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Many things in our world have altered as a result of the internet. Email has mostly supplanted snail mail letters as a means of communication among consumers. Rather than depleting our wallets with long-distance phone calls, we use Skype. And instead of fighting for a parking spot and dealing with the throngs at the local shopping center, we shop on Amazon.
On the other hand, as online businesses, we utilize email to market our products and services, Skype for meetings, and we may make money selling on Amazon.com.
And that’s just a small sample of the annoyances we’ve experienced as a result of the internet. Book publishing is one of the most disrupted businesses, and it also gives a terrific road to a solid making money online endeavor for an individual entrepreneur. Publishing and selling ebooks via the internet, in particular.
See, major publishing houses have big offices with editors, writers, and administrative personnel… and then they have big printing presses… Then they’ll go to distribution hubs to get their books to bookshops all around the country… All in the hopes of getting books into the hands of buyers… which you can do right now on your computer. If it isn’t total chaos, I don’t know what is.
With all of the red tape, “play to pay” methods, and lack of marketing help from the big publishing houses (combined with low royalties), many authors are discovering that self-publishing is a much better (and, in most cases, more profitable!) alternative.
There are some significant differences between self-publishing (which, by the way, no longer has the bad connotations it once did) and traditional publishing. For one thing, you won’t be dealing with printed books. This saves money and time by avoiding the cost and inconvenience of actually printing, storing, and distributing books that may or may not sell. It’ll all be done digitally. These are electronic books that may be read on a Kindle, another tablet or smartphone, or even a PC.
Ebooks have grown from humble beginnings to a global market of $18.13 billion by 2020.
1 And there’s plenty of potential for a solo ebook publisher to break into that market.
So, let’s look at how you may make money with ebooks, from ideation to writing to, most significantly, marketing and selling them online.
What Are Ebooks and How Do They Work?
Ebooks are just that: books. However, in a format that can be supplied or downloaded via the internet. You can write them yourself, hire writers, use public domain content, and pull information from a variety of sources to build your ebooks. Because you can tailor your tomes to specific markets, you can cover just about any subject — just as many, if not more, than what a traditional publisher might issue. Travel guides, how-to manuals, mystery, romance, science fiction, self-help, technology, religions… pretty much any subject is fair game as long as there is a ready market for it. (Scanning Amazon’s bestseller rankings is one of the greatest methods to find out.) Not only the overall list, but also the subcategory and category lists.)
You won’t have to rely on an editor or publisher to determine whether or not a book will be published. Also, you won’t have to rely on a bookshop to stock your book. You have complete command over the entire procedure.
In fact, you’ll be in charge of everything, including marketing and sales. As a result, you get to retain 100% of the profits. They’re not to be sniffed at.
In recent years, self-published authors have enjoyed a lot of success. Take, for example, Hugh Howey, who used Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing to sell a series of science fiction books. He was selling 20,000 to 30,000 copies each month at one point, bringing in $150,000 per month. 2 Amanda Hocking, a “paranormal romance” and fantasy novelist, has sold over a million books on Amazon, bringing in over $2 million in revenue. 3 That is proof that self-publishing on Amazon may be profitable.
Let me show you how to create a similar business.
Keep in mind that, while most people think of Amazon.com when they think of selling ebooks online, you may also sell them straight from your own website. There’s more on that later.
Where Do You Sell Your Ebooks When You Start an Ebook Business?
You have a few alternatives for selling your ebooks as an ebook publisher.
You can create your own website and sell your ebook there. For example, you may provide your viewers with a PDF. You’re done with a simple shopping cart or PayPal link. A reader comes to your site, places an order, and receives a download link for your book. It’s mostly automated, and all you have to do is keep an eye on things to make sure everything is going properly.
You have complete control over the process, have access to all consumer information (so you can promote more products, services, or books), and can charge greater costs as a result.
Working with a third-party site like Amazon is one of the simplest ways to sell ebooks. You may have purchased items from Amazon in the past, including books. However, there is another aspect to this large e-commerce business.
Even though you will be charged a fee on your sales, working with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing has a lot of advantages. In the previous year, one-fifth of Americans (21%) were estimated to be active ebook readers. 4 All those folks who are looking for a new book on this site are your prospective audience. It’s possible that they’ll come across your book while searching for a comparable term.
While you won’t make as much money as if you sold directly on your own website, you’ll be able to reach an audience you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.
The procedure for selling your ebook on Kindle is simple. You create an account and then upload your ebook. They take care of the conversion to their own format. Then you’re ready to use Amazon.com to sell and build your business.
Which of these alternatives should you choose? I recommend that you do both.
Consider putting one (or two) of your books on Amazon as a traffic generator… a means for new people to find you, and you get to earn from the ebook sales. Use your Amazon ebooks to persuade customers to return to your website and sign up for your email list.
The simplest approach to accomplish this is to include a free bonus offer in your book and direct them to your website to claim it. They must opt-in and provide you with their email address in order to receive the incentive.
You may then follow up with them and sell them other ebooks from your own site at a higher price point once they’ve joined your email list. Take advantage of the best of both worlds!
The First Step to Creating Your Bestseller is to Figure Out Where to Get Your Content.
