5 Ways To Make Money With A Book
5 Ways that you can make money with a book. Some of these ideas are pretty straight forward, others are a little more, how should I say this… Top-Secret.
If you have ever gone through the whole process of writing a book, you may have even gone so far as to publish it, only to realize that you aren’t fully sure how to make money with a book.
1. Book Sales – Probably the most straight-forward concept. Write a book. Sell it. Get money. Easy, right? Well, sort of. There are a lot of steps to writing and publishing a book, and then selling it is a whole ‘nother thing we’ll talk about in a different article.
2. Ghostwriting/copywriting – This is when you get paid to write for someone else. Maybe you writing a book or article for them to use as their own. You get a one time fee or possibly a fee plus royalties. In the case of copywriting you are writing material to help sell a product or service. Some copywriters get a retainer, plus fee when the job is done, plus royalties on a percentage of sales.
3. Book as a brochure or business card – Many high level consultants use their book to give themselves credibility. They may never sell a single book, but they will give away dozens or even hundreds to potential clients. The book separates them from their competition and gives them authority on their subject of expertise. This can help them close more deals and command higher fees.
4. Book as a Sales Letter – A clever and often utilized approach to creating money using a book. This falls into the “information marketing” category because you are using information to educate prospective clients. They might not even know that they have a problem, or a need for your product or service. But they do some research for their problem and they find this amazing book that answers all of their questions.
Then, at the end of the book it provides some resources or recommendations and wouldn’t ya know, it recommends a product or service, the book reader is happy to have found THE answer that they’ve been looking for, and promptly goes out to buy said product or service.
A great example of this is Robert Kiyosaki’s, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book. Great book, very informational and educational. Oh, and at the end of the book, he points out that if you REALLY want to improve your financial education, get his game Cashflow 101. It’s only $100. Wait, $100?! For a board game?!!! Yup. I have two; a kids version and a grownup version. Would I just have gone out and bought those games on my own without reading the book?
Highly unlikely, I had never even heard of it until I read the book. Would any news stations give him any airtime to promote a game that he wants to sell? Maybe. But probably not as many opportunities and not as easily as it was for him to get promotion around his book.
So yes, he made money selling his book, but it was also a business card to get new investing clients, and a sales letter to sell his boardgame. Pretty cool, huh? This is how you can make money with a book x 3!
5. Selling in Bulk – Selling one book is cool. Selling a few books is cooler. Selling hundreds or thousands of books at a time is waaaay cooler! But how? Bundling it with a speaking engagement. In #3 I shared with you the secret that many high-end consultants, speakers and professionals use their book as a business card or brochure, so in those cases they are usually giving the book away for free in order to get business.
But, for those who do consulting or speaking, they will also many times package bulk book orders into their speaking fees. For example; I am a speaker, I charge $5,000 for a keynote speech. I am also a 3x Amazon best-selling author and my new book sells for a $15 sticker price. So I give a book away free to an event planner. She likes it and wants to book me. I let her know that she can get me to speak plus get 500 copies of my book for only $10 a piece instead of $15. She is over-the-moon excited and hires me on the spot. $5,000 to speak, plus $5,000 in book sales. Easy-peasy. Granted, I am hugely over simplifying the whole process, but you get the idea, right?
So there you go! 5 ways you can make money with a book. There are plenty more ways out there but this should give you some ideas.
If you are serious about taking your writing career to the next level, and you would like some professional guidance, you can request a free, no-obligation 15 minute strategy session with me to discuss your book.
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https://www.timetrade.com/book/8ZK5Q
Until next time…Be Flowing!
–Winston
