Books & Money: 3 Profit Models to Support a Thriving Literary Life
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If you want to create the financial situation of your dreams you’ve got to bake fulfillment and financial abundance into the same cake. The economic principles for artists that I’m sharing below were honed under a substantial amount of unexpected financial pressure and they’ve been very successful for myself and my clients. These models are both grounded and aspirational. They incorporate the sky-is-the-limit vision with down-to-earth practicality.
1. Creating a Series
The best way to make a living on books and only books is by writing a lot of them. I’ve seen this work in both the fiction and nonfiction space. For a nonfiction series it’s best to dig into a niche that both you and your readers just can’t get enough of, like pets to sports to personal development. Then write about it from a variety of different angles. With fiction, dive deep into a genre such as fantasy, romance or thrillers and develop a fan base. With every launch you grow your circle of readers and if they like what they read they buy up your backlist of titles.
My very first client, Miranda Rijks took this route. At the time of this printing she’s written eleven psychological thrillers and sold over a quarter of a million books. We worked on the first five together, and after a couple of years she was picked up by Incubator Books.
When you find the intersection between your talent and your customer’s desires you can build an empire. You’ll love this if you want to write full time, but you’ll find it difficult if you can’t keep up the pace. In order for this to work you need to publish regularly, at least once a year. This gets easier as you produce more and more books and get confidence in your craft. However, if you prefer to protect your art from the brunt of the financial responsibility there are other very fulfilling options.
2. Teaching Your Craft
This is a classic model that takes the financial pressure off your art, giving you more freedom to express yourself and explore. As a person who loved writing literary short stories, but didn’t expect to make a living from them, I embraced this model for years. I could build my life around books and create financial stability at the same time. Even if I had a million dollars I would want to read and write and it wasn’t lost on me that I didn’t need a million dollars to do that. For some of us, myself included, if we shut ourselves in to write and only write, everything would suffer. I love teaching just as much I love writing. I love the interaction, discussion and community.
You’ll love this if you genuinely love books, as in writing them, reading them and talking about them. Working for any sort of stable institution, from a coffee shop to a college can create a safe place for your art to thrive. You’re separating out your art from your finances and that gives you fabulous freedom.
However you may feel stifled if you hate conforming to the rules and schedule of an institution. Many creatives feel this model start to crumble when the values of their employer no longer align with their own. In the good times institutions protect us, but if that protection becomes too rigid, stifling or oppressive, we start to burn out. If that’s the situation, find a new job in a healthier institution or experiment with the third economic model that I’d like to share.
3. Creating a Business Around your Book
Just as new possibilities are emerging in self-publishing, new opportunities are emerging for mission driven and literary businesses as well. A misconception about this route is that you have to be famous to pull it off, when all you really need is to foster a deep connection with the people who need what you have to offer.
When I first moved out of my teaching career into my literary business I was empowered to take control of my finances, not because I was famous, but because I had an acute understanding of the people I was meant to serve. In the beginning I spent a lot of time meeting with these people and listening to them individually. Honestly, I was able to replace my salary before I had a hundred people in my audience. A seed was created for something that could grow.
In the end, it was the depth of my connection that allowed me to stand out. Because I deeply understood the people I served, I could create products that were unique and could scale. So much of this book was written from messages to people asking questions or working through blocks. In business, this is a case where the long way is the short cut. It may seem as if writing a book is a lot of work, but when you can relate to and solve a need at that level you stand out. Deep roots grow tall plants.
The best way to find what works for you is to take each of these models for a test drive. Pay attention how it feels in the present moment. Do you enjoy writing every day? Do you enjoy teaching? Do you building a community? If you love the journey, you will reap more benefits.