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Although a business book can be a tremendous marketing tool, the reality is that it is unlikely that you will earn a significant income from selling copies of it. Believe it or not, traditionally published authors sell an average of 3,000 copies over the lifetime of the book, while self-published authors sell an average of 250 books.
Those low numbers should tell you that it is challenging to sell books.
This frequently comes as a big surprise to people who assume there is a lot of money to be made in publishing. While there can be if you’ve built a sizeable following and those followers are primed and eager to buy from you, without a massive following at the outset, you’ll need to leverage your book in other ways.
The good news is that many business leaders, CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners understand that the bulk of the revenue their book will help generate will be through their business.
Strategies to turn a book into a profitable business asset
This means that your book is another asset you can leverage to create new business opportunities that will yield revenue, but they won’t be tied to book sales.
Being able to call yourself an author will open doors that were previously closed. With a book to your name, you can pursue:
- Paid public speaking. Speakers bureaus are regularly hired to find skilled speakers to present to trade shows, conventions, meetings, and special events organizers. Those speakers are paid for their time and expertise. In some cases, copies of their book is bundled with the speaking gig and in other cases, the author receives permission to sell copies at the back of the room.
- Adjunct teaching. Colleges and universities increasingly rely on experts in their communities to teach courses on campus. Having authored a book almost automatically qualifies you to teach a class related to the subject matter.
- Advisory board invitations. Organizations are often on the hunt for business leaders to serve as advisory board or board of directors members. These leaders are expected to offer advice and consulting to assist the business in making smart decisions. Having authored a business book can qualify you for these roles within companies, assuming your book addresses some aspect of your market or industry.
- Consulting. Other companies in your industry may read your book and determine that you have knowledge and expertise that they could apply to their own situation. Your book prequalifies you to advise them and consulting inquiries may result.
- Expert witness testimony. When lawsuits are filed that may be related to the content in your book, you may be asked – and paid well – to share your opinions in a court of law. After one of my books was published, I was asked to serve as an expert witness and offered a rate of several hundred dollars per hour. The timing didn’t work, but my chief qualification for the work was that I had authored a book that was directly relevant to the case.
- Podcast interviews. We’ve all seen the number of podcasts explode as more people are tuning in to consume information through their phones. To keep up with demand for new content, podcast hosts and producers are constantly on the lookout for potential guests. Having authored a book is frequently on the list of qualifications to be considered as a guest. Podcasts themselves don’t pay, but they can spark new opportunities through the discussions you have that are then released.
- Publicity requests. You don’t have to be an author to pursue publicity opportunities (a.k.a. earned media), but many journalists and writers prefer to interview sources who are authors. Having written a book on a subject related to an article they are writing, a blog post they are drafting, or a radio show they are preparing immediately qualifies you for a potential comment. Your credibility is established even before you respond, which makes you a strong candidate.
- Clients. Use your book as a high-value marketing brochure and mail it out to your top prospects. Even if they never read the book, their impression of you will be significantly enhanced once they see your name on the cover. This is the most common use of published business books – marketing. Make sure every prospect, client, referral source, advisor, and member of your network has a copy of your book. Not only will a package containing your book make you top of mind, but it may spark some recipients to look for ways to bring you in as a consultant or service provider.
Spin-off products and services
Additionally, you can repurpose your book or parts of it to create several other revenue-generating products, such as:
- Courses. Using your book as the framework, you can convert the chapters into modules or lessons. Create activities to help the reader apply what they’ve read. Add material you didn’t have space to include in the book or leave content from the book out so that the course doesn’t match exactly.
- Workshops. Online or in-person events that help participants learn more about your book’s topic can be another source of income.
- Virtual summits. Bringing together other authors and experts in your field to speak for 30-60 minutes online over the course of several days can generate income and provide a means to upsell participants to higher-paying products or services you offer.
- Workbooks. Create complementary workbooks to help readers apply what you’ve shared in the book. You could have workbooks that are spin-offs of the book or that take the reader from beginner to intermediate to advanced.
- An audiobook. Mirroring the popularity of podcasts, audiobooks have become a preferred format for books today. Consider converting your printed book into an audio version.
- A paid community. If you have written a book to help a particular group of people, you may be able to persuade them to join a community of like-minded people for a monthly fee. Memberships have become very popular and offer a place where individuals can network and become more educated about a topic of interest.
This is the tip of the iceberg, however. On top of these ideas, you could write other books and forge a series out of them if they are all related. You could create your own publishing imprint and consider publishing books in your topic area by other authors. You could create a book club package and offer to speak to groups that decide to read yours together. You could create a certification program.
There is money to be made by publishing a book, even if you don’t have hundreds of thousands of followers.