First of all – is it possible to make money while sailing around the world?
Yes – it’s definitely possible to make money while living and traveling around the world on a boat. But the question is, just how much can you make and how can you make it?
At the time of writing this, I’ve been living on our sailboat in the Mediterranean full time for the last year. I’ve met a variety of people doing an assortment of things to make money (and find ways to minimize the amount of money that’s spent).
Before talking about making money, many readers first ask me how much it actually costs to maintain and live on a boat
And there’s really no quick answer to that question. Some boat ‘experts’ quote that the cost of living is around 20% of the value of the boat (per year) but we will never come close to spending that figure.
The cost of food, boat repairs/maintenance and living expenses vary greatly depending on where you are and how you do things. For example, in Thailand you can have your teak deck replaced at a fraction of the cost of what it costs in Europe. In the Med you can get your boat hauled out of the water and antifouled for 250 euros in Tunisia versus 2000+ euros in Sicily (they’re only 160 miles apart).
Once you start sailing around for a bit, you’ll start to learn the tricks of the trade
You’ll discover how to avoid the tourist super markets and find the one’s that the locals use. You’ll learn what country to sort out your VAT bill. You will also gain information about what marina to hit for out-of-water jobs and how to find boat service people for inexpensive prices.
In the Med the first thing that any boater asks upon arrive to a new port is, ‘where is the closest Lidl’? If you haven’t heard of Lidl, it’s a discount grocery store. Lidl is, by far, the least expensive shop to get your groceries and all us boaters rejoice when there’s one nearby. (Yes, I know that’s sad!)
But this article isn’t about the cost of living full time aboard a boat
This article is how to generate an income while enjoying the live-aboard lifestyle, so let me get into the make money while sailing information.
But before I list all the ways you can sail around the world let me give you an indication of the type of boaters I’ve met. There are the millionaire’s on one side of the spectrum. Then there are the very low budget sailors on the other.
The millionaires don’t seem interested in making money for obvious reasons
And the low budget sailors focus on saving money and living within their budget rather than making money. The millionaires have crew, often stay in marina’s and for food you’ll see a helicopter fly in to deliver the fresh Main lobster.
The low-income sailors tend to do everything themselves and I mean everything from sailing to maintenance to repairs. They always anchor. They often eat canned meat, fish they’ve caught and anything found on the clearance section of the supermarket. Low-income sailors are often not interested in making money – they seem to thrive on not spending money. This is not a bad thing…
And then there’s us folk in the middle
We’re not necessarily on a low budget; rather we have a bit of savings to help us out for a while. And perhaps we have an income through pensions, rental income or investments. But the cash flow isn’t always guaranteed OR it’s not necessarily enough to keep us feeling secure for the long term.
For me, personally, I have a bit of money in the bank and some pensions that won’t come into effect for another 15 to 20 years. I think we can last for five to ten years but towards the end we’ll really have to watch the pennies.
And that’s of course if we don’t have any major disasters!
I’d rather not have to watch the pennies – I’d rather have a way to generate and build up a variety of cash flow sources. A little bit of money from a lot of sources sounds like a good plan to me.
That being said, here are some ways that I make money while sailing around the world and how I’ve learned about others who are doing the same.
![Ten ways to make money while sailing around the world 4 make money sailing](https://sailingbritican.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/make-money-sailing-1.jpg)
We have to find a way to afford the upkeep on our expensive teak deck!
How to make money while sailing around the world…
1. Work for six months and then sail for six months
Now that I know about this option I wish I knew about it before we left for our world adventure! I had no idea that people worked during the winter months and then took six months off to sail around the Mediterranean or Caribbean. Looking back, I think that would have been a better way to ease into the live-aboard lifestyle.
While sailing around the Ionian Islands we met a few men, aged between 24 and 54, that had consultancy type jobs in England for the winter. They’d work November to April and then fly down to the Mediterranean, put their sailboat in the water and sail from May to October. Their consultancy job paid for their work/sail lifestyle. One guy I met rented out his house while he was gone. Ultimately, he actually made money while he was sunning himself in the Greek Islands.
I also met a guy that with three other friends are all sailing around the world season by season. They work during the winter and then they sail as far as they can get every summer. When the summer is over, they find a marina, pull the boat out of the water and return the following season. Isn’t that a great idea?!?!
