How to Make Money as an Author and Earn a Living from Scratch

Is it possible to make money as an author self-publishing your books from scratch? This is one question I’ve been asked too many times. And my answer is always the same. Yes, it’s very possible to earn a living as a self-published author.

But it is not a walk in the park. In a time where self-publishing and generative AI have made it easier for a large number of writers to have their work published, some times at scale, the competition is more intense than it’s ever been.

Today if you want to earn a living publishing and selling books online, there are very specific steps you must take from the start. And I’ll be listing out some of these steps to you in this guide.

Write Sellable Books

Now the first step is to write a book that will sell. Let me explain. A book that will sell naturally is a book that is written based on a well-researched existing demand in the target market. And it is written for a well understood audience. There are no in-betweens.

I have seen a number of authors that started writing a book on a particular genre or subject matter because that is what appealed to them.

Now this is not wrong or condemnable because some authors do not write their books for profit purposes. A good number of authors write for very different reasons, including some writing as a hobby.

Now, if you’re writing as a hobby or for other purposes other than profit making, that is all good and fine. And you can stretch your creativity or imaginations as far as it can go, without paying so much attention to what is already making waves in the book market.

But if your goal is to earn a living writing then you have to use an inside out focus. Instead of writing for yourself or what matters to you, try to understand your audience and what they want. Find out the genres that is already performing well in the market and then write in that genre.

For example; let’s say you’re writing a self-published book for a Nigerian first audience, before you start writing your book, find out the top genre that is selling fast in Nigeria. Build your book around that genre and start writing from there.

Another angle you can look at is writing a series instead of a one off. With a good book, this can improve your sales volume. And from marketing perspective, you can also spend less to promote a series if you’re considering paid promotion.

Write High Quality and Valuable Books

The quality of your book is also a very important factor that can decide if you’re going to be able to sell your books or not.

In this era of Artificial Intelligence where writers can write an entire book using a prompt on ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, if you want to make money as an author, you must go the extra mile to add extra value to your book.

As a book consultant, I have reviewed some books which I knew I’d not use my heard earned money to buy those books if they were put in the market. I have also seen a number of authors that reading their draft manuscript alone gave me a “braingasm”.

I want to be very clear. In a generation where social media and other apps are getting people off books, if you want to write a book that catches attention, then before any marketing, you must write something that is really good.

Make an extra effort to give your book a distinctive touch that will make it stand out. If you’re a fiction writer, give your stories an edge that is not only relatable but unique and your voice, clearly distinctive.

If you’re writing nonfiction, give your book some extra punch. Go the extra mile. Make extra research, create additional value, share real life experience, practical insights, research backed data and other important details that will make your book stand out.

Don’t even think that writing a book off a sloppy prompt on generative AI and marketing it aggressively will make it go viral in sales. At most it might go viral in visibility while leaving you with damaging reviews when buyers cannot see real value in your book.

So from the get go, you want to go for quality storytelling. And value driven book writing. Quality in this case is not just about editing and proof reading your book to high standards alone.

Quality also includes creating an additional value, an angle, a push that will make people to come back to reading your book or even recommend it to others, regardless of ho you’re writing it.

And finally, be sure your book is well edited, proof read and designed to reach the highest quality there is, in your niche.

Get your Books on The Right Platforms

There are a lot of platforms you can easily self-publish a book but if you want to make money as an author, you have to choose the right platforms that will drive the biggest returns in terms of revenue.

Now, all the top publishing platforms do not accept authors from all countries but some do. You also have to keep this in mind while deciding on a preferred publishing platform.

