Book catalog as investment portfolio?
Once you break even on a book’s costs, both your time and money, that book becomes an asset forever.
Hi,
Before we get started, a quick poll. As you might know, we’ve been designing a tarot deck, and are just about ready to print the initial run. We’re trying to figure out if we should print regular-sized cards or a pocket deck.
Now, onto the show.
I've spent years watching the indie publishing industry obsess over book launches. We pour endless energy into those first few weeks, treating them as the ultimate measure of success. After managing over 75 books throughout my career, I'm pretty confident in saying that we're thinking about this all wrong.
That’s not to say launches aren’t important. They bring in revenue, boost the exposure of a book, and keep our cash flow positive, but especially in today’s day and age where everything is in print forever, the book launch is less important than ever.
Once you break even on a book’s costs, both your time and money, that book becomes an asset forever.
Forever is a long time, y’all.
Even if a book only makes $10 a year in profit, year after year, it's still an asset in your portfolio.
Large publishers know the power of the backlist, which are the books that have passed their first book birthday, but indies are laser-focused on the frontlist books that just came out.
Established publishers can make more than half their income from the backlist books in their catalog, which is huge money we’re just leaving on the table by abandoning those titles.
This money can come lots of ways, including:
Reissued editions: New covers, anniversary editions, updated forewords
Foreign rights sales: Licensing the book to publishers in other countries
Audio rights: Selling or licensing to audiobook producers
Film and TV options: Selling adaptation rights
Serialization rights: Excerpts in other publications or by serializing it on their own site.
Bulk and institutional sales: Libraries, schools, corporate orders
Bundling: Packaging with other titles or in box sets
Digital repricing: Adjusing ebook pricing to reactivate sales
Sub-rights licensing: Merchandise, excerpts, translations
It used to be that small indies couldn’t take advantage of these rights very easily, but with the rise of direct sales, along with tools that can make translations, audiobooks, etc. more accessible, any indie author can make their back catalog work for them like never before.
That’s not to say all releases are created equal. Even with the biggest and best publishers, the money they make from their books are not evenly distributed. At any one time, only a small percentage of books make any significant money.
Similarly, when you think about an investment portfolio, you’ll have individual stocks that rise and fall, but it’s the overall growth that matters most. In fact, having a varied portfolio full of large cap, small cap, technology, healthcare, and other types of stocks helps smooth out the dips in any one sector. If you overindex on one industry in the good times, you’ll be uniquely exposed to losing money on the bad days.
In my catalog, I have over 75 books of different types that can make money for the rest of my life. Most of them look pretty pathetic taken in snapshot, pulling in maybe $10-$50/yr on retailers. That’s not the only way they earn, though.
Even if they don’t make any money by themselves, these same books still generate revenue behind publication paywalls and in various bundles. More importantly, even if they never earned another dollar, they've already broken even on my time and effort. That's my key.
If a book can merely break even at launch, then they become an asset forever, instead of a liability.
Think about having 50 books in your catalog, each bringing in modest annual profits. Maybe it's only $50-$100 total per year. That might not sound impressive, but remember that these are permanent assets. That money adds up over time, especially if you're smart about reinvesting it into other growth vehicles, including future books.
Then, you buoy that money with the revenue generated from the book launch, which funds your operating costs and gives you a little bit to put away for the future.
I’ve talked before about how to build a body of work as a way to fight imposter syndrome, but once you’ve got that body of work built, and you’re not in the debt on them, you suddenly have a powerful investment vehicle you can lean on forever.
You don’t get there in one day, but anyone can get there one day. Plus, you can always redesign everything once a book breaks even (or before it does), forever and ever. Even your heirs can get your book selling, generation after generation, once you’ve built those assets.
Here's the strategy that's served me well: If you need $5,000 to break even on a book, that's actually quite achievable with a well-planned Kickstarter campaign. If you follow our strategies, you should be able to sell 100-200 copies from a modest launch, break even, and then never have to worry about being in debt to your book again.
Now I write much faster, but for the first decade of my career I was basically a one book a year author. From 2011-2017, I would put out less than two projects a year.
That’s not much production compared to where I’m at now, and I couldn’t retire on those launches, but by 2017 I had 12 books out, and since I broke even on all of them (using a combination of Kickstarter and conventions) within three months of launch, every dollar they make had been put in the profits ledger for years.
When my career took off, people went back to those old books, too, making them even more valuable as time went on and more people cared about my work.
Even if you can only put out one book a year, by the end of a decade you’ll have ten books, which become an incredible asset once they break even. If you can earn some money releasing episodes of your book on Substack, Patreon, or another platform, you can get several bites of the apple. Publishing is a war of attrition, where every dollar counts, so make every dollar count.
Since I started my career, I've rarely failed to break even on a book either at (or soon after) launch, and have never had an unprofitable book. This might not sound very impressive, but most publishers lose money on up to 90% of their releases. I’m still in this game because I am always profitable, if only barely, on every launch, and have been since 2016, well before I built a name. The books I’ve tried to launch on retailers first without a launch event like Kickstarter are the only ones that have ever failed in my whole career.
I’ll be the first to admit very few of these books have exploded into massive bestsellers and none made me rich overnight. That’s not the point.
I deliberately overindex on breaking even at launch because I want to move each book from the liability column to the asset column as quickly as possible.
I’m not focused on having the biggest launch possible, just making sure I can move a book out of the liability column, which is a much easier and more reasonable lift.
When you start thinking this way, the pressure of needing every launch to be spectacular begins to lift. You realize you're not just publishing for today. You're building something for your future self. Whether that's your 40s, 50s, or beyond, you're creating a foundation that will continue generating value long after the initial release excitement fades.