You might already have the majority of an ebook written, believe it or not. If you already have a blog and are making money from it, those blog pieces might be edited and turned into an ebook. Simply organize pertinent blog articles into a logical order, make any necessary edits to remove irrelevant references, and add an introduction and conclusion, and you’re done. Any blog entries you use should be about the same or similar topics and should complement each other.
Despite the fact that the content is available for free on your website, many individuals are prepared to spend money to have it professionally structured into something more easily consumed, such as an ebook.
Of course, this isn’t the only way to put your ebook’s material together. This is also a viable choice if you wish to publish an original work of fiction or nonfiction that you wrote yourself.
If you’re starting from scratch, the most important thing is to stay focused on your objective of finishing the book. Every day, write something! Begin by sketching an outline and then filling it in.
A book in the public domain can also be repurposed. This indicates that the copyright has expired, and anybody can publish the books’ content, either updated or altered in some way, or as is. Have you heard of the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was released a few years ago? That’s a fantastic example of repurposing a free book.
In places like Project Gutenberg, you can get public domain treasures like Jack London’s Call of the Wild and Shakespeare’s works, as well as books on just about any subject you can think of (a quick search turned up dog training manuals, a how-to guide for amateur vocalists, and much more).
The idea is to change and personalize the public domain works rather than simply republishing them. The book The Art of War is a good example. That book might be repurposed as The Art of War for Business Professionals or The Art of War for Freelance Employees.
Finally, remember that you don’t have to compose something as long as War and Peace. People like shorter ebooks with more focused specialist topics, and you may write shorter books for Amazon and sell them at cheaper price points ranging from $2.99 to $4.99. Keep in mind that while you won’t make a tremendous profit each book, you’ll be able to sell a lot of them and use them to draw people to your other activities.
Your Ebook’s Promotion
In the realm of traditional publishing, there’s a nasty little secret. The vast majority of books released by publishers are not aggressively promoted or market. Only those from well-known best-selling authors receive this kind of attention.
As an ebook publisher, on the other hand, you’ll appreciate having the same level of control over your marketing and sales plan. With so many alternatives, you should have no trouble getting your book title(s) out into the world and attracting potential readers’ attention.
I advocate taking a multichannel strategy to marketing, which means approaching it from multiple perspectives. Social media is one clear channel. Use your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn contacts, and other social media platforms to spread the word. When the book is finished, share it on Facebook with a link to your website, which includes extra information and an order form, for example.
However, one announcement is insufficient. You must generate interest in your ebook. Encourage people to spread the word about your ebook by telling their friends about it. Post stuff that is relevant to your book. Make competitions. Make freebies. Make use of your imagination when it comes to marketing.
You should also market your book on your blog, become active in forums connected to the theme of your book and tell others about it, and if you have an email list, do so as well.
You might also give away a chapter of your ebook for free. This will hook readers, causing them to want more and purchase the rest of the ebook.
The idea is to be proactive in your marketing efforts to keep your book buzzing and generating interest.
Additionally, if you sell your ebooks on Amazon, you can run sponsored ads to promote your books to a highly focused audience based on keyword searches and specific products (like related books).
Some Do’s and Don’ts for Ebook Success
It’s not easy to make money with ebooks. You can’t just throw anything in there and expect to make money. Although it isn’t a difficult undertaking, you need follow some best practices to ensure that your ebook attracts readers and generates revenue.
Don’t Let Yourself Become Overwhelmed
You don’t have to be stressed out just because you’re writing a book. You can finish your work and sell it if you have a plan in place.
You simply need to construct a book plan, set a timeline for when you’ll write (if it’s original material) or work on it, how you’ll advertise the book and when each task must be completed, and set a target publishing date for when it will be available for purchase. It’s only a matter of scheduling time each day. You can’t just work on it when you’re “in the mood”… Otherwise, it will never be completed.
Select a topic that you are familiar with.
You want to write authoritatively, confidently, and passionately. It’s not a smart idea to choose a topic only based on the possibility of it becoming a best-seller. Remember that you may always hire a professional to do the writing for you.
Don’t use flowery or complicated language in your writing.
Make sure that all of your text is simple to read and comprehend. It’s preferable to write in a conversational tone rather than an academic tone. Many experts recommend that you write at the eighth-grade level.
Proofreading Shouldn’t be Overlooked
Check for grammatical errors, misspellings, and other mistakes. Before you publish your ebook, have a trusted friend or perhaps a professional proofreader go over it. There’s nothing worse than launching a book that’s riddled with errors; it doesn’t inspire trust in your readers, and it can lead to refunds and negative reviews.
Make a professional-looking layout and cover.
Just because you’re self-publishing doesn’t mean you want it to look like it was done by a complete amateur. For a low price, hire a graphic designer on Fiverr.com to develop a good-looking cover based on your direction and feedback. They can also design the layout of the inside pages. It doesn’t have to look and feel like a self-published book just because it’s self-published.
Taking the Next Step in Ebook Marketing
Now that you know why selling ebooks can be so lucrative, it’s time to get started. Determine the type of ebook you want to sell, where you’ll receive the information, and where you’ll sell it — as well as how you’ll promote it online.
It’s a low-cost, low-risk business opportunity with a significant profit potential!
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