Writers gotta write. But they like to eat, too, and have a roof over their heads, and enjoy other reasonably nice things. So becoming profitable is a goal worth pursuing.
I’ve read loads of books and articles, attended bunches of seminars and webinars, and lived the author life for twenty years, but there’s always something new to learn. I’m currently making my way through a book called The Profitable Author by Sharon Woodhouse. It’s almost 500 pages, so I wouldn’t call it a “breezy” read.
How did I come upon this book? It was handed to me at the Printers Row Lit Fest last fall. I accepted the gift because I recognized the name as someone who knows about authors. For several years, around the time I was writing and publishing Ruth by Lake and Prairie, the DuPage County libraries held a series of talks during January and February called Inside Writing and Publishing.
This was before Amazon’s KDP, about when Amazon acquired CreateSpace. During these Wild West publishing days, writers like me stalked all the self-published authors to learn from their successes and mistakes. I believe I attended every one of those Inside Writing and Publishing presentations. On one extremely snowy evening, there were probably only four of us in attendance – and the presenter and the librarian were two of them.
Woodhouse ran a publishing company, Lake Claremont Press, that supported a lot of local Chicago writers. I remember hearing her speak at one of the Inside Writing and Publishing events, and I probably still have notes filed away somewhere. So when I was handed her book, I knew it was worth reading.
I’ve dipped into it from time to time since September, but had more leisure to really read it in the last month, so here’s an overly brief review:
- It’s a lot. Including a lot of good advice.
- I started by making notes in the margins, but that became a second 500-page book inside the first one. I wound up using sticky notes as tabs so I can find the sections I want as needed.
- There are so many suggestions and choices for supporting your author life that no one can do them all, at least not right away. I would suggest getting an overview of everything and then picking one or two to actually do. Once you’ve mastered those (or decided they aren’t for you), you can move on to other options.
- Woodhouse gives very specific tasks, such as “Schedule a week’s worth of Tweets promoting book.” But also very open-ended tasks, such as “Get comfortable with and get good at sales.” The first is simple to accomplish, but I’ve been working on that second one my entire adult life.
- The main theme of The Profitable Author is that selling only your book will probably not bring the income you want. Most people will need to expand how to make their author gig pay. Teaching and presentations are just the tip of Woodhouse’s idea iceberg.
Over the past twenty years, I’ve already experimented with a few of her suggestions, but the book is inspiring me to try some new avenues and giving me ideas for how be better at what I’m doing now. While still making my way through the last chapters, I’m already at work on a couple of the easier options while letting the others percolate a bit.
Writing is fulfilling in itself, but there’s no reason why it can’t pay the bills, too. If you are ready to monetize your author life, The Profitable Author could be the encouragement you need.