Writing Ebook

Writing an eBook

Now I want to start with one of my favorite methods of earning passive income,

writing an eBook. It used to be that getting a book published required a great

deal of effort. Writers had to first write the book – or write a detailed book

proposal. Then they had to send out query letters to agents and publishers in the

hopes that what they had written would resonate with someone. Even getting a

book agent to read your letter was an uphill battle. Most agents were inundated

with thousands of letters from aspiring authors. Both luck and talent were

required in order for an author to get noticed.

I think it’s important to be honest about the amount of work required to write

and publish an eBook. Passive income does not start out passive. You must put

in the work up front. Once the stream of income is established, it becomes

passive. If you decide to write an eBook yourself, it may takes months to

complete the writing depending on your writing speed and ability. Even if you

hire a ghostwriter, the process can take a while and will require some thought

and effort from you.

Finding a Niche for Your eBook

Let’s start with the very important first step: choosing a niche for your eBook.

If you plan on writing the book yourself, it is probably best to choose a niche

and topic that interest you, and about which you have some knowledge. Of

course you can research any topic you want to, but if you want to sound

authoritative and do a great job, the process will be easier if you choose a topic

you know than it would be if you were starting from scratch.

If you have had a long career in a particular industry – and have some

credentials to back up your authority – then choosing a niche where your

career experience and authority can help you to write and market your book

makes a lot of sense. People are far more likely to buy and read a book from

someone they perceive to be an authority than from someone who has no

authority. When you play to your strengths, you increase the chances that your

book will turn into a steady stream of passive income.

One thing that can be helpful in terms of choosing a niche topic is to start with

a general topic and look at the sub-niches listed on the Amazon Kindle store.

When you go to the Kindle Store and scroll down, you will see a list of general

categories on the left-hand side of the page. Pick any topic from that list, and

you will see a list of sub-categories, or niches, under it. Those sub-categories

may break down further. The more specialized your chosen topic is, the easier

it will be for you to attain bestseller status on Amazon. Being able to put the

“Amazon Bestseller” logo on your website can do a great deal to boost sales

and your perceived authority – something that can help you in other areas of

passive income, too.

To get an idea of what I mean, let’s look at a list of sub-niches related to a

single topic on Amazon, Business and Money:

Clicking on the first niche, Accounting, reveals another list of six sub-niches,

including auditing, governmental accounting, and managerial accounting. If

you have a basic idea of the area you want to write about, looking at the list of

sub-niches on Amazon can be a good way to narrow down your options.

It may also be helpful to look at the specific titles available in a niche and how

well they are selling. Reading reviews may help you to identify a topic that is

of interest to readers. For example, if several reviewers mention that they wish

an author had covered a particular topic in more depth, you might want to

consider writing a book about that topic.

Even if you are planning to hire a ghostwriter, you need to pick a niche and

topic for your book. You are going to have to market the book, so you will

still need to do some basic research and learn a bit about the niche in question.

It is also not a bad idea to provide the writer with an outline or – at the very

least – a list of topics you want to be covered in your book.

Writing the Book vs. Hiring a Ghostwriter

The next decision you have to make is whether to write the book yourself or

hire a ghostwriter to do it for you. Let’s take a minute to look at the some of

the benefits of each option, starting with writing the book yourself:

■ If you write the book yourself, you do not have to pay a ghostwriter.

The only investment you need to make is your time and creativity.

■ Writing the book yourself guarantees that you have full creative

control over the content. When you turn research over to a ghostwriter,

you are taking the chance that certain topics may not be covered in the

way you want them to be – and that may require an additional investment

on your part depending on the nature of your agreement with the writer

you hire.

■ A book you write yourself will reflect your true voice, and if you are

writing about a topic that you feel passionately about, your passion will

come through in the writing. A ghostwriter will do their best to emulate

the tone you specify, but the book may not sound like you.

■ Marketing a book that you have written yourself may come more

naturally than marketing a book written by a ghostwriter. You will be able

to talk about your book with a great deal of passion and authority because

you will be familiar with every aspect of it in a way that only the person

who wrote it can be.

