Writing Ebooks: Can You Still Make Money?

Have you wondered about writing ebooks as a profitable way to make an income?

Self-publishing is still the perfect home business. You don’t need big money to get started, and you can write in your spare time or full-time. Although millions of ebooks are published on Amazon, authors can nevertheless make money.

An article from Amazon discusses Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. This article was published in May 2022 and reports that in just five months:

Thousands of independent authors have already earned more than $50,000 in KDP royalties so far in 2022, and more than 2,000 of those authors have surpassed $100,000 in royalties.

Although we’ve explored increasing your self-publishing income, we haven’t taken a top-level view. Is writing ebooks still a good way to make money?

Writing ebooks: can you still make money?

In a word, yes. If you love to write, and publish consistently, you’ll make money. More ebooks are published today, so you need to spend time investigating topics, or genres if you’re writing fiction. You’ll need to plan for marketing the ebooks too.

I sent my self-publishing students a questionnaire about their experiences in the past 12 months. What advice would they give a new author?

A nonfiction author said: “Create a writing schedule. Try different topics. Follow up on the books that sell. Brainstorm angles and topics.”

From a fiction author: “Plan to write series. Start with novellas. I wish I’d planned for a series and short fiction from the start. My cozy mystery series took off after the fifth book.”

This author uses her short fiction primarily to build her mailing list of readers. She recommends that you promote your list in every book, and says: “I resisted creating a mailing list for ages. Then I realized I was spending hours on writing and tracking ads each week, throwing money away.”

One of the most popular questions writers ask about self-publishing is: should I write fiction or nonfiction?

Fiction or nonfiction? What should you write?

Both sell. Aim to write whatever is easiest and most enjoyable for you. If you have to force yourself, you’ll give up. (Some of the hardest work I’ve ever done was writing books I didn’t want to write.)

Follow your instincts. I published an article on Medium about originality and writing moment to moment:

“Just write. Your writing is you, on a particular day. Tomorrow you’ll write something else.”

Writing becomes easy when you follow your natural inclinations and avoid over-thinking.

This is difficult. We want guarantees that our writing will sell. However, our thinking-self isn’t creative, and stifling your natural creativity can lead to writer’s block.

One writer told me: “I started making three figures each month when I trusted myself. My angsty romance kept turning funny… I almost deleted it. Then it sold from the instant it went live. Who knew?”

That said, you nevertheless need to do a little research.

Whatever you write, explore, and research

Explore popular topics. In nonfiction, self-help always sells, and you can base it on your own experiences.

If you want to write a novel or a series, always start with short stories. It doesn’t much matter whether or not the first story sells: you’re trying to kickstart your creativity.

Writing ebooks: schedule your time

As an author suggested, “create a writing schedule,” and write at your scheduled time. Use the no-excuses method for fiction; it triggers creativity.

Have fun. I wish you all success. 🙂

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