My Five Year Plan for My Book Business: I’m Creating a Passive Income Machine

I have 930 books on Amazon. Yes, they are high-content books with words and pictures. I published my first book in January 2021 (today is June 19, 2023).

When I first started, I aimed to create 1,000 books on Amazon. Well, now I don’t have an end goal because I plan to write until the end of days.

But where am I heading with my writing and book business? Writing and publishing can open tons of new income streams for dedicated writers. Let’s begin.

Get Past the Middle Class

Multiple income streams. I read “How to Make a Living with Your Writing” by Joanna Penn early in my writing career.

These books gave me the blueprint to introduce new income streams from my writing continually. Now, I am in the implementation phase. I must stick around for the long run to reap the rewards of my writing.

My blogging goals. First and foremost, everything I write goes onto my blog. I have 1,306 articles on my blog, and I add five per week.

I suck at search engine optimization (SEO), so I am slowly getting traffic from Google. However, each year I double my traffic from Google Search. I aim to get 1,000 quality monthly clicks from searches by the end of 2025.

I split my articles into two categories: Kindle Unlimited books (published on LinkedIn) and Free Pdfs (published on Medium).

Down-Sized? Time to Start an Online Business

The goal of hosting 375 (and growing) free pdfs on my website is to give people a reason to return. Driving repeat traffic to a website is extremely challenging. 

Amazon Royalties. My Amazon plan has three different methods: Kindle Unlimited, ebooks, and paperbacks.

Paperbacks are at the bottom of my sales funnel. Once someone downloads tons of free pdfs and Kindle Unlimited books, I hope they will eventually buy a couple of paperbacks to give to friends and family.

I sell my colorful, 50-page paperbacks for $20 and make a $6 or $7 commission. Although ebooks had a one-year head start, paperbacks have become my number one revenue stream.

The American Dream is Passive Income

Two-thirds of my books are on Kindle Unlimited, which means they are exclusive to Amazon. Kindle Unlimited is a boon for mystery and romance books, less for finance. But my monthly numbers are slowly increasing.

My goal is to reach $1,000 monthly in monthly Amazon royalties (without advertising) by the end of 2026. 

Amazon is a brutal battleground if you don’t have a massive following or a newsletter. Success on Amazon is about getting 30-50 reviews on your book on day one and pushing yourself to the top of the charts in the first week.

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I don’t do any of that, so I have to play the long game of collecting honest reviews by keeping books on the market. However, once you get traction on Amazon, it is fairly sticky.

Amazon Advertising. I just started advertising on Amazon this month. This is an entirely different income stream. My goal is to break even on ads in year one.

Breaking even means the cost of ads and my sales (profits) are even. That means I am driving free traffic to one or two books. 

Hopefully, people will exploit my ecosystem of 900+ books and articles from there. Advertising is a whole new world, and it takes patience and awareness—it’s not “fire and forget.”

Home Schooling vs. Online Business

Draft2Digital. After I create a non-Kindle Unlimited book, I immediately put it on Draft2Digital (D2D). D2D is a book aggregator that pushes your books to libraries, online bookstores, and even physical bookstores.

I have been surprised by the response I get on this platform. I don’t advertise, so it is truly passive income. I just upload my book (it takes five minutes) and wait for the money to arrive.

My goal is to earn $200 per month on D2D by the end of 2025. It may not seem like a lot, but it is literally free money.

Medium. I publish half of my articles on Medium. I just got monetized, but I am not the typical Medium writer.

Wiping the Debt of Christmas Past

I don’t have fancy or catchy headlines, so I don’t foresee myself becoming prominent on the platform. However, it is a superb form of content marketing where you can also earn a little cash. 

I have earned about $5 after 2.5 months of monetization. Anybody who has started a blog understands that $5 in a couple of months is pretty darn good.

My goal is to reach 10,000 followers and earn $200 per month by the end of 2025. My main plan is to drive people into my book ecosystem, not become a massive Medium star.

I’m Obsessed with Mone, and You Should Be Too

LinkedIn. I publish the other half of my articles on LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn’t have monetization for content creators, although they may soon.

The more I grow on LinkedIn, the more traffic I see going to my website—which is the goal. I aim to drive 100 monthly clicks from LinkedIn by the end of 2025.

Gumroad. I just started uploading my 375 (and growing) pdf books to Gumroad. I am taking the long road, but I think it will be a good platform.

It will be easy for people to see all of my books in one place, and I can also upload my articles and build a small audience over there.

Welcome to Writing: Start Here If You Love the Grind

My goal is to make $200 per month from Gumroad by the end of 2026. Gumroad can lead to merchandise sales on Redbubble as well.

Why are my numbers so low? Why am I not aiming to make huge amounts of money from my books?

I am retired from the Marine Corps and have real estate and investments. My book business is part of my passion for talking about financial independence. 

The most important part of my book business is the ability to write and publish anytime and from any place.

Conclusion. I can make much more money by converting my time into active income. This means coaching new writers, designing covers, or helping people publish.

The Bonds of Thanksgiving: Tis’ The Season to Invest in Bonds

However, then I have to exchange time for money. I prefer to trade time for assets—my assets (my books).

I don’t know where my book business will lead, but earning $2,000 monthly purely passive income would be sweet.

The overall goal is to use my book business royalties to fund my dividend portfolio. For example, if I made $2,000 in royalties, I can invest them directly into my income-investing portfolio.

Few people can write and publish their own books. The world allows us to do it all, but it takes time to master this skill set. 

If you are in writing for the long haul, self-publishing, content marketing, and advertising can be your ticket to long-term passive income. Good Luck!

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