Blog

As an author, you’ve fulfilled your dream of writing and publishing a book. But your book is only the beginning – not the end! Because you can take that book and create products that will make you not only an author, but also an entrepreneur.

Whether it’s your first book, or you’re a seasoned author, you can leverage the content you’ve already created to make products that increase readers’ enjoyment, expand your audience, and add new revenue streams – all without a lot of extra work. Because you’ve already done the heavy lifting by writing the book!  

Books can be the foundation of a thriving business model. Our CEO, Cindy Tyler, loves brainstorming with Vervante authors to help them choose the right products that will complement their books, and boost their income.

We’ve gathered up her best tips here, to give you a head start:

Choosing types of products
Take a look at your book and consider what else your readers might need that would add value to the book and to the readers’ experience. Remember, this is not about creating more work for you. It’s about repurposing great content you’ve already written into products like:  

• Workbooks
• Journals
• Planners
• Notepads: Shopping lists, exercise routines, learning course tasks, etc.
• USB flash drives
• Card decks: Educational flash cards, recipes, exercises, daily affirmations, etc.

Children’s books and fiction can do this too. Products that go great with fiction and children’s books include:

• Coloring books
• Small journals
• Stickers
• Card decks: Educational flash cards, games, character cards

Creating and selling themed products
Products that continue the theme of your book can also help to increase book sales by packaging them with the book and offering as bundles. This increases the value of what you are providing – and allows you to charge a higher price.

Once you’ve chosen the type of product you want to create, remember that you don’t need to write something brand new. Use the content from your book to create the product, then send us a print-ready PDF.

Here are a few ways you can transform your books into a complementary product:

• Workbooks: Restate lessons from each chapter, leaving space for readers to write down thoughts, ideas, questions, answers, actions and next steps.
• Coloring Books: Remove the color from illustrations in a children’s book to create a coloring book. For adult coloring books, use images that continue the theme of your main book.
• Card Decks: We are rule-breakers here at Vervante – we’ll create a deck of cards in any amount you want and any design, front and back. So don’t feel like you have to do exactly 56, and the backs don’t need to match, either. Cards can contain daily affirmations, training tips, daily tasks, recipes, exercise routines, writing prompts, gratitude mantras, meditations, and more. The sky's the limit - as long as you can fit it on a card! 

If you want to design some of these products yourself, Canva is a great graphic design program for creating your own card decks – and it’s free! Short on time and want a team of professionals to help? We have great designers, writers and editors we are happy to recommend to our customers.

If you love to write and dream of making a living with your writing, it’s all about creating multiple streams of income. Check out our online catalog for ideas, and let us know if you have any questions or ideas at customerservice@vervante.com.