The Business: On Merchandise

Whether you are New or OldPub, I see no reason to not offer merchandise related to your books. This isn't the old days. You don't need to maintain merch inventory anymore than you do book inventory; Print On Demand merchandise is a thing, has been for quite some time, and you'll see even country lawyers with YouTube channels--hey, Rackets--have at least one merch storefront.

Yes, there's people who make very comfortable livings making and selling POD merch. That's not the point here. The point I'm making is that you, Fellow Author, have produced creative works that satisfy and entertain an audience. Some fraction of that audience would like to do more than just read your books, or listen to someone read it to them. They would like to hang their favorite book covers, or portraits of favorite characters, etc. on their walls or wear shirts bearing those images.

Since very few of you are The Mountain That Writes, and thus do not own your own mountain, I think a lot of you would not mind having one more way for your books to put money into your pocket. NewPub authors have plenty of art assets that they either outright own or have full commercial rights at their disposal. OldPub authors may not, but they are in a position to commission work for use in merchandising.

Either way, you're leaving money on the table by not doing this.

Does it have to bring in thousands a month? No. If you can build the revenue up to cover just one of your bills per month, you're doing great. The best part? This is entirely passive. The work, such as it is, consists of setting up at a Print On Demand site, uploading your artwork, and selecting what products to offer and at what price. Then--and this is specific to us as authors--we spread the work and put the links forth.

The best part? You're doing this as a sideline; a lot of the YouTube (et. al.) folks cutting videos and articles on merch focus on this as your main revenue source. As authors, that is not the case. You've got to keep this in mind when you set about offering the merch; the merch exists so your audience can help you sell more books and expand the fandom- do not put the cart before the horse.

If your fans love a particular character, put that one out on a shirt. Put their catchphrase on it. Put the series brand elsewhere on it--on the back or the sleeve--and then spread that link around so folks can buy it. You can do this while taking a coffee break if you have the artwork handy, meaning that you need not worry about this overtaking your time producing the books that your readers want.

This is why I'm going to do it. The assets already exist. There is no reason not to make them available; it's as close to free money as it gets, and I am astounded that more authors working in fiction don't take advantage of this.