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5 Ways to Increase Your Income as an Author

Congratulations! You are now an author!

In the Caribbean and other parts of the world, our family and friends are excited when we publish our first book, and rightly so. As the author, you are thrilled and expect to sell thousands of copies once your book is on Amazon.

Unfortunately, after the book launch, the novelty wears off and you are left disappointed wondering what to do next.

Sure, your friends and family will buy the first 100-200 books but to sell more books, it will require more than posting every day and telling people, “Buy my book, buy my book.”

I thought my first book would make me a millionaire and replace my income in no time. Alas, I was in for a surprise! Within five months, I had to get a part-time job to sustain myself. 

It’s not that one book cannot make you a millionaire; it is just that as independent authors on a limited budget and little knowledge of the publishing industry, it can take a very long time and you would have to sell more than a thousand copies of your book.

However, there are other ways you could leverage your book to earn that million dollars without selling one thousand copies of your book. You can turn the content of your book into multiple streams of income. 

This will get you there faster than merely selling books. This is what Authorpreneurship is all about; leveraging the power of a book and your author status to create profitable streams of income as an author.

5 Products/Services to Create Multiple Streams of Income with Your Book

Here are five ideas to create multiple streams of income from the content of your book and your author status.

  1. Courses: Turn the content of your book into a profitable course or multiple courses. If you create a course for $99 dollars or $500, you will increase your income faster than selling the book for US$10 or US$20.
  2. Workshops/Seminars: Whether you do this online or face to face, it has the potential to increase your income. You could do the same workshop multiple times per year.
  3. Merchandise: T-shirts, cups, pens, stationery items, bags, toys, flags, pins and a whole host of other products are all possible. Think of how Disney has capitalized on stories (books) which became movies and how many tie-in products have been created for children.
  4. Becoming a Speaker: Speak on the subject (s) in your book. One of the fastest ways to move your print book is to speak and sell at scheduled events, your own or as a guest speaker at others. As an author, you can charge higher speaking fees.
  5. Create a Membership Group: Create a subscription program from your book. For example, I created the Authorpreneur Secret$ Academy membership group using my book “Authorpreneur Secret$.” 

Not everyone will experience transformation by merely reading your book, sometimes it requires guidance and community support. So you can create a course or a library of content and offer coaching or Live sessions once per month to help members solve a specific problem. Membership groups create opportunity for recurring revenue.

Now, I am aware that the average author only wants to sell books and this path is not for everyone.

The truth is these very same methods can increase your book sales over time once you make the book part of it. These avenues for multiple streams of income are also a creative way of marketing your books.

So, if you have published a book and are now wondering what’s next, consider these five ideas. My books, Authorpreneur Secret$, Pen It to Win It and Write and Retire Right offer a list of 12-30 ideas to leverage your book to create multiple streams of income and creatively market your book.

Click the names of the books below to access these books. I do hope you will add one of these revenue streams to your author portfolio in 2022.

Authorpreneur Secret$: Write Fast, Publish Affordably and Generate Lasting Income

Write and Retire Right: Secrets to Write Non-Fiction Fast and Create Sustainable Income for Retirement

Pen It to Win It: Going Beyond Book Salesb

Caribbean Authorpreneur Summit 2022

Join us for the second staging of the Caribbean Authorpreneur 3-Day Summit, January 20-22, 2022, to hear the stories and strategies of Caribbean authors who are leveraging books to win beyond book sales. You don’t want to miss it.

Visit our website and register at www.authorpreneursecrets.com. Click the name of summit below for more details. Registration is FREE and you will have access to the interviews and Live Q & A sessions for 48 hours.

Caribbean Authorpreneur Summit 2022

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About Ruth Taylor

Cameka "Ruth" Taylor is a Jamaican Authorpreneur, podcaster, trained educator and Amazon bestselling author of over 25 books. She helps transformational leaders and Indie authors to write non-fiction books which they can leverage to increase their impact and income. Ruth is a doctoral candidate for the degree in Transformational Leadership at Bakke Graduate University. She is CEO and founder of Extra MILE Innovators Limited (T/As BambuSparks) and the Authorpreneur Secrets Academy. Ruth is also an international speaker with more than 18 years of experience. She has spoken in at least 14 countries in Jamaica, other countries in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa.

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