What are Author Ecosystems?

The Author Ecosystems is an archetyping system that helps writers find their best marketing and sales strategies to build a sustainable career.

Monica Leonelle and Russell Nohelty developed internally at Writer MBA before sharing their framework publicly in 2023.

In 2025, they continued working on this archetyping system separately—this is Monica’s branch of that work.

Some of the questions that the Author Ecosystem Archetypes can answer for you include:

• Why am I struggling to make this into a career?

• What advice should I take (and what can I filter out)?

• What am I missing in my author ecosystem to make this a career?

Monica has gone deep on each of the six ecosystems to help you build a business that lights you up. To learn which of the six archetypes best fits you, make sure you take the quiz!

Here’s a run down of each archetype:

Deserts are pliable creators who are good at writing to market and audience. They can make unemotional business decisions and can also ride a trend by delivering a solid experience. When they find a trend they want to ride, they are usually very good at hitting the market at the right time and place. They also do a good job of doubling down on things that seem to be working, and tend to put all their chips on one square.

Because Deserts are good at riding trends, they need to have a few different skill sets, including strong research skills, ability to produce quickly, and willingness to detach—both to double down on what’s working well, and to cut activity on anything that’s not working. Deserts tend to put all their sustenance in one cactus and build a highly profitable pathway of readers to sales. This brings more money in the short-term, though it can put their business at risk if any aspect of their system—audience, money, or market forces—dries up. Many Deserts balance this risk by having multiple pen names or by maintaining a freelance career on the side that they can always fall back on.

Healthy Deserts maintain a camel hump (or several) where they can store away their “riches in the niches” to get them between oases where water is plentiful. They watch the warning signs that the market is changing and they pivot when necessary—to another genre, to another source of readers, or to another platform. Unhealthy Deserts stray too far from a water source and end up thirsty when one or several of their money makers dries up. Because this type is focused more in the short-term, it’s extremely important that they feel confident in their ability to figure it out, though in their unhealthy versions, they fly too close to the sun.

Grasslands are focused, deep delvers that seek out popular topics that align to their interests. They plant grass to feel out a plain, but when they find something that takes root with a large potential audience, they quickly go extremely deep with it—deeper than anyone else has the energy to do! They tend to consider every angle of their genre, niche, or topic, so when they put something out, it tends to blow people’s minds and rise to the top. In nonfiction, they tend to be correct about whatever their thesis is. Grasslands are capable of becoming the absolute best-in-class at whatever they do, which is why they need to choose new potential projects carefully!

Because Grasslands are intense and obsessive about their chosen topic, they must stay focused to see the fruits of it. It does not serve them well to have multiple projects going at once because they don’t have the energy to devote to each one. It also doesn’t typically work for them to cross over audiences between two different interests, unlike some of the other types.

Healthy grasslands find fertile soil to take root in and grow the tallest, most epic tree in the garden. They also dedicate so much of their energy to one area that they become above reproach. Unhealthy grasslands plant a lot of seeds but never gain momentum in any one area, and struggle to deliver on deadlines they’ve set for themselves.

Tundras love to build cool things and launch them, and they are extremely well-versed in turning a ton of attention to themselves and their project for a short period of time. They are the type to study the platform and see what trends they can tap into to make their next launch bigger, and they are most likely to know how they are going to market and sell something before creating it. Once done with a project, they wipe their hands free of it and rarely think much of it again—the launch is over!

Because Tundras survive on a feast and famine cycle, they need to be able to peel as much meat from the bone as possible. Tundras become stackers—stackers of trend, stackers of value, stackers of audience. They are comfortable with having a lot of one-off projects and comfortable with building a diverse audience that only likes a portion of their catalog—though they welcome superfans who enjoy everything, too!

Healthy Tundras have a firm understanding of their seasons and build safeguards to make sure there’s never a point of starvation. They also learn to connect their body of work—usually somewhat disparate projects—under one banner so that every launch offers a bigger feast on their backlist. Unhealthy Tundras struggle to create enough feast to get through the famine periods, leaving them burnt out and under-resourced before the next launch.

Taigas are grounded, steady creators who thrive by simply showing up and being themselves. They build connection through consistency, and their audience sticks around not because of hype, but because of presence. These are the authors who people naturally want to support—not just because of the books, but because of the vibe. Their voice, humor, or perspective makes readers feel like they’re in good company, and that feeling extends across their catalog.

Taigas are product-focused and strategic underneath their relaxed exterior. They’re the kind of creators who intuitively understand the customer journey—readthrough, reviews, and resonance matter to them. They track their numbers quietly, tweaking product, covers, blurbs, and launch sequences to improve the path a reader takes through their work. They're comfortable on retailer platforms and often use tools like ProWritingAid or AutoCrit to strengthen what they’ve already built. They may seem chill on the surface, but they’re often calculating how to increase conversions in the background.

Because Taigas are consistent and dependable, they do especially well in systems created by others—anthologies, shared universes, collaborations—but without the overcommitment of Desert-style ghostwriting. Their collaborations feel easy and warm, and they’re not trying to be the winner—they just want everyone to have a good time and make good work.

Healthy Taigas daisy-chain their catalog into a cohesive experience, turning casual readers into loyal fans through vibe and value. They’re masters of sticking to their lane, gently expanding their niche over time, and monetizing their personality in a way that feels organic. Unhealthy Taigas, however, can become too niche, shrinking their audience by staying too safe or failing to evolve. They can also burn out quietly by overgiving without realizing they’ve lost connection to themselves in the process.

Forests are often marching to the beat of their interests and putting their own unique spin on everything they do for their readers. They have a close relationship with their fans largely because they inject so much of their own personality into all their books. They could write a murder mystery, a sweet romance, and cozy comedy, and readers will gobble it up because it’s [insert name here]’s take on the genre!

Because Forests are multi-passionate, they tend to have multiple pen names going at once. Whereas this might overwhelm other types, Forests are good at watering each of their trees every year on a consistent schedule so everything grows steadily. They are extremely competent and tend to stack an impressive number of skills to deliver high-quality work across everything they do. Forests are good at being top of the class and being part of the conversation. To do this, Forests must be consistent, hard working, and patient, as it takes time, energy, and money to stand up each of their trees. (And they still need to do so one at a time to get a bit of momentum in one area before moving on to another!)

Healthy Forests survive by cross-pollinating their work across all their interests. The key connection is their personality, and their fans gravitate toward them for who they are rather than what they do or write. Unhealthy Forests chase trends, explore too many interests at once, and don’t pay close enough attention to the marketplace to ensure enough others will share their interests.

Aquatics are excited about everything and want to create an immersive experience for their readers. They know exactly what their fans want and this dictates both what they create and how the market and sell. If their fans won’t follow them to this or that platform, they don’t go there! If their fans want to see their bestselling novel as a comic book, they create it for them—even if they have no idea how to do a comic book. (They’ll learn!)

Because Aquatics build their business horizontally and have their hands in many different formats as well as merchandise, they must be competent at many skill sets, like building large stories and worlds, delegating, building a functional team that understands the bigger vision, maintaining a strong connection to fans, and expanding slowly and as time, energy, money, and other resources allow.

Healthy Aquatics survive by creating cool new things that both service their current audience and help them grow a larger audience. Unhealthy Aquatics create too many things with disparate audiences, spreading themselves too thin and losing momentum across everything.