2. Find a work-from-‘home’ job
The work-from-home trend is still on the increase. I imagine it will exponentially increase. More and more companies see the value in having employee’s work from home. There are a couple of people in the marina, that I’m in now, that appear to work from home but they’re really working from their boat.
I have to say that having an Internet and/or a good phone connection can often be hit or miss, Technology, however, is getting better and better every day. If you can find a home-based job, and there are loads out there, there’s nothing stopping you from working and sailing.
3. Consultancy – on land
If you have the skills to do consultancy – perhaps a past record of success in a particular field – you can potentially pimp yourself out (infrequently) to do some consultancy projects.
There is a woman eight boats down from me that jets up to England every few months. She does some consultancy work and earns a bit of cash. The woman then flies back to the boat to enjoy the live-aboard community. It’s not something I would want to do, but heck, it works for some.
4. Consultancy – on the sea
Again, if you have a set of skills that do allow for consultancy, the possibility exists to set up an online consultancy service. There’s a photographer in Greece I stumbled upon that teaches other photographers how to make money online.
If you have a skillset and are happy to offer your experience it’s definitely not rocket science to create an online service offering. Yes, it might be time consuming and it might be a steep learning curve, but loads of people offer consultancy services online so why can’t you?
5. On-line project based work
If you can write, edit, design, program, transcribe, research, and any other work that can be done online, you can find thousands of opportunities on the Net. Check out websites like elance.com (now called Upwork.com) just to get an idea on online projects. For this particular website ‘clients’ post a job that they want completed and you can bid on the job. If you win, you fulfill the requirements and then get paid.
A great online work opportunity for designers is Design Crowd. A ‘client’ posts an outline of what they want. You can decide to create a design and if you ‘win’ the project you get the money on offer.
Elance.com (Upwork.com) and DesignCrowd.com are just two of hundreds of online project based work opportunities. As long as your work can be completed over the Net you’ll be sure to find opportunities to serve people and companies around the world.
6. Services aboard or near the boat
I’m often amazed at boaties that come to me asking for advice on how to make money. Usually they know some sort of trade and don’t consider offering it to the boating community.
For example, I met a lovely live-aboard named Pam. She was desperate to make a little extra cash so she could enjoy a night out with her hubby every now and again. When I asked her about her past work engagements she said she was a hairdresser.
Within a couple hours I convinced her to offer her hairdresser service. We made flyers for her to hand out while at anchor and in marinas. She’d send around flyers, give out a VHF channel that she monitored and make boat calls when requested.
Since I last spoke to her she was earning over 250 euros a week and enjoying a couple nights out with her hubby.
The list of things you can offer on and from a boating environment are limitless, but just to name a few:
- Hairdresser
- Massage Therapist
- Photographer
- Taxi driver (while holed up at a marina for the winter, you can make money by renting a car and taxiing marina guests and friends to and from the marina)
- Babysitter
- Cleaner
- IT Geek (Every marina has one of these around and they’re invaluable!)
- Mentor
7. Services within the world of boating
Over the year I’ve met several boat people that are always happy to help out with boat maintenance and repairs. Some people want a nice home cooked dinner and others want a bit of cash for beer. The cool thing about being a live-aboard is that the longer you live aboard the more you learn how to do things that other people will pay you for! Here are just a few examples:
- Teak repair
- Boat washing/cleaning
- Engine maintenance
- Boat repairs
- Delivery
- Skippering
- Boat handling (teaching)
I think a good point to make is that no boatie seems to be out to make money. Everyone is out to fill their time doing things they like AND perhaps get something of value in return. For one boatie it might be a home cooked lasagna and for another it might be 20 euros to spend at the happy hour.
Living the boating lifestyle has nothing to do with making loads of money. I does, however, have everything to do with enjoying the fulfillment that living aboard a boat brings.
8. Charter the boat out
This is an interesting area. Hubby and I looked into this and setting a boat up legally for charter is not cheap. You need to have the boat ‘coded’ – that means that you have to have X amount of in-date fire extinguisher’s, bungs on ever stopcock, massive amounts of safety systems and on and on.
That being said, we were told that we could charge over 40k euros to charter our anchored boat in Monaco for a weekend during the Grand Prix (so, perhaps, in some cases, it might be worth getting the boat coded?)
