Boost Your Credibility and Income with a Book

Boost your credibility and income with a book. Here are the most important reasons why being an author can be a life-changing experience.

You can turn your passion into profits

Everyone has a passion about a topic they can turn into profits. You have unique experiences relating to your topic and inside information that others will pay to know. It’s fun and it can be profitable to write a book.

In the past, people who wanted to write a book were limited by the stodgy rules of the traditional publishing industry. The Internet changed all that. Today, individuals can reach just as many customers as the largest New York City publishing houses.

You can sell books while you are asleep

If you try to share your information as a consultant or in seminars, you have to show up at a venue somewhere. That’s hardly better than working by the hour. You have the potential to sell your book on your own website, Amazon.com and other websites 7/24 around the world. You can sell individual copies or you can sell in bulk.

Besides the Internet, you’ll find traditional marketing channels will also be open to you. It used to be the doors were closed to those who published their own books, but all that has changed. It’s important that you create a quality book, and that you follow established publishing procedures. When you do that you’ll find open doors for your book.

A book will improve your credibility in your field of expertise

Some people write books because they realize that being an author will enhance their prestige, make them an authority, and enable them to get free publicity and increase their business.

Don’t discount the idea of publishing your own book to achieve those goals. If you do it right you can make profits on your book alone, but you should not count on just that. If you’re in business, you can parlay a book into the confirmation of your expert status that will get you more business.

When you publish your own book, you will get your book to market quicker

Yes, you’ll get your book out there faster than if you use a traditional publisher, and that’s important. You can have your book for sale in 2-3 weeks; traditional publishers can take 18 months or more to get a book out the door. And that’s after they accept it. Sometimes it takes a year or more just to find a publisher–if you find one at all.

It’s important that you learn exactly how you can publish your book quickly while still maintaining the kind of quality that will make you proud. You do not need to give up quality for speed–you can have both.

You have the potential to make more money 

You have the potential to make far more money with a self-published book. Lots of people think they will get a fat advance and a big royalty from a traditional publisher. It could happen, but the odds are against you.

You won’t get an advance when you publish your own book, but you’ll get a bigger cut of the pie with the do-it-yourself approach. Traditional companies require you to promote your own book these days, so you might as well get maximum benefits from your own promotional efforts.

How Long Does a Book Need to Be? (BONUS)

Big question. Lots of people ask me about the word count of a book.

An ebook can be as few as 8-10 thousand words.

But, if you want a trade paperback that you can make $10 or more off each copy, then I find about 25,000 words is the minimum for Print on Demand publishers Amazon KDP.

Depending on how its formatted, 130 pages is the minimum for a book with a spine, and that’s the difference between a pamphlet and a real book. 25,000 words generally get you to 130 pages without bloat.

These are minimums. Nonfiction books often reach 50,000 words or more and there are long novels, like 70,000-80,000 or more words.
But remember, quality is about content, not word count.

What’s the takeaway here? Don’t worry about getting accepted by a big publisher. They are not going to put you on a promotional road trip these days. You’re going to have to sell your book without almost no help from them.

You can quickly self-publish a quality book yourself and promoting it and make serious money.

A Key to Success

A hidden key to success: Make sure you know the difference between publishing a book yourself and using one of the many “self-publishing” services. Virtually all of them are nothing more than vanity publishers that will not enhance your professional standing. Do your homework and stay away from vanity publishers of any kind.

Many people make costly mistakes when they publish their first book. To get support to write and publish a professional-quality book, see the services I offer.