What is the easiest way to make money from my book is a question you’re probably silently asking yourself.
This question is on the lips of majority of writers as they set out to write so you’re not alone.
But this is a wrong question to ask.
The correct question is, how can my book make me money?
The majority of people who make money from their books ironically never considered money when they set out to write.
They wrote because they felt strongly that their stories were worth sharing to the whole world.
Take the case of Camara Laye. He wrote The African Child in 1953 when Africa was still a dark continent. Who read books in Guinea in 1953?
What of Chinua Achebe? He wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958 when the chances of making money was zero. There were hardly schools in his Ogidi community, Anambra State, Nigeria.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o followed with Weep Not Child in 1964 one year after Kenya’s independence. Who read books in Kenya in the 1960s?
Laye, Achebe and Ngugi wrote not because of money but because they felt they had powerful stories to share.
This is what I tell my friends who ask me how to monetize their book project. Monetize is a big word for making money.
What I tell them is, if your goal is to make money, then do something else, don’t write books.
According to Wikipedia, Things Fall Apart has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 57 languages. This makes Achebe the most translated, studied, and read African author.
Beside Things Fall Apart, considered his magnum opus, Achebe has written over 10 other books, anthologies, poems and short stories.
Achebe has mentored and inspired a generation of other writers, including Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, and Chimamanda Adiche.
So back to the question, what is the easiest way to make money from a book?
There is a long and short answer.
The long answer is, it depends. … on your motive, goals, backers, quality of writing, storytelling ability, etc.
When Jay Conrad Levinson was asked how much he made from his first Guerilla Marketing book, he said $10 M. He then qualified the answer. Check out the full answer Jay gave here.
So, a book is a long game. It takes time to monetize.
The short answer as to how you can quickly monetize your book is to launch your book.
The traditional way to launch a book is to rent a big hall, call your friends, and by the end of the day, you can raise N5 M to N100 M.
Check out this video trailer on my mentor’s book launch
Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Jim Ovia, Femi Otedola, et. al can raise N500 M in a twinkling of an eye.
You may raise N5 M or N10 M depending on how you plan your book launch.
How much you raise depends on the quality of your tribe. So, grow your tribe. I’ll come to that shortly.
The non-traditional way to launch your book is to do it globally online. It requires expertise to pull it off.
Alex Hormozi launched his book, $100 M LEADS, globally on 19th August, 2023, and sold over 300,000 copies. I bought three copies during the launch.
The book’s cover price on Amazon today is $19.99. The book has since sold over 1,000,000 copies.
Before then, Alex had launched $100 M OFFERS in 2021 on a small scale.
In all Alex has written 13 books. You can guess how much Alex has made from his books. Note his first book, Gym Launch, hardly sold 100 copies.
Do you want Alex to train you or do you want to buy his books? Click this link Acquizition.com. It’s not an affiliate link.
Ali Abdaal, the medical doctor turned YouTuber, launched his Feel Good Productivity in December 2023 and sold thousands of copies.
I watched in envy as Ali autographed the book to enthusiastic buyers. He was backed by Penguin Random House UK. I bought a copy.
Alex and Ali are able to launch their books globally because they have a massive online audience.
Between them they have over 8 million subscribers on YouTube. Add Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest, Reddit, Discord, Telegram, LinkedIn, their subcribers and followers double.
So, if they launch and just 10% of their YouTube subscribers show up you can imagine the result they’d get.
The average price of books on Amazon is about $20 (it used to be $10). So you need to sell thousands to make a dent on your bank account.
But if you have 800,000 raving fans waiting to snap up your book, you can smile home with $16 M. That is what global launch enables you to do.
That is why you should grow your fan base first before you ever think of writing a book.
Ahhhhhh Paul. At Book Writing Clinic (BWC) you exhort us to write a book and build our expert empire?
If you’re a BWC Alumni Member, I can understand your wonder. As we say in Nigeria, if you have written a book, noting spoil as you will soon see.
Well, when I wrote my first 8 books, I didn’t understand this dynamic.
Giant publishers like Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster, and HarperCollins, have strict criteria before they accept an author. One of the criteria is your social media following.
Before you come into their radar, they want to know your “author platform.”
Your “author platform” encompasses your visibility, authority, audience reach, media appearances, website traffic, and number of newsletter subscribers.
That’s not all. They also want to know the list of your recent and all forthcoming speaking engagements, public events and attendance. In all, they want to know your social media reach.
So, you need a tribe of at least 100,000 to be viable online. Anything less you’re a bad market and no publisher would touch you with 10-foot poll.
So here is the best advice I can give you on how you can make money from your book.
If you live in Nigeria (Africa), launch your book. Invite 500 people, if half show up, launch for N50,000 ($31), you can smile home with N12.5million.
For your information, N12.5million is a paltry $7,812.5 and it will get smaller as the Naira slides.
So, itt is imperative therefore you learn how to grow your “author platform.”
If you ask me in my sleep Paul, what is the easiest way to make money from my book? My answer would be, grow your “author platform.”
Start with the most difficult platform to grow, YouTube. Once you crack YouTube, the others would be a breeze.
If you would like me to help you to write a book or sell more books, click here let’s chat.
If you want to master digital marketing to grow your tribe and author profile click here.
