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If you’re thinking about writing a book to build your business, you’ve probably thought about the potential revenue you may or may not make through book sales. With book royalties rolling in at such low margins, this probably isn’t getting you too excited about the prospect of writing a book!
But did you know that writing a book to build your business has many more ROI possibilities than just royalty payments?
Mike Schultz, principal of a large Managing Consultant company in the US, said:
"96% of the authors we surveyed said they realized a significant positive impact on their businesses from writing a book and would recommend the practice."
And if big-dog American business owners are using book writing as a successful marketing tool, why shouldn’t you?
Here are all the ways that writing a book can generate more revenue from your business.
Writing a Book to Increase...
Lead Generation
Fancy sales term for GET MORE CLIENTS!
That’s right. The credibility that you receive from becoming a published author of a good book (the “good” bit is very important) will pay in dividends in boosting your client enquiries.
If someone reads a good book in a genre they are passionate about, they will very likely look the author up afterwards. This reader may have come across your details before when looking for answers to their problem but scrolled past you towards other more credible coaches when nothing jumped out at them from your profile.
But if someone has read your book, they’ve already seen how you work, you’ve already given them answers to some of their problems, you’ve proven your knowledge and most importantly, they trust you.
In an online world where its impossible to tell who you can trust, you can trust a published author.
These readers will then turn into enquiries, and soon into clients. Whether its for one to one coaching, to sign up for one of your courses or to purchase another of your products.
The great part about being a published author is that the potential client doesn’t even have to read your book to realise they want to work with you – simply seeing the title “Author” on your bio or website is often enough for someone to think, blimey, they obviously know their stuff! Being a published author automatically puts you above the rest and makes you stand out amongst your peers.
Speaker opportunities
On a similar note, credibility also leads to more career opportunities. As a coach, haven’t you always wanted to speak at events about your coaching topic to spread the word and help as many people as possible?
Maybe you’ve approached event managers before but without any luck – there’s not been enough of a reason for anyone to book you. You’re just another coach from Instagram with a two-thousand-strong fanbase, why would they book you over the latest Love Island evictee, with eighty-thousand followers? (Social proof, unfortunately, goes a long way! And often over and above actual talent and expertise).
Just as Love Island gives the contestants a platform to show off whatever they want to show off, being a published author also gives you a platform – albeit a less hot, less fancy air-bnb-with-pool type platform.
So use it. Use it to get into places you never could before. Use it to get jobs you never could have dreamed of applying for before.
Apply for those speaker events and get your name and your message to the thousands! And remember, the bigger the speaker event, the bigger the pay packet.
Marketing & PR opportunities
As much as speaker events alone are great PR opportunities, becoming a published author can open many other avenues for boosting your brand’s visibility.
You’ll find yourself being invited to guest on podcasts (instead of having to apply for hundreds and getting a slot on one with 10 listeners) and not just any podcasts, bigger award-winning podcasts!
You can apply to be featured on all sorts of media avenues with increasing chances that they will say yes (instead of having to chase all the non-responders that you’ve previously tried).
How many times have you seen published authors featured on This Morning and given the platform to talk passionately about something that’s so close to their heart? This kind of exposure would never have happened without their book being published.
There are radio station gigs, magazine articles; you will be seen as “the expert” in your field that editors go to for quotes for their articles. Exposure begets exposure and once you’ve appeared as an expert once, the snowball effect will happen and media outlets will be queuing up to interview you to write about your opinions.
And in turn, all of the above will effectively lead to more lead generation, more enquiries, more conversions, more money.
With a fluctuation of clients queuing up to work with you, you’re now in a position where you either have to turn people down… or hire another coach to work for you. How amazing is that?
With your new reputation, there’s always the option of upping your prices, but morally you might want to assess whether you want to outprice the people who need you most and who put you where you are now.
Ad Opportunities
With the book bringing you an influx of new followers, subscribers and website traffic, you may now be in a position where you can:
Approach YouTube to monetize your channel
Host other companies’ ads on your website
Initiate the use of ads on your podcast
Be approached by businesses for paid ad post opportunities on Instagram
Become an influencer
In the long run, all these smaller revenue streams will start to add up and you’ll notice your monthly turnover start to build.
So, forget the notion that published authors can only make money through book royalties. The world is your oyster and all you need to do is start writing.
If writing a book to build your business still scares the crap out of you, click here to read about our Writers’ Coaching Package in which we will guide you right through from completing your manuscript to becoming a published author.
Or you can check out some of our "How to Write A Book" blog posts: