Successful Writers Sell More than Books
Grow your author’s portfolio with these complimentary products
As a writer this took me awhile to recognize (and longer to accept), but it’s a truth that more successful authors follow than not — we’ve got to sell more than books if we want to do well commercially.
Sure, we can argue about the deterioration of society, the value of a good book, and how not enough people read anymore, but none of that will help us grow our writing business.
Truth is, our readers have more choices than ever before. So, what else can you offer your readers to keep them coming back to you?
If you don’t care about the commercial side of your writing, you don’t need to worry about this. But if you do want to make money with your writing, and you should, then keep reading.
Successful people have multiple streams of income and writers are not exempt.
This process is ten-times easier to accomplish with non-fiction than it is with fiction, but I’ll show you both sides, because I write on both sides myself. I write thriller novels, I’ve also written a dozen non-fiction books in the past, and I’m currently working on building a writers’ coaching business.
I recently wrote a story about the addiction to ‘business porn’ (the fluff books that are nothing more than inflated magazine articles. I’ll say it right now, this story is NOT meant to be a support system for writing padded books and selling people courses on the back-end.
This is a guide for people who write GRRRREAT books, but also would like to eat and keep a roof over their heads.
I don’t believe everyone has what it takes to write a book. Just like I don’t believe everyone has what it takes to play professional hockey. But you DO have what it takes… so let’s make you some more money, shall we?
What else is there for writers to sell?
You wrote the book. It took months or years off your life. Unless you have an audience in the tens to hundreds of thousands, it’s going be very hard to make a living as a writer selling books alone.
There are many complimentary products you can add. With each additional product becoming an added stream of income. You won’t have to sell your soul or dig through the couch cushions for spare change. These are battle-tested income streams used by thousands of authors right now.
These are battle-tested income streams used by thousands of authors right now.
I’m an indie writer. Most of my examples are designed to help indie writers. If you’re traditionally published, you may have less control of ancillary offerings, but the ideas apply the same way.
There’s good news too — depending on the book, you’ve got dozens of options for additional income streams to compliment your writing. Ancillary offerings can breathe new life into your publishing business. If you organize the system correctly, many of these products may bring in more money than your books.
If you organize the system correctly, many of these products may bring in more money than your books.
Other offerings (some work best for non-fiction):
- Audiobooks
- Podcasts (ad revenue, added book and course sales)
- YouTube channel (see Podcasts)
- Merch (shirts, mugs, signs, socks, toilet paper with your face on it, wall art)
- Hardback books (many authors, including me, overlook this old favorite)
- Paperback books
- Digital books (each type of book is an added income stream)
- Courses
- Coaching
- Mastermind groups
- Consulting
- Retreats
- Industry publications
- Annual meeting around your niche (invite other authors to speak and you keep the proceeds from the meeting)
- Film rights
- International translations (you can sell these rights and stay hands-off… or not)
But I’m a writer. This isn’t what I signed up for?
Ok. Keep doing what you’re doing. This leaves more room for the rest of us. I don’t know what else to tell you. Multiple streams are the best income model for indie writers.
If it feels like selling-out or not staying true to your craft, look at all your favorite authors… now look at all the movie right they sold… and the merch… yep, they’re doing it too.
Or, think of it this way — when you have multiple streams of income, and you lose one, your life isn’t affected much. If you have one stream, your comfortable life is done.
Yes, there are writers who only write and nothing else. They make a decent living without these other amenities. No, this will not be me. No, this will probably not be you.
If you don’t sell additional products to your audience, someone else will.
One of the best things you can do to keep your writing business going, is to write the next book. Once you’ve done that, pick something else from the amenities list.
Books are very inexpensive.
If you owned a company (and you do) and you only had 4–5 products in you warehouse, and each product cost between $5–20, you’d have three choices to grow your business:
- Increase the number of books you sell.
- Increase the number of customers you have.
- Increase the number of books sold to each customer.
When you create multiple steams of income, you add these three choices to each product category. Books don’t always scale as well as we hope. You will have to work just as hard to sell a $10 book as you will to well a $1,500 course, or a $2,700 weekend seminar.
If you only write one book a year (or less) and your audience consists of 1,200 people, the most you can make from your list is the sale of one book per person (which won’t happen).
If you have a really responsive list, it’s more-likely you’ll sell to 30% of them. If you’ve got 1,200 people and 400 of them buy your book, you make a big, fat $4,000/year.
If you offer complimentary products that enhance the readers experience of the book, you can sell those 400 people a $2,700 valuable seminar getaway.
You just made an additional $1,080,000… you’re welcome. That would buy a lot of pencils. And this is easier to do than you think. You don’t need a huge audience to have a comfortable life.
You need to treat these people like gold and NEVER give them a reason to leave you.
