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 [email protected].
We're constantly amazed by the clever, unique, brilliant and beautiful books and products our customers create. Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Campion, an international yoga teacher, life + leadership coach, martial artist, author, and creator of an innovative life design and goal-setting guided journal and companion planner. Amber took this product a step further, by publishing The Fulfillment Formula Journal + Companion Planner in conjunction with The Changemakers Collective, a 4-week experience + community designed to help people who use the journal to create their year ahead with purpose, presence, and peace of mind.
The story behind the Fulfillment Formula products
Q: What inspired you to create this set of products?
I had been teaching and coaching this process I created (The Fulfillment Formula) for two years. I had clients saying I ought to write a book and make a guided journal/planner...and so I did! The guided journal was a goal of mine for 2018 (set for myself in 2017). I thought it would be a really creative way for me deepen my thoughts around my message and what I'm teaching, to help me better formulate my words for pitching a book to a publisher. It was a great experience creating it and I'm so glad I did! It wasn't easy, but it was worth it!
Q: What advice would you give to others considering creating journals or planners?
I did research first to see what was out there and what people liked and didn't like (for instance, I found that lots of people said they prefer wire binding when they're writing in a book, so that it stays open). My research also led me to Vervante (which answered many of my concerns with self-publishing). And finally, I have an audience to sell to...so I highly recommend you have a mailing list. This makes all the difference in making sure sales happen. We often think everyone will buy because it's a low cost product, but the truth is...the 'know-like-and trust' factor is a thing. Even low cost items take marketing effort. If you have an audience who knows you, likes you, and trusts you...well, this helps significantly.
Q: What do you love about your products?
I love end of the month and year rituals that are sustainable, soulful, and creative. It feels deeply nourishing to have guided processes for setting goals and designing a life that feels like me...so this journal is my little sacred book to bringing my full self to the world. I also love having my goals and life design for the year ahead, in one place. I feel like this journal is my little Dreams, Character, and Goals companion to keep me aligned with my deepest truths and desires.
About The Fulfillment Formula Journal + Companion Planner
This beautiful guided life design journal + soulful planner will enable you to envision, design, and create an enriched life of purpose, presence, and peace of mind with more ease and efficiency.
This is not a daily planner where you write down your meetings and appointments. This is a life design journal + companion planning system that supports you in defining, designing, and developing the one thing that matters most when it comes to creating a life of fulfillment…you.
Through a one-of-a-kind life design and goal setting application, to a series of provocative writing prompts and exercises, this book will inspire you to bring your full self to the world. Every aspect is carefully curated to support you to create clarity for what really matters most to you, discover your truth with more depth, design a life with more meaning and on your own terms, and build your wholehearted courage muscle to live a life true to your whole self.
To get the most out of this book, Amber recommends joining The Changemakers Collective - a 4 week experience guiding you and deepening into the processes in the journal, along with bonus interviews with creative changemakers, yoga/meditation classes, and a community of like-minded rebels with a cause at http://www.ambercampion.com/thechangemakerscollective.
If you enjoyed this article and would like your Vervante product featured in our newsletter and blog email [email protected] with the following information:
250-word overview of your product
URL link for the landing or sales page for the product
High-res image(s) of the product and/or author
Your creativity inspires us and your success deserves to be shared!
We're constantly amazed by the clever, unique, brilliant and beautiful books and products our customers create. Today we’d like to introduce you to Lanny Sinkin, a man who wears many hats but above all passionately follows his heart and his conscience to make the world a better place. The Conscious Bible, written under the nom de plume of Lani Kukini’elele, was formed from Lanny's experiences over several years while living and working in Hawai'i.
The story behind The Conscious Bible
Q: What inspired you to create this book?
I think of myself as bringing in the book, more than creating the book. The process began when I was co-coordinator of The Lightworker Center in Hilo, Hawai’i in the early 90s. The Center was a space for teachers and healers to present workshops and classes. Over a three year period, hundreds came to present their knowledge and practices.
