[00:00:00] This is the Vanessa Barrington Show.
[00:00:06] Hello. Hello. And here we are. I'm recording this on Tuesday, the 17th of February. It is. The first day officially, according to the Chinese New Year of fire horse. So I hope today's episode is gonna get you really fired up in thinking about what is possible for you when it comes to how to monetize your book.
[00:00:29] Welcome to today's episode guys. We are diving into the final two. Revenue buckets that every author should be considering. If not, while they're writing their book, then definitely as they're preparing to publish. Without further ado, let's dive in. 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.
[00:00:58] 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.
[00:01:21] This is the Vanessa Barrington Show. Hello everyone. Welcome back. Thanks for listening to the Vanessa Barrington Show, and today we are going to be diving into the. Final revenue buckets you should be considering. If you are writing a book, if not, while you're writing the book, then definitely in those final stages.
[00:01:44] So today's episode, we're going to be diving into two kind of final buckets, being collaborations and partnerships and licensing and certification. And I really wanted to close this little mini series out with you in thinking about what are some of the other ways the less obvious ways. That you can be leveraging your book because the fact of the matter is if you are gonna invest all that time in writing your book, it feels like a really a lost opportunity not to be considering.
[00:02:19] How are some of those additional ways that you can not only increase your book sales? By reaching more people, but also increase your audience size and visibility. And I think these two buckets, collaborations and partnerships and also licensing and certification are really two ways that many, many authors.
[00:02:41] Just leave money on the table, to be honest. So let's dive in guys. We've got a lot to cover today. First off though, before we dive into this, I just wanna remind you, if you have not listened to the earlier episodes of this little mini series, there's four parts. I do wanna encourage you to go back and have a listen to those because honestly, you could get your journal out, grab a pen, and you could just be jotting down.
[00:03:08] What some of these ideas are and just setting a bit of a plan or goal for yourself based on some of the ways that you wanna leverage your investment with your book to reach more people, to get more book sales, and to be able to call in bigger impact, global impact with your story and book. And I hear too often these days.
[00:03:28] Of authors that are still stuck frankly, in that broke money mindset. And if that's you, if you feel like you are not seeing in your bank account the kind of abundance that you would like, I am going to invite you to consider that perhaps. You are leaving money on the table by not looking at some of these options.
[00:03:47] And so I know that these may be things that you haven't considered before, but I can guarantee you that there are going to be at least one, if not all, six of these revenue buckets that you want to consider to be able to generate more income from your writing, from something that you've already done through writing the book.
[00:04:05] Okay, so let's jump into collabs and partnerships. Now, this is an area that personally for me. I love thinking about, and you know, some of my most favorite memories in my business, I'm coming up to 10 years now, has really come through the partnerships and the collaborations that I've formed with others.
[00:04:23] The really cool thing about partnering. With other people is it allows your book to travel faster than it would with your own, using your own platforms. And that's really what we're talking about when we're talking about collaborations and partnerships. Collaboration is really borrowed trust because what you are doing is you are connecting with someone that knows and likes and trusts you and is aligned with you and has the same kind of values as you.
[00:04:52] And you're really borrowing their audience to collaborate with them, to be able to reach new people. Now this, the really cool thing about this revenue bucket is it's not always about doing more. It's actually about aligning with the right people and aligning in a smarter way. So I think that when you're thinking about who would I possibly collaborate or partner with, you wanna start with?
[00:05:20] Your values and your personal values, and this is something we go into in quite a lot of depth in my book doula program because what I see time and time again, particularly with first time authors, is when they first start writing out, they don't always know, well, who is my book for? Like oftentimes, especially for my memoir writers, they're usually writing it for themselves.
[00:05:42] You know, it's kind of a cathartic process. They do want the book to go on and help other people. That's their ultimate dream. But they haven't necessarily thought deeply about who their book is going to be for. And by the time they kind of work through that process with me and in my program, they usually have.
[00:06:00] If they've done the work, they have a really, really good understanding of exactly who their reader is, what they stand for, what are the brand values that their author, personal brand is going to want to reflect out in the market, and therefore, the decision making on who to partner with and who to collaborate with becomes really, really easy because when you know your values, when you know who your reader is, you can very easily.
[00:06:26] Start to connect with others that have maybe a slightly different niche to you or be in a slightly different area, but have a really strong alignment and very similar values to you. And that is of course, going to increase your reach, increase your platform size, and increase your ability to get your book in front of more people as well as your work if there's other things you are doing.
