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"You don't write a book for money," my mentor told me when I got my first and only inquiry from a publisher.
This was news to me. Books seem like so much work. Why would authors go through all that for free?
Business owners and professional speakers will say it's because of what the book enables: new clients, speaking opportunities, product sales and the higher fees you can command for all of the above, once you are an author.
But lately, I've been hearing a different story. That maybe there is some money in books.
I wanted to find out how we should be thinking about books and revenue so I reached out to a few authors and book experts to learn what the real moneymaking potential was for books as an indie author. The answer to Are books a revenue stream? needs a lot more context than yes or no so let's get into the conditions when books become a real revenue stream.
"Publishers will not do all the things you think they will, and they’ll take a big chunk of your book sales."
—Vicky Quinn Fraser
Self-publishing might give you more opportunities to make money
The big drawback with the traditional publishing route is that your publisher takes a bigger cut of your profits, and for not much benefit, if you're an unknown author.
Book writing coach and editor Denise Renee told me that she prefers the self-publishing route because it gives you the most flexibility with your own intellectual property. She noted that if you already have fame or an audience you can leverage to sell your book to—the example she gave was Sheryl Sandberg who was relatively unknown before Lean In but who had a high profile job—publishers are more likely to give you a favorable, interesting deal. But you still have to hustle to get your book out there.
I also heard this sentiment from Vicky Quinn Fraser, who helps creative entrepreneurs become authors. "Publishers will not do all the things you think they will, and they’ll take a big chunk of your book sales. If you’re lucky, you’ll get 10% royalties after your advance is covered, and you won’t have the freedom to do what you want with your book and any future editions," she said.
For the right author, there are good reasons to work with a publishing house. Antonio Neves has written 5 books and, although he's made significantly more money with his self-published books, he said there were two main advantages of working with a publisher: better press opportunities and a higher speaking fee post-publishing. It's worth noting that Antonio was already a well known broadcast journalist before he was published.
This decision may not be all or nothing though. Matt Herron, who has written more than 12 books and sold over 50k+ copies independently under his pen name M.G. Herron, has experimented with licensing his books to publishers. He did a 50/50 revenue split on the audio books for his first series with Podium and later sold another series to Audible Studios and Aethon Books. When he relaunched that series years later himself, he took the rights back for the eBooks and paperbacks, raised $4k+ for artwork and production with a Kickstarter campaign and now sells that series himself (minus the audiobooks which remain with Audible Studios).
"50% of the time my keynote speaking clients make bulk purchases of my books for the audiences that I'm speaking to."
—Antonio Neves
Authors aren't just selling books on their own websites
Even for self-published authors, there's lots of places to sell your book and where you choose to sell it can impact how much money you bring in from the book sales.
Amazon has tools for self-publishing and all the authors I spoke to are selling there because they are the dominant online bookseller. Author Jeremy Miller said his book, Beyond UX Design, makes "a few dollars profit" when sold on Amazon and a bit more when he sells on his own site, but Amazon's powerful search means it's more likely to be discovered there.
Many self-published authors use a service like IngramSpark or Lulu to distribute their book across retailers, including but not limited to Amazon.
Bookshop.org, based in the UK, is launching a competing eBook platform to Amazon's Kindle store soon. They already sell physical books and author Kari Ginsburg, who published her first book Hey Glitterbomb! this summer, told me she prefers Bookshop to the other platforms, because they're a B Corp and as part of their mission, they share profits with independent bookstores.
Beyond those retailers, you have the opportunity to sell your book in bulk to organizations who hire you for speaking gigs, consulting or programs you run.
Antonio, now a professional keynote speaker, sells his books as part of his speaking package. He said, "50% of the time my keynote speaking clients make bulk purchases of my books for the audiences that I'm speaking to. This could be 100 to 1,000+ copies. I have incredible margins on direct bulk purchases."
How much authors are really making
The answers I got here were all over the place but the definitive answer to Are books a revenue stream? is YES.
Whether they a worth-it-to-you for the effort you put in revenue stream is a different story.
Antonio and Matt bring in 5-figure revenue with their books every year. I'm not getting into the cost of selling those books but there are lots of costs to break down, so just know, this isn't necessarily profit or take home pay. It's revenue. Antonio's bulk purchases help a ton in driving sales and Matt has a fairly sophisticated ads funnel for his books.
Kari and Jeremy are each making 4-figure revenue in the early days of their first books but they both wrote them to bolster other revenue streams like speaking and coaching. Jeremy launched his book after getting laid off when he realized he had created a massive trove of really good content in his podcast and social media presence. He launched a pre-sale for the book and sold $2,500 worth of books within two weeks. The back of his book includes a two page spread advertising Jeremy's coaching offer, which is what he geared the book toward.
