I've written five ebooks in the past two years. Five! That is about one every 4 1/2-5 months. Each book is between 40-60k words. That's alot of writing. Unfortunately, sales are...dismal. I make some money, but it's not truly enough to justify the time and energy I've put into writing. Of course, writing has its own rewards, e.g. personal gratification, sense of accomplishment, bragging rights, etc...
But I digress. I've (through the help of a rather successful independent author) learned the ways to make some real money with ebooks. And now I shall list them for the benefit of the millions of people who read my blog posts.
1) Write alot. You must write constantly to improve your craft, to create more product, and to create credibility. This is hard work and there is no substitute for the first rule.
2) Read alot. If you love basketball, don't you watch the NBA? How do those guys play? What if you want to become an actor? Don't you watch DiCaprio and Day-Lewis? Simply put, you have to be a fan of writing if you want to be a practitioner. This is invaluable, and again, there is no substitute.
3) Write a series. This is where I've failed spectacularly. I've written a horror, two thrillers, a historical fiction and a romance. That's alot of different genres and alot of different audiences. In order to make money, your efforts must be concentrated. This helps your readers to know who you are and what you're about.
4)MARKETING. This is another difficult area for me. It's shameless self-promotion on a number of social media sites as well as doing it correctly. Believe me, there are right and wrong ways to market yourself, and there's no good way to learn except by trial and error.
In conclusion, why did I want to be a writer? Talk about a lot of hard work and a very small chance of making decent money! Oh well, I shall persist...What else is there to do? Give up? NEVERRRRRR......
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