[00:00:00] Vanessa Barrington: This is the Vanessa Barrington Show. Today's podcast is titled, your book is still the most powerful way to Build a Million Dollar Brand, and here's why. If that is not telling you that you're gonna wanna listen to this one, all I'm gonna say is what are you doing? In today's episode, today, I'm gonna be giving you over 30 different ways that you can monetize your message and the six revenue streams that every single author should be considering and building.
[00:00:32] So you know that old adage, a book is just an expensive business card. Well, in today's episode, we are going to blast that myth to smithereens. Let's go. Hi, I'm Vanessa Barrington, also known as the book Doer, founder for Healing House Publishing Psychic Medium, and a woman on a mission to heal the world through stories.
[00:00:55] If you're a healer, coach, creative or expert, I help you turn your. Story into a published book and a global movement that builds authority, impact, and legacy. This is not a writing podcast. It's a show where I explore voice, truth, spirituality, and what it really takes for you to trust yourself and share your story with the people who most need it.
[00:01:18] This is the Vanessa Barrington Show. Hello and welcome to Episode. 15 of the Vanessa Barrington Show. I am your host, Vanessa, and today we are talking about how to make moolah with your book. What a cool episode. Now the first thing I wanna say to you guys before we dive into the content of today's episode is some hard truths, little bestie slap down.
[00:01:44] First thing I need you to know, most authors are leaving money on the table. You've probably been told that writing a book is the end goal, but I am here to tell you, it is actually just the beginning. Most authors think their only chance to earn from their book is their book launch, and when they get over the book launch, there is this very much a phenomena that I call like the post book launch slump, and I have seen it time and time again with authors where they put in a whole heap of effort.
[00:02:17] They pull together an amazing book, launch the book publishers, and then they fall down the rabbit hole of exhaustion. Maybe they were dreaming of hitting a bestseller, selling thousands of copies. Maybe they wanted to hit the New York Times bestseller list. Whatever it is, the post book launch slump is a real thing, and here's the reality.
[00:02:43] Most authors won't make more than just a few hundred dollars from book sales a loan, and yet your book is one of the most powerful income generating tools that you will ever create. Now I wanna explain all of this with you, and if you have not listened to my episode last week where I dove into the publishing predictions that I think are going to really shift things in 2026, make sure you go back and have a listen to that episode after this one, because it's very much linked to what I'm talking about today, which is if you are not thinking about not just how you can build a personal brand.
[00:03:28] As an author, but if you are not, if you are not thinking beyond that as an author to think about how you can create a global movement with your book, then I dunno what you're doing, but I am going to say that you are leaving a lot of money on the table. So here are 30 ways off the top of my head that were just jotted down on how you can make money as an author.
[00:03:55] So you might wanna pause this episode. And grab a pen and paper. Here we go. You can monetize your book by turning it into a coaching program, offering one-on-one mentoring based on your book's journey, creating a self-study course, hosting live group programs, designing a companion workbook, selling your book as a digital format, teaching workshops and master classes getting paid for podcasting.
[00:04:24] Landing speaking gigs, being featured in media interviews, creating audio trainings from book chapters. Repurposing your book into a paid blog series or email sequences that are gate kept behind a paywall. Turning your book into a podcast, creating digital templates or swipe files, building a paid membership or private membership.
[00:04:51] Selling book club experiences, creating merchandise around your book's, message, designing a retreat or immersion or other in-person experience running storytelling or writing workshops. This applies for fiction or non-fiction authors. Licensing your framework to other facilitators. If you're a nonfiction author, turning your method into a certification program, hosting a Patreon or a Substack community for serialized fiction.
[00:05:20] Offering signed copies or limited editions, pitching your book to bookstores or gift shops, creating author bundles with digital bonuses that you sell. Building a brand I identity, and then using your book as the anchor, developing a speaker reel to sell your story, getting paid to teach your method in corporates or schools or other relevant organizations.
[00:05:41] Collaborating with other authors for co-authored books or summits, offering behind the scenes or writer's journey content as paid content. Turning your book into a mini course or bite-sized training series selling your ip, like which in terms of the book itself for adaptation. Yes. Even as an indie author, this can happen, and that is just the beginning.