[00:06:46] So let's talk about some of the types of collaborations that you can look into. So I really wanted to kind of. Bucket these into four key areas within the fifth bucket. Just to confuse you a bit, the reason for this is there's a few different types of collaborations that you can have. Okay? So we've got.
[00:07:06] Collaborations. We've got affiliate income. One of my favorite, favorite things because like easiest money that you will ever make. We've then got co-authoring and anthologies. We've got podcast and platform swaps, and those are really the kind of key four ones that I wanted to talk about. Now, of course, there are so many other ways that you can collaborate and generate.
[00:07:30] More income in partnership. But one of the other things I wanna just call out here and speaking as someone that you know connects on a very regular basis with other six and seven figure entrepreneurs and has invested a lot myself in my own personal development and growth, and is coming up to 10 years in business, so not my first rodeo.
[00:07:51] I do wanna say, when I mean partnerships, that does not mean. Necessarily going into partnership with someone in terms of a business. Okay. I think especially in today's market, if you're an author, you're a personal brand business, and I would actually not go into partnership if you're running a personal brand business.
[00:08:13] Now, I know that's controversial to say, that's just my 2 cents. It is just my opinion. You can obviously. Do whatever you like with that, but I personally wouldn't do that. When we are talking about partnerships, we're talking about some different things here. Okay. So I wanted to just make that important distinction before we go into some of how you can be leveraging this revenue bucket.
[00:08:32] So the first things first. Brand collaborations. Now, this one is gonna be super obvious to you. It's things like partnering with aligned brands that are in your niche. So for example, looking at brands that are, let's say you are writing about, uh, or you've written for kids and you happen to be a teacher.
[00:08:51] So partnering with aligned brands that are in the kids space, in the audience that you're in. Let's say you're in education, mathematics or something like that. So partnering with aligned brands in your niche, such as. Tutoring companies. Just as an example. Another, um, area that you might wanna look at here is sponsored content connected to your book's theme.
[00:09:11] So doing sponsored posts, event partnerships, product placements tied to your message, and also retreat collaborations. So. Here's some examples for this, okay? For you to think about, let's say you wrote a trauma healing memoir, collaborate with some wellness brands. If you wrote a business book, you might wanna collaborate with some productivity systems or tools that you particularly like if you wrote a parenting book, maybe you wanna partner with family focused community groups or family, family-focused brands, or parenting brands.
[00:09:42] I think, especially now in 2026, brands are not necessarily looking for influencers, okay? They're looking for authority and a book. Actually, by its nature gives you authority. The fact that you've written a book, gives you authority, user generated content now more than ever, is a huge thing for businesses and from, from an influencer marketing perspective.
[00:10:02] Of course, there's a whole pay to play conversation we could be having. But I also just wanna point out that we're actually seeing. I think more of a trend for brands to be wanting to connect with very authentic individuals and what we would describe as micro influencers, you know, kind of under the 5,000 follow mark or under 10,000 follow mark, then they are necessarily with those big brands, and this is a big area that you know, you could be leveraging, especially if you've got a platform.
[00:10:32] Now the second one in terms of this bucket is really affiliate income. Now, I personally love affiliate income. Affiliate income has been such a fantastic generator of recurring revenue in my business, and it is so low pressure and practical. So what do I mean by affiliate income? Affiliate income is essentially if you are already doing something or using a product that you love.
[00:11:01] You can actually recommend it with intention and in integrity of yourself and earn an income from it. Now the number one thing that I think about when I think about this for my authors is books. Okay? So you are likely an avid reader. You could be earning an affiliate income from the books that you are reading by recommending them to your audience.
[00:11:26] Another big one is the writing tools that you use. Publishing software courses that you've done that you genuinely love. Amazon storefronts, uh, audible affiliate links, like literally, pretty much. Most products these days have an opportunity, especially the larger brands have an affiliate partner program.
[00:11:46] So this could be things like journals, products, resources. So if you are already using certain products and you love them and you're already recommending them. Why not earn a passive income and create an ecosystem for yourself? Based on monetizing the products that you trust and love. This isn't about just creating, you know, an affiliate portal of all these things that you would recommend that you don't actually love and trust.
[00:12:13] So it has to be done from a place of personal integrity. But if you are already loving certain things, why you would not do this? I do not know. This is such a huge opportunity for authors and especially for small business owners. It's something I personally do in my business. I generate recurring revenue as an affiliate with a couple of products.
