A Strategic Income Shift For Authors: Going Beyond Book Sales!

There are countless numbers of authors springing up each year, and when I say “authors”, my focus here is on authors who write about their fields of expertise, e.g. Health Professionals, Consultants, Marketing Experts, Investors, Business Men and Women, etc (I’m not referring to novelists, and the likes).

There are certain setbacks these individuals face today with regards to their career path. Let’s see what they are:

• Making a good living today as an author is near impossible as it was 10, 20 years ago (yes there are those ones who have sold millions of copies, but it’s often 1 in hundreds of thousands… if not more). According a post by The Guardian newspaper back in 2014, writers make very low income annually Check out the post here

• Publisher fees and royalty percentages offered today are discouraging a lot of authors from taking the leap (yes, there are writers and authors who still don’t believe in self publishing)

• The self publishing arena has become saturated (based on how easy and quick one can publish their book), and most authors are finding it really hard to stand out within their niche

• Most authors live in self denial, and they look at the numbers differently (in terms of sales and royalty). I read a pretty unique blog post by Bob Mayer recently, and he shares 13 harsh truths about making a living writing (a must read for authors)

• Most authors are not natural marketers, so the idea of promoting their book is daunting (most have been led to believe that all they need to do is just hit publish, and the rest will take care of itself). Also, there’s that aspect of not having enough resources to pay someone else to do it

• Authors who are forward thinking have ventured into speaking, training and consulting, however, they still lack the ability to scale their income based on the fact they either don’t have a system in place or what they have is broken (i.e. not working or outdated)

I believe there are a lot of other issues, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

Let’s talk about “income beyond book sales”

I’m going to go straight to the point and share strategic ways authors can use to make the shift from book sales to building a reliable income generating system.

So, here goes…

• Highlight the core problem you are trying to solve with your book

• Find out who really needs this problem solved (your readers, your email list, your group members, fans, etc)

• Reach out to them and ask if they’d be interested in having an advanced training on how to solve XYZ (in line with your book). Don’t create any training yet until you have a good amount of interest.

• Create some ads on social media channels to reach more people through effective targeting, and send them to a landing page to register for a free online workshop about XYZ (still in line with your book). Avoid spending money on ads if you haven’t done your due diligence (see the last point).

• Get on the free online workshop, share useful tips and also give an overview of your advanced training (remember, everything is based on your book; if you have a lot of books, pick the one that is generating more interest and revenue). Also, be sure to set a timeline for the training (maximum 8 weeks and minimum 4 weeks).
  • Side Note: don’t create the training before the free online workshop. You create the training afterwards, because by then, you’d have built good momentum and interest.

• Avoid trying to sell your book during this free workshop; that’s not what it’s all about. The primary aim in doing this is to provide goodwill service and also introduce your new training. Let people request for the book instead of trying to sell it to them directly on the workshop

• Get those interested in your advanced training to pay up front and secure their spot (make it limited to the number of people you know you can manage). Remember, for this to work, your offer must be solving a core need; so bring as much value as possible to the table

• Give yourself roughly a week to get the training ready (at most 2 weeks, and preferably delivered online in video format within a secure a membership website). Once it’s ready, give early adopters access

• Set up weekly Q&A sessions (at most 2 hours a day, and 2 days a week). Also provide email support or create a closed Facebook or Linkedin group to give more support and build interaction with your new community

That’s it in a nut shell!

The only downside to this whole set up is knowing how to get started in setting the process. My dear mum used to say to me when I was very young – “things are easier said than done” – and that stuck with me.

So, now you have the blueprint that can help you position yourself and your book a lot better (if done well), what are you going to with it?

Just like your book, having a blueprint of anything is one step, applying the principles it carries is another step… but the ultimate step is applying the principles very well to get results in the real world. That is what your audience needs.

The reality for book readers is that some of them will take action based on the knowledge acquired while some won’t (there could be a lot of reasons for the latter).

Authors who only focus on how many sales they’ve made have a very limited vision of what their knowledge and experience can do to impact the lives of others positively.

Start looking beyond book sales, focus on connecting with your audience and give them more than just ink on paper. This also goes beyond a speaking gig or doing a 1-on-1 consulting session (frankly, these 2 can be time consuming and energy sapping).

What you need is a strategy (not a tactic), and what I’ve just outlined here is designed to give you more leverage, if you are serious about making the shift.

Do you think implementing this system would be a good thing for your career? If yes, how would you go about applying it? If you need help setting it up; then click here to apply for a free call session with me and we’ll take it from there.

Your turn: what did you think of this post? Leave your comment below.

To your success!