Boost Your Author Income

An Interview with Sharon Woodhouse

by Rochelle Melander

Hi, Sharon, Welcome to the blog! And congrats on your new book. Can you tell us about The Profitable Author?

Thanks, Rochelle! Everything in The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books is based in my personal experience and observations from my 25 years as an indie book publisher and 15 overlapping years as an author coach and publishing consultant. The book 1) encourages all authors to take an entrepreneurial approach to their career as the best chance to meeting one’s author goals—financial and nonfinancial, big and small; 2) shows authors how to be profitable from their next batch of author income and going forward; 3) shows any author how to be more successful and more satisfied with their author life by building a business of whatever size or scope makes sense for them; and 4) delves into the seven pillars I’ve identified that are the basis for anyone wanting to build a sustainable, income-generating author business they love.

I often think that “profitable author” is an oxymoron. But you have shown that authors can make money from their books. What are some of the income streams that you see authors leaving on the table?

In the book, I elaborate on 15 types of author income, including #15: Income from a part-time or full-time day job. This is part of the holistic view of an author business I promote. At the beginning, the income from a day job is part of what makes your author life possible. Appreciate its role in your author goals and dreams and build out the author life you want from there over time. Some of the other sources of income are royalties, ebooks and digital products, store sales, volume sales, events, merch, post-event sales, services, and grants. The book includes real how-to type knowledge and hundreds of specific ideas, but it also educates on supportive mindsets and business principles that help authors discover what works for them.

I find it’s hard for the writers I work with to get an audience of readers, especially if they are self-published. Do you have any ideas to help people with that?

Yes, the whole book is devoted to helping authors get what they want, including more readers. There is a whole section on relationship building and another on marketing. There are scripts authors can use as alternatives to “sales” language. There are also two simple formulas authors can use to get things they want over time. The first is “Do 5 things a day, every day, to promote your books, expertise, experience, and/or authorship/author business.” Sounds simple, but most people will not commit to that and do it, day in and day out, over time. The second is the outreach formula I’ve used to build up my small businesses in the past. It’s this:

• If you need to replace a full-time income, spend four hours a day reaching out to others
• To replace a half-time income, spend two hours a day
• To replace a quarter of your income, spend one hour a day
• To maintain a business, spend 15–30 minutes a day or reach out to at least one person.

Reaching out is any manner of connecting, re-connecting, asking for work, asking for referrals, setting up a call, setting up a meeting, making offers, making proposals. Whatever’s appropriate for the person you’re reaching out to and your own needs. If you want something other than income–readers or exposure–the formula’s the same. It sounds obvious, but we can overlook it: Everything we need and want as authors comes from and through other people (income, reads, exposure, opportunities).

What are some ways that authors can do a better job of book marketing?

The best thing authors can do to do a better job of book marketing is embrace marketing and not avoid it. Accept it as a core activity of being an author and living the author life one wants. Think of marketing and selling your books as being on your own side, investing in your future, validating yourself as a creative professional. You cannot do too much marketing. Evidence from the business world suggests that the most successful businesses devote at least 60% of their time and resources to sales and marketing! That’s a crazy figure that no author wants to hear.

Next, use the “5 Things a Day” and Outreach formulas as standard practice. It almost doesn’t matter what you do or where you start when it comes to marketing. Keep a running list of ideas. Try everything out. Copy what works for others. Experiment with that interests you. BUT, do things consistently, and when you discover things that work, keep doing more of that and find ways to do those things better.

Finally, there are three things that make the biggest difference to book marketing and sales and ultimate “success”: 1) Events. Do more of them and try a range of different kinds of events. Get paid for doing events. Sell books and merch at your events. 2) Volume sales. Pursue selling books in bulk. It is faster and easier to sell 100 books to one customer than one book to 100 customers. Really. You have to get creative and get brave and just practice doing it. You will only be a beginner the first couple times you make an offer or a pitch. So it’s awkward. Big deal. Don’t want to do it? A phone call or email takes 5 minutes. Sell 20 for a book club, sell 12 to a gift shop, sell 200 for a corporate giveaway, sell 500 to a hotel chain to put in rooms. 3) Big ideas. Find the big ideas that work for you and your books…partnerships, sponsorships, big events, a new sideline/side hustle related to your book.

What are you reading now?

I usually have 10-15 books going at once, but the ones I’m reading the most right now are (fiction): The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi and (nonfiction): Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Bat-Ghiat.

About the author: Author Sharon Woodhouse is a former indie book publisher and current owner of Conspire Creative, a book business agency that offers coaching, consulting, project management, and business support services for authors and indie publishers. She writes about all aspects of creating holistic, income-generating author businesses you love and finding your place in the vibrant ecosystem of books.