As a part of my mission here on Steemit, I want to teach anyone who wants to learn, what I've learned (the hard way) about making money online as a content producer. The potential is so great here, and for many of you, if you just have a few more tools, this platform, combined with a couple of other streams of revenue could literally change your entire life!
Even if you are truly a professional freelance writer, one question you have been asked may be a bit intimidating, “What have you written?”. They are not looking for you to tell them that you wrote an ad campaign for a series of PSAs on smoking. They want to know what books you have authored. Without an answer to this, even if you are well paid, you may not feel like you are a real writer. You are, don't worry.
If this is a question that bothers you, or you have always wanted to be able to tell people you wrote a book, an ebook is by far the easiest way to get that done.
Overcoming Your Book Writing Obstacles
Before 1969 man had dreamed about not being tied to our planet, of setting foot on foreign terrestrial soil, but until July 20th of that year, it had never been accomplished. On that date, NASA put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren on the moon, proving it could be done, and providing an outline for how to do it!
Since that time, five other pairs of astronauts have achieved the same feat. It simply took one time for us to get the model in our minds and make the moon an achievable destination.
Many people said it could not be done. They believed that the attempt would end in a fiery death for our brave astronauts, but that was not the case. Through years of research and attempts at making the journey, we finally achieved the goal, and changed everyone's mind about what was possible.
You may be in the same position. You may believe that you are not capable of writing your own book. You may even have failed attempts to prove it. You have a well-established belief in place that tells you that you cannot do it.
So, what are you afraid of?
- It could be the word count, after all that five page English Term paper from senior year was pretty daunting, and an average paperback is over 60,000 words.
- It could be that you are worried about fitting into a specific category or genre with your work. After all, that's the current wisdom about how to sell a book, find your genre and appeal to that audience.
- You may be afraid that someone has already written what you want to write, let me just alleviate your concern, they have, and it does not matter!
All of these things are similar to the fears and challenges faced by NASA and their partners when landing men on the moon. Would they be able to get out of the atmosphere, could they travel that far, what about the landing, and then what about getting back?
So, they started with smaller steps. First, they tested pilots at high altitude, then in earth orbit, then finally they braved the moon, and you can follow this same pattern.
Write an Ebook!
There are length constraints on printed books to make them worth printing. People tend to view anything less than 200 pages as a bad investment of their money and time. They want value, with ebooks; this does not seem to be the case.
Economically, printing shorter books is too expensive. But with ebooks, the cost is virtually the same. Your book can be as long, or as short as you want it. In fact, Amazon has even started a special section just for shorter works called, “Kindle Singles” they typically sell for less, but would still pay as much as a traditional paperback in royalties.
Traditional booksellers want to compare your work to existing books, to share with their buyers what kind of people might like your book. They also have to find shelf space for it, and a book that does not fit into a neat category is problematic, and may be tough for readers to find.
Genre can still be a huge factor in ebook fiction, but niches are one of every online marketer’s favorite ways to set products apart. By filling a void in the market you can sell your book to a very small audience (which may still mean thousands or even tens of thousands) who are looking for exactly what you write!
In traditional publishing, there are a very few avenues for people to connect with your book. The publishing companies themselves are limited in number, and then there are the promotional tools, such as book reviewers and ad space, then shelf space, all limited. Only a few books ever make it.
In ebook publishing, there are as many different ways to gather audiences as there are marketers trying to find people for their product. People can find your book through publishing sites, blogs, social media, forums, online advertising, and whatever else you can invent, and much of it is free!
Can You Write 10000 Words?
If you have published 10 or more 1000 word posts, you can do this. There are many, many high selling ebooks with as few as 10000 words in them. For most writers, this is simple. A typical blog post is 500 to 1000 words, so think of it in those terms. Surely you have enough story, or information to fill five to ten good blog posts?
You may not be trying to reach the moon, but this is much more achievable. Once you believe you can do it, you will find that it is easier to think about it and your desire to achieve it will grow rapidly!
So, what other barriers might there be?
It has to be A Bestseller!
You may think you have the next Harry Potter and you can crank it out in your sleep, because you have been planning it since the sixth grade. You will be the next big thing, rivaling the greats, maybe even reaching the status of a Twain, or Dickens!
The problem with this is that this bar is too high to be realistic. We are talking about your first attempt at publishing your own work! In fact, you may be psyching yourself, all the while thinking you have the confidence to pull it off!
- Plenty of lesser known works have led to great careers and made money!
- If you let this stop you, you will never write a bestseller, or even a “moderately good” seller.
- Think about the books you have read. How many of them were true literary masterpieces? Probably not too many, but they still impacted and entertained.
You are free to make your ebook a masterpiece. No one said you shouldn't strive for greatness, but without the cost of traditional publishing, or the weight of having your publisher and agent's livelihood, as well as your own hanging on your work the pressure should be very minimal, if there is any at all.
You're going to get a lot out of this. One of the biggest benefits will be knowing you can do it! Start with this in mind; this is your first book. There is time to build up to bestseller status further down the road, and you can get paid to learn how to do it!
Write What You Want to Write!
Since no publisher will be holding up hoops to see which one your book fits through, you get to decide what your book will be about. Have you ever gone to find a book on a topic, or a certain kind of story, but found that there really wasn't anything to choose from? Now's your chance!
You will also want to make sure that there is a market for “Pickling for fun and profit” before you devote the next two years of your life to developing a six part book series on the topic, but I can show you how to do that as well.
You can decide to completely ignore marketability and publish what you want to publish, hang the audience, and that is your right. Just don't go out and tell everyone that the idea of making money from publishing ebooks is a scam, if you decide to work against the market. You can expect very low sales, be prepared to be happy with that.
If you want an audience, especially one that will buy and give you their money, hang on, because coming up next, I am going to show you an excellent formula for choosing the right kind of book to write and sell. Success can be important, especially when you are starting out.