I Gave Away 100,000 Books. Here’s What I'd do Differently


Hi Reader,

I wrote a series of books called The Power of Creativity a few years ago.

The series is about 80,000 words.

It’s all about how writers, artists, and creators can embrace creative thinking.

I gave away book one in the series as permafree on Amazon.

(You can download it here)

I asked those who downloaded book one to purchase books 2 and 3.

Or they could buy the entire series as a print book, box set, or audiobook.

I ran Amazon ads to book one so readers would download, read, and buy books 2 and 3.

I tracked my ad spend, downloads, and read-through rates each week in a Google sheet.

All this work generated a nice return in monthly book royalties for a while.

This promotion had some unintended consequences too.

The series is popular in Brazil, and I regularly get emails from Amazon stating that it wants to promote my book in that country.

Readers from Brazil also sometimes email me to say they enjoyed reading my book.

I love getting feedback from readers.

Listing a permafree book is a popular strategy for authors.

It still works today for fiction authors.

Many genre fiction authors use permafree books to sell their mega series of romance, science fiction, thrillers, etc.

But for all this hard work?

I earned about $25,000.

That’s a nice sum for an author, especially considering many authors struggle to earn over $1,000 from self-published books.

And I still get paid book royalties today.

But earning that much from The Power of Creativity took a few years.

I don’t mind hard work.

Writing for a living is a privilege.

Not everyone gets to do it.

But to be honest.

I’d change my strategy if I wanted to get paid to write today.

I’d pick a topic I wanted to write about.

Ideally within a popular genre.

I’d try and write a good book.

I’d still give away a permafree shorter book to promote it.

And I’d create multiple versions like print, audio, and large print.

(Readers consume in many different formats.)

I’d run ads.

And I’d sell direct on my site or email list.

But I’d also build a product or service, like a course, coaching, or consulting, before publishing my book.

Say something like Turn Yourself Into a Neverending Idea Machine.

I could create this course for $197, using ideas from the book.

And I’d validate it with a few beta readers or students.

Then, I’d promote my course alongside the book.

That way, if 100,000 people downloaded my permafree book…

I’d earn far more if I converted just 1% of these readers into clients or customers.

1,000 multiplied by $197 is $197,000.

And that’s before factoring in a higher-ticket offer like coaching and consulting.

Writing and self-publishing a book today isn’t easy, but it can be profitable.

You won’t do it with one book, no matter how much you spend on ads or how many podcasts you speak on.

The trick is to build a backend of related products and services you can sell.

I validated this strategy with dozens of best-selling authors I interviewed.

If I write another book, that’s my playbook.

That said, I’ve a few more profitable playbooks for writers who want to get paid.

If you’re interested in getting paid to write, I’m running a workshop for the Pro Writers where I’ll reveal them.

How to Earn Your First $3–5k Writing Online.

During the workshop, I’ll show how I’d get paid to write… if I had to start from scratch.

Tickets are just $97.

I’ll record the workshop if you can’t make it, but only for ticket holders.

The workshop goes live Thursday, August 1st at 1500 GMT+1/10 AM EST.

Buy your ticket here.

Write on,
Bryan Collins

Letters From the Desk of Bryan Collins

Do you want to grow a profitable content business? If so, join 25,000 readers. I share daily insights about personal brand building, writing online and growing a profitable business. It's for creators, coaches and business owners.

Read more from Letters From the Desk of Bryan Collins

You don’t need to write multi-thousand-word prompts to get a usable output from ChatGPT. Most creators overcomplicate writing AI prompts. They write paragraphs of instructions and still get mediocre outputs. A good ChatGPT prompt has four parts, and you can cover them in a few sentences. First, describe the Persona. This is where you tell the AI tool who it is. “You’re a master storyteller” or “You’re Steve Jobs.” This puts GPT in the right mindset. Next comes the Task. Be specific about what...

Writing and creating online has never been easier. I’m a big tools guy. Here are 15 tools any creator can use to get started: 1) SEMRush or AHREFS—for keyword research 2) ChatGPT or Claude—for content ideation 3) Canva—for creating images quickly and easily 4) Grammarly—as an AI-powered writing assistant. 5) Hemingway App—for improving the readability of a piece of writing 6) Ulysses or IA Writer—for writing and formatting articles for the web 7) Workflowy—for creating outlines. Tutorial here...

Hey Reader, I’m working on something for you and want to make sure it’s exactly what you need. Can you take 10 seconds to answer this quick poll? 👇 Which product would you be most interested in? Newsletter Monetization Playbook – How to get sponsors, ads, and recurring revenue from your email list. Content Repurposing and Strategy System – A step-by-step system to turn one piece of content into multiple high-performing formats across platforms. Advanced LinkedIn for B2B Leads – A proven...