What 57 books did for their authors' businesses.
This is the members' list of Dollar Book Club: Scribe Media authors whose published stories report a concrete business result from their book. Each card shows the result as Scribe published it and links to the full story, so you can read how it happened.
Read these as the top of the range, not the middle. These are strong results chosen from Scribe's published success stories. They are not typical, and nobody can promise them to you, Scribe included. Most books sell modestly, and many authors get value that never shows up as a number. Use these to see what kinds of value are possible, then put your own, more cautious numbers into the Book Value Calculator.
Jump to a kind of result
Each kind matches a line in the calculator, so you can see real examples of the line you are about to fill in.
15 results. Money the book brought in.
Calculator: new clients from the book Clients, patients and leads12 results. People who read the book and hired the author.
Calculator: value of one client Higher fees2 results. The same work at a higher price.
Calculator: fee increase per client Paid speaking10 results. More talks, higher fees.
Calculator: paid talks from the book Paid back the book4 results. How fast the book covered its cost.
Calculator: payback point Recruiting, hiring and career7 results. Applicants, recruiters, new roles.
Calculator: other value Fundraising and deals5 results. Investors, partners, a film option.
Calculator: other value Royalties2 results. The sales line, at its best.
Calculator: royalty per copyHow these results were chosen
Every card comes from Scribe Media's published success stories. A result made this page only if it was a business result you could, at least in principle, put a dollar figure on: revenue, clients, fees, paid talks, hiring, money raised or a deal. Results about readers helped, awards or bestseller lists are real too, and they live on the value beyond money page instead.
Each number is copied as the story states it, in the author's or the story's own words. Some are exact dollar figures ("$1.1M new top-line revenue generated in year one"). Some are multiples ("3x"). Some are plain descriptions ("New clients"). Where a story gives a range or a rough figure, so does the card. This site does not add totals, averages or estimates on top of them, because a set of picked results cannot tell you what an average book does.
Three things to keep in mind as you read:
- Selection. Scribe writes stories about authors who had something to report. Authors with quieter results are not on this page. That is why the cards are a range of what is possible, not a forecast.
- Credit. The authors say the book drove these results. Most of them also had a business, a reputation and years of work behind the book. The book was the thing that changed, and they credit it, but it worked on top of what was already there.
- Time. Some results came in months, others over several years. Each story says when. The calculator has a years setting for this reason.
Revenue and new business
Money the book brought in, or growth the author ties to it.
Clients, patients and leads
The book brought people who became clients.
Higher fees
The same work, sold at a higher price after the book.
Paid speaking
More paid talks, and higher fees for each one.
Paid back the book
Authors who told Scribe how fast the book covered its own cost.
Recruiting, hiring and career
The book brought people to work with the author, or took the author somewhere new.
Fundraising and deals
Investors, partners and deals that came through the book.
Royalties
The one line most people expect, and the size it can reach.
Now do the math with your numbers
The calculator uses the same kinds of value you just read about, with your own figures. It shows every line, the total, and when the book pays for itself.