Maybe your biggest competitor has just published a book. Maybe you've been privately trolling Amazon's Business & Money book listings to see who the latest business rock stars are to publish their best-seller. You love the idea, but you just can't get your head around how to profit from your business book, especially if you're not convinced yours will be a bestseller. It's true it's a competitive space.
You've likely been asking yourself questions that go something like this.
- Will I make my money back?
- How many books can I sell?
- How am I going to sell enough books to cover my publishing costs?
These are all great questions. And they get asked by every indie author before they start their publishing journey.
However. When you are an entrepreneur, owning and running your own business, or you're running another business, big or small, public or private, the question you want to be asking is a little different. It should be this:
Why would I NOT write a book about my business???
Exactly.
There is a totally different way to look at how to profit from your business book. And it goes far beyond book sales. A book about your business becomes a marketing tool on steroids. This carves a path directly to the 'profit from your business book' pot of gold. Here's what I'm talking about.
Builds Credibility
There's a lot of thought and hard work that goes into a great business book. The finished result – you, a published author – helps to build credibility. The catch is that you must ensure you're investing in the right professional editorial, design, and publishing supports to ensure a quality product. When you do, your book will boost your credibility as an author and the credibility of your business at the same time.
Increase Visibility and Brand Awareness
If you pick up nothing else from this blog post, this is the point to absorb. If you do nothing else but upload your business book to Amazon, you know you are getting a significant share of the world's reading eyeballs. Just one statistic to make the case:
- according to AuthorEarnings.com, 45.5% of the 687 million total U.S. print book sales in 2017 came from Amazon alone.
Then there are ebooks and audio books.
And of the people who are buying books, books in the Business & Money category are popular. Again from AuthorEarnings.com:
- The fifth-highest selling category of ebook is... Business & Money
- The eight-highest selling category of audiobook is... Business & Money
The point is that by authoring and publishing a book about your business you are exposing your brand to hundreds of millions of people who might be otherwise unaware you exist.
Creates New Opportunities
You can only plan so far the ways in which you might profit from your business book. There will be the predictable invitations to speak at conferences and lead workshops. Other ways will be completely unpredictable and a total surprise.
For example, John and I were ready to narrate and record the audiobook version of our book, Rock Your Business: 26 Essential Lessons to Start, Run, and Grow Your New Business from the Ground Up. We were in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and found Carlos Santana and ProSantana Creative Studio.
We spent about three days in the studio. After we were done, and Carlos had completed a wonderfully masterful mix, came the surprise. Carlos said he had been inspired by us and the content of our book. He invited us to work with him on a new organization in Puerto Vallarta designed to promote and foster literacy among the local youth. How cool is that?
Now, our plans did not permit us to jump on board with that invitation. It does, however, demonstrate my point about how a book can create new and unpredictable opportunities. Some of those might prove to be a winner.
Generates Leads
When you effectively market your book, it will most definitely help you generate leads.
You'll generate leads if you include calls to action at the end of certain chapters or the book, or links to your website where readers can download additional documents, forms, or checklists.
You'll generate leads when you speak at conferences or events, lead workshops, or even from simple networking activities where you hand out a business card that prominently displays an image of your book.
There are a gazillion other ways to generate leads from your book. And many examples like this one of how other authors and their businesses have enjoyed profitable lead generation just from the fact of authoring and publishing a book.
Promotes Your Value Proposition
When we work with business authors at Ingenium Books, we explicitly tease out the values, beliefs, and of course the value proposition of the business as we co-create the content for the book. Ensuring your values and value proposition occupy prominent space in the pages of your masterpiece is about two main things. First, it helps create a compelling story. And second, it helps set you apart from the competition.
Time To Profit From Your Business Book?
Are you currently spending too much on marketing? Not enough? Are you satisfied with your current tactics? Are you getting the type of return you want? Are you always looking for another way to help you and your business stand out from the crowd?
Hmmm. If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, it might be time to consider ways you could profit from a business book.
If you're ready for a talk about why authoring a book might be a good strategy for you and your business, click here to learn how we can help. .
Now Comes the Hard Truth
It does take time, and it does take an up-front investment.
There are all kinds of write-it-in-30-days, or give-me-five-hours-and-I'll-write-your-book schemes designed to make you think getting a good book about your business written and published can be quick and easy and painless and.... well, cheap. These offers make me upset. For a few reasons. Including that someone is duping you into thinking it is POSSIBLE to write, produce, publish and profit from your business book – for only a little time or a little money. You know it's true that you get what you pay for. If it seems too good to be true....