Now let’s look at the benefits of hiring a ghostwriter:

■ Your time is valuable. While you will have to pay to have your book

ghostwritten, the amount that it costs you in dollars may be inexpensive

compared to the amount of time it would take you to write the book

yourself, especially if you are not particularly comfortable writing.

■ When you hire a ghostwriter who is knowledgeable about your chosen

niche, you are getting two things -- a professional writer and researcher --

for the price of one. A lot of professional writers specialize in a particular

niche or area, and the fact that they write about a topic all the time can be a

real benefit to you, especially if you want your book to be about a topic

that is not something you know a lot about.

■ If you write the book yourself, you may need to consider hiring a

professional copy editor and/or proofreader to ensure that your book is

properly punctuated and free of grammatical and spelling errors. A

professional ghostwriter should take care of those things for you as part

of their regular service and deliver a professional book with proper

grammar.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to each option. I recommend hiring a

ghostwriter if you are very uncomfortable writing or if you struggle with

proper English. A lot of people who hire ghostwriters speak English as a

second language and want to ensure that the book that has their name on it is

properly written.

Tips for Writing a Book

Let’s start with the writing. A lot of people don’t think of themselves as writers,

but the truth is that writing is just putting words together in a meaningful way.

That’s something you do all day, every day, whether you are composing

Tweets, talking on the phone, or replying to an email. A book is just a longer

version of that.

To give you an idea of how easy it can be to get an eBook up on Amazon, let

me share with you the fact that the average book on the Kindle Store is only

about 10,000 words long. That translates to somewhere in the vicinity of 32-

40 pages of text. That’s not much at all. If you wrote as little as 500 words per

day, you could have a draft of your book in less than three weeks.

If writing is something that doesn’t come easily to you, it may help to come up

with a detailed outline first. Looking at the tables of contents in other books in

your chosen niche is a good way to get ideas about what to include. You don’t

have to buy the books unless you want to. Many Kindle titles have a “Look

Inside” feature that will let you read the table of contents and the first chapter

or so of the book. That may be enough to give you a feel for what you want to

include

If you are very uncomfortable with the idea of writing, you may want to

consider using a speech-to-text tool. The benefit of doing that is that you don’t

have to write, at least not at first. You can pick a topic, talk about it, and let the

tool you use translate it into text. You will still have to review the text, correct

errors, and work to create a good flow with your content, but the process itself

can be easy. Oftentimes, it is easier for someone who doesn’t consider

themselves to be a writer to work with something that is already written than it

is to feel like they have to start from scratch with a blank page.

When you have a first draft written, I strongly suggest that you put it away for

a week or two before attempting to revise it. Having some time away from

your project can help you look at it with a fresh perspective. When you do

bring it out again, reading it out loud is a very good way to spot repeated

words and awkward phrasing. When we read silently, our eyes tend to skip

words. Reading out loud is also an effective way to proofread and spot

homonym usage and other common mistakes.

Once you have revised the book, you should hire a professional editor or

proofreader if you think your book may still contain errors. There is no shame

in getting another pair of eyes on your book. It may also be helpful to get some

people who are knowledgeable about your topic to read the book and give

their opinions.

Tips for Hiring a Ghostwriter

If you don’t feel that you want to write a book yourself, you have the option of

hiring a ghostwriter to write the book for you. Ghostwriters are widely

available on sites such as Outsource and Freelancer. The key thing to keep in

mind is that you want to make sure that you are hiring someone who is a good

writer, ideally one who is knowledgeable about your niche. Here are some tips

to help you choose the right ghostwriter.

1. Write a detailed job description for the project you have in mind. You

don’t have to include your outline or list of topics, but you should give an

indication of what general topic your book will cover, how long you want

it to be, how quickly you expect the project to be completed, and how

much you are willing to pay. You don’t have to specify an exact amount,

but it is a good idea to give a range. Keep in mind that if your price is

very low, you run the risk of attracting sub-par writers.

2. Specify any qualifications that you expect bidding writers to have. For

example, you might want to say that you want only native English

speakers to apply, and that you prefer a writer who is experienced writing

about your chosen niche. You should also ask for a writing sample. Some

sites don’t allow writers to attach a sample to their initial bid. In those

cases, you should request samples from the writers whose bids appeal

most to you.

WILL BE CONTINUED..................