Do I want to make money as an author?

The most financially successful writers are those who know how to market.

It’s a bitter pill for many authors to swallow.

There are people out there scribbling away on pads and banging away on keyboards who turn out lyrical prose of soaring poetry and stark imagery.

And yet, more times than not, these wonderful writers remain obscure and anonymous with little to show for their talent and efforts other than perhaps the admiration of peers.

I throw this out there as a warning.

It’s fine to want to write but beware that it’s not the most talented and/or hardworking writers who grab the brass ring.

If you’re new to this whole business of becoming an author or just starting out, take a step back for a moment and think what you want to do with your writing.

What is your end goal?

To write for the sake of writing? To make a difference in the world? To make money?

If it’s to make money, you can look forward to spending oodles of time promoting your books. And even then, you might not see much of a return.

There exist countless ways to advertise books, from using Facebook ads to email marketing.

Gone are the days when authors had little choice but to send their books out to literary agents and wait for the good news – which usually didn’t happen – that their books were being published, with the work of promoting the author left to the publishing house.

Self-publishing changed the whole industry, leaving it to the author to do that work. And some self-published authors are taking the extra step of learning how to successfully market.

Alas, most authors who want to make a living from their books fail at marketing.

What about you?

Is writing a book the end goal, or are you looking to make money too?

Think about it.