Hey ,
Today I want to ask a simple question:
What if you could make $10,000 on the side by teaching skills you use every day?
Writing a book will help you become an expert in your field, speak at conferences, get consulting gigs, and make money off book sales.
A book is the perfect side-project
Here's why:
- You have to teach in order to write a book. And teaching is the best way to build an audience who will buy any kind of product. Let's say your ultimate dream (like mine) is to build a SaaS application that takes over the world. Teaching is the most effective way to gather customers. It's time you started practicing teaching everything you know.
- Books can be small. Often people bite off more than they can chew with their first side project. That's a recipe for never finishing what you start (which sucks). Trust me, I've done that plenty of times. A book doesn't need to be book-length. Instead it could be a short guide or even just a single tutorial.
- Writing a book gives credibility. I wanted to be a famous web designer, but no one ever invited me to speak at conferences until I wrote a book. I also had more consulting requests than I could handle within 24-hours of launching my first book. Becoming an author will give you more credibility than any other side project.
- Books can make money even with a small audience. If you sell 100 copies of an iPhone app, it's a flop. You just can't price a standard app high enough to make any money off such a low sales volume. But if a book sells 100 copies it can actually be a success. Through clever pricing - and developing a long-term relationship with each reader, even reaching a few people can be profitable.
Problem: most authors don't make money
When people hear that someone’s a writer, people often crack jokes about what Starbucks drink they'd like.
But what if instead of working as a barista to support your writing, your writing supported you?
You may not even consider yourself a “writer”. Neither did Ethan.
After reading about tiny houses for years, Ethan Waldman decided to build his own.
But in the process of building his own tiny house, he struggled through a lot of hard decisions of how to proceed. What type of stove to use? How should the house be heated? What kind of toilet should you use? Each major decision took days of research before making an expensive purchase.
So after he finished his tiny house, Ethan wrote down everything he learned into a book called Tiny House Decisions.
Ethan’s book made $14,000 in just 4 months.
Whether you call yourself a “writer” or not, you have skills that are valuable, and teaching those skills in the form of a book can be lucrative.
What should your book be about?
You may already have an idea in mind for the book you want to write, but I would encourage you to start with the easiest one to write (and also the easiest to sell).
What book would that be?
Choose a topic that is the answer to all three of these questions:.
- What’s something you learned the hard way?
- What’s something you have a lot of knowledge about?
- What’s a valuable skill people would actually pay to learn?
Because you learned the hard way, you have a good understanding of the struggles your readers face. This will help you relate to them.
Because you have a lot of knowledge about the topic, you’ll find it easy to write about.
Because it’s a valuable skill people will pay to learn, your book will be easy to sell.
Starting with the easiest book to write and sell will give you a financial springboard to launch future projects.
Spend a few minutes thinking about a book that would be easiest for you to write and easiest for you to sell.
Authority is the blueprint
Making money from book sales is wonderful—but it is only one benefit of writing a book.
Publishing a book can help you:
- Get a raise
- Land a new job
- Make clients come to you
How would you feel if you could say you “wrote the book on the topic”? Do you think that would help your career?
You don’t need to be an expert. No matter where you are in the learning process, someone always knows less about the topic than you do.
Authority demystifies the process and gives you step-by-step instructions for writing and launching your book (from landing pages, to blog posts, to building an email list, and putting together your launch sequence).
I have an exclusive deal for you as a subscriber where you can get $10 off Authority using this link.
Talk soon!
—Nathan
