The buzz in writing circles these days is all about self-publishing eBooks. They hear that eBooks are giving authors that added income in between getting their print books published, but they have lots of questions before making that step. "How do I make one?" "What do I write about?" "Does anyone even buy eBooks?" Actually, putting together an eBook is simple. You write about something you are familiar, put it in a .pdf or .exe file and voila, instant eBook that you can sell off your website and make a few dollars, or even thousands of dollars depending on your promotional efforts, and you're all set. Authors and entrepreneurs are doing this all the time and there's no reason why you can't either. The first step is determining what you want to write about, of course, and what your goal is for writing your eBook. In 2004, I became published in print format for the first time. It was for an anthology of soul mate stories. The main reason I wanted to put this book together was because I had a goal in mind. I wanted to show people who have given up on soul mates that they did indeed exist. After it was published, I started a marketing campaign. I had heard that eBooks were all the rage and that you could make some pretty decent money off of them, so I gave it a try. I started on another book on relationships, but while waiting on this book to be finished (which was taking an incredible amount of time due to research), I decided to try my hand at writing an eBook and selling it off of my website for added income while I waited on my print book projects to be finished. This eBook was also centered on the soul mate relationship, which I felt would add to my expertise and would help sell my print books. It worked. Even though I only had the eBook up on my website and just a few online storefronts, the orders were coming in. However, I became disillusioned because I didn't just want to sell a few copies; I wanted to sell hundreds or perhaps more. I developed a plan. Not only did I list it with any website that would announce my book, write up press releases and send them to every free press release service out there, and a myriad of other places, but I decided I'd write another eBook and give it away free to all those who bought my paying eBook. This eBook was shorter, but to the point. After I became successful using this promotional device to sell my paying eBook, I found this experience very rewarding and learned quite a few things in the process: 1.) You do not need an epublisher to publish your book. 2.) Self-published eBooks DO sell and create that added income while you're waiting for your print books to sell. 3.) Writing eBooks help give you expert status. 4.) Your eBooks are 100% profit. 5.) The more you promote and make you and your eBook visible, the more income you will make. Writing eBooks and selling them yourself without the middleman - the epublisher - is a great way to make money. Turn that "starving writer" moniker into "successful writer" and start cranking out those eBooks. Once you start, you'll wonder why you never thought of this great way of bringing added income into your household before! |