[00:12:31] That I personally use and love and I'm already using and genuinely believe in. And no, I don't have affiliates on everything, um, that I, that I use in terms of the tools and systems. But I think use your discernment here. But this is a big opportunity and you know, if you are generating a passive income from it, like you're already using the product anyway, it's such a no brainer.
[00:12:53] Okay, so the next bucket in terms of collabs and partnerships is co-authoring and anthologies. Now, this could look like doing a joint book with someone that's aligned in your field. It could be doing multi-author impact book, so creating an anthology with a bunch of authors. It could be co-creating a workbook or co-creating a journal.
[00:13:14] It could be collaborating with an illustrator, let's say, to create something. And the benefits of that is, say you've got a couple of people involved, or even multiple people. All of a sudden you have shared audience, shared marketing load, shared credibility boost, and new networks that you're reaching.
[00:13:30] Now, why you wouldn't do this? I don't know if this is something that you are already interested in, you are already writing on a certain topic in a particular area. Why not get together with a group of other writers and create an anthology? When your name sits beside other voices that are aligned with yours and respected like yours, your brand, your personal brand instantly elevates.
[00:13:53] And what is that gonna do? It's gonna generate more impact and it's gonna generate more income for you as well. So again, I just think this one is such a no-brainer. Now, the final one may not seem like an instant income return, especially for some of you that might be listening to this and going, okay, well I've actually.
[00:14:11] Small audience right now. If that is you, do not despair. Okay. Final bucket for collabs I want to talk about in partnership opportunities is podcast and platform swaps. So what I mean by this is, remember a few years ago this was kind of a big thing that was going on, like the Instagram takeovers where you know you'd have someone that would take over an account.
[00:14:32] For the day. Guesting on Aligned podcast, for example. Anything that you can do that's kind of partnering with other people that are again, aligned with your brand values, aligned with the kinds of books that you are writing, aligned in terms of where you are trying to go as an individual and with your business are going to be really, really supportive for you.
[00:14:53] So you might decide you're gonna do a series of Instagram lives. With someone. You might decide you're gonna do some newsletter swaps. You might do some community cross promotions where you might partner with someone who also has a community, and you guys can see there's some alignment there where you could share those community options.
[00:15:10] This is all about understanding that you don't need to grow alone. You can actually grow sideways. Now, I know for some of you there is going to be a little voice in your head right now going, but I don't have a big audience. For a small pocket of you, if that is you, I am going to just invite you to reframe.
[00:15:31] Okay? Because what if actually implementing some of what I'm suggesting could grow your audience? Have you considered that one aligned collaborational partnership could grow over a thousand cold leads for you? You don't need a large audience to generate. A massive income. I have really prided myself over 10 years in business in having a very small audience on Instagram.
[00:16:00] If you go to my book Dollar or Instagram, you are gonna see I've only got 1500 followers there. What I will tell you though is that I have a highly engaged audience. You don't need to have a million followers to be building a six or a seven figure business off the back of your book or your creative business.
[00:16:17] So. Hopefully that gives you some ideas to start thinking about. Oh, okay. Like. There are actually a whole range of possibilities here that I've never considered when it comes to collaborating and partnering with aligned brands just like yours. And you know, don't you think that if you were to connect with someone that's also trying to grow their audience and trying to reach more people and are in a similar kind of niche or an aligned adjacent niche.
[00:16:48] They're not gonna jump at the opportunity to partner with you. Of course they're going to. It's a massive opportunity. So hopefully that opens up some of those possibilities for you. 'cause I think too oftentimes we can kind of get in our heads and go, oh, well, you know. Who's gonna wanna do that with me?
[00:17:06] And I don't know anyone that would, you know that I could do that with or whatever. Like I encourage you, grab a piece of paper, grab a pen. If you are out on a walk right now, open your notes. Start brainstorming and thinking about who are some brands that I already love that I could promote? Who are some people that I already love, follow, like, connect with, would love to partner with?
[00:17:26] Put yourself out there. It's only by doing that that you're gonna start to see what's possible for you. Okay. Bucket number six, final bucket. This one is such a fun one because it's an area that I think a lot of people go, oh, I just didn't even know that, or hadn't really thought that this could be an area of wealth for me and for income.
