10 Ways To Make Money From Your Book

Have you heard conflicting messages regarding the ability to earn money from writing a book? Every day I am presented with this question from someone. As a book coach, I’m often working with business people who are used to analyzing numbers in order to make a decision.

They want to know from a business perspective:

• Will writing a book be worth my time?

• Will it be worth the expense?

• How can I leverage this book into bigger opportunities within my business?

And that last question is the one we are going to address today — leveraging your book to make money.

If you release your book in a vacuum — having no connection to other people or actions — then it will stay in a vacuum. In other words, if you don’t connect your book to something else, your relationship with your reader ends on the last page.

 You’ve taken the time to research and write your book. You’ve carefully chosen a book cover, gone through editing, and mapped out a strategic launch plan. It’s been a lot of hard work … but your planning shouldn't end there.

This is just the beginning.

Write A Book And The Money Will Follow

 That is a declaration I see weekly in advertisements from publishing companies and businesses that make money when YOU write your book. They preach a strategy where your relationship with your reader starts on page one and ends with your acknowledgment page. They don’t want you to think about the long-term, because they want you to tune out the red flags of hiring their services. Here are a few to consider:

• If they promise a quick production and release schedule: How can an inexperienced writer (if this is your first book) produce a high-value book in such a short period of time? Wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

• If they promise a ton of money in book sales: How many $9.99 books do I have to sell to reach those numbers? And where are those readers going to come from if I don’t have an audience?

• If they offer all-inclusive packages that include a lot of generic items with a high ticket price.

 Bottom line: your book is an extension of YOU and your reputation, so careful planning and thought need to go into every decision.

Write A Book And Extend Your Relationship With Your Reader

 Someone purchased your book, they read your book, and they want to continue their relationship with you. In order for you to do this, you need to earn a living. And your reader — who also has bills to pay — understands that you offer high-value content.

Thinking about the money and how you can extend your relationship with your reader will help you stay connected to your audience.

Your book should include a money-earning strategy. I know talking about money makes some people squirm, but you did click on an article about making money from your book, so let’s talk numbers.

Making money from one standalone book is not a strategy. Whether your goal is to become a full-time author with a catalog of books, or you are writing one book to demonstrate your authority. Both of these goals require additional assets in order to bring in major money.

For example, an author with 5 books can use any of these books as an entry point into their sales funnel. Someone who enjoys one book is more likely to purchase the others aka 1 book = more sales.

Or … an executive who writes a book that teaches a new approach to leadership can use their book to display authority within their industry. Someone who is impressed with the book’s concepts may be interested in additional services from this author like: consulting, public speaking, or workshops.

It’s not impossible to write a book and become ultra-successful from the sale of that book alone, but it’s not the easiest route to take.

There are so many different ways to make money from your book. It all depends on your industry and your goals. Here are just a few ways to generate revenue from your book:

1.Hardcovers and Paperbacks. There’s nothing quite like holding a personal copy of your book in your hands. While it’s great to sell books to individuals, it’s even better for your platform to distribute your book in bulk. Here are a few ways to make that happen:

• Author signings and panels.
• If you are public speaking or hosting a training, consider including the cost of your book with the price of admission for each attendee.
• Make a list of corporations or organizations that could use your book for training, an event giveaway, or as part of one of their ongoing initiatives. For example, my young adult book, Ignite Your Spark: Discovering Who You Are From the Inside Out was handed out to attendees of a WE Day event, used as a gift for students who received a leadership award within an Illinois school district, and as a training guide for a young girls empowerment program. One book … many uses.

2. eBooks. These are the books people can download to their Kindles, Nooks, computers, and phones. How great is it that people can have your book in their hands in 5 seconds? Besides providing immediate gratification, having an ebook copy is beneficial for the following reasons:

• You can run promotions and offer price adjustments, 99 cent deals, or even free downloads. This can help you get Amazon reviews, gain exposure to new readers, get people into your sales funnel, and boost your Amazon ranking.
• You can form an Advanced Reviewer Team for no charge. Instead of incurring the cost of paperbacks and shipping to your team, you can let them download a copy for free.
• You can add clickable content to your book. This is perfect for sending them to additional resources, downloadable content related to your book, or an email list sign-up form.
• By adding a list of your other books to the back-matter of your ebook, they can easily purchase the next book in your series. This is great for customer retention.

