If you’ve been wondering how you can make money writing books, then this episode is for you!

Believe it or not, writing can be a lucrative opportunity to generate income and build a reputable personal brand as an author. Of course, there are things like marketing and sales involved but once your book is out into the world, this process becomes second nature.
So, can you get paid to write a book? Absolutely yes!

Today, we bring you three ways you can earn money by writing books, the difference between them, and which is best for you depending on your particular situation.
We talk about book proposals, how you can make a long-term impact with your book and continually make money off of it, and much more!

If you haven’t listened to episode 6 where we interview multi-award-winning author Jenn Givhan, then go back and check it out! It’s all about the importance of being patient when publishing your book, how to deal with rejection as a writer, and how to know when your book is ready to be published.

I want to know who you are and where you’ve been! Come hang out with me in the Writers Squad Facebook group and over on Instagram @laurenmariefleming. I can’t wait to chat with you there!
You can also stay tuned for new weekly episodes @businessschoolforwriters, and if you want to spread the love even further, consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing!

Resources mentioned in this episode:
-Want access to my writing rituals? Then join my Write More Challenge™ today! For 30 days I’m going to be your writing coach, helping you to create the physical and mental space you need to sit your butt down and write!
www.businessschoolforwriters.com/writemore
-One Funnel Away Challenge https://bit.ly/WriterOFA

Book recommendation of the week:
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

Love audiobooks? Listen on Libro.fm and support independent bookstores. Plus, use this link and we both get a free audiobook: http://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm116869

Wondering why we don’t link to Amazon? Check out Episode 2 of the Business School for Writers Podcast to hear all about how supporting independent bookstores helps you see more stories like yours out in the world.

Transcript:

Did you know that you can get paid to write a book? Sounds like one of those clickbait Internet scams, right?

But it’s not a too-good-to-be-true dream, in fact many friends and clients of mine have been paid to write books. Here’s how they do it.

The first and probably most well-known way to get paid to write your book is to get a publishing advance.

I’ve got bad news for our fiction writers, this is almost exclusively available to non-fiction books. Unless you’re an established fiction writer with massive success, chances are you’re going to have to finish your book completely before you can get a publisher to buy it.

However, for our non-fiction writers out there, you can sell a book to a traditional publisher with only a book proposal. Don’t think that makes it easy, though. In exchange for not having to write your whole book before selling it, you have to put together a marketing plan, target audience and comparable titles comparison, summary, table of contents, and well-polished sample chapters.

Book proposals are their own beast in and of themselves, but if that’s a route you think you want to take, don’t despair. I’ll do a whole episode on them soon to help you out.

Even with a well-written book proposal, traditional publishers are going to expect you to prove you can sell your book, which requires you to already have your own audience/readers built in. If that’s the case, you might want to think about option two for getting paid to write your book.

The second way to get paid to write your book is to pre-sell it to your readers.
This option works best if you already have a decent-sized following, but you’d be surprised at how many books you can sell to family and friends.

When I published my book Bawdy Love: 10 Steps to Profoundly Loving Your Body, I pre-sold half of my limited edition run before I even had the book finished, and the other half sold within the first month of it coming out. All with hardly any social media followers or people on my mailing list.

We’ll delve into how I did that in a future episode, but common ways people presell their books include Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns, and getting patrons using a platform like Patreon.

However, if you really want to make a long-term impact with your book and continually make money off of it, I suggest thinking of it like marketing a product and checking out software like ClickFunnels to help you along the way.

I know that sales and marketing can feel overwhelming to a creative, but Russell Brunson’s One Funnel Away Challenge really helped me understand how to sell my book without feeling sleezy, and it’s so easy 10-year-old my niece joined me and started selling online too!

Whatever platform you use to pre-sell your book, you want to make sure that you cover the eventual cost of printing the book. I’ll have more on how to calculate that in a future episode, but for now assume you should start physical books at around $25, audiobooks at around $30, and ebooks at around $5.

The third way to get paid to write a book, is to ghostwrite one for someone else.

This is a great way to make money and get writing experience under your belt. It is not, however, a good way to build up your own brand as a writer, since 99% of the time ghostwriters get no credit for the book. Not even a shoutout in the back.

Which can feel like someone is taking credit for your writing. Which, they technically are. Sound shady? It can be at times. But if done well, ghostwriting can be a beautiful way to help someone who is unable to write their own book get their ideas out and into the world.

I’m not a ghostwriting expert, but I’ll be sure to bring someone on in the future to go deep on the topic and talk about the pros and cons so you can decide if this route is the best for you.

So those are three ways to get paid to write your book: sell it in advance to a publisher, pre-sell it to your readers, or get paid to write a book for someone else as a ghostwriter.

Want to learn more about how to make money as a writer? Join my Writers Squad Facebook group! It’s a great place to continue this conversation, ask questions, and get support from aspiring best-sellers like yourself. Find your squad at https://www.facebook.com/groups/WritersSquad.

That’s it for today’s lesson, but join me next time as we discuss the various types of book publishing and which one is best for you.

Until then, I’ll see you in the Writers Squad Facebook Group!

Lauren