The real power of this approach becomes clear when you look at multiple revenue streams. Traditional retail sales are just one piece of the puzzle. Your books can earn through:
Digital platform subscriptions
Bundle deals with other authors
Special editions and repackaging
Publication paywalls
Direct sales through your own platforms
Library lending programs
Educational licensing
…and a bunch of ways you don’t even know about yet, including some that might not been invented yet.
Each of these streams might generate modest income individually, but together they create a resilient income portfolio that isn't dependent on any single channel. The key is to make sure that story is rock solid. Then, even if it doesn’t sell today, you set yourself up to earn on it for a long time.
Once you have a story that works, it tends to keep working far into the future.
Looking ahead, I'd love to see our industry shift away from its launch obsession. Instead of pouring all our resources into those first few weeks, what if we spent more time thinking about creating lasting assets that we loved taking about for a decade or more? What if we approached each book as another piece in our long-term investment strategy?
Because if we do that, then we can stop focusing on writing to market, writing cookie-cutter books, and writing what’s hot. Then, we can start making books that resonate deeply with readers.
How might this look? Let’s go back to that author with 10 books, who only releases one new book a year. How might they build a robust career through their backlist?
Year 1: Audit & prioritize
Identify your top 2-3 performers. These are your evergreen workhorses. protect and promote them consistently).
Identify 2-3 with untapped potential. Maybe they have the wrong cover, bad metadata, or were never properly launched.
The bottom 3-4 may not be standalone stars, but they’re not dead weight. Bundle them with stronger titles, use them as lead magnets, include them in subscription offerings, or package them as bonuses on your website to add perceived value without discounting your workhorse titles
Launch a subscription offering. Utilize Patreon, Ream, or your own membership to give subscribers access to your catalog as a core benefit.
Identify marketing channels that can bring in new audiences like Bookfunnel’s group promos, newsletter swaps, Written Word Media, relevant podcasts, etc.
Year 2: Repackage
Run a Kickstarter with new covers on the underperformers.
Rewrite blurbs and metadata and release those underperformers again with a new launch plan.
Bundle 2-3 thematically related titles into box sets. Run a special offer on your web store to your audience.
Produce audio versions using ACX, Findaway Voices, or AI-narrated versions through Elevenlabs or Spoken.
Use ScribeShadow to produce translated editions for key foreign markets without needing a traditional rights deal. Make sure to hire a native language editor and proofer to get the book localized.
Run a Kickstarter for a special reissue of your strongest title with a deluxe edition, new intro, exclusive extras.
Year 3: Expand Formats & Reach
Distribute your translations internationally through PublishDrive or Draft2Digital
Narrow your marketing to the channels that work well for your best performers. Keep doing newsletter swaps and ads with them (if profitable). Check to see if the market changed and they need new covers.
Pursue traditional foreign rights deals for major markets where a local publisher adds real value.
Run a second Kickstarter for your next strongest candidate.
Run an anniversary edition Kickstarter for one of your books.
Produce a movie of your book through Creatorwood, or an audio drama.
Depending on your genre, look into producing your book as a video game through Lovable or Base 44.
If your subscription isn’t humming along by this point, it’s time to give it some love and try to build your fanbase.
Year 4: Anniversary & Special Editions
Any book hitting a 5 or 10-year mark gets an anniversary edition with a new intro
Every month take one or more of your books, bundling it as a “special offer” and sell it to your audience with a bundle of other books/items.
Your subscription should be popping by this point, so it’s time to show it some love and really build it now, as it should be the workhorse of your business.
Year 5: Repeat the Cycle
Go back to Year 2 with fresh eyes
What’s changed in the market? New cover trends? New platforms?
Expand into new international markets with ScribeShadow translations
The Perpetual Motion Principles:
Rotate which 2-3 books you’re actively promoting at any given time
Never promote all 10 simultaneously.
Every few years, each book gets a refresh pass.
Run holiday promotions and seasonal sales consistently on Valentine’s Day, summer reading, Black Friday, etc. cycling through different titles each time so nothing gets stale
New formats and translations create income streams that run parallel to direct sales. Pursue them aggressively
Your subscription is your floor. It generates recurring revenue regardless of what else is happening
While you’re doing this, you’ll also have new releases and should always be building your audience. Then, you can just repeat this playbook every five years, as your books have more and more important anniversaries.
Trends change, readers move on from cheap stories, but those books that resonate will always connect with readers.
The financial reality of publishing often gets obscured by stories of breakthrough bestsellers and seven-figure advances. For most authors and publishers, though, success comes from building a sustainable catalog of assets that generate steady returns over time. It's not glamorous, but it's effective.
I've found immense freedom in this approach. When you know each book you create has already covered its costs and moved into the asset column, it changes how you view your entire career. You're no longer just as good as your last launch. Instead, you're building a foundation of intellectual property that works for you continuously.
A book's value isn't determined in its first month of sales. Sometimes the real returns come years later, through channels you never anticipated when you first published. By building with this long view in mind, you're not just publishing books - you're creating assets that can support you for decades to come.
It's about being kind to your future self. Each book that breaks even represents one more brick in the foundation of your long-term security. That's a weight lifted off your shoulders, an investment in your creative and financial freedom. And in my experience, that's worth far more than any single bestseller could ever provide.
What do you think?
Have you ever thought about what you need to "break even" on a book? Share what costs (time, money, energy) you'd need to cover to consider your next book a success.
What's one way you could start treating your current work-in-progress as a long-term asset instead of just focusing on launch? What would you do differently?
Tell us about a book you bought years after it launched. What made you pick it up?
Let us know in the comments.
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So many killer suggestions! My head is spinning :>