Whether you have sold the publishing rights to your book or you are self-publishing, the main question is how to earn money with your art. Only those who have written a book know how much time and effort such an endeavor requires. It starts with research, then comes outlining, writing, revising, and many rounds of editing.
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The Demands of Publishing
Published authors, who generally receive no or small advances and only eight to twelve percent in royalties, hold their breath until they receive their sales statements. And self-published authors? They have to invest in professional editing, cover design, layout and formatting, and maybe distribution. Then there are the most important tasks, the creation of a professional author platform, the book marketing, and promotion—all while writing the next book.
Publishing might raise two questions:
How can you wring the most royalties out of your book, and how can you make even more money from other ways of writing to quit your full-time job?
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Monetizing Your Books
You can choose to make money from your books via several avenues:
Retailers. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify! No business sells to only one retailer. Upload your book to all sales channels and all countries or use a distributor to do so for you.
Your website. Nowhere else can you receive such high revenues as for book sales from your own website. Inexpensive and easy-to-install e-commerce programs allow you to sell print and digital versions of your book.
Audiobooks. Repurpose your manuscript to create more than just a book and an ebook. Why not additionally create an audiobook from your novel or even from a nonfiction work? Audiobooks have become immensely popular.
Hardcover. It is much easier to get a book into libraries if it’s been published in hardcover instead of paperback. Print-on-demand provider and distributor IngramSpark offers hardcover book production to self-publishers at affordable prices and in small quantities, not the huge orders common among commercial printers.
Foreign rights. Licensing your work in different formats and countries provides another income stream. You can set up all the information about your book, including prices for different formats and contract clauses, on digital platforms that are easy for agents and publishers around the world to find.
Copy royalties. You could be paid twice for your book. Services exist in many countries to help maximize your royalty income through the secondary use of your works, and becoming a member of such services is often free. In Canada, join Access Copyright. In the United States, the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) compensates publishers and creators for the use of their work. Great Britain has the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), and Germany has VG Wort.
Writers Too Often Focus Only on Books
You’re not naive to think you could earn a living through something you love, and the promise of creativity and personal freedom attracts many writers. Working as a writer offers lots of advantages, such as choosing when and where you work and with whom. However, as making money from books takes a while – often a long while – it is better not to rely on writing only books but rather on writing.
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Do What You Love Most: Writing.
Marketing, promoting, and spending lots of time on social media are not activities authors cherish, but what about promoting books through writing? You can do what you love most and get paid at the same time. You know how to write a novel, but you also need to learn how to write shorter pieces and how to write for the web, where readers have shorter attention spans. All these skills can be acquired at classes on and offline, at workshops through writers’ associations and beta-reading groups, at book fair programs, at writers’ conferences, and certainly at college classes.
- Writing more books
- Writing short stories
- Writing prequels
- Writing sequels
- Writing blog articles
- Writing guest blogs
- Writing for literary contests
Commercial Writing Examples:
- Writing for magazines
- Writing newspaper articles
- Writing website copy
- Writing resumes and cover letters
- Writing sales copy
Leverage your writing and your research.
These opportunities don’t require you to create completely new stories or articles. In many cases, you can leverage your books and blogs and divide, rewrite, shorten, or add new content to chapters to “repurpose” your inventory. Another strategy is to use the content of your manuscript research and create new stories or articles.
For example, you could repurpose the research and content from a novel taking place in medieval Great Britain or a travelogue about a trip to Europe by writing an article about horse stables for equestrian magazines, one about the fantastic gardens in Great Britain for garden magazines, one about how to travel on a budget to European cities for a frugal living magazine, one about U.K. biking paths for a bike magazine, a feature about pumpkin seed pressing mills in Austria for gourmet magazines, one about a historic flax or wool mill in France for a sewing or craft magazine, a photo feature from a boutique hotel for a fine interior decorating magazine, one about dressing for city trips without looking like a tourist for fashion or lifestyle magazines… The possibilities are endless.
Here are some of the editorial and writing services you can provide from the quiet of your own home:
- Copyediting
- Proofreading
- Indexing
- Developmental editing
- Book doctoring
- Ghostwriting
- Copywriting
- Magazine article writing
- Web page content writing
- Info-Mercel writing
The good news is that instead of desperately trying to sell your book via social media postings or advertisements, you can achieve the same result by diversifying your writing.
Short stories, prequels, magazine articles, guest blogs, writing contests, etc. are fantastic ways to get your name out there. These avenues are also more fun, allowing you to gain readers and create a huge portfolio of work. Plus, you get paid—and in some instances, you are even able to promote your books in your byline. Imagine what it would have cost you to advertise! With an equal time investment, you earn way more money faster through these services than solely through writing books. And the more you write, the better your craft evolves.
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That’s Not All You Can Do to Earn More as a Writer:
Writers have at least half a dozen more ways to earn money besides writing. Use your creativity, expertise and your talent to:
- Apply for Grants, Fellowships, and Residencies
- Start Teaching On- and Offline
- Use Your Website/Blog for Affiliate Marketing
- Create Podcasts and Sell Them or Your Books
- Start a Crowdfunding Campaign for Your Next Books
- Sell Photographs You Made for Your Books/Travel Photos Online
This is just a tiny excerpt from the many topics and solid, detailed instructions you can find in our upcoming 200-page book:
Available in December at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, Weltbild, Buch.de, Bol.de, Waterstones etc.
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