From what I’ve discovered, however, many boat owners charter their boat in an under-the-radar fashion. In other words, they offer some sort of charter service illegally. This is not something I’m necessarily suggesting…I’m just saying that quite a few people do it. Some options include:
- Sort out a charter company to rent your boat out
- Allow others to take your boat out privately
- Take others out yourself
- Do day-trips for tourists
9. Products from the boat
So…are you a crafty creative person? I’d like to think I am but everything I make looks like something my daughter came up with (she’s 4 years old). Me aside, there are loads of amazingly talented knitters, jewelry designers, bakers and craft creators out there on boats.
Several of the crafty boaties make things for themselves, or family members, but there are a few that create goods to sell.
Jewelry is a great option. With limited space on a boat, jewelry doesn’t take up a huge area and as long as you’re making quality goods, sales can really add up.
And I have a personal tale on this option
I make and sell Britican Galley Herb & Spice blends on our boat and online. I get the raw bulk ingredients from ‘local’ herb and spice manufacturers – mostly organic. Then, I mix the spice blends, package them (using bags and printed card labels from my printer), and create recipes and galley recipe videos for the blends for boaties to enjoy.
Note: my YouTube Britican Galley recipes channel is different from my main SailingBritican channel. If you want to catch a glimpse into what it’s like to live on Britican, check out some of our 70+ videos here: YouTube.com/SailingBritican
When I first started sailing I realized that there’s a massive lack of space in the galley. On land I had cupboards filled with different spices. When I moved onto the boat I had to be picky. Instead of having all the spices necessary for chicken soup, a chicken roast, chicken salad, etc. I simply combined several spices to make a chicken blend. Instead of having jars of basil, oregano, parsley, sage, garlic, lovage, turmeric and bay leaf (all the spices that work perfect with chicken) I combined them all into one jar.
Reflecting on the type of food we eat, I then had a blend made for beef, seafood (obviously), Italian dishes and Greek dishes.
My sales force (hubby and my daughter) take the dingy out or walk around the marina asking if there’s any interest and we get loads of sales. And once someone tries one of my blends, they come back for others and the word quickly gets out!
Note: I shouldn’t say ‘my blends,’ as they’re my mom’s blends! Back in NY she started an amazing company over fifteen years ago and I’ve just taken her blend recipes and rebranded her product as mine (‘Thank you mom!’)
I just wanted to include this idea as it’s not rocket science to come up with something of value that people will want to buy. As long as you create a product that adds value people will be interested. In my case, I help people to quickly and easily add amazing flavor to their galley dishes ☺
10. Products online
Okay…this is a big area – so big that I could write a book on it, so watch this space! This is the area where I’m focusing most of my efforts on and hopefully I can share some practical ideas with you.
When you’re sailing around the world, it’s a great idea to either create products or discover local products to sell back on the homeland HOWEVER there’s a serious shipping issue. Shipping anything from one country to another costs so much that often the buyer fails to buy when they see the shipping fees. Furthermore, if you’re like me and in Greece or Italy, it’s questionable if the recipient will ever get a shipment!
That being said, I’ve decided to sell items from various bases in my two ‘homelands’ – America and England.
Let me explain
First, there are my mother’s spices that I’ve rebranded as ‘Britican Galley.’ Not only do I make and sell them from the boat, I also have my mom make and sell them from America on my behalf. And I also have a friend in England blend, package and ship them in the UK.
I sell my herb & spice blends on a website called Etsy. Etsy is a marketplace for homemade and handmade goods. Click here to see my spice blends on Etsy here: Britican Galley.
So, I’ve essentially found a product that I’ve ‘white labeled’ as my own and have the manufacturer (my mom) take the order and fulfill it from the States (and my friend from the UK).
I’ve also utilized a really cool thing called ‘Dropshipping’
There’s all sorts of dropshipping companies. These companies offer products for you and I to sell on our websites. We collect the money, the dropship companies stock the product and do the fulfillment. Dropshipping is a dream come true if you can find good products!
If you look at my online store, you’ll see that I offer a line of sexy sailing t-shirts for women. I had the designs created on Elance.com (now called Upwork.com) and then found a t-shirt printer/fulfillment company that fulfills in the US and UK. When someone buys a t-shirt from one of my stores, I simply forward the order to the t-shirt company, they print the t-shirt and then ship it to the end client.
