In this post I’ll be offering you some advice on how to make money from eBooks, and why it might be a good idea to consider adding self publishing to your list of online money making ventures.
Multiple Sources Of Income
Readers of my website will know that I’m a huge advocate of creating multiple sources of income online (or offline). There are many advantages to this.
- You don’t rely on one income source only
- Financial security
- The potential to build wealth
- It’s a lot more interesting
- Lifestyle freedom
The above are just a couple of advantages. There truly are many more.
eBooks is yet another relatively easy and cheap way of creating a source of income online. Everyone has something to contribute. We all have knowledge of some subjects we can share with others in the form of a virtual book. These eBooks could be sold on your own website, or uploaded to Amazon’s Kindle platform, or any of the other online retailers like Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble etc..
It’s all about building up your online platform and creating more and more income. eBooks can definitely contribute in either a small way or a big way, depending on what you have to offer, how well you can market your book(s), and a little bit of good fortune thrown into the mix.
A Bit Of My Own History With Books
I’ve been officially a writer of books since way back in 1984 when I wrote my first novel. Looking back that book was pretty ordinary, but it was a start. I then went on to write more books, but failed to find publishers.
To cut a very long and uneventful story short, everything turned around for me in mid 2010 when Amazon opened up its KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) platform to authors outside the US. I live in Australia, and I had been waiting for this to happen. At the same time Apple had recently launched its iBookstore and it was steadily gaining momentum.
I jumped on every self publishing eBook bandwagon I could and uploaded old novels that I had digital copies of, as well as more than a dozen nonfiction books that I’d self published through (POD) print on demand publishing.
Once this was done I feverishly set to work writing more material. Sales were already happening and this motivated me like nothing else could. Before I knew it I was selling quite a lot by the time 2011 came around. I kept on writing and I kept on publishing. Erotica and Romance were big sellers in the fiction world, so I leaped aboard those fast moving bandwagons as well.
Fast forward to 2016 and I only write and publish the occasional eBook these days. I have more than 300 eBooks out in the marketplace and every month I’m receiving royalty income from them; from work I did years ago. It’s true passive and residual income these days, but I put a lot of work in early on.
Below is a screenshot of what one of my book's sales pages looks like on Amazon.
Over To You
Now, I’m not suggesting you go hell for leather and churn out 300 eBooks. Just a couple can make you some money, and it only takes one best seller – one book – to hit the big time.
You might choose to focus on fiction, which actually sells loads in eBook format. Nonfiction books on helpful subjects are evergreen. These books will always have the potential to sell steadily for many years to come if there is some quality information in them.
And another great thing about eBooks is they can be any length you desire. I’ve written books that are only 10 pages long, and others that are 400 plus. There’s no printing, so book length is kind of irrelevant. You also set your own prices and can change those prices anytime you like. For short books you will only charge 99 cents, but you can charge whatever you want for books of any length, really.
If you are into an affiliate marketing niche, or have a hobby or interest that you are passionate about, then writing an eBook could be a no brainer. If you can’t write it yourself, there are plenty of people on freelance sites like Upwork who are willing to ghost write an eBook for around $100 or less. I do freelancing myself. I wouldn’t write someone else’s book for that kind of money, but loads of other freelancers will.
Some places where you can self publish:
Click here to read a great article on self publishing by an author friend of mine, Joanna Penn.
Ponder What You Know
“How to” types of books are always popular, just as how to articles always have been. People always want to learn something or know how best to do something. Another nonfiction subject that will prove popular is anything that solves a problem for someone. And books to do with making money.
We all have knowledge to share. We don’t need to be professors or Einstein to have something valuable to share in eBook form.
I challenge you to put your thinking cap on and come up with one or several ideas for an eBook, even if it’s just a short book. Once written they are so easy to publish, and you can get professional covers done for a fiver over at Fiverr.
So give it some serious thought and start creating those many income streams that lead to lifestyle freedom.
We can all live the dream!
Darren Burton
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I have never really thought about making money from Ebooks. I guess this stems from the fact that I just don’t every read them or mess with them. I can usually find my information just surfing the web. But that being said, so many do read ebooks and they are becoming increasingly popular. I do sell books on Amazon and the How To and Personal Growth books do very well. I have not really seen a decrease in sales, but I know that more and more people are buying ebooks.
eBooks out-sell print books these days. I haven’t read a print book for about 5 years. I actually sell both print and eBooks, but eBooks out-sell the print versions by about 100 to 1. eBooks can be sold cheaper because there are no printing costs.