3 Ways to Make BIG Money from Your Book

Why on earth would anyone want to write a book? I mean, a book takes a hell of a lot of time and skill to write (although a ghostwriter can make this easy for  you) and there are no guarantees that it will sell on Amazon or in bookstores.

Well, there are lots of reasons to write a book, and you can read about them in other articles. You can use it to establish your credibility, build your authority, tell your story to your customers and so o.

But what about a more simple reason? Can you make money from your book?

Hell yes! You can make money. In fact, that’s the primary reason for writing the darn thing.

Unfortunately, trying to make a book sell all by itself, either through Amazon or in bookstores, is generally not a way to make big money. In fact, most book sell less than a dozen copies, and at $2 or even $5 in royalties per book, that’s not a lot of money.

Of course, some books do sell thousands of copies. In fact, my book, Focus on LinkedIn, sold over 5,000 copies and made quite a bit of money. My book, How to Sell on Ebay, did very well also. Let me tell you, promoting and selling books is not easy. It takes a lot of work, patience, and money.

it’s much easier and far more profitable to use your book as a tool to promote yourself, your products and your business. When you use your book in this way, the sky is the limit.

Promote your business – The main reason an entrepreneur or solopreneur should create a book is to promote their business. How do you do this?

A book is often referred to as “the new business card”, but that’s highly understating it’s value. A business card is a little piece of paper that often gets thrown into a drawer or the trash. Most people, however, won’t just throw away a book. They typically will at least thumb through it, show it to their friends, and put it on the shelf. If you go so far as to sign your book for them, they will definitely keep it in a place of honor. I mean, how many people have a signed copy of a book? Better yet, one that you signed for them.

How does this make you money? Let’s take the example of a car dealership who has authored a book (written by a ghostwriter but with the dealers name as the author.)

The car deal displays a dozen copies of his book on the shelf behind his head, plus a few on the desk, the coffee table, and scattered around the dealership. By doing this, he immediately raises his esteem in the eyes of his customers. He’s not just a car dealer anymore. He’s an AUTHOR, which makes him an expert.

He can add a little bit of showmanship by taking the book down off the shelf, opening it up to particular pages to make points about his methods for selling cars, then end by signing a copy. This can have quite a “wow” effect!

By the mere fact of displaying the book prominently, he will find it easier to close sales, people will refer their friends, and his income will increase.

Get covered by the press – Getting press coverage can be quite a challenge sometimes. The media wants to publish articles about people and events that are important or significant. If you ask for coverage but don’t have a well known name or a strong event, then you probably will not receive anywhere near the attention from the press that you want.

However, once you have authored a book, you’ll find you have the ability to get the attention of the press. Better still, you can state, in your press releases and other promotions, “author of…” to give yourself added credibility.

By skillfully using your book in this manner, you can recognition from the press, which will get you exposure. That, in turn, can be used to generate income.

Get speaking engagements – Once you have your own book, you’ll be able to use it to get in front of people and speak to them about your topics. By speaking in front of carefully chosen groups that are relevant to your brand, you will increase awareness and let others know you are an expert. These people may become customers, and they will use word-of-mouth to let their friends and co-workers know about you as well.

By spreading awareness of your brand and your competence in speaking engagements, you can increase the number of people connecting with you to purchase your products and services, and that will increase your income.

Bonus – leverage the book – Once you’ve written your book, you can, if appropriate, expand on it by creating a video course, check sheets, and other products that make sense. Advertise these within the book, and sell them to your mailing list as upsells or additional products.

Oh yes, and don’t forget to create a mailing list and promote joining that list within your book. People who join the list are highly motivated and are likely to have high engagement and even purchase more related materials from you down the road.

So you see, by authoring a book you create the ability to set yourself up as an expert, and use that to add leverage to your promotional and marketing efforts. This gives you a huge advantage over your competition, leaving them in the dust. After all, YOU are the expert simply because you wrote the book on the subject.

Richard Lowe Jr

Richard is the Owner and Senior Writer for The Writing King, a bestselling author, and ghostwriter. He’s written and published 63 books, ghostwritten 40+ books, as well as hundreds of blog articles.