The sad reality of writing a book is that unless you happen to be extraordinarily lucky, talented, and blessed with a whole lot of money and marketing skills, you won’t make much money from writing just one book. The way to make money in publishing is to recycle your book content into more formats, so you can position yourself as an expert.
If you self-publish, you don’t have any limitations regarding how you can reuse your content. The possibilities are endless. Instead of going through the effort of writing another book, consider recycling or repackaging your book content in different ways. People learn in different ways, and by repackaging, you can create multiple products that meet their needs with minimal effort. From one print book, you could create:
EBooks. Take the PDF file you made for the printer and turn it into a download that you sell from your Web site.
Audio Programs: Record the information that you developed for your book as an audio. We did that with some information from our book Web Business Success. The Domain Name Audio package we sold was largely based on information in the print book that was expanded, recorded, and packaged with worksheets.
Workbooks/Worksheets: Turn the book content into step-by-step worksheets. As noted, the Domain Name audio worksheets are based on our book.
Teleseminars, Podcasts or Radio shows: Take the topic of your book and teach a teleseminar on the subject. Offer to do teleseminars for other people. These events help promote your book and demonstrate your expertise.
Coaching, Mentoring, or Training Programs: Teach people how to do the things described in your book. If your book is about losing weight, offer a step-by-step course that offers information, support, and encouragement.
Speaking or Seminars: Take your topic out on the speaking circuit. Tell people what you know in person.
Articles: Write articles on your topics and submit them to magazines. You can get paid multiple times for the same basic information if you just slant it differently for each magazine. You also can consider syndicating your articles so one article appears in multiple publications.
Ezines or Newsletters: Break up your book content into a print or online periodical.
Booklets, White Papers, and Special Reports: Turn your content into pithy “tips” and sell them in booklet form. Or write and sell downloadable white papers and special reports
Video Training: Get a video camera and show people how to do the things described in your book. Many non-fiction titles lend themselves to video. If you wrote a gardening book, for example, you could create a video on how to prune roses.
Consulting. Once you are an expert in a given area, people will pay you for your expertise.
All of these ideas cross-promote one another and just scratch the surface of your options. For example, we are creating a membership association that relates to our pet books. The new National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals offers tools and information to people involved in rescue. It’s not a coincidence that pet rescue relates to our books Happy Hound and Happy Tabby. Once you have gone through the effort to develop enough knowledge and expertise to actually write a book, think about how you can reuse it!