This question has the potential to open Pandora’s box because the way it gets answered depends on so many things, including the person doing the answering.
With that in mind, I’d love to give you a bit of background about the kind of answer I’m going to provide based on my 15 years of industry experience watching the book market take a few unexpected turns.
If you were part of the self-publishing boom that happened in the 2000s, you remember that some authors were making as much as $10,000 a month without any reputation. They used not-so-secret methods to create brand legitimacy for themselves as authors through super popular promotional email lists. Back then we thought that $400 to market a book was insane. Looking back, I think that’s cheap.
This was back before the big five, the main publishing houses that own almost everything, were part of this email promotion world. It was a great way for readers to find vetted indie authors to expand their list of books in their to-be-read (TBR) piles.
Fiction authors were having the times of their lives, and nonfiction writers weren’t doing so bad either.
My debut nonfiction book sold over 30,000 copies, and I didn’t have to work that hard. I knew nothing about marketing. I just knew that I had a story to tell and I wanted to help people. Did my friends peer pressure me into writing that book? Maybe. But I didn’t ever consider my adventure into book writing to be a success. I had no idea that 30,000 is still considered a great number.
None of my other books ever did that well, whether fiction or nonfiction.
Back then, I thought that writing books was a business. Now I know better. Being an author can be a business. It can also be a hobby. If you’re writing to build your reputation to sell other offers (which can include more books), you have yourself a business. If you’re writing a book that only you want to read and hoping that publishing will make you rich, you have a hobby. I’m giving you the hard truths because I care.
And now that you know what perspective I’m coming from, it’s time to talk about the entire reason I’m writing this post: to tell you if you can grow your business by writing a book.
First, let’s go over when writing a book won’t grow your business. Get the negative out of the way.
Reasons your book won’t make money for your business:
-It’s not well written. You have to, have to hire a reputable copyeditor to deal with your book. This step isn’t optional. I recommend you use someone certified or someone who has a Masters in teaching English as a second language.
-You never advertise it. I’m not saying to pay thousands of dollars for an advertising campaign. But you do need to be doing some leg work. Go on podcasts, talk about your book from stages, bring several copies to give away at networking events (but only give those out if the other person shows deep interest).
-You don’t have a crystal clear follow-up offer in your book that tells them how to work with you in a way that is directly connected to the topic in the book.
-Your book has even just one fictional illustration to prove a principle. New nonfiction authors are hesitant to use their own stories to teach their points, but even one fictional tale in a nonfiction book can put off a reader. If you can’t use all personal stories, then at least use stories you’ve experienced firsthand in an observing or reporting role.
-Your cover doesn’t fit the genre. It doesn’t matter how cool your cover looks if it doesn’t fit the expectations of your readers.
If you can manage to avoid all the pitfalls I just mentioned, you can definitely grow your business and your profits using a book. Just remember that you need to:
-Hire a qualified editor.
-Promote your book from stages like speaking engagements and podcasts.
-Have a clear follow-up offer related to the topic of the book (high-ticket offers work better even though you’ll get fewer sales).
-Use personal stories whenever you can, and firsthand experiences of other people’s stories when you can’t.
-Hire a cover designer who understands that your art needs to be genre specific.
Now that you know the truth about best practices, let’s talk numbers.
If you spend $5,000 to have your book edited, formatted, and your cover designed (which is a really reasonable price), and you sell even two $2,500 follow-up packages, you will have made your money back. But if you try to depend on book royalties, you would need to sell either hundreds or thousands of books (depending on how your book is priced).
This is where most book services providers get it wrong. They want you to think book sales will give you a great return on investment, but in my experience, that’s not usually the case.
Do you need help wrangling your book to fit these requirements? Do you want someone else to write your book according to all of these time-tested marketing methods? Reach out to our team today and we’ll help set you up with a plan that will help you get the results you want.
Are you ready to learn more about how Literary Symmetry can help you communicate clearly with confidence to grow and scale your business? Awesome! Head here for two amazing, complimentary resources.
