Author Income Streams, 11 of 15: Per Unit Fees

Photo by Samuel Rios on Unsplash.

Author income stream #11 comes from services you provide clients that are billed per delivery unit. Per-unit service examples from real authors I know or know of include:

• photos from your stock
• blog posts
• article reprints
• merch adaptations (variations of your author/book merch re-purposed for others)
• subscriptions (e.g., Substack)
• patronage (e.g., Patreon)
• memberships (think a paid, private FB community or a business mastermind group)
• ad spots on one’s podcast or YouTube channel

On what to charge and getting paid

When should you charge a per-unit fee for your services rather than charge for your time?

• When the service is a “small” product that naturally comes in discrete units (photos, blog posts, illustrations, maps) rather than a more complex project.
• When the service is these discrete items that customers tend to want varying amounts of. Some want 1 or 2; other 20 or 30.
• When you have existing stock of an item or existing stock that can easily be customized to sell (e.g., templates, checklists, basic designs).