Now that you’ve decided to write a book, you may be asking, how do I make money with my book?.It’s not as simple as self-printing and waiting for the money to roll in. Books don’t fly off the shelves by themselves, so you’ll have to get out there and make it happen. If you want to learn how to sell more books, keep reading!
- Sell Your Physical Books
The first and most obvious way to make money from your book is to sell your hard copies. You can do this at book fairs, speaking events, conventions, and any other place you physically appear. Generally speaking, buying books from your printer/publisher and re-selling them yourself will earn you higher profit margins than you’ll get from a bookstore or online retailer. Taking orders on your website and mailing them out yourself is another way to capture a higher margin than your usual commission.
Using your book in conjunction with your other products and services will not only diversify your income streams, but lend you more credibility. Many people will buy a book to evaluate your concepts, philosophy, and general approach, so here’s your chance to convince them of your central premise. In addition, it sends a signal that you are serious about your work. The fact that you made the commitment to write a book, and actually finished it, impresses most people with the belief that you believe in your message. You might be surprised to know that physical books still sell very well, despite the popularity of e-books. Quite a few people still prefer the textile nature of holding a physical book in their hands.
- Sell Your Book as a Kindle/Audiobook
With the expansion of digital books, especially Kindle, you should consider converting your text into an ePub format for sale on Amazon, as well as through your website. Capturing search term traffic on multiple platforms is key to reaching a wider audience.
It’s also worth considering reading your book aloud, or hiring a voice actor, in order to make your work available to those who prefer audiobooks. The digital audiobook market has exploded in recent years. Audiobooks (and podcasts) have gained popularity in part because, unlike reading a book, listening allows you to accomplish other things simultaneously. Imagine trying to commute or wash the dishes while reading! Thus, audiobooks help people make the most of their time.
- Sell Your Book as a PDF on Your Site
For a zero-cost book sale option, consider offering your book in PDF format on your personal website. You can easily set up a paid download plugin and install it on your website. Offer a direct link to your book in ads and social media posts to drive traffic to your site and capture all profits. Offering a download costs you nothing, except perhaps the cost of your website or plugin, and can have the added benefit of capturing email addresses for your mailing list. Since you don’t need to pay printing costs or hold an inventory, it’s the perfect way to monetize your book. Just set it and forget it–it’s as easy as that!
- Integrate Your Book into an E-Course
Take the material you’ve covered in your book and turn it into an online course. You could also assign segments of your book as reading material broken into manageable chunks, with interactive discussion, questions, or assignments at the end of each piece. Depending on your business model, you can offer the course for free or for a set price. You can also create a set of companion worksheets to provide alongside your book, which will help readers retain the essential parts of your e-course and apply the information to their daily life.
E-courses are becoming quite popular, and once set up, run themselves as passive input with little to no additional input from you as the author. You can add other modules as you develop more material, or perhaps write another book, expanding your earnings potential as your brand grows.
- Use Your Book as a Free Sample
If your book is short, you could consider offering it in exchange for an email address. This will help you build a valuable mailing list full of people who expressed direct interest in your work. A custom-built list is far more valuable than buying pre-made lists of people who are likely to treat your newsletters as spam. If your book is too long or too valuable to offer for free, consider a companion booklet. It can serve as a teaser to your main treatise, enticing the reader to purchase the real thing. You can also offer the first chapter (or two) as a free download to get the ball rolling. People love to “try before you buy,” so a free sample can win over anyone sitting on the fence.
As you can see, there are many ways to monetize your book. You may use them differently according to your unique circumstances, but all of them are tried-and-true methods. Which one will you try first?
