I’ve written and published 14 books…

And as far as book sales go, that’s made me tens of dollars.

Two million books are published every year. And getting your book noticed in the crowd is even more difficult than appearing on the radar as an in-demand keynoter.

So many authors get discouraged. They spend months or years writing, hire an editor, contract a professional book designer and then…

Crickets.

[insert tumbleweed gif here]

And when you do sell a book, you get…

Coffee money!

So why bother?

Here are a few publishing strategies that work for speakers.

Write short books and give them away to people who might hire you to speak. The two dollars and change you spend printing a copy of a 32-page book will make a much better impression than a business card, and your book will be more likely to inspire a conversation that leads to closing some business.

Offer digital copies of your book as premiums and giveaways. You’re in the transformation business, not the book retail business. Will a copy of your book inspire someone to join yur community, attend your workshop, or engage you as a trainer or consultant? Why put a bookstore and a printer between you and that opportunity?

Sell books in the back of the room when you speak. Impressed audiences love signed copies of your book. A colleague of mine sold twelve books on Amazon in a year. During that same year he sold a thousand copies of his book at a single speaking event along with a thousand DVDs. That’s $40,000 gross—mostly cash—on top of his speaking fee!

As a professional speaker, you’re among the few who are well-positioned to actually make money from a book—directly and indirectly.

Think outside the bookstore, only work with traditional publishers if you’re sure you’ll get a cut of the thousands of books they sell (instead of the other way around), and think of your book as the world’s most powerful business card.