Why You Should Build a Business Around Your Book

It doesn’t really matter how or why you started writing your book or how you published it or plan to publish it. Maybe you just had an idea you wanted to express. Possibly you had a business you wanted to get off the ground. Or maybe you had a cause you wanted to promote.

If you are reading this, it’s likely that you blogged your book or you created a blog to help you promote your book.

Now, here you are. You are an author—or you are about to become one—and you are a blogger. Will you become more than that?

I Wanted to be an Author Plus

Me, well…I always wanted to become an author. To be honest, I always wanted to be a bit more than an author, too. I wanted to speak and teach as well. I envisioned myself leading workshops and traveling around the country to talk to audiences on the topics of my books, not just to promote my books but to earn a living and to make a difference in people’s lives.

I didn’t plan to be a blogger. I started blogging to build “author platform,” to promote myself and my books, or to create a built-in readership for the books I would later publish.

The Money Isn’t in the Books

Here’ the deal: The vast majority of authors do not make a living from their books. Most traditionally published books never “earn back” their advances, which mean they don’t sell enough copies to make the authors any money past the initial advance on sales they were given for writing the book. Most ebooks don’t sell more than 100 copies—in their lifetime. If you’re lucky, your ebook might sell 100 copies per year. And most books don’t sell more than 250 copies per year or 3,000 copies in their lifetime.

With this in mind, don’t write a book thinking you’ll make money from sales. Write a book thinking you’ll make money by turning the book into other products and services. Write a book thinking you’ll build a business around that book.

Your Book Gives You the Ability to Earn Money

Your book, especially a nonfiction book, helps you be perceived as an expert, or an authority, and to make a living as both an author and an expert. And your book can easily be turned into courses, talks, coaching programs, membership sites, and other products and services. Depending upon your creativity and energy level, the ways to build a business around your book are endless.

Maybe becoming an entrepreneur wasn’t high on your list of reasons for writing a book, but if you want to make authorship your career, you need to become an authorpreneur. I don’t want you to be a starving writer or author, nor do I want that for myself.

So, for the next few weeks, I’m going to use this blog to explore how to do just that—become an authorpreneur by building a business around your book. Since you are probably blogging or blogging a book, you can become a blogpreneur. Bloggers definitely have the advantage, as I said in my last post.

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles| freedigitalphotos.net