The Internet may well be more important to writers than Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of printing with movable type in the fourteenth century. Suddenly, writers aren’t dependent on publishers: they can be their own publishers. Instantly. The reason blogs are being created at the astounding rate of 100,000 each day isn’t because they’re online journals: it’s because they’re instant publications.

Self-Publishing Becomes Easy

Canny writers have always self-published, because they know that when they produce and sell their own books, they keep all the profits. Contrast this with what happens if you get a publisher: if you’ve sold a book to a major publisher, you know that while someone’s making money on your book, it’s not you.

But the Internet means that the major obstacle which stands in the way of writers publishing and selling their own work – upfront costs – no longer exists. Today, if you get an idea for an ebook, or a brief report, you can write it, and sell it, at NO cost to you at all. Yes, that’s right: no cost.

You Can Write And Sell Ebooks And Reports And Make Money

The craze for ebooks took off around 2000, and then fizzled. However, now it’s back, and oddly enough, the people making hundreds of thousands of dollars selling ebooks online aren’t writers – they’re marketers. Marketers hire writers to write ebooks on various topics, and then sell the ebooks, at prices ranging from $30 to a couple of hundred dollars.

What’s stopping writers writing and selling ebooks? In brief, it’s a lack of knowledge, and a lack of confidence. Many writers are scared of technology, even though they research online, and use a word processor. They’re also shy when it comes to selling their own work.

These obstacles can be overcome. If you can use a word processor, you can create an ebook or report, and sell it.

Topics For Ebooks And Reports

So, if you wanted to sell an ebook, of around 30 pages (ebooks tend to be shorter than print books), what topic would you select?

Your topic can be any subject that you have specialized knowledge in. I’ve been working as a professional copywriter and author for around 30 years, so I know the writing business. It’s a snap for me to create ebooks and reports which are useful to my fellow writers.

A friend is a health writer. She’s currently selling ebooks on topics like diet, green tea, natural aids for menopause, and natural face lifts. She’s produced ten ebooks to date, and is aiming for 50. She sells her 20 to 30 page ebooks for $29.99 from her Web site. Even taking online advertising costs into account, she’s making a tidy 40 per cent profit. This, as any business person will tell you, is a very healthy profit indeed. She’s given up writing for magazines, she’s making too much money writing and selling her ebooks as a self-publisher.

Another friend is writing reports. She sells these well-researched reports for corporate businesses from her Web site for $295. The reports are case studies. They’re thorough, and packed with information which is worth many times $295, so she sells thousands of copies of each report. She’s stopped writing for business publications completely. As she says, she’s making much more selling her reports than she makes for writing business articles, so why would she bother?

Why Sell And Write Ebooks And Reports?

Why would you write ebooks and reports, and become a self-publisher of your writing? The answer is on-going income. When you create your own material, you can sell it forever. You’ve got a steady stream of income, and that income continues day and night, whether you’re writing or lying on the beach at Tahiti on your vacation. On the other hand, when you’re a writer whose sole income is from her writing, you’ve got to write, or your income stops.

Becoming a self-publisher and selling ebooks and reports isn’t for every writer. There’s a learning curve. However, once you’ve learned, you’re creating a bright and lucrative future for yourself.

Angela Booth is a veteran freelance writer and copywriter. She also teaches writing. Visit her blogs – Angela Booth’s Writing Blog at http://copywriter.typepad.com/ and Fab Freelance Writing at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/blog/ for daily writing inspiration and motivation. Subscribe to the Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at [http://fabfreelancewriting.com/ezine/fab-freelance-writing-ezine.html] to receive “Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report” free. It’s 21 pages packed with information to help you to develop a six-figure writing career.

Author: Angela Booth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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