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Transcript

Making Money as a Writer: Book Sales · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Writer Starter Kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we began a new series on making money as a writer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, we're continuing by starting with the most obvious way to make money as a writer, and that is book sales.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, book sales is probably the first thing you think of when it comes to making money, but I don't want to leave it just at that.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dig into this idea of book sales just a little bit.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, this is going to sound super obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about book sales and making money from your books, it presumes that you actually have books to sell.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't yet written a book or you haven't even thought about writing a book, I want you to get started on that as A1 number one priority.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to get that book written.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, secondly, a book can lead to a lot of other things.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: A book basically proves that you can write a sustained piece and that you have the discipline and the vision to complete a complicated project.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: One of the big reasons why having a book is such a special thing is not just because it demonstrates your writing skills, when you have a book, it also proves that you can tackle a larger, complicated project.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, most people are not willing to go to the trouble of doing that, which is what makes that skill so rare and valuable.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's also why authors who have written books can command much higher speaking fees when they speak at conferences or events and that type of thing.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, by virtue of the fact that you have written and published at least one book, you are basically showing to the world that you have done the work and you've completed something difficult that most people say they want to do, but they're not willing to actually put the work in to complete.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about making money with books.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: In order to make money with books, you've got to embrace the concept of book marketing.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Good marketing is a way to serve people.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of writers don't want to mess with the marketing side of things because they feel like they're kind of above that.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're the quote unquote creative type.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: They're not a business type.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to embrace this business side because that is where the action happens.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is where the sales happen, and therefore that's where the income happens.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you've also got to understand that your books are not just going to sell themselves.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The sooner that you embrace this idea that you are a business person as an author, the sooner that you can get busy doing the marketing activities that are going to help your books sell.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's more, this income stream can be greatly expanded when you have a lot of books sold on multiple different platforms and you can create ancelary products related to those books.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to products later on in this series.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But for now, I want you to get comfortable with the idea of not only writing and publishing books, but also doing the marketing work to make money with your books.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's question Have you embraced the idea that you were not only an author, but a business person as well?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Curious what you think about that, so give that some thought.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.