Passive income is a term that refers to income you earn with a minimal amount of labor. When you are relying on passive income to support yourself, the best approach is to have multiple streams. eBooks can be an excellent part of those streams, but how do you ensure that yours don’t get lost in the shuffle? Many people see eBooks as a get-rich-quick scheme, and countless numbers are self-published and placed online in one way or another. The tips below can help you ensure that your how-to book stands out.
Be an Expert
The first step is to write an eBook that is genuinely informative. You can have the best marketing plan in the world, but if you aren’t giving your customers something of value in the first place, they won’t tell others about your book, or worse, they will warn people away from it. Being an expert doesn’t have to mean that you’re a household name. You just have to know a lot about one thing, whether that’s gardening, building computers, learning a language or something else.
While you wouldn’t pursue a graduate degree just to write an eBook, if you are planning for a career that will allow you a lot of autonomy and the ability to create several income streams, you may want to consider a master’s in a field where your expertise would be in high demand and you could work independently, such as finance or exercise physiology. A master’s would give you a good deal of flexibility to write eBooks and much more, and you could use private graduate student loans to help you pay for your education.
Doing the Writing
Since you’re writing a how-to book, your prose doesn’t have to be particularly stylish or inventive; in fact, it is best if it is simple and straightforward. However, it does need to be well-organized. If you are a financial planner and you want to write a book on getting started in investing, think about how you would talk a client through it. Or if you are a psychologist writing a book on self-care, try reading some of the top mental health books already out there to get an edge on the existing competition. Creating an outline before you start writing can help.
Professional Presentation
Just because you aren’t going down the route of traditional publishers doesn’t mean you don’t need to work with professionals. When you’ve finished your book, you need to think about hiring at least two and possibly more people. Your book needs developmental editing, meaning someone goes over the concepts and ideas to make sure it makes sense and is well-organized, but it also needs copyediting on the sentence level and proofreading. In addition, it must be typeset properly, and you need an attractive cover design. At minimum, you should have an editor and a book designer. Consider posting these jobs on freelance websites to keep your budget in check.
Marketing
The excellent presentation will come in handy when it’s time to start marketing your book. You need to ask yourself several questions. Will it only be available on your website, or will you try to make money selling online to various retailers that will carry it? Who is the audience for the book, and how you can you reach them? What is a quick two or three sentence synopsis of your book? What is the right price that will reflect the value of the information in the book while still being affordable to most people? Will you run any promotions to raise its profile?
