Let's talk about books and making money.

I sometimes fear that there is a divide between the noble creative act the selfless generosity of baring your soul & the potential contradiction or stark contrast of earning money, of earning a living, of making money from your creative act.

Let's be honest & practical for a moment (2 of my favorite things). Writing & publishing books very rarely earns people a butt ton of money. That does not mean it is not possible, but it is not as magical or as common as most people would like to believe. Read my blog about Royalty Payments.

Just to give you a few examples: when my first book came out, I released the Kindle version (with the intention of having a lot of sales) sold it for the extra low price of $0.99. I profited a total of 27 cents per copy! That is not a profit margin to retire on; not even if I sold 100,000 copies. "Well, then raise your prices." Yes, that's a good idea too.

One of the ways I support my authors is by coaching them on price points, sales-windows, sweet-spots & all of that stuff. There are different strategies depending on an author's objectives & goals at different points of the publishing & launching process. For sure we all want to find The Sweet spot the price people are willing to pay that earns you the highest return. But even when you charge full price & can make $10 or $12 per book, unless you're spending $20k- $30k on a marketing & advertisement budget (no, I'm not making those ridiculous numbers up- I wish I were) you will not be selling enough copies to even earn that money back.

Producing a book of quality, even from scratch & by yourself-- learning how to do it all, cost a fair bit of money. A book requires a number of experts for it not to be written-off as "one of those shoddy self-published books."

1. A good editor --even great writers need good editors.

2. Cover design is far more valuable than you can possibly imagine because people definitely judge a book by its cover. 

3. Positioning & marketing -- so that the book ranks well, sells well, is highly reviewed & you gain social proof.

All of that shit goes into determining whether a book is successful or not. as much, if not more than actually how good the book is itself. I'm sure you know some really bad books that made a lot of money & sold tons of copies. But do not lose all hope, for it certainly is not a lost cause!

However, women who come to me saying they'd like to make $100,000 on their first book have a cruel awakening. I usually caution them & then if they're willing to play, will coach them on how to actually make money from the publishing of a book.

Here are some of the suggestions I share & things I want you to consider because book sales is not how most books earn money.

The ways you can earn money from book sales are as follows:

1. Back-end sales offers: What do you sell? What do you teach? How do you coach & support people? How can people work with you after they've bought your book? Maybe you have a $500 $1000 to $10,000 service. If someone reads your book & becomes one of those high paying clients, Bam, baby! Your book just earned you money! but that person still probably paid $7.99 for your book. If you're lucky if you might earn 70% of that, after production. That's about enough for a cup of coffee.
2. Paid Speaking Gigs: If your positions you as an expert, you can begin to line up paid speaking gigs... (and even sell your book at those events for a higher markup/profit margin. (see example of one of our authors who is a poet & performer.)-- link case study
3. Affiliate programs: collaborating & referring to other people-- mutually beneficial & supportive relationships can bloom in a variety of ways .

There are countless other ways to earn money on the back-end of a book. Don't be disheartened if your book itself is not earning tons of money. HOWEVER, it is well worth the effort to learn how to position yourself & your book to earn you money in other ways. Whether you are self-publishing or working with a publisher of any kind be sure to consider how you want this book to earn money. Include that strategy from the very beginning or I can pretty much guarantee that you won't earn as much as you hoped & that's a bummer -- totally unnecessary.

We can be both Noble & profitable without having to sacrifice one or the other.

If you have questions and want support strategizing the back-end of your book or any other writing or publishing questions, book a call. I, or one of my team, will take the time to help you as best we can. 

Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/@sincerelymedia and https://unsplash.com/@sharonmccutcheon