That said, the following are some of the top online platforms that can get you to make a living as a self-published author:

• Amazon KDP: This is a top publishing platform with the largest number of books, authors and readers. Most self-published authors want to get on Amazon because outside having a massive reach, it is also a go to platform for book shoppers around the world. Make publishing on Amazon a priority for you if you want to reach an international audience at scale.
• Draft2Digital: Draft2igital also called D2D is also a top publishing platform for indie authors. It distributes books across top retailing platforms like Apple books, Barnes and Nobles etc. D2D is limited in some countries, including Nigeria.
• Lulu: This is also a long-standing publishing platform that is available to writers around the world. Although much limited in audience compared to Amazon, they have an international spread and they also published from countries around the world, including Nigeria and most other African and developing countries.
• Kobo Writing: Kobo is a leading publishing platform for self-published authors. Like Amazon, they have a program that allows authors to earn from outright buying and alternatives like subscribed readers.

There are also other platforms like IngramSpark, Apple books, Barnes and Nobles etc. some of these platforms are very effective in terms of readers and spread but they are also limited to authors in specific regions. Choose a platform that works for you before going all out for publishing.

Create an Author Brand

An author brand is a powerful tool that can get you to generate revenue from different sources outside the book directly. A lot of authors ignore this either because they feel it’s a lot of work or it doesn’t really matter in the long run.

But it matters. And if you want to make money as an author, it is very important you consider having an author brand right from scratch and also using this brand to create a thought leadership and sustainable revenue alternatives.

Look at influential authors like Chimamanda Adichie whose influence crosses culture, music, fashion even though they are originally authors and then you’ll find out the enormous potential you can wield in this regard, if you can build a strong personal brand around your authorship.

Now, to create an author brand, you have to start from the scratch with an understanding of who you are, define your brand goals, your values as an author, the themes you portray in your book and generally, the brand you want to portray (which has to align with your book’s themes).

Again, using Adichie as our example, take a look at her brand. Although she’s written about different themes, from war to feminism and real life issues like grief and motherhood, her brand still centers on a theme that reflects what she is easily known for. She still finds a way to create a narrative that aligns with who she is.

As an author that wants to conveniently earn a living writing books, you have to figure out the core of your brand and build from here. Understand the generality of what you want to portray as an author, the audience you want to appeal to and then create a brand story that consistently aligns with these.

After that, design a consistent brand image that aligns with your brand. Make sure your brand image aligns with your brand tone of voice, writing styles and even other brand representations like flyers, logos, social media images etc.

When this is concluded, go ahead and choose a number of social media platforms with the largest number of your target audience. Create, share content and engage with your audience on that platform.

After you’ve been able to sort this out you can then get a website, create and share thought leadership content across your website and social media platforms. The whole point of doing this is to evolve a brand where you can collaborate with clients on selected project, influence for other brands, get paid to work on specific projects etc.

Market your Book Effectively

Publishing does not start and end the day you have your book live on publishing platforms as most self-published authors like to believe. It goes beyond that.

If you want to make money as a self-published author, get ready to actively push your book aggressively, if you don’t want it to gather dust on the shelves.

I have met a number of authors who were only interested in having their books live on the digital publishing platforms and expecting it to sell magically. Thing is, while publishing platforms like Amazon KDP do have the traffic to push your book, as a self-published or new author, you still have to give your book some push, to get a decent sale.

There are a number of options you can use to sell your books. A few of these options are free but some of them are paid.

