5 Lucrative Ways to Make a Living as a Nonfiction Author
Bella Rose Emmorey
book editor, rogue behaviorist, digital marketer, writer, brand builder, plant aunt, and cheese enthusiast.
There are plenty of ways to make a living as a nonfiction author other than just selling books. In fact, what you do in addition to selling books makes the difference.
If you think you’re going to hit it big with one nonfiction book, you’re part of the majority of people who’ve been misled by the misdeeds of the traditional publishing industry, where a famous is or has-been gets a one-book deal and is suddenly a guest on Oprah.
In order to make a living as a nonfiction author as an average person, you’ll want to self-publish your book for all its benefits, and then you’ll want to follow these other steps to build off it.
1. Publish Multiple Books
Amazon is a search engine. Chances are, your book solves a problem a lot of people have, and by searching for its solution, your book will be recommended (assuming you’ve chosen the right categories to publish in). If you have one book published, you only have one entry point for a searcher to find you.
If you publish 5 books, you’ll have 5 different entry points for potential customers.
I believe in your ability to do basic math, so I’m sure you understand how this can add up to not only new readers, but also increased book sales. Most readers like to stick to a certain author if they like what they read.
You can then sell 5 books to one reader instead of only one, which will increase your income from book sales overall.
Publish more books and marketing them well.
2. Sell Products or Services
Many nonfiction authors are using their expertise in what they write about to develop products or services they can charge a lot more for. In fact, you can use your book to get clients for your services or to grow your email list to sell physical products.
This is probably the most lucrative of ways to make a living as a nonfiction author.
When you can charge $10,000 for a consulting fee, it becomes one of the better ways to make a living as a nonfiction author. Just remember that you also want to enjoy what you’re doing. So if any of these options are hard nos, don’t waste your time building something that you don’t actually enjoy.
Here are some examples of products and services you can create as a nonfiction author:
Consulting
You’d be surprised how big some company’s budgets are when it comes to educating their staff in solving a problem that’s costing them money. That, or just to educate them in something they find valuable.
This is specific to transferable expertises in this way. If your nonfiction book is all about how to grow traffic online, a lot of CEOs and marketing directors can pay you a significant amount to go into their business and tell them what they’re doing wrong–and how to do it right.
Courses
Digital courses are great passive income streams. You can turn your book into a course and set it up online to sell and give someone access automatically. This avenue tends to be a lot of upfront work, but you get to sit back and let the internet do its thing afterward.
Physical products
Some nonfiction books are about decluttering a kitchen. If you want to grow your revenue as the author of a book like this, you can create products to help people declutter, like closet or cabinet organizers. Get creative! But make sure there is a clear connection between your nonfiction book and the products you sell to see the most turnover.
Teaching / workshops
Instead of consulting to teach a company's employees about your area of expertise, you can host your own workshops for the general public, or do presentations for other events and organizations, such as colleges.
How to Implement This as An Author: In order to build what marketers call a "funnel" to get people to sign up for or buy what you’re selling, create a lead magnet and add it to your book. This is something a reader can give you their email address for in exchange for a free download, discount code, or other perk.
Jenna Kutcher does this really well in her book How Are You, Really? She seeds links to sign up for a freebie throughout her book. From there, you’re taken to a page with listed resources in each chapter that asks you to opt into her email list to get them. Then you’ll get some great emails and also have the ability to sign up for one of her many courses. She also sells a journal connected to the book, which means she has both digital products and physical ones. Check out the example below.
3. Sell Sponsorship Spots
If you’re not already trying to build your audience, that’s the next best thing you can do. With an audience comes sponsorships.
Whether you have a large social media following, an active email list, or a lot of subscribers on YouTube, brands will pay good money to sponsor an email, post, or video where you talk about their product.
Depending on the size of your audience, the engagement, and the brand offering the sponsorship, these payments can range anywhere between a few hundred dollars and multiple thousand.
But keep in mind that you should only take sponsorships of companies you have experience with and trust. Your audience will listen to you and trust your word about them. Don’t take advantage of them by promoting bogus brands for a paycheck.
"I turn down over 90% of companies that reach out for sponsorships. I have to be so excited about the product, use it myself, and also genuinely believe that it will benefit my audience. Because of this, I've built a lot of trust with my viewers, making sponsorships much more valuable."
4. Become a Speaker
If you can write a book about a topic, you can probably speak about it. This way to make a living as a nonfiction author isn’t the right fit for everyone, but don’t discount it just because you don’t have experience.
You might be surprised what thorough writing, preparation, and practice can do to transform your speaking abilities. This is coming from someone whose face used to turn bright red when simply speaking up in a three-person work meeting and, after practice, spoke on real and virtual stages of over 1,000 people.
Depending on your area of expertise and industry, speaking engagements can add up, with most beginning speakers charging $5,000 for a talk, and others being paid over $20,000 with experience.
5. Freelance Writing
If you want a way to both market your book and make more money as a nonfiction author, freelance writing can be lucrative if you work with the right company. Typically, you’ll get paid to write articles within your expertise, and some of these sites allow you to put a link to your book both within the copy of the article as well as the author bio usually listed at the bottom of the page.
Just make sure to know your worth and charge a fair rate. With specialized knowledge, like in the medical industry, you can get paid upwards of $500 per blog post. An easy way to start doing this is to Google questions that your book answers and navigate to the top ranking websites.
Either contact them through the form, find an email address to the blog editor, or look for a "write for us" page where you can apply to be a writer.
If you just want to write books forever, then just keep writing books and make them your main income stream! But if you want more ways to make a living as a nonfiction author, these are the best, most lucrative long-term options.
Further reading:
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