One of the repeated experiences I had was going home to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night, going down to the Center, turning on the computer, and typing out a full cosmic story/message. By the time we closed the Center, there were five or six such stories that I left up on the Center website for anyone to find.
Some time later, I was visiting Punalu'u Beach, also on the Island of Hawai’i, with the King of the restored Kingdom of Hawai’i. As I stepped out of the truck, an energy descended upon me and I was in a different dimension. A figure dressed in a cowl and robe walked up to me and handed me a scroll. The figure said: “This is the new Bible.” I placed the scroll inside me and “woke up.”
Over the next three weeks or so, I spent every day at the computer bringing in different parts of the book, including the extensive presentation of the Melchizedek science of creation and cosmic stories, like The Star Unicorns. The stories from the Lightworker Center and the information downloaded from the scroll came together in The Conscious Bible.
Q: What advice would you give other aspiring authors or creatives?
If Spirit knocks, open the door. You may end up being a compiler, a channel, or a creator.
Q: What do you love about The Conscious Bible?
I love the messages, teachings, and diversity of presentations in the book. I love that some of the information is presented as kaona, a Hawaiian word that means a parable whose meaning is well hidden. There are many layers of information in the book with the deeper messages found by spending the time to reflect. I love the love that shines throughout the book.
About The Conscious Bible
This narrative is an exploration of consciousness, touching on a number of perspectives and different takes on creation. It presents questions for pondering, such as, “What if our God, our divine source, is a young God in the process of learning all its dimensions?” Is this God “prepared to join a larger community and participate in the unfolding of an even greater reality?”
With reverence for sentient and mythical beings, such as the echoes of dolphins communicating a coherent message to mankind, and star unicorns offering illumination, the narrative continues. With a nod to conventional stories of creation, and using mathematical formulas and venn diagrams, weaving between energy, matter, and void, the book confronts topics of fear, chaos, and ultimately the purpose of existence itself.
The Conscious Bible is a record of a vision that came to Lani Kukini’elele. He considers himself both scribe and author, and the book a collaboration with various expressions of consciousness.
If you enjoyed this article and would like your Vervante product featured in our newsletter and blog email [email protected] with the following information:
250-word overview of your product
URL link for the landing or sales page for the product
High-res image(s) of the product and/or author
Your creativity inspires us and your success deserves to be shared!
Here are a few ways you can transform your books into a complementary product:
We're constantly amazed by the clever, unique, brilliant and beautiful books and products our customers create. Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Campion, an international yoga teacher, life + leadership coach, martial artist, author, and creator of an innovative life design and goal-setting guided journal and companion planner. Amber took this product a step further, by publishing The Fulfillment Formula Journal + Companion Planner in conjunction with The Changemakers Collective, a 4-week experience + community designed to help people who use the journal to create their year ahead with purpose, presence, and peace of mind.
I did research first to see what was out there and what people liked and didn't like (for instance, I found that lots of people said they prefer wire binding when they're writing in a book, so that it stays open). My research also led me to Vervante (which answered many of my concerns with self-publishing). And finally, I have an audience to sell to...so I highly recommend you have a mailing list. This makes all the difference in making sure sales happen. We often think everyone will buy because it's a low cost product, but the truth is...the 'know-like-and trust' factor is a thing. Even low cost items take marketing effort. If you have an audience who knows you, likes you, and trusts you...well, this helps significantly.
This beautiful guided life design journal + soulful planner will enable you to envision, design, and create an enriched life of purpose, presence, and peace of mind with more ease and efficiency.
Q: What inspired you to create this book?
This narrative is an exploration of consciousness, touching on a number of perspectives and different takes on creation. It presents questions for pondering, such as, “What if our God, our divine source, is a young God in the process of learning all its dimensions?” Is this God “prepared to join a larger community and participate in the unfolding of an even greater reality?”