Thursday’s profit tip for authors

Many authors of non-fiction books admit that profits from the sale of their books represents a small percentage of their annual income. Some successful authors, like Michael Port, have mentioned that they devote their book royalties to charity, as Michael revealed during a recent Published & Profitable interview available here.

Obviously, this couldn’t be done unless the authors have created a steady stream of other income based on their books, separate from income coming from direct “sales” of their books or royalties from bookstore sales.

Unfortunately, many authors fail to develop their book’s back-end profits. Their book sort of fades into the background, after it has been written and its publication date recedes into the background. Out of sight, out of mind, as day-to-day coaching and consulting begins to occupy more time, and invitations to speak increase.

What are back-end profits?
Back-end profits reflect the sale of a broad spectrum of products, ranging from:

• E-books, such as yearly reports and vertical market adaptations
• Case studies
• Audio recordings
• Teleseminars
• Webinars
• Video DVD’s
• Templates

Finding the time
The best way to find the time to invest in creating and promoting back-end profit products is to set aside some time each week for the task. By setting aside some time time each week for creating back-end products, you can leverage your book to higher profits.

Using the Duplicate Event feature found in online calendars, like Google’s, you can plan your week around an hour, or 2 half-hours, set aside for planning, writing, promoting products that will generate back-end, passive-income, profits. By pre-scheduling as little as an hour a week, or 2 half-hour sessions, you can ensure that you won’t inadvertently sacrifice what could be high-dollar profits as you focus on your on-going daily and weekly tasks.