Why Books are a Great Side Business
Plus, how to use LinkedIn for book marketing
In today’s newsletter:
🖼️ Why Books are a Great Side Business
⌛️ How I’m Using LinkedIn to Market my Book
💡 Get Help Selling on Amazon
💬 The Little Book of Stoic Quotes (Only $0.99)
✍️ A Quick Side Gig Hack You Can Apply Today
Read time: 5.0 minutes
BIG PICTURE
1. Why Books are a Great Side Business
Books are digital assets with a long tail.
You do the work once, and the books keep working for you: Amazon’s search, recommendations, and their marketplace keep surfacing your book titles without ongoing effort.
There’s no inventory to manage, no customer service queue, and your “shelf space” is infinite.
Each new title is another little sales rep that compounds your portfolio.
Case-in-point:
Here are my Amazon KDP book sales from yesterday (September 1, 2025)

Quick stats:
Total sales: 11
No. of unique book titles: 8
Royalties: $18.35
This might not be much, but here’s the best part:
The most recent book sold on this list was written 3.5 years ago
The oldest was written 11 years ago
All organic sales via Amazon
The takeaway: Create once, sell forever. Books are an awesome side business.

TACTICAL MARKETING
2. How I’m Using LinkedIn to Market my Book
I’m writing a new book called “AI Change Management Made Simple.”
My current goal is to line up early reviewers.
Why? Early reviews = social proof = better sales conversions at launch.
So here’s what I wrote on LinkedIn a couple of days ago:
Result: 80+ people raised their hands.
Here are a few things to know about this LinkedIn strategy.
It sets expectations. I’m clearly asking for an Amazon review in exchange for a free copy. I didn’t ask for a vague “would love your thoughts on the book.” Specific asks increase follow-through.
It encourages engagement. When someone’s interested, I DM them a short Google Form. I could have included the form in the post itself, but then I’d lose all the comments and likes. By stating “please let me know,” I get better engagement, which boosts reach (as a side note, many folks still DM’d me directly to express interest without engaging on the post, but that’s okay)
It builds early buzz. Some people won’t be interested in leaving a review, but they will remember the book when I launch it in a couple of weeks (and they may buy it at that time). Talking about it early warms up demand.
There you have a it. A simple LinkedIn strategy that works.
On that note, if you’re interested in this AI Change Management topic and want an early free copy of the book in exchange for an Amazon review, here’s the link to the Google Form where you can enter your info.

PRESENTED BY
3. Get Help Selling on Amazon
This week’s Side Gig Hacks newsletter is sponsored by Cartograph (and they can help you sell on Amazon).
Want actionable, No-B.S. advice for selling on Amazon?
At Cartograph, we’ve helped OLIPOP, Starface, Rao’s, and 300+ brands across Food & Beverage, Supplements, Beauty & Personal Care, Pet, and Baby scale profitably on Amazon.
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BOOKS I LIKE
I’m a big fan of The Little Book of Stoic Quotes by Phil Van Treuren (whom I interviewed on the podcast a while ago).
I own the physical copy and keep coming back to it.
The ebook is just $0.99 today, and it’s a great, bite-sized read for daily wisdom.

ONE-MINUTE HACKS
5. A Quick Side Gig Hack You Can Apply Today
99% of book titles don't include:
A clear audience
A defined outcome
Relevant keywords
Attention-grabbing words
Too much bling
Not enough clarity
Include the above elements and you’ll have a book title that sells

Want more of those tips?
Check out my free Amazon Bestselling book called: Write Your Book on the Side.
You can grab it for free by clicking the button and subscribing to the newsletter 👇️