3. Audiobooks. This is a recorded version of your book — remember books on tape? Just like podcasts and YouTube videos have become popular, so have audiobooks. Think of all of the places people could hear your message: at the gym, in the car, on a plane, in a school pick-up line, and even at the beach.

• You can record the book yourself, or hire someone to record the book for you.  ACX has a great program where you can pay someone a flat fee to narrate your book to be sold through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Or, if you don’t want to pay upfront, you can strike a deal with a producer for a royalty share on copies downloaded.

4. Public Speaking. Books and public speaking go together like apple pie and vanilla ice cream. You certainly don’t need to go down this path, but it is one of the most lucrative ways to make additional income from your book. If you’re new to public speaking, then here are a few ways to get your foot in the door:

• Offer to speak for at networking lunches, to non-profit groups, or organizations within your niche. Consider waiving your speaking fee if they purchase a copy of your book for every person in the audience.
• Sign up to deliver a TED Talk. These talks revolve around a central theme and take place within your community. Every talk is made available online, and many go viral.
• Create a YouTube channel and post clips of your speeches. Haven’t given a speech yet? Create a list of speeches you can deliver, and create a short video with a snippet on that topic. Refer people to your  YouTube channel who may be considering you to speak at their next event.

5. Coaching. Does your book topic cover a skill or service that someone may want to learn? Then consider adding “coach” to your job description. Just like I’m a coach that helps authors write, publish, and launch their books … you have the expertise to share as well. Coaching can take the form of consulting, self-help, motivational, occupation-specific, fitness/health, or spiritual. Some options to consider:

• Offer 1-to-1 coaching. This is the most personal and elite program you can offer. You can do this via Skype, over the phone, or in person. You can offer your service via a monthly retainer with a set number of calls, or per project/call. Keep in mind, you are trading time for money here, so you can only scale this business model so far because you are limited by hours of the day.
• Create a group coaching program. This is a lower-cost entry point for your clients and a great way for you to work with several people at one time.

6. Online Course. If you’re familiar with Pat Flynn, then you are familiar with the concept of “passive income”. This is where instead of trading time for money, you have income generators working for you while you sleep. For example, your book does this for you. An online course is a great next step for people who want to dive deeper into your material. You can do this by:

• Creating an online course that resides on your website.
• Partnering up with online course sites like Udemy or Teachable to create your course.
• Delivering a course or workshop through a private Facebook group.

7. Webinars. These virtual conferences are used for many different purposes. You can use them as an entry point to sell your products or services. It’s a quick and easy way to demonstrate your expertise to a lot of people at one time. Or you can charge a small fee, and teach a group of people a new idea or concept. You see people on Facebook running ads for webinar sign-ups for a reason … they work!

8. Mastermind Group. Right before the start of a new year, I hear everyone talking about mastermind groups. They have become the “it” clubs for business-minded people. Anyone who is looking to up-level their skill-set, grow a business, or master a new skill can benefit from these comprehensive groups. While learning from the mastermind leader, they also get help and learn a ton from each other. Here are some of the most popular set-ups:

• Private Facebook group with a teaching component. The mastermind group I’m in has a dedicated FB group with a moderator, a monthly topic, and 2 coaching calls related to the topic. I gain as much knowledge from my fellow members as I do from the coach.
• A short-term mastermind group that revolves around one topic. You can take a topic from your book and guide the group through it. For example: if your book is about growing an email list, then your mastermind group could focus on learning how to build a landing page, create a freebie, and attract people to their offer.
• Mentorship program with face-to-face meet-ups. This is for local groups that want to learn and interact with people in their community who share an interest or are working on a common problem.

9. Certification and training. This is a way for you to create programming around the content in your book. If you have an innovative business framework, concept, or idea then you can train other people to teach your methodology. When I worked in software sales, we had numerous outside trainers come in and teach us sales techniques. This can be applied to retail, fitness techniques, motivation, productivity, etc.. The possibilities are endless.

10. Live Events. This is different than public speaking because this is a major attraction. You may have music, a production team, swag, breakout sessions, and multiple speakers. Typically these events are focused around a theme and are high energy. Everyone from Tony Robbins … to Gabby Bernstein … to house flippers put out live events.