This week’s post comes from Kim Foster, a writer and editor on our team. This piece was inspired by a popular episode of Beyond Better with Stacy Ennis podcast, “The True ROI of Writing a book”.
The box finally arrives. You grab the scissors and gently open the flaps, glimpsing a familiar color and design—details you labored over. You reach in and lift the book out, holding it in front of you. Your hand moves across the smooth cover, while your brain buzzes to connect the tactile experience with the months of dedicated hard work. This moment is the culmination of effort, sacrifice, and deep thought.
After the giddy moments of celebration, your mind shifts to the financial cost of the book and how long it will take to recover the costs. You have quietly obsessed over the numbers, anxious about selling lots of copies to recover your investment. It makes sense that the clearest way to measure your success is in the number of books sold.
But is it the only metric?
Let’s take a look at your return on investment (ROI) from a deeper view of both internal and external benefits from becoming a published author. Some are a bit harder to measure; nevertheless, the results are evident.
Internal ROI: Clarity and confidence
Getting to the finish line of publication is no joke. You’ve taken a deep journey to think through the many different angles of your topic. You’ve had to make some tough decisions on who your reader is and exactly how you will have the greatest impact on your audience.
You have allowed a place for deep introspection about your message, the readers you want to serve, and your goals for impact. Along the way, you’ve gained a deeper understanding of yourself and your ideas, and your message speaks straight to the heart of your intended reader. You have discovered new ways to tell your story and communicate essential concepts.
If you’re a professional writing about your field, you may have discovered new frameworks or possibly new ways to serve your clients. The clarity is often quite profound. Without it, it’s hard to know which way to go, what path to take. With it, your purpose deepens and fuels the process.
When you come out the other side of finishing that final draft and getting published, you’ve learned a new confidence because you have just accomplished something very difficult. And you’ve deeply anchored to your purpose.
External ROI: Opportunities, influence, and income
As you journey through deep introspection, writing, and publication, you’re stepping over a threshold into thought leadership. And this is cemented through becoming a published author. Those in your industry will start listening to you, and you could become the go-to thought leader in your field.
Perhaps you have only dreamed about showing up in public spaces. Yet opportunities will often grant access after you have that book in hand. Many authors experience getting interview requests, and suddenly their platform expands because of their presence on others’ platforms. These opportunities include local and national publications, YouTube, podcasts, radio. You name it.
Suddenly, you’re able to step onto the keynote stage or you’re being asked to guest on a podcast. (Both how-to and big-idea books lend well to speaking opportunities.) Because you are now a published author, you have established a higher level of credibility, and others will look to you as an authority in your subject.
And who knows? A keynote opportunity could cover a significant portion of your financial investment.
As your reach expands, so can your income. For instance, if you’re a business owner, you could attract more clients as your presence and reputation broaden your reach, enough so that you’re not struggling to look for new clients. Your book becomes a tool for long-term business growth.
Because you have put your book out into the world, the world starts interacting with it and impacting readers. And what about those individual readers? You may even receive messages expressing how your book has impacted them. Can you imagine? The crazy effort you poured into your book is making a positive difference in someone’s life, and you have a part to play in changing the world for better.
Beyond the numbers
The numbers for your ROI are important because, well, you do need to look at the bottom line. But I agree with Stacy that it’s important to detach from the idea of book sales as the dominant metric of success. Book sales will happen as you align with your purpose, show up with confidence in your message, and meet opportunities head-on with readiness and integrity.
The true bottom line is you have anchored to your purpose with profound clarity, and that space positions you as a subject matter expert. Your book becomes a powerful signal to the world of your expertise, increasing opportunities, influence, and income. And you have moved beyond the numbers by focusing on both the internal and external ROI of writing and publishing a book.
If you are interested in diving deeper, Stacy offers several programs to help authors reach their goals of writing and publishing: Nonfiction Book School and Idea-to-Draft Accelerator and Author Mentorship are two great places to start.
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