How To Make Money Writing
How to use Self Publishing to Boost Authority & Earn More Money from your Business
How to make money writing; they say there’s a book in us all, and I absolutely believe this is true for everyone. We all have a story to tell or skills to share, and we’re all capable of doing that on paper or the digital equivalent. It has never been easier to get your story or knowledge into the world than it is right now. And you don’t need megabucks, the tenacity of a moth to a lightbulb or huge luck to get noticed by a publisher. What you do need is an understanding that you have something unique to share in one way or another!
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There are a few types of self-publishing, as there are lots of types of content – but today and I’m focusing on eBooks and Paperbacks.
How To Make Money Writing eBooks
eBooks are a publishers nightmare – because literally anyone can create one for free. Yep, that’s right! You don’t need to spend a penny and it’s not hard to do (trust me; if I can do this, you certainly can, and I’m writing book 6!) eBooks are an amazing way of reaching your ideal customers too. You can build the ‘know, like and trust’ factor through your writing, whilst adding an income stream that, once created, literally sells and delivers itself! (One of the best feelings in the world is making a sale, and seeing it delivered, while you’re out having fun – I cannot explain the feeling! It’s epic!)
What is an eBook?
- A digital presentation of copy all pulled together
- Should be more than about 60 pages to constitute being a book
- Can be sold for cash or used as an opt-in for building an email list from your website
- Can be old content all pulled together (like blog posts or social media posts)
- Easy to publish yourself and sell directly from your own website or using a distributor like SendOwl
How To Make Money Writing Paperbacks
Paperbacks are derived from the content you create in your eBook, with some differences; namely not adding links etc. that can’t be used, plus ensuring you tell your readers where to find you online too! You can write one book and publish it both in eBook format and in paperback.
There’s multiple platforms you can use to do this, but my favourite has to be Lulu.com. Why? Because it’s fairly straightforward to navigate, you can publish both eBooks and Paperbacks, but most importantly it’s free! Lulu take a percentage of your sales, so there’s no initial investment from you at all! You can upload your document to Lulu and get it listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Google Play Book Store, Nook and Kobo within about 6 weeks! Epic right?!
Why write a Book at all?
Digital products are the epitome of passive income, and eBooks are the original of all digital products. With print on demand now a massive feature of companies like Lulu, you no longer need a huge amount of money and masses of storage to create and sell a paperback. With eBooks your product is delivered instantly to your customer and with paperbacks, your customer simply orders from your preferred site and has it delivered direct to their door. You don’t need to be involved in the process apart from writing and marketing! Hence, passive income!
Not only is it a great way of adding a new source of income to your business, a book allows you to get your knowledge, opinions or ideas into the world. It can help you to build authority in your niche or market, gets you noticed, builds social proof and generates new customers who you may not have reached with your businesses core offer.
Writing the Damn Book
Honestly – the hardest part of self publishing is writing the damn book. Sticking to a topic and figuring out just what to write about. But it doesn’t have to be tough. In this context, i.e. writing for your business; start by looking at your customers – what do they want or need from you?
If you’re an interior designer, then creating a book with lots of beautiful images of rooms you’ve designed shouldn’t be hard for you right? If you have a skill or craft that you can break down into steps; do that! If the story of how your business came about will resonate with your customers – tell them the damn story! Do you know things about your industry that others don’t? Do you have an opinion on your niche that is important? Topical? Even a bit risque?
Pick a topic you love and the words will flow!
Important Advice
I have just three pieces of advice:
1. Don’t overthink it and don’t over-complicate your core message – stick with one message and base your entire manuscript around that message. Don’t scare you audience by trying to tell them too much all at once. Save the extra ideas for books 2, 3, 4….
2. Don’t overwhelm yourself trying to write it in one night! – Yes set yourself a deadline to complete the work, otherwise you’ll procrastinate and be a perfectionist over the whole thing. But remember, you may not be a natural writer so it’s ok if it takes you longer than it would James Patterson!
3. Most importantly, remember, just because one else has written a recipe book, a pattern book or an opinion book on a topic already, does not mean that you shouldn’t! Your existing product, service or offer is fabulous not just because of what it is, but because it came from you. Your book will be the same! Your book is unique because you are! Don’t worry about saturated markets, that’s none of our concern. We’re targeting your existing customers and warm leads, not trying to become the next JK Rowling!
Who knows, your book might just be Amazon’s next best seller – I’ve seen it happen over and over again! Plus, including an affiliate link to your favourite suppliers within the pages of your beautiful eBook could garner you even more cash, on top of the original sale price! So what will you write about?
