Does the idea of earning a full-time or part-time income from writing e-books appeal to you? If it does, then why not take out a personal loan and fund a small venture? There’s no better way to find out what it’s like to generate regular content for sale and build a steady income stream. Luckily, the electronic book niche is proliferating.
Those who have the ability to write well and cover multiple topics, especially in the non-fiction genre, can expect to earn money if they consistently produce books that offer authentic value to the public. Setting up a book-based side business is relatively straightforward, but it’s helpful to follow a few steps. First, estimate your approximate startup and early operational costs. Then take out a personal loan to cover them. After that, make a list of 20 prospective titles you want to tackle and get busy writing. Here are more details about how to get started.
Take Out a Personal Loan to Cover Startup Expenses
Startup expenses for a full-blown e-book business are not high, but there are a few important categories of assets you’ll need to purchase. In addition to a new laptop or desktop computer that is only used for business purposes, it’s imperative to acquire a high-quality editing app, at least one retail grammar and spelling checker, and official journalism-grade style apps. Taking out a personal loan to pay for everything at once, is the most efficient way to proceed.
As far as ongoing expenses are concerned, the main one for most commercial writers is advertising. While there’s no need to pour vast sums into ads for specific books, it’s wise to use online, targeted keyword ads to generate traffic for your main website. For those who don’t want to deal with the promotion side, retail booksellers are a decent alternative. Just remember that if you go that route, profits per sale will be lower. Make a detailed business plan to get an accurate idea of how much to borrow when applying for a personal loan.
Outlines & Word Counts
After thinking of at least 20 titles that have the potential to sell, either through a book title generator or your own creative mind, outline each one in detail. This exercise will give you a solid sense of which ones to write first, based on your personal knowledge base and other factors. Consider keeping the total length to around 20,000 words per title. If your outlines are specific enough, expect to spend about 20 hours composing each e-book. Today’s readers want actionable information delivered in digestible chunks, not long, drawn-out explanations. If you use this method, it’s possible to work 40 hours per week and crank out eight titles per month, which means you’ll have almost 100 e-books up for sale after one year of operation.
Pricing
Whether you sell via a website or a bookseller’s platform, it’s important to keep prices low. Note that the most popular range in the modern e-book marketplace runs from $0.99 to around $5.00. Don’t get too bogged down with numbers at first. Instead, aim to sell most of your books for a few dollars each, being sure to spend at least one hour per working day on promotional activities.