Writers as a category (not you, though) have an aversion to selling. Selling can be really fun. It’s like a game, where you try and out-do yourself from the previous month. Selling isn’t yucky if your message is right.
You’re a writer. You’ve got a leg-up on all those sleazy salespeople. You already know how to connect with readers on a deeper level. It’s time to put those superpowers to good use.
The average millionaire (per James Altucher) has 5–7 streams of income. When you write, you’ve got one book. Streams are your safety net. Additional income streams are your insurance policy.
But I write fiction — what the hell do I do?
As I said, fiction authors will have a harder time with multiple income streams. But we fiction authors have the advantage of much larger audience size than non-fiction, so the odds of building a book-only business are higher, but there’s still hope for multiple streams.
Think about Pottermore for a second.
Pottermore is J. K. Rowling’s production company for all the income streams related to the Harry Potter books. There’s an entire Harry Potter amusement park at Universal Studios. There are wands, journals, shirts, posters, scarves, hats, coloring books, cookbooks, stickers, keychains, figurines, collectibles, stickers, conventions, plays, and more.
Rowling was able to license Harry Potter’s name to other businesses.
Although it would be cool, you don’t need your own amusement park to add additional, successful streams of income to a fiction business.
Smaller-scale ideas might be:
- Shirts
- Mugs
- Merch related to your worlds or characters (wands, sheriff’s badges, talismans, weird candy, and stickers)
- Book jewelry
You don’t have to store this stuff in your house either. There are hundreds of printers and fulfillment houses that will take care of processing and shipping for you. All you do is send traffic and cash checks.
If you don’t feel you have a unique-enough character for her own swag you can sell generic reader’s gear too.
You’re a writer. You sell books to readers. Readers like to show they’re part of the reading tribe. Reader’s swag, like shirts and character accessories works a lot better with fiction readers than non-fiction.
Many fiction authors also have a non-fiction leg of their business. They may write how-to books, or memoirs about the process leading to the fiction. I watch multiple fiction authors on YouTube. Each one of these people sell ancillary products and courses to supplement their writing income.
Whether you think they’re selling-out or not, multiple income streams beat pumping gas to keep the lights on.
It’s not selling-out if you stay true to your work. People who believe you’re selling-out are probably not successful with their writing. You don’t have to be a starving artist. This is a choice.
If you want to feel even better about staying true to your art, I wrote this story with a funny title:
How do you get started? Build a list. Start today.
You need a way to take your customers with you. Amazon won’t give you a list of people who bought your book. Neither will social media. If you come out with a new book, you’ll have no way to contact your buyers unless you bring the customers off the parent site and onto your list.
Inside everything you write, offer your readers a valuable (yes, something worth paying money for) gift for joining your list.
The author landscape if very different today, compared to 20 years ago. Even traditionally published authors have to market their own work.
When you own your customer list you have a captive audience.
Every writer starts with zero people on her list — everyone. It feels embarrassing and gross at first. Maybe you sign up your mom and your cat. You can build your list the free way (through grinding on social) or the paid way (through ad placement).
Either way you choose, your list will grow over time. Give your readers a reason to keep coming back. They don’t sit around thinking about you all the time. They’ve got real lives and real dry cleaning to pick up.
If you don’t remind your readers that you’re still out there, creating content they’ll love, they won’t seek you out on their own.
If you don’t toot your own horn there’ll be no music.
Start a list today… really, today. Even before you’re ready. You’ll never be ready. Fix your mistakes as you go. Multiple streams of income follow the power of cumulative effort. First, the progress is small. Later, the growth hockey-sticks off the chart.
Make a list of all the complimentary products you could sell to help grow your writing business. We want your other products. We NEED your other products.
When you’re ready to start your email list I’ve got something for you…
I built a free email masterclass for you (my link, away from Medium). I hand-crafted the whole thing, by hand… with my hands. It took me a couple months to build the first version (many revisions since). I call this masterclass the Tribe 1K.
Now is a great time to start (or grow) your email list.
I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending a hot nickel on ads. Past students include New York Times bestselling authors (yep, the ones you see in the bookstore), high-caliber university professors, attorneys, doctors, scientists, artists… and regular folks too — just like you and me.
Your email list will help you build a legacy creative business.
If you want to grow your creative business you need email before you lose that valuable reader’s attention. Start your list before you need one. Once you need a list it’s almost too late.
Tap the link (offsite link).
Guarantee your seat before I start to charge an enrollment fee.
We’re waiting for you.
August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed email marketing expert for writers and creators, August helps indies make more work that sells and sell more work they make. The core of August’s process is your email list (offsite link). When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August hangs-out with his beautiful wife and handsome son, carries a pocket knife, and shaves his head with a safety razor.