Kari is also a coach but her main motivator driving the book was speaking gigs. She had landed two separate paid speaking gigs in 2023 that were all set to go—until the event organizers realized she didn't have a book they could buy. Both organizers backed out of the deal. "We really like our speakers to have a book, so contact us when you have a book," Kari recalled. She started writing immediately after that.
I also heard from a couple 6-figure authors in my LinkedIn comments. David J. Bland, a former colleague of mine who co-wrote Testing Business Ideas with Alex Osterwalder in 2019, said their book has hit 6-figure revenue and Russell Nohelty, an author and book coach who runs a publishing house of his own, wrote "I've made $475,000 directly from books since 2020."
Novelist and playwright Monica Byrne broke down exactly how much she makes in royalties in this blog post from last year. She shares that even though her books have been very successful and she's received 5-figure advances from her publishers, when she compares that to the labor she puts in, the return looks more like $3k-$8k a year per book. Real money, absolutely, but not sufficient income for a full time writer. That's why Monica has turned to a reader-backed subscription model. She is bringing in $3,184/month from Patreon alone right now, not including any revenue from her Substack subscribers or Fractured Atlas, the two other platforms she uses. This hybrid model of book sales and subscription backers is popular with authors and it's a great way to market your books before you publish while making money at the same time.
All that said, I spoke to a couple authors making "negligible" book revenue so there's no guarantee that your book will bring in money. You or your publisher have to make a plan to sell it.
Books can help you make more money with speaking or consulting
For some of these authors, the book is the product. That's true for Matt, Monica and Russell. For the rest, the book is a tool they use to achieve other goals.
The two biggest secondary income streams I heard from the authors I spoke with were paid speaking engagements and consulting or coaching clients.
The book to speaking engagement path is a real virtuous circle because the book helps you get the speaking gigs and the speaking gigs help you sell books.
Some of these authors said the industry credibility they've gained from writing books has led to higher fees for speaking engagements and consulting gigs. Or better gigs altogether. Vicky mentioned that some authors even give away their books for free because the real money for them is in the clients they bring in.
"The beauty about writing a book is that you write it once, but you promote it forever. Give your book time to grow."
—Denise Renee
If you want to make money with your book, you've got to market the hell out of it
One thing everyone agreed on was that you're going to get out of your book what you put into it. If you don't market it, no one else will and it won't sell on its own unless you're already super famous.
Both Vicky and Denise Renee recommended promoting your book way before it's published. "Too many people write their books, sigh in relief, and move on—then wonder why they can’t get it into people’s hands," Vicky told me. And Denise Renee said you should "validate" what your book is about and who will care about reading it, before you start writing, so you know where to find your audience when you're ready to sell it.
I've been watching Justin Moore do this with his book Sponsor Magnet, which he released earlier this year. He built a ton of excitement pre-launch on social media and on his mailing list, ran a big pre-sale with lots of bonuses, gathered reviews before he published, and spoke about the book on stage and on podcasts. Now that the book is out, he hasn't slowed down at all. I saw him speak over the summer at VidCon where his whole talk was seamlessly interwoven with the book concepts. He also launched a live event this year called Sponsor Games which brings the book to life through interactive group games. The book logo is plastered all over everything he does and the book drives people right back into his programs.
You don't have to market your book alone though. LaShonda Brown, who hasn't written a book yet, but who is absolutely a person you need to know if you're writing a book, frequently hosts authors on her YouTube channel and has taken the lead on "book launch teams" for her author friends. Kari mentioned that there are companies you can pay to get marketed to book clubs too. BookTrib is an example of this and they have several marketing options for authors from book club newsletter ads to book club giveaways.
Paid ads are also a very popular route for authors who want to make a full living on their books. That's why Matt has spent a lot of time learning how to build funnels to his books and how to experiment with ads. Facebook and Amazon ads are the most popular here, but you can also take out ads in newsletters like Written Word Media, which markets directly to readers through their mailing list or join paid list builders specifically for authors by genre like this one from Fiction Atlas.
So, when are books a revenue stream?
When you make them one!
The authors I spoke to prove that there's money in books themselves—when you yourself promote them. You need a robust marketing plan for your book, even if you're not aiming for 5 or 6 figures in sales, and you have to start before you publish it.
Denise Renee framed this as an endless opportunity, not an obligation: "The beauty about writing a book is that you write it once, but you promote it forever. Give your book time to grow."
Books can make you money directly and they can help you make more money in other parts of your business. To me, that's a much more interesting framing than "you don't write books for money" because you do, in fact, write them for money, just not always money from the book sales alone.
📚 Want to know more about writing books?
Here's some resources you might want to check out.
- Denise Renee's coaching and editing services for authors
- Denise Renee's YouTube on writing books
- Vicky Quinn Fraser's coaching for entrepreneurs becoming authors (her microbook program starts later this month!)
- Russell Nohelty's very helpful blog for authors who want to make money
- Andrew Chen on the process behind his business book The Cold Start Problem
Are you writing a book? What's your goal with it? Tell us in the comments!