I take the money for the t-shirt and then pay the t-shirt company for the order
It’s a great system. I’d like to say that I make a big profit from the t-shirts, but I don’t. I’m lucky to make a few dollars, euros, pounds. These t-shirt fulfillment companies are not cheap, however, I have no stock, no delivery headache and…if the t-shirts do start to sell (in a big way) I can get more printed in bulk and reduce my costs.
Check out my Etsy shop to find out the other products I sell online. Aside from herbs & spice blends and t-shirts, I have nautical jewelry, marine pillow cushions, sexy sailing sarongs, trendy adjustable sailing belts and more. Visit: Etsy.com/shop/SailingBritican
Now…let me take about books
I didn’t intend to publish a book at first. Heck, I simply started to collate a little booklet of VHF templates so that I had a reference manual for our nav station. In fact, I went to Amazon to see if I could by a VHF template book – something that had the MAYDAY, Pan-Pan, Securite, requesting medical advice, etc. wording – and I couldn’t find anything.
So…I created a book of what to say if X happened. And X was anything from a MAYDAY to how to deal with a situation when a child accidentally pushes the MOB button! I wrote my little book and then when visitors saw it, they asked for a copy.
One thing led to another and I decided to publish it on Amazon
I got my cover done on Design Crowd, I created the content and within a couple days the hard copy and Kindle version were up for sale. To my amazement, I’ve had several sales and I haven’t actively promoted the book yet!
Note: Aside from this book, I also have one titled, ‘Checklists for Sailors – Passage Planning, Sailboat Maintenance, Cleaning, Medical and More: Making it easier to enjoy sailing your sailboat‘ (Link to Amazon.com will open)
So…books are a GREAT opportunity to create on a boat that you can then sell to the world. There’s no stock and there’s no need to fulfill the product – Amazon does everything for you.
There are also opportunities to create partnerships with people that sell products you want to promote or you can become an affiliate. You promote the product and a company will pay you a percentage of all sales. Furthermore there are fulfillment houses that will hold your products and ship them for you.
Perhaps you’re massively creative, have some great ideas for products and want the world to know about them. Yes – you can create a product, get it manufactured, find a place that will stock and ship it for you.
Just because you’re sailing around the world doesn’t mean that you can’t use your brain to create an empire! Right?!
Anyway, this article is getting way long.
What’s my point?
Well…if you’ve decided to not live your dream of sailing around the world (or anything for that matter) because you can’t figure out how to make an income, SHAME ON YOU!
No…I don’t really mean ‘shame on you.’ It’s not easy to know what you don’t know. My point is…don’t sit back and let life pass you by because you can’t afford to do what you want to do.
There are always ways and means to ‘live the dream’ – make money while sailing
You just have to have a vision and believe in yourself. Take little steps every day to get what you deserve. And you know what? We all deserve a good life!
I’ll stop there. If you want any further information, please email me. If you find value in my articles, please support me by purchasing a produce from my online shop.
And if you’re very serious about buying, owning, and maintaining a sailboat checkout my shop here. It’s an ever growing online shop of quick, hard-hitting, no-nonsense, no salty sea-dog sailing terminology, results-driven guides
fantastic post Kim on ways to make money whilst you are sailing. We certainly fit in the spend as little as you can bracket so finding a way to make money is a big priority. You have pointed me in the right direction and given me some ideas on what I could do. Thank you
Thank you Mark…I think, however, we all need to take a page out of your book. The http://www.cygnus3.com is a work of art 🙂
It’s always sounds so easy but after 2 years of trying to make money while sailing the world, it feels impossible. The ONLY way I have made any money is doing illegal chartering which is very risky and doesn’t feel good doing something under the table.
I have talents for online work but the market is extremely flooded. A job posted on Upworks will have over 100 bids by its closing dates and most are more qualified than myself.
I haven’t had any luck offering boat work because the locals in Mexico are offering all the services and watching for foreigners doing illegal work since we are not allowed to work or even sell anything.
It’s very easy to give out ideas but it’s not easy to find something that works.
I feel I am stuck continuing to invite people to vacation on my boat. I just hope I will never get in trouble.
John…what’s stopping you from doing charters legally? Kim
Hi,
I just come across your site after looking for bareboat charter hire in and Croatia or Greece, and your site is just great! My wife and I also have some dream of living the maritime nomads life and it has always played on my mind about how to fund the adventure, so really liked this post.
