Normally we talk about how to sell more books, but in this article, we will discuss how to make more money on the books you sell. 

Authors want to sell books and earn money to feed their families or pay the mortgage. Selling more books helps accomplish those goals. However, making more money per book sold helps you accomplish those goals more efficiently.

Did you know that affiliate revenue is one of the easiest ways to increase your income?

What is affiliate revenue?

Authors earn regular revenue when they sell books. If you’re traditionally published, your publisher pays you an advance and then royalties after you “sell out” your advance. If you’re indie published, your book printer pays you for the books you sold. For example, if you’re indie published through KDP (formerly Create Space), you’ll get a monthly royalty check (or an automatic deposit) from KDP for the book sales in the previous month. 

Affiliate revenue, on the other hand, comes from a retailer such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Apple, who give you a cut of the sale. 

Benefits of Affiliate Programs

Percentage of Gross Sales

For authors published through KDP, it can get a little confusing, but only because authors get to double-dip! Amazon pays you the royalty on the book since they are the printer, but since they are also the retailer, they will also pay affiliates a second time on the same sale through affiliate revenue.

Typically affiliate programs such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple pay a 2%-8% commission on the sale depending on the retailer and product type. 

Percentage of Entire Cart

As an Amazon affiliate, however, you’ll earn a percentage of the entire cart. That means if someone buys your book through your affiliate link and they also buy a new computer (or any other product on Amazon), you will earn 4%-8% in affiliate revenue on the entire purchase.  

This happens more often than you might think, thanks to Amazon’s upselling. When a customer puts your book in their Amazon cart, Amazon sends a notification saying, “If you spend $10 more, you’ll qualify for free shipping.” Many people take the offer and end up buying that pair of boots they’d been eyeing in addition to your book, and you earn a commission on it all.

Link Tracking

Another benefit of using an affiliate link is that you can track how many people click the link and buy your book. Tracking links allow you to test the efficiency of different platforms. For example, you can create one tracking link to post on Twitter, and within a few days, you’d be able to see that you sold two books. You’d then create another tracking link to post on your blog. After you send your email subscribers to your blog, you may discover that 200 people clicked the link in your blog post and bought your book. 

Measuring your marketing with tracking links will help you make the best use of your time and marketing dollars. Learn more about measuring your marketing in our episode on How to Spend Less Time Marketing Your Book.

Amazon’s Affiliate Program

Pros:

* Easiest to Sign Up For