10 “Beyond the Book” Ideas to Generate Additional Income

Very few people become “rich” from just writing books.  That’s why at Juxtabook our tagline is “It’s more than just a book”.  Authors need to think beyond what they write and publish. Authors need to publish anywhere from 15 to 40+ published books if they want to purely live off of royalties. Think about it--can you think of a one-hit author who is living off the royalties of that one title? No derivatives, no training programs, no sequels?

How do you go beyond the book?  Start brainstorming what products and/or services you are going to offer to your readers that provide additional value.  This will vary based upon your book’s subject matter and whether it’s fiction or nonfiction but it must add value or you may lose your reader’s interest.    

Here are some ideas of ways to make your book “more than just a book” for non-fiction and fiction:  

If yours is a nonfiction book: 

• Journal - if your book poses questions, suggests action items, and provides activities, then create a journal that helps your readers to act upon those concepts. 

• Speaking Engagements - find conferences or corporate events and volunteer to give a breakout or keynote speech. After a few iterations, and once you have perfected your speech, then, and only then, can you shift to asking for a fee.

• Workshops - many nonfiction books talk about what to do but are lighter on the how-to-do.  Workshops are a great way to help readers further engage with the book content and apply the concepts in your book.

• Online training program - Create online video training that dives deeper into the concepts of your book.  

• Certification - if you have a training associated with your book and it’s in high-demand, certify people to train your content. (Note: Be very diligent about maintaining your legal ownership--consult with an expert or get legal advice.)  

• Group or 1-on-1 coaching - many non-fiction books are about making personal change.  Change is hard and conducting 1-on-1 or group coaching sessions based on your book is a great way to engage with your readers and help them reach their goals.  

If yours is a fiction book:

• Novelty products - create or license novelty products depending on your fiction genre, i.e., puppets, keychains, t-shirts.

• Speaking Engagements - find conferences where you can speak about your book.  Your speech could be based on character development, the structure of the book, or the process you went through to write the book. 

• Fiction writing workshops - writing fiction can be hard.  If you are good at writing fiction or you’ve had some success with publishing your book, offer workshops to teach your tips and tricks to others.  

• Character expansion stories - if your readers want to get to know your book characters further write short stories that focus solely on that character and how they came to be who they are.  

Whatever you decide to offer, keep these two things in mind: 

1. Audience- Before you spend the time and money to create additional services or products it’s important to understand who your audience is; ask yourself, what is my audience demographic? Who is spending the money on my book and/or products?

2. Provide Value - once you know who your audience is, put in the effort to understand what they want and what would provide value to them.  

Get out there and be creative! This blog post is just a tiny taste of what you can do. Figure out how your book is “more than just a book.”  Authors create experiences that capture the imagination in all of us.  

And have fun! It’s contagious.