Why you should reinvest all your income from writing at the beginning

I remember when the fifth book I ever published suddenly shot up the charts. Compared to my successes today, the bestseller rank I achieved was not particularly impressive. I was far from the Top 100.

But it was enough to earn me more than 700€ in a single month.

Before that, I had never earned more than thirty euros with my books. I was euphoric.

But I also knew that I had to invest now if I wanted to build on this success. The book had a cheap premade cover, and I was the only one who had proofread it. It was still teeming with mistakes.

If I wanted to build a reputation as a professional writer, my upcoming books had to be made more professional.

So instead of taking the money and using it privately, I left it in my business account. I had introduced the separation of private and business money right from the start. I already had a business account when I had not yet earned a single Euro.

My wife and I could have used this money very well privately at that time, but I resisted it.

The taxes always come first

As soon as you earn money with a business, you also have costs. The first thing you have to think about is taxes. Since, as a layman, you cannot estimate how much tax you will owe, it is best to keep at least forty percent in a savings account.

I did not take this to heart and was surprised by horrendous tax payment, for which I had to take out a loan, which I am still paying off.

This happened to me even though I had always put money aside for tax purposes. It was only too little because the income the following year, when the taxes were due, was much lower. So I had to pay a lot of money back, and at the same time, I had less income. Do not make this mistake.

Always think about taxes first. Then comes everything else.

The next steps are cover and editing

A book that is supposed to earn money must be professionally made. Although you can get away with inferior quality once or twice and earn reasonably well with it, your readers will remember it and not buy your next books.

In the long run, quality pays off, even though it may seem smart in the short term to save costs for cover and editing.

No sales without advertising

The third item on your list should be advertising. It costs money to put your books in big newsletters like BookBub. Facebook ads also cost money, and Amazon doesn't let you place ads for free.

Advertising also includes the domain for your homepage. There may be additional costs for fancy templates or unique fonts.

Sooner or later, you will want to offer a newsletter, and you will have to be prepared to pay for it once you reach a certain number of subscribers.

Other costs

Once a book business is up and running, other expenses come your way.

For example, you should think about an occupational disability insurance policy that pays if you can no longer write due to illness.

Visits to trade fairs, research trips, flyers, business cards, and the paid version of Grammarly are other things that come to mind.

As you can see, costs increase as your book business grows. But it can only grow if you invest in that growth from the outset.

As tempting as it is to simply take the first money you earn and spend it for private purposes, you should still avoid it.

First and foremost, a business must be able to finance itself. Only then you pay yourself.

If you take this to heart, there is nothing to stop you from becoming a full-time author.