Build your Author Empire
Your book is a door. Which one is yours? Few people get rich on royalties alone. What changes your life is everything the book opens after it exists.
Crystal Adair-Benning. 4x NYT bestselling ghostwriter & book coach. 30 yrs in books, 200+ authors, 12+ countries.
A book is not the business. It is the door.
Few people get rich on royalties. That is not pessimism, it is arithmetic. What changes your life is what the book opens — the stage, the room, the client who arrives already convinced, the course people ask for because they read chapter 4 and wanted more.
That is an Author Empire. The book sits in the middle and everything else is built on top of it.
What gets built on top of a book.
Door 1
Speaking engagements
A book is the single fastest way to get booked. Event organisers need a reason to choose you over the other 40 people pitching the same topic, and “wrote the book on it” is the reason. Fees go up. So does the size of the room.
Door 2
Bookish events
Your own events, not just other people’s. Launches, salons, dinners, workshops, live readings, ticketed evenings. There are far more ways to put a book in a room with people than the sad bookshop signing everybody pictures. This is a whole discipline and most authors never learn it.
Door 3
Classes & courses
The book teaches the what. A course sells the how, at a price a book cannot charge. If readers keep asking the same follow-up question, that question is a curriculum.
Door 4
Retreats & intensives
The premium end. Fewer people, more money, deeper work. My own Createcation™ retreats exist because a book created the demand for them.
Door 5
Consulting & advisory
Board seats, retainers, advisory work. The book is the credential that gets you into conversations that were previously closed, and it does the convincing before you arrive.
Door 6
Media & podcasts
Producers book authors. A book turns a cold pitch into an easy yes, and every appearance sells the next thing in the empire.
Which door is yours?
Here is the uncomfortable part: most people build the wrong one. They write the book, then bolt on whichever revenue stream their loudest peer is doing, and wonder why it feels like a second job they hate.
There are 7 profiles, and each one has its own way of going wrong. 4 questions, no email, and you will know which door yours opens.
Why the order is the whole game.
Most authors write the book first and work out what it is for afterwards. That is backwards, and it is the reason so many good books end up in a garage in a box of 500.
Decide which door you are opening, then write the book that opens it. A memoir aimed at a keynote career is a structurally different book from the same story aimed at a course, and you cannot retrofit one into the other without writing it twice.
“I never dreamed I’d be on a bestseller list. Crystal made it happen and made the process feel like the most natural thing in the world.”
Peter Merrett, 2024 Australia Speaker of the Year
Peter got the bestseller list first. The Speaker of the Year title came after. That order is not a coincidence, and it is the clearest example of an Author Empire I have.
Where the events piece comes from.
Bookish events are the door most authors skip, because nobody teaches it. The default picture is a folding table in a bookshop and 6 people, 3 of whom are related to you. That is one format out of dozens, and it is the worst one.
Launches, salons, supper clubs, ticketed evenings, workshops, corporate buy-ins, partner events, festivals. I have spent years collecting the formats that actually sell books and build an audience, because this is the part of the empire with the most upside and the least competition.
My own empire, for the record.
Createcation™ retreats exist because a book made people ask for them. RetreatBoss Magazine exists because the retreats did. Speaking, workshops and classes all trace back to the same root.
I am not describing a theory I read somewhere. I am describing the last 10 years of my own working life, which is why I can tell you which doors are worth the effort and which ones look glamorous and pay nothing.
See the retreatsThe order matters.
There is a running order to this and almost nobody gets it right. You do not write the book and then work out what it is for. You decide which door you are opening, then write the book that opens it. A memoir aimed at a keynote career is a different book from the same story aimed at a course.
That is the conversation I have on every strategy call, and it is why I will sometimes tell someone their book is not ready. Usually it is not the writing. It is that nobody has decided what the book is for.
Worth reading next.
- Your Book Is a Business Asset — Here’s the Data to Prove It
- How to Build Your Author Platform Before Your Book Is Written
- What Happens After You Write Your Book? The Launch Strategy Most Authors Miss
- What Makes a New York Times Bestseller, and Does It Actually Matter?
- What Is a Createcation, and Could One Change Your Book?
- The Audiobook Opportunity Most Authors Are Missing
Author Empire questions.
What is an Author Empire?
Everything a book makes possible once it exists. Speaking engagements, your own bookish events, courses and classes, retreats, consulting and media. The book sits in the middle and the income comes from what is built on top of it, because almost nobody gets rich on royalties alone.
Do I need a bestseller for any of this to work?
No. A list placing is a marketing asset, not a prerequisite. I have watched books that never troubled a chart fill keynote calendars and sell out courses, because the right 500 readers mattered more than 50,000 wrong ones.
Which door should I build first?
The one your book already points at. That is what the quiz is for. Building the wrong door is the most common and most expensive mistake, because it ends with a revenue stream you resent running.
Can I build more than one?
Eventually, yes, and most established authors run 3 or 4. Not at the same time, and not at the start. Pick the door your book opens most naturally, build it properly, then add the next one.
What are bookish events exactly?
Any event that puts your book in a room with people. Launches, salons, supper clubs, ticketed evenings, workshops, festival slots, corporate buy-ins, partner events. The bookshop signing is one format out of dozens and it is usually the weakest.
I have not written the book yet. Is this too early?
It is exactly the right time. Deciding which door you are opening before you write changes the book you write. A memoir aimed at a keynote career is a different book from the same story aimed at a course.
Do you help with the empire, or just the book?
Both, and they are the same conversation. I ghostwrite and coach the book, run Createcation retreats, and speak. What the book is for shapes every decision inside it.
Want to know what your book is for?
Book a free 30-minute call. I will ask which door you are trying to open, and tell you honestly whether the book you are planning opens it.
Book a strategy callThe receipts.
- 4x NYT bestsellers
- 200+ authors
- 12+ countries
- 30 yrs in books
