Why you should turn your book into a business

Rarely can an author make a living solely on book sales. However, authors can achieve their dream of independence by building a business around their books.

Creating a business centered on your published works largely means monetizing your expertise. For example, you could deliver a service or provide products related to your book (e.g. consulting, coaching). You might sell attendance at workshops, online courses, teleseminars and webinars or videos that you offer about your book’s topic.

People always want and are willing to pay for expert advice. Writing a book on a topic – presuming you seriously researched the topic – makes you an expert. So long as your writing develops trust and likeability with the reader, this expert status allows you to use your book as a springboard for selling related services and products.

Experts who offer services and products sell more books. As people learn about your services and products, your website visits will rise, generating more awareness of and interest in your books.

More book sales means more business. As people discover your business through your book, they’ll seek out your services or products. Remember, the reason someone picked up your book is that they had a problem that needed solved. So long as your books helps them to at least partially solve the problem, those readers will seek you out to meet additional, related problems that they experience.

In essence, your business and your book sales constantly feed one another, each leading to more of the other. Even better, as you provide more people with products or a service that they need, you develop ideas for new books, while book sales can help shift the direction of your business to areas that are more lucrative.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.