Last Monday, in a post titled The Value of Custom Publishing: Part I, I wrote that one of the benefits to authoring a book is the exposure and credibility you receive from having your name appear on the book’s cover. While some authors write books for the gobs of money they hope to receive from some combination of an ‘advance’ and royalties, I chose to co-author mine because:

1. I wanted to share my knowledge with as many people as possible; and,
2. I wanted to gain ‘thought leader’ status on the topics I choose to write about (namely, product sourcing and drop shipping).

The day after I wrote that blog entry, Stacey Miller at the Book Promotion Blog had this to say:

Your book publicist will assume that you are promoting your book to disseminate your messages to as many people as possible…You have something to say, and your book is one outlet for saying it; the mass media provides additional venues for you to spread your messages. In addition, many authors believe their visibility in the media will lead to great opportunities such as … additional clients or customers, or enhanced credibility in the professional world. This is usually what happens.

It’s gratifying to read an industry veteran like Miller share those thoughts. I didn’t co-author my latest book, eBay Inventory The Smart Way: How to Find Great Sources and Manage Your Merchandise to Maximize Profits on the World’s #1 Auction Site because I have some grandiose notion that I’m going to get rich by selling hundreds of thousands of copies. I wrote that book because I feel as though I have some really profound things to say about product sourcing, and I’m the type of person who’s willing to share ideas by any means necessary, whether you want to hear them or not.

Speaking of the new book, its been out for a little less than a month now, and with a recent ACNielsen International Research study showing the #1 concern of eBay sellers is what to sell and how to find suppliers, I continue to have nothing but high hopes for the number of people the book can have an impact on. In fact, the number of eBay sellers keeps growing. ACNielsen also reports that 724,000 Americans credit eBay sales as their primary or secondary source of income, with another 1.5 million people reporting that they supplement their income by selling on eBay. Based on those figures alone, the number of eBay entrepreneurs in the U.S. has increased 68 percent since the last time a comparable study was conducted (in 2003). With numbers like those, maybe I could make gobs and gobs of money by writing books, but then again, where’s the fun in that? Sure, there’s a unique sense of satisfaction that comes from seeing your name on the cover of a book, but can anything aside from marriage and parenthood really beat being an entrepreneur? Not for me. It’s being an entrepreneur that I credit with allowing me to write books, not the other way around.

Category: Entrepreneurship, Publishing