Book Review: The Profitable Author
The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books by Sharon Woodhouse, Everything Goes Media (dba Conspire Creative), January 2025, paperback and ebook, 497 pages
Reviewed by Kaleene Robertson.
Many of us who dream of having an author’s life are easily discouraged. We may be frustrated by lack of sales, not know where to start, or believe we need some sort of “magical” talent. Enter Sharon Woodhouse, who gently dismantles those thoughts. The Profitable Author is a book about the nuts and bolts of selling not only your book, but the entire author's lifestyle. Woodhouse reminds us that successful authors simply dig down and do the work; they are not chosen by the muses.
Woodhouse has earned the right to make that claim. An authorpreneur herself (a word Sharon introduces as a mashup of author and entrepreneur), she founded and ran Lake Claremont Press, published her own books, and made a home for her work on platforms like Medium. She now runs Conspire Creative, an entrepreneurship agency for authors. Her wealth of expertise gives the book its authority, her knowledge of sticky business situations provides the grit, and her posture toward the reader gives it warmth.
Woodhouse comes across like a motivational speaker who happens to have decades of industry know-how. She is inspirational, aspirational, and always insisting that the life you want is buildable from wherever you happen to be standing. She makes a point of showing you a road you can travel with whatever experience or connections you already have, rather than the ones you wish you had. She shows up for authors in talking about the importance of self-care, describes how to grow your business out of love, and even how to handle housework.
What I appreciated most is how the book functions as a personal coach walking beside you through your entrepreneurial author career. It encourages you to identify your strengths and then figure out how to leverage them to write toward the life you want. Given her expertise, the pages are full of practical nuggets of wisdom. In one section she lays out the many ways to get your book into people's hands, from word-of-mouth and private events to book clubs. In another, she returns to the importance of negotiating, and of encouraging others to negotiate on your behalf, because Woodhouse understands that making a living as an author means taking the reins and fighting for yourself and your book to be in the room.
The book is at its strongest for nonfiction writers, which makes sense given Woodhouse's background. That said, fiction writers will still find a great deal here worth keeping: the ins and outs of how to publish, how to market, and crucially, how to actually get paid for the various pieces of work that surround a book (like character backstories). The fifteen income streams she breaks down are useful no matter what genre you write.
By the end, what stays with you is not a single tactic but a mindset. Sharon Woodhouse is your biggest cheerleader. I closed the book feeling less like I'd been handed a manual and more like I'd been believed in. With Sharon in your corner, the profitable author life isn't reserved for the few. It's built, deliberately and unglamorously, by the people willing to roll up their sleeves and claim it.
