To make it in self-publishing, the key is often to work smarter—not harder. You can always write more books, but sometimes there are much faster and easier ways of doubling or even tripling your income with the same number of books.
The key word here is “multiply,” and the more things you multiply, the better. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Multiple formats: Why stop at an ebook? Paperback and audiobooks are both popular options for readers, and since Amazon more recently started offering an option for hardcover books, this is a great time to dive into adding format options to your books.
Multiple countries: International publishing is easy and can be done in only a few clicks on many platforms. Don’t limit yourself to a single country when you might have readers from around the world!
Multiple languages: If you’re bilingual, you can claim a huge advantage by writing and translating in multiple languages instead of only one. Otherwise, a translator might be a good investment, especially if you feel that you might have a bigger, better market in another language.
Multiple publishers/distributors: Selling exclusively on Amazon has a massive downside: you’re limiting yourself to a single market, Amazon’s. The same is true if you publish exclusively on any platform or distribution service. The more places people can find your books on, the more people you can add to your fan base. And the more people you can add to your fan base, the more you can earn with each release!
What about for your writing itself?
First, it's important to question your assumptions here. Does your money need to come from royalties? Even if you’re starting out, you can count writing as an expertise—or count an element that is prominent in your writing, such as a skill or a place. Many writers run classes or write nonfiction books about writing in addition to publishing fiction. This can also give way to speaking opportunities and a chance to be seen as an expert in your field. If you still have a way to go to become an expert, you can also consider ghost writing or content writing on the side to get extra money while you get started.
As for fiction, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort—and multiply that income big time—simply by writing in a series. There are different ways to do this, and if you don’t like the thought of adding a sequel to your perfect story or splitting one perfectly satisfying book into a tirade of shorter novellas, you can also consider spin-offs. The appeal of a series is that you only have to create a world and the characters in that world once, and from there you can turn your ideas into potentially infinite streams of story with very little effort.
As always, please share your thoughts in the comments below! You’re also very welcome to join in the discussion of this post on my Facebook group for self-publishing fiction authors by clicking on the blue button below.