simply more freedom to explore new creative passions.

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From Pen Name to Sellable Digital Business

One of the most eye-opening ideas Kanika shared is the concept of selling a pen name as a complete business. Just like online entrepreneurs buy and sell websites, authors can transfer ownership of their entire writing brand—including backlist, IP rights, email lists, and social channels.

Marketplaces like Flippa and Empire Flippers already facilitate these transactions, and Kanika has seen author businesses sell for six figures. For authors, this can mean:

If you want to sell:
You can cash out of a profitable genre or series that no longer inspires you, hand the pen name to a motivated buyer, and move on to your next creative chapter.

If you want to buy:
You can acquire an existing, cash-flowing brand and accelerate its growth through audiobooks, translations, new series installments, or expanded marketing.

Kanika emphasized that professional brokers like Empire Flippers guide authors through the logistics, including transferring the catalog into a new KDP account.

Building an AI-Powered Editing Team

Kanika has reimagined her editing workflow by treating her AI tools as a team of junior editors. Drawing inspiration from members of the AI Writing for Authors community, she created specific personas for developmental editors, sensitivity readers, and more.

Her biggest tip?
Tell your AI to be blunt.
Ask for harsh, critical feedback so you can strengthen your draft faster.

She especially loves AutoCrit, which recently introduced Market Fuel—an AI beta reader system with personas such as:

• Romance Reader
• Big-Picture Reader
• Highly Critical Reader

Through these personas, Kanika discovered that her male POV chapters lacked the emotional intensity of her female POV chapters. The AI’s emoji-based chapter feedback helped her pinpoint exactly where to make improvements.

A Conversational Way to Brainstorm with AI

Kanika prefers a collaborative, natural approach when using AI for outlining and genre exploration. Instead of crafting “mega prompts,” she treats AI like a writing partner: “I don’t like how Act Two is going. I think we should do this.”

This back-and-forth helps her refine ideas for future books, including her upcoming action-adventure romance inspired by Romancing the Stone. She often asks the AI to challenge her or ask follow-up questions to deepen the story.

Using AI for Reader Analysis and Marketing Inspiration

One of the most creative techniques Kanika shared involves feeding all her Goodreads reviews into AI and asking it to build a detailed profile of her ideal reader.

The result included:

• A name and age range (30s–40s)
• Lifestyle traits
• Format preferences (ebooks and audiobooks)
• What emotional beats resonate most

This profile then fueled ideas for distinctive reader magnets, such as:

• A digital journal for her tech-smart heroines
• Character playlists
• A Barbados travel planner inspired by one of her book settings

It’s a powerful example of how AI can support not only craft, but marketing and reader engagement.

Kanika’s Go-To AI Tools

Here are the top tools she relies on:

• AutoCrit: Her favorite for editorial support and AI beta reading
• Claude: Best for creative exploration and outlining
• ChatGPT (“Chatiana”): Her assistant for marketing and business tasks

Key Takeaways

• Your pen name is a business. It can be scaled, optimized, and eventually sold.
• AI can be your editing team. Use specific personas and embrace tough feedback.
• Talk naturally to your AI. Conversational prompting leads to richer brainstorming.
• Your reviews are market research. Use AI to turn them into actionable insights.
• Get creative with reader magnets. Let your story world inspire your extras.