[00:17:47] And the final bucket is licensing and certification. This. Bucket when done well is really where you can elevate into true legacy creation, okay? And long-term wealth. It is a very, very exciting opportunity, this area, because the thing that I see. For authors, whether you're a fiction author or a nonfiction author, once you start understanding that your writing is actually your unique gift and it's something that has been with you your whole life and is something that is totally special to you, it your voice and your writing carries its own energetic imprint, its own frequency that is valuable.
[00:18:35] Okay? Your book is a piece of intellectual property. Your. Lessons, your experiences, your knowledge is all intellectual property, and the sooner that you understand that it's totally unique to you, it cannot be duplicated by someone else, that's when you are getting into CEO energy. That is when you are starting to really think like a global leader, like someone that is really calling in a bigger game.
[00:19:06] So let's talk about it. What does this look like? All right, so the first, first thing with this is the simplest one, and some of you may who are listening to this may have already thought about this or maybe you've even done it, is licensing your methods. So if you're a nonfiction author especially, and you have come up with a unique framework or a unique method in your book, go and trademark it.
[00:19:34] Formalize your ip, and then what you can do is you can create a program to train or certify other people to deliver it. They might pay you a licensing fee and then you get to expand your impact and income without burnout because all of a sudden you are training people to teach your method and they are teaching others.
[00:20:04] This is such a gold mine. Okay? And this is an area that so many creative entrepreneurs are frankly not thinking about or holding back on because they're in their stuff. And it's, it's a massive opportunity. So some examples here, it could be a method that you've come up with. It could be a business framework, it could be a coaching model.
[00:20:28] It could be a writing process that you have created for yourself. It could be an activation method that you use with your clients, and all of a sudden when you think about licensing your method. Instead of you delivering it a hundred times to a hundred different people, you might train five or 10, and they are delivering it a hundred times each.
[00:20:54] That my friend is scale, that my friend is where you can start to create serious, leveraged income and impact. So if you are not thinking about that and you are writing a nonfiction book, I am just gonna tell you right now, you are leaving so much money on the table. So this can also. Go into creating certification programs.
[00:21:19] Okay, so this is where you might turn your method into a curriculum, or you might create levels of certification. You might build an academy, you might train practitioners, and all of a sudden you've got either a membership model that you can create off that or an annual renewal process. For certification.
[00:21:37] Now, this works beautifully for healers, for coaches, for psychics, for therapists, for business strategists, for finance experts, for any kind of educator that has developed a unique method. And if you think that you've got a unique method, but you haven't licensed it or really thought about what that IP is or named it, that is step number one.
[00:22:06] Okay, because that there is just so much opportunity with that. Now the next opportunity I want to talk about in terms of licensing and certification is one that feels jazzy, feels exciting. It's media and entertainment rights. And this is an area where I think a lot of, you know, if I had a dollar for in the last 12 months, how many authors have said to me that they would love their book to be converted into a Netflix series?
[00:22:33] I would be a very, very rich woman. And this is a absolutely, and I talked about this very early on in this series, that you know now more than ever though, like we content is just on demand. And I think in the past, content has been a real currency. That is no longer the case. However, stories, unique stories with a point of difference, personal stories with a point of difference.
[00:23:05] I think that is an area that now more than ever, some of those media and entertainment companies can't keep up with the demand. All of a sudden, they're churning out 24 7 streaming. Think about how people live in 2026. I personally. Do not watch a lot of television. In fact, I don't even remember the last time I turned on a normal tv.
[00:23:26] In saying that, I don't mind the odd Netflix series if there is a really cracking storyline on a series. I am your girl that will binge watch it in a weekend For sure, because I love stories, right? And the fact is that if you've got a really great story, there is huge opportunity here for you to be selling film rights, TV rights, or TV series rights, a streaming platform, adaptations, documentary rights.
[00:23:55] Audio series, audio books, also translation rights. So what I mean by that is having your art translated into multiple languages and then selling those rights to different publishers around the world. Stage adaptations. This is an area that I think a lot of people kind of think about, but don't really do a lot in terms of taking steps forward to really pursue it.
[00:24:19] And you know, a hundred percent. Like companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime and Stan and Audible. All of these places, what do they need to run? They need content. Yeah. So your memoir is not just a memoir. It could become a Broadway play for all, you know? And there's just so much opportunity here in terms of media and entertainment rights.
[00:24:46] And the really cool thing about this is depending on how those. Rights are negotiated. That could be the gift that keeps on giving. You know, I was doing some research the other day for a presentation I'm preparing for in May, and I was looking at one of my all time favorite stories or movies. Wizard of Oz, wizard of Oz.
