How to get ROI from your book

Have you ever thought about how you’ll get a ROI (return on investment) from your book?

Writing a book can be scary in terms of the time, money and the energy it takes to write it – and that’s without the little voices that might get in the way! This puts many people off getting started. So that’s why I’d love to share this story with you.

I was speaking with one of the ladies on the recent writing retreat, who worked with me on her first and second books. She is now on her third – with many others in the pipeline.

As a management accountant she was talking to me about the ROI (Return on Investment) for her clients. They invest in coaching, mentoring, programmes and training, yet the majority don’t measure whether it was worth it.

She told me about the ROI from her first physical book.

It took around 9 months to write the book.

She invested in book mentoring.

Then she invested in editing and publishing.

She had a book launch party and has invested in related marketing.

More recently, she has also employed a new member of staff to allow her to write more books and further her studies (both things she loves to do!).

Her book was published at the end of April 2016. Almost 6 months later, she has had 73% return on her investment to date. This has been partly through book sales, partly due to people she already knows realising her expertise and signing up as clients, and partly due to reaching more new people with her book.

This is Helen’s story

“When I signed up to work with Karen I was doing it because I felt more comfortable getting my message out via a book than any other options available to me at that time. Yet I also knew that I could only do this if I got a return on my investment. As a finance coach I help therapists and coaches to have a better understanding of their finances, therefore it was crucial that I didn’t just sign up to book mentoring because I like books and had always dreamt of writing one. It was essential that it brought me financial rewards as well.

I believed Karen when she told me writing a book would help my business, yet even I was challenged to see the financial returns. After a few calculations I realised it was possible. I could get my money back within 3 years and would start seeing a profit within 4 years. This is the average expectation for an investment in a management accountant’s world.

My investment turned out much better than the average. 16 months after I signed up to work with Karen, I have published one ebook and one printed book. Financially, bearing in mind my printed book was published less than 6 months ago, I have spent £5,833 on book mentoring & coaching, editing, printing, the book launch & other marketing, and received 73% of it back (£4,258 – 20% from book sales and 80% on additional service sales in my business). And it keeps coming.

I know I will have received my full investment back AND made a profit by the end of year 2.

Currently, I’m on course to make a 31% profit on my investment. This has enabled me to employ another assistant to help me out in my business, http://premier-pharmacy.com/product-category/alcoholism/ which frees me up to do what I do best.

There are also the other benefits that are not as easily quantifiable. For example:

• Invitations to talk at events and hold workshops for networking organisations.
• Being known as someone who knows what they are talking about (i.e. an expert in their field of study).
• Collaborations with other business owners.
• Having my dream of writing a book come true.

In short, when assessing whether to invest into a service, or asset, for your business it’s important to calculate how soon you will receive the full investment back and when it will start giving you a return (i.e. a profit). You have to ensure that you can afford to wait between 2-3 years though. If could be quicker if you put more time and effort in, but if it’s going to take longer then you have to be able to afford to wait financially.”

Helen Monaghan, Finance Coach and Author of Successful Business Minds and 12 Steps to Improve your Cashflow.

If you would like to read more about assessing the return on your investment, Helen has written a blog:  http://www.hmcoaching.co.uk/how-do-you-calculate-if-an-investment-is-worthwhile/

This is what can happen when you write a book

It’s important to mention that when you think about your investment in your book, you think about your investment in your business. These are some of the things that my other clients have experienced:

• You will be confident to raise your prices and that will increase your profits. One of my other clients recently did this. She increased her prices by almost 100% for her recent workshop AND filled it!
• You’ll develop clarity and confidence in your message and who your ideal client is. This means that they will naturally be attracted to you when they fit within this bracket. Others will find it easy to refer others to you as they will understand what it is that you do exactly. One of my clients was celebrating this yesterday.
• More people will know about you and how you work. They can get to know you by reading your book first. This will help you to reach more people than know about you now.
• You’ll easily create content for products and programmes because you have the process that you need to follow. This is one of the things that I worked through with another lady on the writing retreat. By developing her process she has a product and the outline for a book!
• Everything in your business will become aligned. Your website, your message, your client profile, your book and your programmes will be seamless. This then makes marketing your book and your business so much easier.

Get the recording of October’s Book Masterclass

I talked about ROI among other success secrets in October’s Book Masterclass. Here’s the link to the recording. I show you:

• The 2 words that you need to know before you write a single word in your book.
• 3 things you need to do before you get started to ensure that you’re writing the right book for your business.
• How to get a return on your investment so that your time, money and energy isn’t wasted.
• Simple steps you can take to use your book to build your credibility and attract more clients.