17 Things I’ve Learned About How to Make Money Writing Ebooks
Hazel Paradise · Follow
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Writing ebooks still feels new to me. Every time I pour my words into the blank sheet of Google Docs, I feel like I am doing it for the very first time. Even though I have been doing this for almost 10 years now, each book is unique in its own way. Whenever I write a new book, I get a chance to learn something new as well!
It feels like just yesterday that I self-published my first ebook My Mistakes in Self-publishing on Gumroad. I made quite mistakes during my writing journey (as a romance writer) and put that whole out into that book.
Writing romance books (contemporary billionaire romance was my main niche in case you wanna know) was a teen dream for me. During my teens, I used to read a lot of children’s books. I wasn’t allowed to read romance books. But somehow I read a few whenever I could find a free version of it.
But it was 10 years ago.
from writing romance to non-fiction. And now building a career by selling ebooks directly to my readers has taught me many lessons along the way. Some were hard. Some took a lot of my time and energy to learn.
But it was all worth it.
Yet few drain me along the way. Truth to be told. Never romanticize your writing career. Thinking you’ll spend your entire life writing books in your backyard or in a beautiful cafe sipping coffee all day long.
Sometimes life comes in the way. And when that happens, we tend to change.
That’s what happened when I shifted my writing genre and also left self-publishing platforms (I still have books there. Why not get free traffic?)
But now, no one wants to be just a writer anyone. We want even more than that.
My first sale on Amazon bought me $0.33 only. After that it grew tremendously but it was a hard start indeed.
On Gumroad I made my first sale instantly. It was $2.99. August 4th. It was Thursday and I got the sale notification around 2 am!
Truth to be told. I was happier seeing my sales notification of Gumroad rather than seeing that on my KDP dashboard.
Because that amount was small?
Nope.
Because I got to see who bought my book! Never I thought that readers could buy directly from writers.
What helps me earn well from each ebook I release these days? Here are 17 hard-won tips for how to make money writing ebooks
Ditch the niche .. only at the start—
When I started I wrote almost everything. Any subgenre of romance and after two years I found my perfect niche — Contemporary romance. Oppositely, I liked to read a lot of fantasy books but never liked to write one. The same is true with my non-fiction as well. I wrote in many genres. I even wrote a book on my hair care routine. It was 5k words. Never made a single sale but worth it. Why? Because I wanted to know what non-fiction I like a lot. And that I can say only when I try. I tried and later I found finance and tech are my favorite of all. Now I stick to this niche only. But before that, just ditch the niche.
Shorter Is Better
People don’t want to read endless ebooks like my first one, which topped 200 pages! My first romance book (billionaire romance trilogy was 50k each) was a giant. After completing the trilogy I almost got burned out. Recovery was hard. If you want to build a loyal readership then start with short. Shorts always work better with non-fiction.
If you have a long book then just break it into multiple ebooks.
Write Multiple Books
The easiest way to sell more copies of your ebook is to have another ebook come out.
If you want to make more money then you need more ebooks.
More ebooks means more money.
This doesn’t mean to provide cheap quality ebooks because you make money from returning customers even more. So make sure along the way you keep the quality of the ebooks high. A new ebook gets readers looking over and buying your old titles.
When you have more ebooks, you can offer ‘bundle’ sales of numerous ebooks at a discount. This has been one of my most popular ebook deals. I have my ebook bundle here if you need to have a look.
Capture Buyers’ Emails
The big problem with selling on Amazon is you don’t know who buys. You don’t get a list of previous purchasers you can sell the next ebook or class.
This is only possible if you sell them directly.
Best place to sell e-books?
- Gumroad
- Payhip
- WordPress
Many places to sell. You just have to start taking things into your own hands!
Keep All the Money
Go with a self-publishing platform if you want to. I still like Amazon KDP and update my backlist as much as possible. But when I started using Gumroad I thought I was the right owner to keep more money.
I mean, we writers write ebooks. We do marketing as well. Why do have a middleman?
Amazon KDP brings me continuous sales from random readers. Readers I never know!
But with Gumroad or Payhip I’ll get a chance to connect with my readers directly and know what they want much better. That’s possible only when I build a direct relationship with my readers.
And above that, I’ll keep maximum money as well. Gumroad takes 10% and Payhip takes 5%. Both have their pros and cons. But I get to keep the maximum plus my customers as well.
I always prefer writing evergreen niche ebooks rather than trendy ones. Trendy niche die after some weeks or months. But, they help to bring traffic to your other evergreen ebooks as well.
So I say the formula —
80% evergreen — for consistent money
20% trendy — for more opportunity
This will help you make money forever.
There are several online marketplaces where you can sell your ebooks. Some of the best ones to consider — Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, Kobo, Libraries, and Gumroad.I sell on multiple platforms.
Check my detailed article here for self-publishing.
For Gumroad, check this article.
Ebooks are profitable, but simply publishing one is not enough. I create ebooks and market them as well. Only then I am able to make a living from it. So yes they are profitable and I am a living proof of that.
Writers/people are making a lot of money from ebooks.
Yet some don’t make enough as well.
It all depends on various factors. The most important one is how much time and energy are you willing to give.
People are making a living selling printables. People make money from thrift shops. Yet many make money selling simple sheet templates.
You work little, you make little money.
You work more, you’ll make more.
The formula is simple.
In my opinion, I find romance to be most profitable because it actually sells like hotcakes. You need less marketing for that but remember that competition is tough. Moms are writing romance from the comfort of their homes. Even single teens are writing romance as well. Men with female pen names are writing romance too!
Even if you wanna know that then from non-fiction — Business and money sell the most. Followed by religious and self-help books.
In the fiction genre romance books sell the most.
This is all from Amazon data.
In the end, all I can say is that the entry barrier is ZERO. That’s what I like about self-publishing!
