Are you looking for ways to make money from home? Perhaps you’ve had enough of the 9-5 grind and would like to try something new. Or perhaps you’ve been writing online for a while and feel like you’ve got some really great content that might make for a good book.
No matter what your motivation is, you can certainly use your blog to write an ebook. In fact, you can use the exact same content that you’ve been posting on your blog to create your ebook. The difference is that when you write an ebook you don’t get to choose what platform you want to use. Your publisher will decide that for you. So if you’re looking for a way to make additional money, you might consider trying your hand at self-publishing. But if you’re looking for a way to grow your blog, then you might want to consider going the traditional route and pitching your book to a traditional publisher.
The Many Benefits Of Self-Publishing
One of the biggest draws of self-publishing is that you get to choose the platform. Nowadays, you’ll find self-publishing ebook options on just about any major ereader. So no matter which one you prefer, you’ll be able to find an ebook version of your book. In addition, you get to keep all the profits from your book. There are no middlemen taking a cut, which often results in lower prices for your buyers. Moreover, you can put your book out there to as many people as you want. No one will ever be able to stop you from reaching an audience.
However, even with all these benefits, self-publishing comes with some additional risks. Make sure that you’re aware of these risks before you begin. First, the most obvious risk is that you might not be able to find an audience. This is even more pronounced if you’re trying to self-publish a technical book. If you’re not familiar with book marketing and getting the word out about your book, then this could be a big challenge. You could end up spending a lot of money on ads and publicity, which might not result in a single sale.
Another risk is that no matter how good your content is, someone else might beat you to the punch and create the same or similar content. This is why it’s important to build up a reputation as a reliable and knowledgeable source of information before you begin your self-publishing journey. If you can’t trust yourself to source accurate information, then who can you trust?
Traditional Publishing Versus Self-Publishing
So you’ve decided that you want to go the self-publishing route to make some extra cash. Great! But how do you decide which one is the right option for you? It depends on what you want out of your book. If you want to make a quick buck, then go with self-publishing. Otherwise, you might want to consider traditional publishing. There are pros and cons to both options, so you need to decide what is most important to you. Here are a few things to think about.
Ebook Pricing
One of the first things you’ll want to consider is how much you want to charge for your ebook. There are plenty of well-known, reputable traditional publishers out there, so you’ll definitely want to consider whether or not they’ll be interested in publishing your book. The good news is that you get to set the price for your ebook. Typically, you’ll want to set a price that is somewhat below what you would charge for a standard printed book. You’ll usually want to price your ebook at least $2-99 less than you would the standard printed book. Moreover, you can put up to four titles on the market at once, so you’ll want to make sure that you lock down on a price that is low enough to make at least a little bit of money but high enough to allow you to make the effort worth it.
Printed Book Vs. Ebook
Another important factor to consider is whether or not you want to go the traditional printed book route or the ebook route. If you’ve been using your blog to write content for multiple platforms (such as SEO-friendly articles and infographics), then you might want to consider creating a single ebook containing all of these multi-media assets. That way you can reach more people and expose them to all of your content.
On the contrary, if you’ve been writing for one platform (e.g., your blog), then it might make sense to continue writing for that platform and only release an ebook if you’re selling extraordinarily well. Then again, perhaps you want to create an entire print-on-demand catalogue containing all of your previous works. In any case, you’ll want to make sure that you consider all of the various options available to you and decide what is best for your book.
Marketing
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money, then self-publishing might be the option for you. But if you’re looking to grow your audience, then you might want to consider traditional marketing methods. The good news is that you don’t need to be fully equipped with a marketing department to do this. You can certainly hire freelancers or specialists to help you market your book. Moreover, you can use the money you’re saving by not going through a traditional publisher to pay for these freelancers.
In some cases, you might want to consider a hybrid approach, where you use some of these freelancers to get the word out about your book while simultaneously using another freelancer to handle all the sales and accounting tasks. The key to successfully publishing a book is to have someone on your side who can help you navigate the process. Whether you go the traditional route or the self-publishing route, you need to decide what is best for your book, your platform, and your wallet.