• Book Launches: This is free. It is one of my go-to advice for my author clients. Plan a book launch or pr-launch before the book goes live. Don’t keep quiet about your upcoming book. Post some updates, extract, get the word out on social media and when the book finally comes out, gather people and have a book launch. You don’t need to have a physical book launch or even make it very formal; you can hold it virtually if you want. The idea is to get the word about your books, get people to look it up, buy and give it a buzz.
• Use Social Media Marketing: social media provides a great avenue to promote your book, get buyers and earn more from book sales. What you can do on social media includes posting content about the book like anecdotes, quotes, pages etc. this keeps people hooked on the book. PS: Don’t go overboard. Be sure you’re not over promoting it in a way that gets spammy.
• Discounts & Free Promotions: There are discount and free promotion options on some platforms like Amazon for instance. The KDP Select option on Amazon allows you to use the Free Book Promotion which allows gets authors to offer their kindle eBook for free, for up to five days, which in turns builds up visibility and readers for the author. There’s also the discount option which gives authors options to discount their books at specific intervals, to drive more sales.
• Paid Advertising: There are paid advertising options that work for books. This includes options like using your publishing platform. Amazon, Kobo for example allows authors to enroll in sponsored advertising on the platform. For platforms like Lulu, you can use in coming ads from third party platforms. In addition to all of this, you can also use sponsored posts on third party websites and paid advertising across the search engine like Google PPC although this can be expensive in some cases.
• Use Social Media Advertising: Social media ads are also a great way to market your books, get sales and make more money as a self-published author. There are some popular options you can use like Facebook Advertising, Instagram Ads, Twitter (X) etc. while social media ads can be very cost effective, you have to be very strategic and well targeted to make the most of this option.
• Get an Author Platform: As an author, you need your own platforms like a blog, your website etc. outside your traditional publishing platform. This strategy allows you to grow your brand as an author, build a portfolio and also promote your book directly, using blog posts, strategic content marketing, search engine optimization strategies etc. In some cases, you can also sell your book, directly from that platform.

There are a number of advertising options I have not included here like optimizing your book’s keywords sections, using the right combination of SEO keywords, catchy words and captivating phrases in your book description section and also using a cover that delivers. Yes. I know this section is about marketing but your cover design and even book title also matter when it comes to creating the right impression for your book.

Diversify your Revenue Earnings

Most authors are stuck on earning directly from book sales but that’s just one of the book revenue options out there. There are a lot more alternative ways to make money as an author that’s yet to be touched especially by self-published authors.

• Writing Trainings & Workshops. A lot of aspiring writers reach out to me to find spaces where they can learn creative writing. As a writer, there’s an existing audience for this and you can leverage it especially if you can distinguish yourself as a writer. You can start with short writing sessions where you coach new writers like free, freemium, online writing classes etc. a number of successful authors Like Chimamanda Adichie, Magaret Atwood etc., are already organizing this. Some are free while others host paid classes.
• Editing and Proof reading. As a published author that already understands proof reading and editing, you can offer this service to other authors. Doing this will demand you create a brand that includes editing as part of your portfolio, promote it on your platform and even reach out to the author directly.
• Influencing for Brands. We mentioned about creating an author brand in step four. Now, if you want to influence for brands, you can leverage this author brand, your credibility, established audience and expertise to build brand partnerships. For this to work effectively, you’ll need a solid brand, a decent audience and visibility. Meaning that you’ll have to put in the work to build your author platforms if you want to effectively leverage this strategy.
• Ghost Writing. Ghostwriting is another top option to monetize your authorship and make money as a self-published author. As an already published writer, you can leverage your brand to ghostwrite books for other authors or aspiring writers who have book ideas but are too busy to write. For this to work effectively, you’ll have to be very strategic. From positioning yourself as a ghostwriter to marketing and promoting your brand across platforms, you have to be seen as a writer that can carry and interpret the work of other writers. In some cases, you may need some advance training on ghostwriting to achieve this but when done well, it can serve as a very good revenue alternative.
• Monetizing Author Platforms. Your author platforms like your website, blog, social media handles can be monetized. For example, you can run ads on your blog and website, run sponsored ads for brands, promote books for author for a pay, monetize your social media handles like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. Doing this successfully will depend on your ability to manage, build and promote your author platform effectively.

All these options are very effective. There are some I could still add but these are some of the most proven revenue alternatives for authors that’s worked consistently and you can use them even if you’re a beginner.

But you must keep in mind that for this to work well you’ll need an author platform with a very decent audience. So, what this means is that you’re not going to set up an author platform and leave it. You’re going to put in the work to build, grow it and build an active audience for your brand.

