As an author, chances are you not only want to write, but you also want to make money from your writing.

If you simply want to write and have no interest in making an income, then this post is probably not for you. However, if you want to make a living writing, keep reading.

The first thing to do is to realize that there are many ways that an author can make money from their writing. Book sales are obviously one way, but not the only one.

You also have opportunities through speaking, consulting, coaching, and information products.

To be clear, these opportunities are more available to nonfiction writers than fiction writers. However, there are a variety of ways that fiction writers can generate income as a result of their books. To be clear, for this post, I am focusing on nonfiction authors.

Book sale

Obviously, book sales are the first level of income for an author. Amazon is one of the most obvious. But it takes more than just having your book listed on Amazon. To increase sales, you need to drive traffic to your Amazon listing.

There are many ways to do this, including blogging about the book, interviewing, article marketing, and posting on social media.

Driving traffic is a continuous process. The more consistent you are, the more sales you will make. It’s simple math.

Opportunities to speak

Many authors, myself included, make a lot of money through our lectures. There are paid and unpaid opportunities. Paid engagements can be a direct result of a meeting planner or decision maker reading your book, checking your website and online presence, which causes them to contact you.

Other speaking opportunities may not be paid engagements, such as at your local chamber of commerce, but you are invited to sell books and make other offers. He can earn hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in back-of-the-room sales.

However, you need to know how to bid. This is a skill and an art in itself. Take the time to learn how to do it and you will NEVER have to wonder how to make money ever again.

Consultant

As an author, you are considered an authority and influencer. Use this to your advantage.

Let’s say you write about team building and a company manager reads your book because he needs team building solutions. If your book provides a great solution, you may be contacted about your consulting services.

To optimize your chances of having an initial conversation, make sure your website provides a list of services.

Training

As with speaking and consulting, training opportunities often arise from those who read your book(s).

As a trainer, it is recommended to be specific in the type of training you do. Simply listing “coach” or “life coach” rarely makes someone jump for joy that they found it. The more specific you are, the better. After all, if someone needs a presentation coach, that’s exactly what they’ll be looking for.

Some different types of trainers are:

• financial coach

• performance coach

• presentation coach

• book writing coach

• executive coach

• health coach

Take the time to clearly define your experience. You will get a much better result.

Product Information

Information products can be an incredible opportunity to generate income.

If you have yet to create information products based on your book topic, this may be the first area to consider increasing your revenue.

Conclusion

The conclusion is the following; There are incredible opportunities for authors to earn a living from their writing. I’ve been doing it for years.

For any author to say that they cannot make a living from their writing probably means that they are not considering the many options.

Map out the various ways you can generate income, come up with a plan on how to generate traffic, and work on your plan.