Is Book Writing Profitable?

 1. What is The Value of a Book You Are About To Write? 

Industry Value – This is harder to gauge. There are no companies that track the number of self-published books, or total sales of indie titles.

Bookscan does list some indie books, but it only tracks trends in selling price, not quantity sold.

The best place to start is on forums dedicated to writers. The more specific the forum, the better your results will be.

For example: one for fiction writers with a focus on vampires would probably have a much different readership than one for authors of romance novels.

Search these forums for posts about how people have done research into what kinds of projects are selling well, either traditionally published or independently published.

If you are just getting started with writing your own book, it is best to collaborate with a professional book writer and publisher. From writing your book to publishing it is a long and tedious process.

You can find them to assist you with the entire writing and publishing process, which will save you time and energy.

Here are some things you can do to get an idea if  your book is on the right track:

1. Search for threads about writers’ groups, publishers, editors, etc.

Read what people are saying about their experiences with those groups and how it affected the success of their books.

People will often post links to articles they have written or interviews that were done with them after a new book came out, so this is a good place to look for things like that as well.

2. Read posts from agents and authors who answer questions.

Post your question asking what you want to know about the industry and wait patiently for an answer.

This can be tricky because self-published authors sometimes come across as bashing traditional publishing or talking down independently published books in an effort to sell more of theirs.

Try not  to get caught up in that, just see what they have to say about things.

3. Keep track of posts you find interesting or seem to have something valuable to add.

Post your own thread asking for an opinion on your project idea or book once You finish and mention the interesting things you found when doing research in other threads.

Make sure it’s a topic they would be interested in discussing with you before posting anything.

4. Stick with these forums long enough to get an accurate picture of how readers view books in your genre/niche.

2. How do you Know if your Book You Writing will be Profitable

First you need to make sure that there is a market for your book. Do research on similar books in the genre and find out how well they sell.

If your potential book will be competing with several bestselling titles, it will be more difficult for readers to notice yours.

Many people choose books based on word-of-mouth recommendations from friends or co-workers instead of going into a bookstore or library and looking at all the available options for themselves.                                        So you may want to consider writing a nonfiction self-help type book instead of a fiction novel if you’re unsure about whether yours will sell well.

If people do go to stores specifically looking for new novels, some popular genres are young adult fiction (the Twilight series), historical romance  (the Outlander series), and children’s fiction (Harry Potter).

Most nonfiction self-help books don’t do very well, so if you’re planning to write one of those, it would be wise to go the route of traditional publishers instead.

Know the Publishing Path

The next step is to learn about all that goes into actually publishing a book before you move forward with trying to publish your own. There are different paths for this: big name publishers vs small independent presses vs self-publishing.

The publishing industry is ever-changing, so some advice will become out of date rather quickly, but here are some resources on each option:

• Big name publishers
• Small independent presses
• Self-publishing options

Once you ‘ve decided on your publishing path, you need to write your book proposal.

A book proposal is basically a document that summarizes the entire book for an agent or editor,  including the contents of each chapter, why you are qualified to write on this topic, and how many pages it will be.

Include target audience of your book in proposal so publishers can see if they think there’s enough demand for it.

For example, if you are writing a young adult fiction novel but have no idea who specifically you are targeting as readers of that type of story, then it may not prove profitable to publish it

After your proposal is done, research literary agencies and small presses that might  be a good fit for your project. Don’t send out any full manuscripts until you have an agent or publisher who has accepted your proposal and is ready to review it!

Once you find some publishers interested in your book, There is a need to sign a contract with them.  Contracts can vary from publisher to publisher. But make sure you know what rights you are offering up.

Consult a lawyer before signing anything, unless you’re really confident that it’s not going to end badly.                  Which wouldn’t be wise considering how many horror stories there are about writers losing publishing deals after they’ve already spent years writing their  books.

Know the Marketing Strategies

The next step to making money off your book is actually marketing it.

The most important part of the equation (selling books) is all parties in the process agree upon everything else about writing and publishing

If you don’t know how to effectively market your own book,

Consider hiring a publicist or firm for this stage of things to make your project profitable.

Now let’s go over some ideas for promoting your book after it is published.

Promotional strategies will depend on what type of genre you’re writing in.

So make sure to choose these options that are best ones right now in your specific category.

One other thing to be aware of while writing and publishing your own book is that

there’s no guarantee it will always make money.

Your time and energy may go into something that doesn’t sell very well or won’t catch an agent or publisher’s interest at all,  but don’t let this discourage you from persisting through what can sometimes feel like a grueling process.

If you’re successful, then the financial benefits will definitely be worth it!