How to Earn Money by Writing a Book – Author Income Guide

How to make money by writing a book is an important question for writers and wordsmiths who can weave words like webs and how much money can you make, while writing a book, or you have got epic stories to share to the world so you would be wondering the key to making money writing stories. In today’s world of publishing, there are many ways to make the cut. The two of them are traditional and self-publishing. Read more to find out. 

How to write a book and make money

To make money as an author, you can go either the traditional publishing route, self- publishing route, hybrid, or vanity publishing. Traditional publishing is the old school way of getting published. It means pitching your manuscript to many publishers and finally making one publisher get it published. If it is approved, a contract is signed in which the publisher takes care of editing, proofreading, polishing the manuscript and after, it is ready marketing and distribution of the book. 

Another route to publish entails self- publishing in which the author needs to manage things on his/ her own and pay for services. There are various ways to self- publish. You can contact budding publishers like Double9 Books for self- publishing and traditional publishing. Or you can publish a book on Amazon, but how can you publish a book on Amazon and make money? It will be through Kindle and in that first you need to upload your book, format it and design a cover using Canva and you are ready to go. 

Hybrid publishing combines the aspects of both traditional and self- publishing. In this authors need to pay for services, but gain publishing support. 

Vanity publishing is also known as subsidy publishing in which the authors pay a publisher to produce and release their book. You earn money, through royalties given by a publisher. 10 to 35 % is given by traditional publishers, self- publishing royalty varies from 70- 100% royalty. Now,

how much money is made writing a book is discussed as follows: 

• Full time authors got a median income of 10,000$ from their books in 2022 which hiked to 20,000$ with blogging.
• Self- published authors earned $12, 800 $ by writing a book and 15,000$ by using other author income sources.

Steps to Making Money as a Writer and getting published with a Traditional Publishing House 

Making money as a writer is not a cakewalk. It is arduous and involves typing pages, after pages, but making sure it makes sense and even if you write a good book. It is not obvious that it has to work. First step is to write the book. You can use many tools and resources to write the book. You can also get a burst of inspiration from the podcasts of writers. Besides this AI writing tools and Ebook software can be used to write a book. 

Editing and Polishing your Book: After writing a book, you need to edit the book for inconsistencies, errors and plot holes, if it is a fictional book. You need to check for facts and readability issues to ensure that the manuscript is polished and will resonate with the readers. 

• After editing the book, you need to send queries to traditional publishers through a literary agent, or DIY. 
• If it is a non-fiction book, you just need a proposal to pitch the book. It should include an overview, biography of the author in the third person, comparative titles related to the manuscript, target audience, the marketing plan to promote the book, chapter outline and sample chapters. 
• You need to wait to hear back: If it is a big publisher such as Penguin, it might take six weeks for you to get a response. 
• Sign the contract with the publisher, after reading the terms and conditions and the royalty rates. 
• Design the book cover: You need to choose a cover that matches the theme of your book and is visually appealing. 
• You need to create a book promotion plan, even if you are publishing the traditional route. The main strategy is to research the market by identifying the target audience and invest in advertisements on Instagram, or get it reviewed to promote it. 

Tips on Making Money as a Writer Online

The tips on making money as a writer online are as follows: 

• Collect book reviews for your book. You can use Publish Drive’s book promotion to get book reviews. They use a nifty tool to get reviews. 
• You need to look for opportunities such as ad placements with newsletters such as Freebooksy. 

Your words whether fiction, or non- fiction books are not just a slew of words, but keys to entire worlds. The question of how to make money while writing short stories, or stories is an easy one. Your words can open doors to various worlds, if you just build your brand as an author on social media and you know how to build your network.