[00:06:04] Few 33. That is 33 ways that you could be leveraging income. Now that you've got the cred as an author. So if you are not an author and you are not thinking about how you can create a massive online audience and build a million dollar brand by having a book in 2026, I dunno what you're doing. But here's the thing, in spite of all this opportunity.
[00:06:38] I wanna zoom out for a second because strategy matters here and a list like this that I've just pulled together can feel super exciting, but it also can send you into overwhelm. And the truth is you do not need to do all of these things to build a million dollar brand off the back of having a book. In fact, I personally am part of a mastermind of incredible entrepreneurs, and some of them have.
[00:07:04] Only one product, two products, and they're making seven figures per annum working four to six hours a week. In some instances. This is all about possibility, but also having a strategy. The truth is you don't need to do all of these things, but you do need to know where your book fits into a bigger vision for you.
[00:07:26] And I think the problem is, frankly, that too many creatives don't take time to design the bigger vision. This is where so many soulful, brilliant creatives just get stuck. They're idea rich, strategy poor, or they don't have a structure that makes sense of their creativity. They don't have a repeatable sales system.
[00:07:48] So they spin, they burn out, and then they just don't, they don't get where they wanna go and they don't see the income or generated that they could have. They don't fully leverage their book. And so I wanna give you a new lens today. I call this. The author sales ecosystem, and it's built around six core revenue streams that every author should be thinking about.
[00:08:14] And frankly, if you are a creative, if you are an online business owner, you should be thinking about these two. This is not just relevant to authors, but I am focusing on authors because that is, that's my wheelhouse. Yeah. So here are the six revenue buckets that every single author should consider. So number one, coaching and consulting.
[00:08:38] Number two, speaking and media. Number three, building a scalable brand. Number four, digital products and, and I hesitate to use the word, but let's call it passive income collaborations and partnerships. Number five and number six is licensing and certification. So let me just really quick explain each of these to you.
[00:09:04] And the cool thing is over the next couple of episodes, I'm gonna dive a lot more into these to help you understand how you can start to build a multi-billion dollar brand just by having a book. Okay? So number one, coaching and consulting. This is where you turn your story or your framework. Or what it is that you have learned your expertise into a transformation for others.
[00:09:29] Okay? Now, this can be done in one-on-one. It can be done groups, retreats, in person experiences. This is a powerful, scalable, high value way to leverage your street cred as an author and build authority. Number two, speaking in media. Your book literally gets you in rooms that you would not otherwise be getting into.
[00:09:54] Okay? Once you become an author, it opens doors to podcasting interviews to media and press features, to keynote talks, to stages, to panel discussions that you simply would not be considered for until you become an author. That is just facts. So that is number two. Number three. Is about building a scalable brand.
[00:10:18] Now, this is where your book becomes your brand anchor. The story, everything else stems from, I'm talking about reels, carousels, content, courses, all of it. Everything that you do can be leveraged and built off. Your personal brand can be built off the book and the niche that your book exists in. Number four, digital products and passive income.
[00:10:42] Now, this is a super simple one. What I am talking about here offers that support your audience with or without you needing to show up live. This can look like prints, journals, mini trainings, audio resources, secret podcasts. It can look like low ticket offers. It can look like AI tools. The list goes on and on.
[00:11:03] But digital products, there is so much revenue opportunity in that space, and there is absolutely no reason. That you as a creative and a writer, cannot be considering this as an option. Number five, collaborations and partnerships. And the other one I would just chuck in there is affiliates. So if you are selling digital products, if you decide to move into that space, that is an area where you can also bring in more money.
[00:11:31] So what do I mean by collaborations? Partnerships and affiliates. This is where you use your message, your book, the message from your book. To align with others who share your mission, your vision, your values. So this can look like brand collaborations to affiliate income to co-authored projects. It can look like online summits that you decide to join or other creatives that you decide to partner with.
[00:11:56] The sky is literally the limit. And then finally number six is licensing and certification. Now, this is an area that I think. A lot of authors have somewhat of an idea of, but don't fully realize that there, this is like its own category. That's why it's one of the six buckets. This is where you basically turn, so let's say, okay, example, nonfiction authors.
