Have you been wondering whether you can make a living by writing books? Want to know how to write a book that generates income? We have good news in store!
You can activate several income streams from your career as a book writer with modern book publishing solutions. With self-publishing’s royalty earnings going up to 80% and other additional online activities, you can make a decent living from your writing career. Of course, everything becomes irrelevant if we do not deliver good books that attract and enlighten the niche audience.
If you have a knack for writing and want to explore more, continue reading this blog, as we have provided the best ways to make money as an author.
Why are Modern Authors Failing to Make Money?
The book publishing industry is rapidly evolving. Readers’ choices and their way of experiencing books are also changing. There are several reasons why many good authors of recent times are failing to make a living out of their books. Here are our top 7 reasons:
- They give up after publishing only one book.
- They don’t invest in quality book publishing. Example: Poorly designed book covers, unoptimized metadata, bad book description, grammatical errors, and unedited book.
- They don’t adapt to the current publishing trends, like eBook publishing and self-publishing.
- They don’t leverage the power of modern marketing tools, such as social media, email marketing, or having a website.
- They don’t expand their reach beyond one platform or distribution channel.
- They don’t interact with their readers and fans personally.
- They don’t explore other creative ways to make money from their book’s content.
Interesting Read: Remember to check our last blog on How to Write a Book that Reaches Your Niche Readers in 2023
Examining Different Types of Books and Their Writers
The truth is we cannot compare the revenues of two authors, even if they write in the same genre. There isn’t a fixed income as several factors go into deciding the income; some make millions per book, a few cross thousands, and there are others who don’t even reach $500. So, let’s start by understanding different types of books and how authors who write them make money.
Fiction Books
Bestselling fiction writers like Nicholas Sparks, Julian Quinn, and JK Rowling enjoy great exposure and good advances from traditional book publishing companies. Many other fiction writers, like EL James, earn a full-time living by self-publishing books in print and eBook formats. With self-publishing companies and applying the right marketing strategies, you can have a steady income of $6000 avg. Per month, even if you don’t get famous.
Non-Fiction Books
Non-fiction books are growing in demand, particularly in the self-help genre. They sell even after 100 years. You can make a great amount of money through non-fiction books if you commit to providing useful, meaningful, and productive information that exclusively solves people’s problems. Fiction authors who publish health and wellness, food, money and financial management, dating and relationships, and textbooks can earn upto six figures a year effortlessly.
Also, read How to Use LinkedIn for Non-Fiction Book Marketing, one of the most underrated marketing tools for this section of writers.
eBooks
Now that the internet is a thing, companies are largely using eBook publishing as a digital tool to promote and market their businesses, products, or services. For instance, a digital marketing firm can sell online courses through eBooks, an entrepreneur may create an eBook as a marketing tool for their products and services, and a professor can sell eBooks as additional workbooks or guidebooks. As an author, you can leverage the value that eBook publishing produces and meet your financial goals. Don’t miss our expert blog on Why You Should Publish Your Book as an eBook.
Ghost Writing
Ghostwriters earn a flat fee for writing a book for an author, influencer, celebrity, corporate, or business. For example, you could write a book for a notable entrepreneur who could be excellent at running their business but might not be good at authoring. Like blog writing, ghostwriting is a good business opportunity for many writers. While you may not be allowed to claim authorship or earn royalty from book sales, you can still charge a hefty amount to write the books.
Best Ways to Make Money by Book Publishing
If your current method for marketing and selling books isn’t working, try tweaking your plan and implement one of these methods below:
Build Your Own Authors Platform
If you want to be a full-time author and turn your hobby into a business, the first thing you should do is build a platform – a structural foundation upon which your writing business is built on. It is where you would connect with your readers, talk to publishing houses, engage media and news people, communicate with fellow authors, and increase your fan followings.
An author platform is essentially a website that drives your business. However, if you cannot afford one, having a blog site or a strong social media presence will also work equally well. For more clarity on this, read the benefits of establishing an author website before self-publishing a book here.
Don’t Stop with One Book; Write a Lot on the Specific Genre
If you want to be a bestselling author, you need to produce a number of bestsellers. However, remember that bestsellers don’t cater to a large audience. They are booked for pre-made or niche audiences only (an audience that resonates with specific genres, sub-genres, demography, culture, etc.)
So, write books on themes that reflect your genre, consider using genre tropes, and publish new books as often as possible. Example: Julia Quinn’s Bridgeton book series has a total number of nine books. She further released a dozen novels based on the characters from the Bridgeton books.
Refine Your Book with an Editor
When we are in love, we often fail to notice the flaws. It is exactly what happens when you write a book – you get so attached to it that you become biased and don’t see the mistakes. A professional editor can tell whether your book’s plot, writing style, characters, and everything else make sense without any predispositions. Their experience can point out plot holes, incomplete character arcs, poor writing and help you figure out where you stand compared to competitors’ titles and genres.
Quick Read: Learn How to Write a Book with Grammarly for Professional Book Publishing Companies
Consider Self-Publishing – It Comes with Several Perks
Choose self-publishing companies over traditional book publishers. Here’s one of the main reasons why: while self-publishing a book requires you to edit, design, and market your book upfront, you get to secure a bigger percentage of the royalties. Writat allows you to keep 80% of the royalties compared to 5 – 20% from traditional publishing. Besides, you can keep the rights to your books, meaning, legally re-publish your book with any platform or book publisher, and no one would question you.
So, if your book becomes popular, self-publishing will prove more lucrative than traditional book publishing. And with Writat’s flexible stand-alone publishing services, you wouldn’t have to worry about book marketing, cover designing, and book editing and formatting.
Read Why Self-Publishing a Book is More Profitable in 2022 and the future.
Expand Your Book Format
Don’t just settle with one book format. Make your book available in different formats to be accessible to more readers. Below are a few ways to tap into different readers with book formats.
- Use Boxsets, a series of books sold together. It allows readers to buy books at a reduced cost. Example: 3 books for the price of 2.
- Make your book available in eBook, audiobook, and paperback formats for enhanced accessibility.
- For successful books, try translating them into foreign languages so you can tap new markets in your genre. Hindi, German, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, and French generally prove lucrative for self-publishing authors.
- Distribute your book in new territories with a new title, book cover aesthetics, and ad marketing. For instance, Cecilia Ahern’s book Where Rainbows End was pushed into American markets as Love, Rosie.
6 Other Creative Ways to Make Money from Your Book
- Create an email list for your fans. It could be an excellent lead magnet.
- Communicate with your fanbase through social media channels, book reading sessions, email twice a week, host giveaways and contests, offer discounts, etc.
- To boost traffic, sell exclusive bonus materials via social media or your website, like an extra chapter, short stories, unedited scenes, and so on.
- Promote older books along with your new releases.
- Offer related services: coaching, consulting, public speaking, brand endorsing, courses and seminars, ghostwriting, editing, and workshops.
- Create a video trailer and send free copies.
While this was just the tip of the iceberg, we still hope we helped lift your confidence in publishing your book and making a living out of it. If you want to self-publish a book in less than 30 minutes, check out Writat benefits for authors.