I am currently on a steep learning curve with putting together a site which I am not sure how it will end up but will focus on personal investing and in particular ‘dividend investing’, which maybe something else others could consider as an option. My view is simple invest in the blue chips that are supposed to have some of the best business brains and get them to work for you.
My intention is to wait until the next bear market hits and then its, pick your stocks, hand in the notice and set sail – easy right? Well that’s the plan.
Keep posting as do enjoy the read.
Chris
I love your plan Chris! I’ve always had an interest in dividend investing but feared my head would blow up if I had to learn yet another thing. There’s loads of ways to make money…as long as you have a genuine intention to live your dreams, you’ll find a way. I hope to see you on the seas soon 🙂
Hi Chris
I noticed your comments and would like to ask did you get to live your dream sailing adventure and start your sailors investment advisor business , as I have a dream to sail around from Australia to the Adriatic and I’m an avid investor?
This is a great post, Kim! The one I was really after, it is gathering all the necessary information so big thank you for it! I really like your blog and find it quite useful. We are hoping to sail in three years’ time, although there is so many things we need to figure out before. This year we are doing our first sailing course to get Yachtsman Certificate (in June), next year we are hoping to obtain Yacht Skipper and any other necessary courses to be able to sail and organize cruises with us on our boat as a source of income. Apart from that I am planning to develop my blog further, including sailing section. At the moment I am on a look out for any information regarding getting the cruise company started – any legal work etc. We are planning on obtaining British citizenship as I think it will help us to set the company in the UK rather than in Poland. And because we will leave UK to permanently live on a boat we need it to be able to run the company in accordance with the UK law rather than with Polish, which is so much more complicated! I do not know if the idea is doable, but we are so fed up with the 9-5 life I just cannot take it any longer. We plan on cruising ourselves for a year first and build our portfolio, make sure that we can offer a unique and safe experience to anyone who would be willing to sail with us and then start getting things on the roll. So, if you know anyone who did something similar and could point us in the right direction – that would be awesome! Keep sailing and I hope we will meet one day!
Hey Monika – it sounds like you have an amazing plan! I wish I knew someone who has done something similar but I don’t. That being said, I’ve always found that as long as you keep taking steps towards your goals, you’ll find the right people at the right time. Please keep me updated on your plans and if I can help in any way, I will. See you on the seas! Big smiles, Kim
Thanks Kim! I have a very good feelings about our plan – taking the small steps sounds great! I will keep you posted 🙂 And from June – there will be a new feature on my travel blog – Sailing M&M 🙂 Hope you will visit to find out about our learning curve!
I’m curious to hear where your Dream is four years on.
We’re still going and it’s been five years so it keeps getting better and better 🙂 Kim
Interesting article, and some of the suggestions are good…..however, there is a caveat. In the Eastern Caribbean, working without a work permit or business licence can get you kicked out of a country. Not a problem for some of the suggestions, but working on someone’s boat or cutting hair could get you booted, especially if a local gets upset with you. Some of the islands you can’t even volunteer to do something that someone can get paid for.
And when unemployment is 40% on many of the islands, really, think if it is fair to take a job from a local so that you can travel around, while they are trying to have a basic life.
Hi Lynn – you make such an excellent point. Ideally, the best type of work to get is internet based so that you’re not seen to be treading on anyone’s turf. Thank you for your caveat.
Hi Kim
We met your husband briefly in Fiskardo in 2013, we were next to you on the wall in front of a taverna. I have been following your FB page ever since. We will start our sailing adventure in 2017, on our ex Sunsail yacht Verano. We will probably follow the 6 months on/6 months off route, but hope to sail/ski permanently one day!
Thank you for your advice and I will keep following you on FB. Hopefully we will see in the Ionian soon!
Cheers
Melindie
Thank you for the message Melindie – Fiskardo is a special place – eh? Exciting times for you both…and the plan of 6 months on/off sounds brilliant. You can get the best of all worlds 🙂 I hope to see you on the seas soon! Smiles
Hello, thank you for all your good ideas and advice.
We hope as well to live aboard of a sailing boat and make it our home for many years.
But we want to live in the marina on a ~11 feet sailboat and work in the city and only move during weekends and holidays. Do you have any advice about what to check before to buy an used boat? And about the life in the marina? Thank you.
