This is a guest post by David Goldsmith, author of "25 Ways to Write for Money".
This morning before breakfast I checked my email and found an extra hundred dollars in one of my accounts. It was revenue from sales of one of my ebooks overnight.
I confess to living in a time zone far from America so a good percentage of my ebook sales come in just like that. During the daytime in North America, while I am sleeping, someone purchases and downloads one of my ebooks. An email is automatically sent to me, notifying me of the sale.
Each morning I check in to see what happened overnight. I love to see a hundred bucks there. Or two hundred. Or even just fifty. The income varies from day to day but over a month it all adds up to a reasonable amount.
Many people are unsure if there is money to be made in writing and publishing ebooks. Other people are just too afraid to take the first step and get started.
Here are a few myths about ebook publishing.
MYTH ONE. Writing an Ebook is Difficult
It's not. Well it's certainly no more difficult than writing a regular book and in many cases it can be considerably easier. Consider that the average ebook is much shorter than the average book in regular print. I have seen many successful ebooks in the range of 25 to 80 pages and it is certainly easier to write a 75 page book than to fill up 225 pages.
Many ebook authors find that writing an ebook becomes easier if they begin by clearly outlining the structure of their ebook. They carefully plan out a sequence of chapters. Next, they look at each chapter as a separate article that needs to be written. Many people can write one article within a day, and at that rate, writing an entire ebook doesn’t take too long.
If you need some good advice on how to write an article every day check out www.publishyourownebooks.com/articleaday.htm
MYTH TWO. Getting People to Promote Your Ebook will be Difficult
It's not. Once your ebook is written and published, consider selling it through the marketplace at ClickBank. Besides enabling you to take credit card payments online without having a merchant account with your bank, ClickBank boasts an army of some 11,000 affiliates ready and willing to promote good ebooks.
Other ebook publishing partners are also available and there is more information on these at our web site.
MYTH THREE. It’s Better to Do-It-All-Yourself
Wrong. Self-publishing is a terrific idea, but once your ebook is written and published you should enlist as much assistance as possible in promoting it.
Partnering with related sites is just one example of how you can do this. If a related site is already selling ebooks, offer to let the site owner add your ebook to their selection and pay you, for example, fifty percent of the revenue from each sale. They could simply cut you a check or pay you by PayPal every quarter.
You’ll probably be busy concentrating on your own sales efforts, and it will be a pleasant surprise when their payment arrives each quarter with a lump of additional revenue.
MYTH FOUR. After Your Ebook Is Written, Just Sit Back, Relax and Watch the Checks Roll In
Bad idea. You should always be working on something new. Almost certainly interest in your first ebook is going to fall off after some time. It could take years, but it might only be months or weeks.
You will reach a point of saturation after a good number of people in your audience have already purchased your ebook. And sometimes your audience's interest will simply move on to other topics.
By always having more ebooks in the development pipeline you should be able to keep several good sellers on the market at any point in time.
Think about the myths. Think about your desire to be a successful book author. Now take action. Write. Publish. Sell.
About the Author
David Goldsmith is the author of "25 Ways To Write For Money", a guide to multiple income streams for freelance writers. He is also a regular contributor to Publish Your Own Ebooks. For more information on his ebook, visit http://www.WriterIncome.com
© Copyright 2008 David Goldsmith.
