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It is true that some authors have a hard time selling one hundred copies of their books, while others make $100 000.00.

The main problem starts with the author, and they way they see themselves.
Beliefs that sabotage author’s careers are varied:

Many authors believe it is someone else’s job to sell their books
A book is art. No, it is a commodity. It is something that needs to be sold.
It is the publishing companies job to sell the book
The only ‘real’ place to sell books is in bookstores
Real authors sell to a publishing house, even a small one.
On the flip side, self-published authors are not real authors.
Authors are nothing more than slaves to the publishing houses, currying favor, and scrambling for the crumbs they are tossed.
It costs hundreds of dollars to be self-published
An author needs to be paid for every word they write.
An author’s job is to write.
Being an author is a hobby
The truth is, authors are in charge of their own career. They are the master of their destiny.
A publishing company can help me earn a steady income.
They wonder why crappy books are published when their work is rejected. Publishers are more likely to choose a manuscript written by authors who have sold hundreds of copies, and promoted themselves as public figures.

A problem arises when authors do not take the time to learn how to steer their own ship. This means they are holding a bank key, but do not know where to find the lock. Unsuccessful authors spend all their time trying to get into bookstores. Their mistake is focusing more of their efforts in feeding their ego than their bank account.

What is the message that can help other people? Even fiction novels have a message that has a message. What value is your book? How will your book benefit other people?

Writers do not look at themselves as a businessperson, a professional. Authors need to look at themselves as having value and skills that are valuable, and something people will pay for. The authors need to ‘brand’ themselves. They need to package themselves.

It isn’t until writers start finding authors who make more than 100 000 from a book, and comparing them to authors who make no money, that they start looking. Unfortunately, many authors do not look at their lack of knowledge as the problem. They blame a lack of talent, opportunity, and money as the difference between rich and poor authors.

All authors start with the same problems. It is how they solve their problems that divide the successful and unsuccessful.

Truths about traditional publishers:

It is almost impossible to make a good living except through bookstore sales.
The publisher pays you only a few pennies a book. That does not include the books publishers sell at a discount, or returned to the publisher. The author makes no money on these.
It takes luck to become a bookstore success. The authors who do sell successfully in bookstores invest thousands on publicity.
Publishing houses are in business to make their own money. They contract books that will meet their agendas. They are not interested in author’s careers.
Competition in a bookstore is brutal. Each book only has a few weeks, about eight, shelf life in a bookstore, then they are returned to the publisher, and the store will not want the book again. Most publishing houses do not pay royalties on books sent to clearing houses.
Publishers do not promote books. They have a front list, about five books; they expect to make money on. The publishers do not promote books, because they see a book as a tool to advance an author’s career, and it is the author’s job to advance their careers.

Authors need to take control of our own path to success. The first thing authors need to understand is where the money comes from. To do this they need to start viewing the book as a tool that can open doors.

Here are some principals that will take any author from a few sales to hundreds of sales.

Successful authors see their book as a tool that will launch their careers. Newsletters, groups, T-shirts, e-courses, talks, seminars, and other venues are where the income comes from. The going rate for a professional is $2000.00 for a one-hour speech.
Many authors write books as a tool to book events or earn public speaking engagements. The book is not the business, it fuels the business.
A successful author writes a book to build credibility, not to earn a living.
Successful authors make repeated sales. They build a fan base, newsletter list, or other ‘sticky’ method of collecting addresses and email addresses. They use one book as a springboard to sell the next book.
Successful authors do not send their book out to be sold. They use the book to build a fan base that can be used to sell products – even a one hour MSN chat with the author.
They offer specials that will appeal to the people on the list.
Authors can sell coaching sessions for $100 + an hour.
Successful authors build websites that receive thousands of hits a month. A website that does not earn 100 000 hits a year is a waste of time.
Successful authors write free web content articles to earn hundreds of hits, and sell more books. These articles are not given away free, they are valued at the cost of all the hits earned.
Customers buy coaching and kits more often than they buy books.
Free information sells. A website that does not include a group, articles, and tips, is a wasted opportunity.
Successful authors have an estimated income, and a viable plan that will produce the results needed.
Successful people learn how to present themselves. A person will pay for something that benefits them. Readers are not there to support authors, the author is there to benefit the readers.
Successful people focus on meeting and smoozing with people who can promote their career. Meet the distributors, the storeowners, etc..
They look for unusual places to sell books.
They look for an audience who wants their information.
They learn how to market themselves. They learn how to become marketing professionals and learning how to drive their sales forward.
Learn what successful authors do well.
There is some way in the book that offers the reader a way to contact you. There is an offer for another product. Large publishing companies always have a form in the back of the book offering more books at less money. Most publishers will not argue if you put your website url and email addy in the book

These are proven methods. Each of us need to sit down with books, coaches, or friends who have succeeded, and build a platform to help them rise above the crowd. The problem that freezes the careers of most writers is that they do not know how to make money. They see stagnant methods of advertising, like magazine ads, and buy an ad. Then, when they make no sales they consider advertising a waste of time. Unfortunately, they wrote the ad themselves. This is stupid. Would you do your own surgery? People who are not successful believe they know enough to be successful. They never realize that they are poor because of this very mindset.

Once you learn how to think like a successful person, the profit level rises considerably. You may have an advertising budget of $100 a year, and earn $150.00. However, once you learn what the professionals know, you can invest $100 and make $500.00. There is no magic formula. You just need to learn what the consumer wants.

Readers do not buy a book because they want to read the story. There is an experience they need. In many of today’s success stories, the author becomes the embodiment of that experience. An hour with a marketing or book-selling professional can reap thousands of sales just by rewriting an ad, recreating an image, or branding the author.

If there is a secret, it is this – ‘Successful people learn from successful people, failures learn how to fail from other failures.’ As obvious as this seems, many writers do not understand the concept. They join groups and organizations where hundreds of other writers attend conferences where they are awed by the gurus, but they all remain unsuccessful.

No one who attends university expects to graduate at the top of the class and remain unemployable. Writers expect to invest ten years of their lives learning to write, and then ‘hoping’ they will become successful. Others, start writing and make a living within a couple of year.

When I started writing, I made twenty friends, most had been writing for more than five years. Today, only myself, one of those other writers is making a living. Is that because we are talented or lucky? No. We did not buy into the program. We did not run to the conferences hoping for a publisher to toss us a scrap. We did things different. I ‘branded’ myself, and my friend went into e-books before it was savvy to do so.

The first thing I did was buy a book on selling books and I never looked back. Today, I have writers come to me and learn how to make a living as an author, and they learn in a couple of hours what took me years to learn. In hindsight, I was stupid. I kick myself for not getting a book coach and saving myself years. The coach would have cost me $200 - $500, and I estimate I lost more than $55 000.00 in sales and promotion. My failure to act was the most expensive investment I have ever made.

This information is commonly taught to self-published authors and self-help authors. Few marketers try to find ways to apply these techniques to fiction authors. They want to make $50 000.00 a campaign.

Many fiction authors would be happy if they profited $20 000.00 a year. Even though this is too low to attract the ‘big names’ it will enable many authors the chance to quit their jobs and write for a living. Does a romance author know anything about finding true love and avoiding ‘frogs’? Of course they do. Can a fantasy author entertain at a women’s conference? Without a doubt. Can a homemaker who cannot work out of the home use the internet to earn a $50 000.00 a year income? Yes.

Visit my website for more hints and that will help all authors learn to turn their passion of writing into a profitable career. www.inspiredauthor.com/
Have fun.