Consider your book the foundation of a business. When you decide to write and publish a book, you go into business—no matter how you publish that book. You enter the publishing business, which is the business of selling books.
As I said earlier, though, most authors don’t make the majority of their money selling books. So, let’s go back to the idea of a book forming the foundation of your authorial business. When you thinking about how you will create a business around your book, you consciously plan out how your will earn your living, create income, from the fact that you are an author.
Every book you write is a business center. If you are an indie publisher, each book will have its own profit and loss statement, for example, as well as its own promotion plan. If your book is traditionally published, the publisher produces the profit and loss statement and may plan some promotion, but you will create a promotion plan for your book. In both circumstances, you must now consider how to make money as an author—how to make your book help you earn money.
Capitalizing on Your New Authority
It’s been said that a book is the best business card you’ll ever have. This is definitely true. If you are looking for new clients and customers, your book will definitely attract them because it proves you are an expert in your field. It gives you authority and credibility.
If you aren’t an entrepreneur who wrote a book to boost businesses but rather a writer trying to figure out how to become an authorpreneur—to start a business based upon your book, you want to know one thing: How to capitalize on this new authority. That means drawing on your expert status to do something other than just write.
Additional Income Sources for Authors
To earn additional income from your book, you must consider taking on different “jobs,” or being more than just a writer. Here are some of the things you can do as an author to earn money:
- Speak
- Teach
- Consult
- Coach
- Host a radio or television show
I will discuss these five career options in more depth in upcoming posts, offering detail on each so you can actually implement them as business strategies. For right now, determine which strategies work best for you and your book by answering these questions:
- Which of these “jobs” appeals to you most?
- Would you enjoy speaking before audiences?
- Can you see how you might turn part of your book into a speech or an educational talk?
- Does your book lend itself to coursework or workshops? If so:
- Can you identify parts of your book that lend themselves to becoming a class, workshop or course?
- Does your expertise lend itself to coaching or consulting?
- Would you enjoy hosting a radio show, podcast or television show (even just on YouTube)?
Your answers to these questions will determine to a great extent which career options or business strategies you decide to implement. However, keep in mind that the most successful authorpreneurs (and blogpreneurs) use most or all of these business strategies. Also know that in each case, the information you use stems from the book. In other words, the content for your speeches and talks, courses and workshops, coaching and consulting, and radio and television appearances all come from the text found in the pages of your book. You repurpose that material in a variety of ways and expand upon it, going deeper in some cases but always drawing upon that well as you build your business.
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