[00:25:05] Like think about all the offshoots from Wizard of Oz. So Wicked. For example, the story of Wizard of Oz and the brand of Wizard of Oz has made billions, billions of dollars. I think last year alone it was like in the millions daily for that brand like. The sky is genuinely the limit, guys. So start dreaming bigger.
[00:25:33] Okay? Now the other area that's kind of linked to this that I wanna just touch on before we wrap up today's episode is translation. And I did touch on it before, you know, translating your stuff into, uh, with different publishers or into different countries. And also territory licensing. So I tell the story actually of a very well known author, Colleen Hoover, if anyone's interested, who really, when she first started out, and I dunno, the ins and outs of her publication contracts these days, but when she first started out, she was self-publishing, but she was, when she started to build her audience.
[00:26:13] She was very clever about keeping certain rights to herself and then selling off certain rights to D in different territories and partnering with different publishers to do that. Special edition rights, audio licensing, partnering with foreign publishers, selling rights in different countries. All of these things.
[00:26:32] Are opportunities for more income. So that kind of gives you hopefully a bit of an understanding, very, very top line in today's episode around collaborations and partnerships and licensing and certifications and some of those kind of lesser obvious ways that you can really generate income from your book.
[00:26:54] Now, as you have been listening to all of this. I know that for some of you, you may be getting in your head again and thinking, oh, this is just too big for me, or who would wanna do that for me? Or, my book is blah, blah. All of those things. So I wanna just reframe you gently before we wrap up today. No one starts at the top.
[00:27:17] Okay? Nobody starts at the top and. When you start thinking about your book as a lifetime, it's actually a multi lifetime, like a A in perpetual asset, intangible asset that is unlike a car, as I was saying to someone last week, not gonna depreciate over time. It's actually going to appreciate in value.
[00:27:46] Start thinking long term. Start playing the long game. Start making the moves now to call in what you want. Because when you start treating your book like the asset that it is, that is when you are going to recognize the incredible abundance. Limitless potential of your story. See, and this is really what's very different from me to others that work in this industry because inside my world, inside my programs, I am not just working with you to get your book done.
[00:28:35] I care about you building a lifetime asset, a legacy. Something that is going to last longer than your book launch. And frankly, and I know this is gonna piss some of you off, but it's true, frankly, some of you are thinking so small and you get in your heads, you are getting into all the sort of limiting beliefs and all the bs.
[00:29:02] Going, oh, well it didn't, and I didn't get this. And then, and it's like, hang on guys. Did you think you were going to get an overnight success? Because if you look at the data of the people that have really succeeded in the industry, you will see many of them were rejected, hundreds of, you know, hundreds of times, and they kept going, okay, and if you want to learn how to do some of this stuff.
[00:29:32] You're gonna wanna head to the book doula program wait list. I also have a free training that's coming up that is gonna be very, very powerful for you. I will make sure my team put the link in the show notes and really it's going to help you understand and see what becomes possible for you when you start treating your book with a different frequency, because this is not just about a creative project.
[00:29:57] This has the potential to change your life if you let it and you don't get called to writing a book for no reason. Alright guys, so that wraps up today's episode and really this mini series I think. I think we're gonna finish there. We have covered. So much over the last few episodes, we've talked about coaching and consulting.
[00:30:17] We've talked about speaking and media. We've talked about creating scalable products, digital products. We've talked about collaborations, partnerships, licensing, certification. There is no reason why you cannot implement. If not one, all of these strategies, okay? And this is exactly some of what I teach in my book doula program.
[00:30:37] If you build an ecosystem around your book, you are going to build wealth, okay? If you protect and you scale your ip, you will build legacy. That is where life begins to change for you. I hope you guys have found today's episode helpful. If you've had any incredible ideas, thought bubbles, you've got any questions, please reach out.
[00:30:59] I love to hear from you guys. I love your feedback. It makes me feel amazing and it really helps. Me to wanna continue to keep doing this work as well. Because honestly, what gets me out of bed every single day is knowing that I'm making a difference in your life through ensuring that you get your damn book out there and you start making the impact you're here to make in the world and get outta your own way.
[00:31:22] All right. I love you guys so much. I will see you next week. Thanks so much for tuning in. Wishing you a wonderful, wonderful fire horse year and many blessings and abundance to you. Let's go see ya.
