Home   >   Writing for a Living   >   How To Make Money From Your Novel

How To Make Money From Your Novel

By on August 10, 2016
How To Make Money From Your Novel - Writer's Life.org

Selling a book isn’t easy. We all know that. Even with a well thought out marketing plan, and the determination and dedication it takes to try and boost those sales, with such an overcrowded market, it can still be difficult to try and attract readers.

However, did you know that selling actual physical copies of your book isn’t the only way that you can make money from it?

While it would be wonderful to see your book sales sky rocket and then be able to quit your day job, put your feet up and enjoy a life of luxury, for most writers this just isn’t the case.

Even moderately successful authors, those who have managed to secure agents and publishing deals, still have to supplement their income by doing other things.

Because of this, it is a great idea to try and exploit your own work - to find ways to use your novel to inspire you to write other pieces - ones which may end up being much more lucrative.

There are actually lots of pieces of information you can extract from your book which you can use to write articles and then submit these to magazines for paid work.

Let’s take a look at some of them:

Location and setting

Where is your novel set? Obviously this won’t work well if you are writing a post apocalyptic thriller, however, if you have set your novel in a location in the present-day world, chances are you’ll have done your research.

Being an expert about a city or area of the world opens up many opportunities to write about it. Write an interesting essay, create a tourist guide, write a piece about all of its secret places that are off the beaten track - local magazines, travel and tourist magazines and websites will be eager to get their hands on expertly written pieces about interesting areas, so you’ll be ahead of the game.

Food and drink

Lots of authors love to write about what their characters are eating. If you have written about food in your novel, pull those sections out and see what you can do with them.

Write a recipe blog or an article about the best restaurants in the area where you live. Use your characters love of food to inspire you to write about it some more.

The characters

We are always told to write what we know, so, if you’ve followed this advice, it’s likely that some of your characters are based on individuals you just happen to have crossed paths with in real-life.

Readers, and consequently magazines, love real-life stories. So if you have got anything particularly juicy to share, why not write a personal essay or article on it, and see if you can sell your story?

You can also look at the journey’s your character has taken and the lessons they have learnt.

Did they manage to find true love despite a series of failed relationships? Perhaps you should be an agony aunt! Did they manage to get out of debt and save the farm? Maybe you should consider writing a financial advice column. Look at what your characters have achieved and the lessons they have learnt and use them to help others (and yourself) too!

The research

Go through all your research and pull out what captured your interest. You might have had to look up some rather interesting things when writing your book, have any of those made you want to look into them more?

It may just be the start of a new hobby, but if your extensive notes on 16th Century Scottish witchcraft piqued your interest in the subject you might just be an expert, and you’ll no doubt be able to find a niche publication looking for material on the matter.

We all want our books to sell well, however, if they don’t, let’s not let all that great material go to waste! Finding interesting parts of your book to inspire you to write articles is a useful way to make a bit of extra money - until you become a bestselling author of course!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

About Ty Cohen