Hi Francesco and Marina – Am I reading your comment correctly that you want to live on a 11 feet sailboat? That’s a bit tight! I have loads of advice about buying a used boat – too much for this section. Have you owned a boat before? Smiles, Kim
Hi Kim! We loved your ideas! We’re still planning and studying how to live aboard on our 36feet sailboat and your article gave us lots of ideas. It is a big article but you can get so involved with the content that you wish that it didn’t have to end. Congrats!
We had to move off our boat to have another baby. Now searching for our next. I think an important part in planning to live afloat is how to sustain it. We’re not rich, we’re years from pensions. We are however putting all our efforts into developing an income that we can continue afloat and around the world with our girls.
I guess it’s all about how much you want to leave land based ties. Once we’re gone, there are no plans for a return!
For us it’s all about setting up what we can. Drop shipping and being crafty with the skills you have are definitely the way forward! Nice article.
Hey Kim!
Is it possible to have wifi on the boat? I want to do layout for animation studios, which offers artists to work at home. I am a solo female with 10K to spend (would love to buy a boat) is it possible to go out on my own in the world?
What’s the safest way to get from country to country? Do you ever bump into storms?
Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Kristina – yes, you can get wifi on a boat. We have different levels of connectivity. Using a wifi ‘bat’ we’re able to pick up wifi from bars, restaurants, etc in the area. We usually have to visit the bar, get the code and then we can use the wifi back on the boat. If that doesn’t work, we then use our SIM card for ‘data’. Depending where you are in the world you can get 2gig to 30gig for a reasonable price. If we can’t get wifi from bars or a cellular/mobile connection, we then have a Iridium phone we use but that’s only to get weather reports and to send important emails. I’m not familiar with layout for animation but I imagine it requires lots of data…At best the wifi is very slow. At worst, it just doesn’t work. It’s the bane of my existence! If you need a good wifi connection, getting one on a boat is not easy…unless, you don’t leave the marina! Of course it’s okay to go out on your own…loads of women do it! Find out if you can join others…or offer to crew for a boat for a while. The safest way to get from country to country is to do your research and read about what others have done before you…and of course, get good weather reports. We’ve hit far too many storms for me to be happy with. Fortunate for us we’ve survived them all. So Kristina, get out there and go sailing! Big smiles, X
That was a really good article. Thank you for sharing your ideas. I also like some of the other comments that suggested starting the income stream now that can be taken on the boat When we live aboard..
So, thank you for the information and for being the catalyst!
Sk in the UK.
Thank you for this! I have been looking into drop shipping and a couple other ways to make income while sailing. I thought drop shipping was going to be difficult but your words make me feel a lot more comfortable about adding drop shipping to my list of income. So thank you!
That’s awesome April! I only drop ship my t-shirts but it works amazingly well. I’m sure there are loads of other options out there too… If you find anything good that works, let me know 🙂 Smiles, Kim
Thanks for all this wonderful ideas !
My wife and I have decided we want to start sailing, we’re absolute novices, and have started a 5 year plan… One of the questions/concerns I have is finances. We are South African, and the Euro/Dollar exchange rate (currently at 20-1) makes this utterly unaffordable. To my point, your article has given me, not only great info, but hope. So, thank you so much.
That’s great to hear Errol – Hope to see you on the sea soon! Smiles, Kim
Hi Kim,
Great article you have here. My girlfriend (Sara) and I (TIM) are supporters of your channel. We watch together all the time. I have always had the dream of living and cruising full time at sea. Thanks to your channel Sara has become very comfortable with the idea and now we have turned the idea into a plan. We are working on getting all our debt paid off then selling everything and trading dirt for water. We have about a two year plan then look for our future sailing home. We have been running a full scale screen / vinyl print shop with embroidery for four years now that we plan to pass off to family to run for us while we are out on adventure. We wish you all the success in your future adventures and hope that one day we may see you out in the world…
Thank you for commenting Tim and sharing your plans. As things draw closer to your leave date let us know! We’ll have to meet you in an anchorage to celebrate 🙂 Enjoy the journey! Big smiles, Kim
“Now…let me take about books”
The irony of that is incredible. To write a book you might want to proofread your OWN ARTICLE.
I think you meant:
Now…let me talk about books
I think she might be a human and therefore – might make a mistake now and again. Great post!!