This is a great question. The best way I can answer it is to say that the world of indy book publishing is closely following the direction that the indy music world went about a decade ago. The bands and artists who were willing to "give away" their material actually became huge stars, and the artists and labels who were afraid of "theft" suffered at the hands of Napster, and a public that increasingly wanted "free" music.

In the publishing industry, this takes the form of ebook giveaways now. If you have invested very little capital in putting your book together (I have a great case study in mind of a client who spent $53 on her book editing, production, and publication), why not give away as many as possible, and count the number of books "in distribution"? We have one author who recently "gave away" 37,000 books in one day on Amazon during a promotion. What is he now able to say? He has 50,000 books in distribution. How many has he actually sold? Probably around 800 at this point, but that will continue to climb as the 49,000 people who downloaded his book free over the different giveaway days "actually" read his book, and recommend it on to others, or buy a paperback copy for themselves.

Let's look at the opposite case study that I always cite. I have a former client who unfortunately had spent nearly 1/2 million dollars on his book project before he started talking with me (no, I'm not kidding). He was able to rise to the top of a prominent bestseller list as a result of what his "book publisher" did for him, but how much money or influence did he get as a result of putting a 2nd mortgage on his house for that 1/2 million dollars? Very little. Or, I should say, just about as much influence as the person who spent $53 on her entire book process.

All of this is to say, there is great scholarship out there around how much to charge for your book, and it can be a great "business card" – but that is an old concept. Instead of a "business card" – think of your book as your album or record that will get you fans. Build up your social media presence, build up your readership, and you will then build a community around this. That community will allow you to fulfill your dreams, whether coaching, authoring, speaking, dancing, or building ships.

(Please don't mortgage your house or invest more money than you can afford for a "hobby".) And, my personal belief is that if you don't have fun, it's not worth it! If you succeed in getting your message out to 10 people or 10 million, you are changing the world. So, blessings to you on that great mission!