While you may know that publishing an e-book and selling it online is one of the most effective ways to earn passive income, that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to earn a lot of money from it. There are many other people out there trying to convince readers to buy their e-books. You need to make sure you’re doing what you can to get yours noticed.
That’s why it helps to learn from others who’ve already achieved success self-publishing e-books. The lessons you can learn from the following authors will boost your odds of making sales.
Pat Flynn – Grow Your Audience Consistently
Pat Flynn is a passive income guru. He currently makes millions of dollars teaching others how to earn easy money on the side.
However, that was not his first career. Flynn began as an architect, and after being let go from his job, he decided to study for the LEED exam, an important certification in the field of architecture.
To pass the exam, he created a website that would help him study. Unbeknownst to him, the site was getting thousands of hits a day. This inspired Flynn to write and publish an e-book study guide for the LEED exam and promote it via the website. The first month of sales brought in more than $7,000, a major achievement for a first-time author. At the same time, it’s unlikely Flynn would have sold nearly as many copies of his book had he not already built an audience.
Keep this in mind when writing your book. You may want to start and run a blog, YouTube channel, or podcast on a similar topic while you’re writing it. This gives you the chance to generate enthusiasm for your book before it’s even completed.
Amanda Hocking – Price Accordingly
Amanda Hocking is a star in the self-publishing world. She’s earned millions of dollars writing and self-publishing YA fantasy books.
There are many reasons she’s achieved such major success. Hocking writes in a popular genre, she writes often, and she writes books her readers love.
However, despite earning millions of dollars, Hocking didn’t make her books particularly expensive to buy when she first published them. She didn’t have to. When a book is available for download, the costs of producing a physical copy are non-existent. This allows sellers to offer their books at very low prices.
Granted, you don’t want to price your book so low that it’s not worth your effort to write it. You devoted time and energy to writing a book. You should allow yourself to be rewarded accordingly. That said, you also need to remember that there are many other books out there that your customers are likely interested in, and of course, they won’t be able to buy all of them. If your e-book costs only what they spend on their morning coffee, they’ll be more inclined to purchase it.
For the best results, consider experimenting with different prices. Eventually, you’ll find a price that yields the best profit-to-sale ratio.
John Locke – Know Your Audience
John Locke is another author who has achieved major success self-publishing his own fiction. When explaining to other aspiring writers how they can follow in his footsteps, he makes a point of reminding them that knowing your audience before you write your book is crucial.
This can involve offering information readers can apply in a practical way, such as the information Pat Flynn provided about preparing for the LEED exam, but in cases such as Hocking’s and Locke’s, the value is pure entertainment. Either way, these authors have been successful because what they provided was of value to their audiences.
It’s easier to write a book that offers value if you take the time to define your audience beforehand. Ask yourself why someone would buy your book. What experience would they hope to have while reading it? What purpose would the book serve in their life? When you know your audience, writing to them becomes much simpler.
Of course, you also need to market your book effectively to earn a substantial amount of money from sales. The above tips will simply help you optimize your chances of generating passive income with a self-published book.