According to CliftonStrengths, my #1 strength is Strategy, so it’s no surprise that 1) I’m writing this series on author strategy, and 2) I love the Enneagram.

If you want to know how to work with a person, you need to know what motivates them at that core level. What are they running toward, and what are they running away from, essentially? And the Enneagram is all about motivation.

So let’s talk about what motivates an Enneagram Type Five and how to build a comprehensive and compatible author strategy around it.

Although I’m a Type One, I appreciate the head-centric approach to life of the Five. For Reformers like me, intellectualizing everything is my way of managing my natural aggression and remaining balanced (it doesn’t always work). But for the Investigator, intellectualizing just happens. It’s how you experience the world. Emotions? Please. Those pesky things can be explained away.

There are plenty of successful Fives in the indie author community, but they do things much differently from the other types, and they can’t be bothered to change.

Let’s revisit what a Type Five looks like. And I’ll keep it short and to the point, just like you like it.

Type Five: the Investigator

You might find a lot of Fives writing historical fiction or non-fiction about very specific topics. That is, if you can even find them at all. They tend to hide out and only emerge when absolutely necessary. The core desire of a Five is to be self-sufficient and competent, and their fear is to be lacking in those departments and therefore dependent on others. Because of this aversion to social ties, they’re usually cerebral folks and deeply interested in a few highly specific subjects.

Some things Fives will care about:

Factually accurate stories
Finding fans who aren’t emotionally needy
Freedom to write to their specific interests
Time to research the stories thoroughly

Fives, you will look at this list and go, “Those are the things I care about because those are the things that matter.” For you, writing is all about ideas and observations, not necessarily the flowery language of emotions.

Sure. Let’s just go with that.

So now that we know what you care about, let’s check out the common reasons Fives might want to become indie authors in the first place:

“I don’t need all the bells, whistles, and bureaucracy of traditional publishing. I can do it myself.”
“I want to write about my very specific interests, and I don’t need someone telling me there isn’t a market for it.”
“Researching this book will take time, and I don’t want to be on someone else’s deadline.”

There will be other reasons, but since most indies I know have more than one reason why they’re in the business, I’m sure at least one of these will resonate with the Type Fives.

It’s important, though, to know your reasons, whatever they may be. And if you’re one of the Investigators who views your own psychology as an interesting study, then I’m sure you already have all your reasons for this figured out. Great!

However, if one of your reasons is “I can make a ton of money in this industry,” that’s fine, but I challenge you to analyze that further. What does that money actually mean to you? What does it afford you?

Fives can become exceedingly rich from what they do — Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerburg, and Annie Liebovitz are all this type. But can you imagine any of them doing it for the money? No way. They pursue their line of work because they are compelled to at a core level, and I venture they would do it even if no one knew their names.

But the fantastic thing is, the one-track mind of the Investigator can lead to great achievements and, as a result, the money needed to continue pursuing your interests without worrying about money.

So, let’s return to the question. What do you want to accomplish with your books? What’s your goal?

Here are a few likely possibilities:

I want to inspire people with new ideas.
I want to shine a light on the past.
I want to help people understand the world around them so they can interact with it more consciously.

This first goal is why Fives are often the visionaries of society. They like to think big and go deep, asking one “What if?” question after another until they arrive at something new. And then they like to inspire others to do the same.

The second one comes from the Investigator’s love of thorough research. You like to cut to the heart of the matter, to investigate, and since the only thing you can gather cold, hard facts from is the past, that’s where you look. But your ability to take what has happened, locate a pattern, and use that to predict the future is one of the many skills that sets you apart as a writer.

The third goal is only somewhat altruistic, if we’re being honest. You don’t like everyone running around being emotional and reactive. It makes you uncomfortable, since you experience everything through the filter of your intellect. But not everyone does. Twos, Threes, and Fours experience the world through emotions, and Eights, Nines, and Ones experience it viscerally, through their body. So the real motivation for this one is more of an “everyone calm the hell down” vibe.

No surprise, then, that Buddha and Eckhart Tolle are both Fives. Calming the hell down is their whole message.

Anyway, now that you have considered the things in this business that will matter to you, why you got into it in the first place, and what your goal might be, you’re inches away from putting together a great strategy.

Example:

I got into this business because: I want to write about the things that interest me, not what some literary agent or editor says is selling right now. I want to share big ideas and deep insights with the world.

Things I care about: Well-researched books, showing people a wise way of living, attracting similarly cerebral readers who don’t ask for any emotional connection with me.

Goal: Earn enough money to keep me fed and housed so that I can continue committing all my time to researching the things that interest me.

Like many of the types, the goal will likely include money, but only so far as fulfilling the basic needs that allow you to keep learning and investigating the things that intrigue you. If you get rich by accident, great! Who wouldn’t like a chunk of change? But let’s be real, if your electricity got cut off, you’d probably be just fine moving into the library.

So, this might be the strategy that goes with the above information:

Focus on one topic that I’m passionate about and begin my journey deep into research on it. Engage with others who are similarly interested to build my reputation in this field, write the most groundbreaking book on the subject that I can, and market it to the audience I’ve built during my research. Then do that over and over again.

This is essentially the strategy that Daniel Pink has used to create a name for himself with books like Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Do research on something for a long time, write a book to impart the knowledge you’ve gained, make money, repeat.

It might take a while to get traction with this strategy, but if you stick with it, you’ll end up right where you want to be. That’s how strong strategies work.

So if you want to build your strategy for your Enneagram Type, be sure to start small, with the things you care about (research, revolutionary ideas, topics that intrigue you) and don’t let the rapid releasers shame you for your lengthier process. Making a ton of money is nice, but it’s not enough for you. You need something more. So accept that, embrace it, and enjoy your trip to the library.