How to Make a Living as an Author: PT3

Readers do not buy a book because they want to read the story. There is an experience they need. In many of today’s success stories, the author becomes the embodiment of that experience. An hour with a marketing or book-selling professional can reap thousands of sales just by rewriting an ad, recreating an image, or branding the author.

Secret of Success

If there is a secret, it is this – ‘Successful people learn from successful people, failures learn how to fail from other failures.’ As obvious as this seems, many writers do not understand the concept. They join groups and organizations where hundreds of other writers attend conferences where they are awed by the gurus, but they all remain unsuccessful.

No one who attends university expects to graduate at the top of the class and remain unemployable. Writers expect to invest ten years of their lives learning to write, and then ‘hoping’ they will become successful. Others, start writing and make a living within a couple of year.

When I started writing, I made twenty friends, most had been writing for more than five years. Today, only myself, one of those other writers is making a living. Is that because we are talented or lucky? No. We did not buy into the program. We did not run to the conferences hoping for a publisher to toss us a scrap. We did things different. I ‘branded’ myself, and my friend went into e-books before it was savvy to do so.

The first thing I did was buy a book on selling books and I never looked back. Today, I have writers come to me and learn how to make a living as an author, and they learn in a couple of hours what took me years to learn. In hindsight, I was stupid. I kick myself for not getting a book coach and saving myself years. The coach would have cost me $200 - $500, and I estimate I lost more than $55 000.00 in sales and promotion. My failure to act was the most expensive investment I have ever made.

Self-Published Authors

This information is commonly taught to self-published authors and self-help authors. Few marketers try to find ways to apply these techniques to fiction authors. They want to make $50 000.00 a campaign.

Many fiction authors would be happy if they profited $20 000.00 a year. Even though this is too low to attract the ‘big names’ it will enable many authors the chance to quit their jobs and write for a living. Does a romance author know anything about finding true love and avoiding ‘frogs’? Of course they do. Can a fantasy author entertain at a women’s conference? Without a doubt. Can a homemaker who cannot work out of the home use the internet to earn a $50 000.00 a year income? Yes.




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