Can You Profit From A Book With Small Sales Numbers?

 

The business side of book publishing can be brutal. First, you need to understand it. Then, you must navigate around the many pitfalls. Authors and publishers know that they could easily lose – or not make much money from their writing and publishing adventures. But books can have a big pay-off if you don’t focus purely on book sales.

 

Say what?

 

You heard me.

 

A book can be a marketing tool to sell something else, including: other books, other forms of content, products, services, and courses.

 

For instance, your book can be a business card if your area of expertise is one like finance, law, therapy, medical, etc. Your book can become a lead-generator for you. Here are some ways to generate income because the book will

 

1.      Get you speaking engagements. Free ones allow you a venue to sell your book and advertise your other wares. Or, you can get as paid speaking gig that may also allow you to brand yourself and likely draw people to your web site.

 

2.      Lead to people hiring you as a consultant. You can simply choose to give your advice and coach others. It’s like being a therapist, but you get to help others on the subject you are most familiar with. 

3.      Allow you to be hired to provide your services or position you to collect referral fees to other service-providers.

 

4.      Build your platform so you can open doors to being hired somewhere, becoming a professor, or building up your social media following. It can also lead to you earning news media opportunities – book reviews, interviews, feature stories, or byline articles.

 

5.      Lead you to become a high-profile voice in areas that you did not intend for, thus allowing for you to get a new market to exploit and commoditize.

 

6.      Lead to giving your own webinars, seminars, or courses – either online or in-person – or both.

 

7.      Alert people to the other books you have published, thus netting you more sales.

If your book can be a loss-leader to something big, just give it away! Other things may just prove to be more important than book sales.

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 4.4 million pageviews. With 5,300+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum