Becoming an author is a dream of many, but it’s only achieved by a few people.
However, the days of endless searching for publishers and recognition between failed books is now over.
For the most part.
Self-publishing eBooks is growing daily, with sales higher than ever and constantly on the rise, it’s now your time to make a mark in the writing industry.
Personally, I’ve never been super passionate about fiction writing myself, and I’ve always loved non-fiction work.
Whether it’s a documentary or a biography, non-fiction books have always been much more grasping to me, but that’s beside the point.
Becoming an eBook author is something that you can accomplish in a matter of a month or less, if you follow the directions that you’re about to read.
Before I tell you how it’s all done, there’s two things that you have to realize.
- Your reputation is still just as collapsible as a real author’s, which means you can’t put out a bunch of garbage writing and expect great results and returning customers.
- Sticking with a niche to your name ( if you’re doing non-fiction ) is a great way to maintain a reputation.
Think about Tony Robbins being associated with motivational speeches and uplifting books.
If he suddenly wrote a book about lawn mowing, you’d be thrown off and probably lose a little interest.
You are your own brand, your own author, your own editor, and your own publisher.
This shouldn’t intimidate you, but don’t take this lightly either.
Now, it’s time to write your first eBook and start making some money for your hard work.
Writing Non-Fiction vs Fiction eBooks
So the first thing you have to decide when writing an eBook is non-fiction vs fiction.
Obviously most well-known books like Harry Potter and Twilight are fiction, but that doesn’t mean that all the money is there.
Succeeding with a non-fiction eBook is 100 x easier to accomplish for regular people like you and I.
However, don’t let your desire to become a fiction writer be squashed because you might not succeed immediately.
Think of self-publishing as a trial and error process that avoids all the legalities and such of the traditional publishing industry.
I’ve never tried to publish through a traditional publishing agency, but that’s because I saw how much of a breeze it would be to publish by myself.
Let’s jump in to the pros and cons of each, starting with non-fiction.
Non-Fiction Self-Publishing Pros
- People love How-To guides, anything that teaches them something is easy sales
- No need to be super creative (some of us don’t have that gift)
- You get to learn and earn at the same time by researching and relaying information about specific topics (always cite, reference, etc.)
- You’re much more likely to get searched and found. Nobody searches the name of fantasy drama titles randomly, but a lot of people will Google/Amazon search “How to Lose Weight”, and so on.
Non-Fiction Self-Publishing Cons
- There’s nearly zero creativity, because the topic is about something real that already exists
- You won’t really ever blow up with fame, unless you’re a doctor or teacher
- You’ll have a much larger competition. Go search “How to Meditate” on Amazon and you’ll see what I mean.
- A lot of your information is searchable on the internet, so why would someone want to buy your knowledge if it’s readily available for free?
Fiction Self-Publishing Pros
- You get to be expressive, creative, and achieve your goals of being a true author
- Create all of your characters and tell unheard of stories
- If you blow up in fame, your profits will be lucrative
- Again, if you blow up in fame, your next work will be much easier to sell
Fiction Self-Publishing Cons
- Selling one of these eBooks will be much more difficult, because you have to sell your story, not a guide that people will naturally desire
- If it relates to other popular fiction books too much, you will be dismissed as a copy cat and trashed immediately, tarnishing your reputation
- You generally have to write much more for a fiction book to be worth it. Nobody will buy a 30 page fiction book, but I’ve sold hundreds of non-fiction eBooks at 25 pages.
How do You Write an eBook?
All of my eBook experience is on my own website or through Amazon, so I’m going to give you the methods that I use that works best on those platforms.
First, use something like Google Docs or Microsoft Word ( my personal choice ) as a writing platform.
Then you want to choose your niche, whether it’s meditation, swimming lessons, dog training, or something fiction that you’ve created.
Once you’ve written the eBook ( insert page breaks in between each chapter and the title page/table of contents/copyright page) you can then upload it to www.KDP.com.
You’ll need an eBook cover, which I always hire someone for $5.00 on www.Fiverr.com for.
You can make it yourself, but I’m not that creative.
Finally, publish the eBook and begin your marketing process.
I know, this seems a little vague, if you have any other questions www.KDP.com has every answer for every question that you have!
I started off knowing nothing, and now I’m making a decent side income from it.
Is eBook Self-Publishing Worth the Time?
In my experience, self-publishing is definitely worth the time and effort for all kinds of reasons.
If you’re not willing to really try and find an audience after production, or you just kind of scribble down some words and expect greatness, then you’re better off not trying at all.
Keep in mind that this is real, professional writing that requires actual effort.
It’s not some get-rich-quick scheme that you can make thousands over night, nor is it a way for you to scam people out of their money.
Returns still exist, so cheap material will be returned and your money will disappear quickly.
If you’re doing this for the passion of writing and the dream of working from your laptop, or even paying some bills with some side income, then self-publishing is the greatest method in my opinion.
I started off my online money-making journey by writing eBooks, and although I haven’t written one in over two years (I’ve moved on to other avenues, thanks to the reviews and credit they’ve gotten me) I’m still generating the money to pay for some of my bills.
Self-publishing is entirely possible, and I wish nothing more than for you creatives out there to start putting out the work that you know is possible.
Stop sitting back and hoping that you’ll one day start writing a best-seller, and actually start writing that best-seller.
Good luck, and remember to always have fun and stay creative on your self-publishing journey!
How to Make Money Producing Audio Books