Have a Long-Term Plan

Most new authors do not even have a plan. The few that manage to have a plan or two, do not have something long term. But if you want to earn a living as an author then you must treat writing as a business. There are no two ways about it.

Get your Goals Right. Start with having a solid goal. And a plan that can deliver on that goal. For example, before you set out to make money as an author, as yourself, how much do I plan to make over a specified period like a month or a year? Give yourself an estimate.

What this means is not that you’re going t work exactly with those earnings but the estimate gives you something to work with.

With this sorted out, you can then go about building and using the marketing and writing a strategy that can deliver on the goal and estimates.

Roll Out a Writing Plan. Do you want to write series or stand-alone books? Naturally, writing a series gives you a lot of advantage. It also allows authors to make a lot more earnings generally but not every author is interested in writing a series.

If you’re more aligned with writing single books, find out the best marketing options you’ll use in that case. This gets you prepared. If you plan to have a series, it allows you to plan your series accordingly as well.

Create a Marketing Plan. What brand do you want to project and how do you hold this central to your work? This is an important information that might affect the entirety of your work. While most authors do not have this in place at the onset of their writing career, it can be very helpful if you have it.

From branding, get onto marketing, your target audience etc. this will also impact the platforms you plan to publish on as a self-published author. For instance, if you’re targeting exclusively Africans in Africa, you want to publish on a platform that your audience can easily purchase from as some platforms do not support specific regions.

Write Consistently. Your first book might not become a blockbuster but who knows, your other books might just become best sellers but you’ll never know until you write them. I have seen a number of authors whose plan was to make money writing books but they stopped after writing just one book.

If you want to realistically make money as a self-published author, you have to write consistently. Write as much as possible. Most of the successful authors you see today did not just write and stop at one book. From JK Rowling To Stephen King, John Grisham, Chinua Achebe etc., none of these authors stopped at writing just one book. Plan on writing as much books as possible.

Build a System. Since this is now a business, to built consistent success, you have to treat writing as a business. Build systems that will create repeatable success for you. Push beyond survival and hobby writing, create pragmatic systems like an email list, posting schedule etc. that will get you to evolve consistent outcome for your book writing endeavor.

Have a writing area, writing schedules writing prompt etc. evolve a system for posting and sharing thought leadership content that matters to your audience. And also, create a framework that helps you to build an audience and deliver consistently for your audience. This is very important.

Get your Pricing Right. Pricing can seem like an insignificant issue but depending on your target audience, your list price can make or reduce your sales margins as an author so as much as possible, you have to get this right from the start.

Instead of guessing a list price, find out the pricing for similar books and the cost of procuring a copy from the publishing platform (inclusive of charges), use this to evolve a pricing that works for your audience.

Another thing to consider while setting up pricing is whether your book is a series or a one-off book. If you’re writing a series, consider putting up a pricing that will get readers coming back to buy your books.

Your genre and target audience are also key factors that should be considered while setting up a list price for your books but in all of this, be sure you’re pricing for profit. Do not sell your book at a loss. To maximize profit, take strategic steps to reduce the cost, including book sizes, colors and printing options.

Final Words

It is very possible to make money as an author even if you’re just getting started for the first time but if you want to really achieve this, you have to take very strategic steps, including using the strategies you just read today.

In addition to these, take time to monitor your sales analytics, book performance and marketing outcomes across platforms. This will provide the needed feedback that will get you to make adjustments accordingly.

Also, remember that earning as an author is not a one-off thing. Look at most of the successful authors you know today, they don’t only write, they promote their books. They get on interviews, own a social media presence, and also show up when it matters. As a new self-published author, you’ll do this and more, including your own marketing, directly or indirectly.

And finally, you don’t have to do this alone. Work with our experts to publish, build author platforms, market your books across platforms and make more money. Reach out for a free review here.

Now, it’s your turn. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced when it comes to making more money with your books as an author? Drop your comments below.