[00:12:21] This is where you could turn your method, what you are teaching in your book into IP that others can be trained on, so that your work spreads and pays you even when you're not in the room. This can also look like leveraging your book and selling the rights to the book. For example, your Netflix, your stands, your streaming services, et cetera.
[00:12:47] It, it can also look at creating a certification program based on your area of expertise that you touch on in your book. So like, again, opportunities are endless Now. All of this is so much bigger than a book deal, and what's really cool about everything I'm talking about today is it actually does not matter how you publish your book.
[00:13:12] You have the opportunity to create a global movement with your book, whether you are traditionally published, self-published, hybrid published, doesn't matter, okay? Literally every single one of these is available to you as an income stream opportunity. Should it call you? Okay. Now I wanna, I'm gonna be diving into these a lot more over the next couple of weeks, but here's the thing.
[00:13:37] All I wanna say to you at this point is you did not write this book to stay small. And having coached literally hundreds of authors through the process of writing a book, and look, some of them say, yeah, the writing was the easy part. Most of them pour their heart and soul into that process of writing a book.
[00:13:58] You did not go through all of that hard work of writing that book to just stay stuck in creative limbo. And we are not even touching on the broke artist archetype. Like that is a whole other conversation, like the money hangups that I see in the industry from authors and creatives who are like, to be frank, obsessed with staying broke because they have so much money.
[00:14:23] Shit. You are different though, my friend. If you are listening to this episode, I know that you wrote your book or you are writing your book to be seen, to be heard, to create something that outlives you to help other people. And I'm here to tell you controversially, you do not need an agent. You do not need a traditional publisher.
[00:14:42] You don't need to be more ready. You don't need anything Actually. What you do need though, is a roadmap. You need support or a mentor, and you need a container that can hold your vision while you build it. Now, which brings me to the most exciting point of this episode. If you are a high achieving healer coach or an author who is sick of playing small.
[00:15:07] If you know that you are hiding out, if you know that you are not showing up and leveraging these income stream opportunities in your world and you wanna do better, you wanna attract more money into your life, you wanna attract more impact, you want to have more time freedom, and you are ready to create a global movement, you're gonna wanna listen up.
[00:15:31] As I shared at the beginning of this episode, having a book to my mind is still the most effective way to build a massive online audience that you can monetize into a million dollar brand. And pretty soon I am gonna be opening up a very special opportunity to teach you exactly how to do this. So if you are interested in being first notified about this incredible opportunity.
[00:15:58] You're gonna wanna head to the show notes and join the priority list for my upcoming six month program. The book Doula Circle doors are gonna be opening super soon, like very soon, for an extremely limited number of people. And look, I'm just gonna give this to you guys straight because this is the first time that I am running this container.
[00:16:20] I am severely limiting the numbers, okay? 'cause I want this to be intimate. I want it to be super supportive. I'm just gonna tell you right now because I'm limiting those numbers. If you are not on the priority list, you're gonna miss out on this opportunity because it is going to sell out. Head to the link in my show notes.
[00:16:40] I'll make sure that my assistant puts it there and you can jump in. And honestly, what we are going to cover over the next six months is exactly what I'm talking about here, how you can leverage these six revenue income streams to be able to get your book. Right hands to be able to generate more income, to be able to leverage your role as an author, whether you are a fiction or a nonfiction writer, to generate a multi figure business and brand.
[00:17:11] So that is it for me for today, guys. We are just touching the surface with this series. If you have found this episode useful. I would love if you could take a minute or two just to leave a short review on Apple Podcasts, or even better, if you wanna tag me on Instagram using the link in the show notes, give me a shout out.
[00:17:33] I love to see you guys listening to this episode, whether you're out walking the dog, whether you're on the beach, whether you're in your car doing the. I just wanna finally say thank you so much for hanging out. Thank you for giving me your time. I hope that you found this episode useful and valuable, and more than anything, I hope that you're going to start to apply some of these incredible opportunities to generate more income, more time freedom, more money freedom in your life, okay?
[00:18:01] Because honestly, if you're gonna invest all that time in writing a book, you may as well see. The results from it. Alright guys, I wish you the most beautiful week ahead and I will see you back here next time. Ah.
