How to Write An E-book and Make Money Quickly?

I’ve been writing e-books for almost four years.

I’ve written about various subjects. I’ve dipped my toes into topics like personal growth, design and technology, marketing and writing.

I have seven e-books online, scattered around various platforms, but I helped publish close to a hundred of them for clients. I have now reached a point where these books earn me a full-time income without having to do much in return.

But it wasn’t always like this.

I really struggled to make a sale at the beginning. I couldn’t even shift my books when they were free.

The truth is that:

• I picked the wrong platforms.
• I wrote the wrong books.
• I tried to sell to the wrong people.
• I priced my books wrong.
• I promoted my books the wrong way.

My efforts left me with an empty bank account, feeling drained and foolish.

Ok, I was a novice. I was at the very start of my writing journey with scarce knowledge about how to sell my words.

After many ups and downs, today, with a hand on my heart, I can honestly tell you that writing an e-book is one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever embark on as a writer.

Like anything in life, optimism is a great thing, but the reality is that there are far too many things that can go wrong.

To save you some heartache, time and possibly even a lot of money, I’m sharing my tips on how anyone can write an e-book and scale it to 5 -figures FAST.

STEP ONE — Ideation

So, you made the decision that you want to write and sell an e-book. Bravo, my friend!

What do you want to write about? (Even if you do know, DO NOT skip this step!)

Before we go any further, we need to clarify one thing.

What SHOULD you write about?

The short answer is this: It’s best to write your first e-book about a skill you ALREADY have. Here are some examples:

• You make aromatherapy candles — you could create an e-book about ‘The Smart Way to Start A Profitable Aromatherapy Business From Home in 2024’
• You are a software engineer — you could write a ‘How To Master Python In 3 Days for Dummies’ handbook or ‘How To Ace Your Python Exam in Your Next Interview’
• You are a dog trainer — you could write an e-book about ‘How To Train The Most Disobedient Dogs Fast’ and sprinkle in some great affiliate links for extra income

Instead of putting a poll on your Facebook page for your friends and neighbours to vote about your future book, your best bet is to look on the Internet.

Some corners of the World Wide Web hide invaluable information if you want to find/ optimise an e-book idea.

Here are some of the places, in no particular order:

• QUORA
• REDDIT
• LINKEDIN
• FACEBOOK
• GLASSDOOR — This one is an absolute gem, especially if you are solving a problem for professionals or writing about a specific skill.

Type your idea/ headline into these platforms and take notes.

Read through the comments and jot down questions people are asking. Write down words and phrases people use to describe their problems and solutions — these will be useful when you market your e-book. (keywords)

They will also provide you with some extra tips on what problems to solve.

# BONUS TIP #

Do this if you are stuck for ideas or if you want to make writing e-books into a full-time, lucrative income stream:

• Ask Google : What was the most searched topic last month on the internet that is related to a specific skill? Here’s an example:

• Check Google Trends: You can make use of Google Trends in two ways :1. look at ‘trending now’ data — best used for viral blog posts, 2 . analyse a specific, targeted keyword — best used for more evergreen projects like an e-book.

STEP TWO — In-depth Market Research (The Most Important Step)

If you completed Step 1, you should have more clarity about whether anyone would be interested in your book.

If you found answers to your questions, chances are there is a market for it. But before you go ahead and immerse yourself in your e-book creation process, it’s wise to look at some real-time data.

But why?

There are several reasons for this:

1. This step can save you a lot of time, heartache and money.
2. To see if your idea is valid now, was valid a month or three months ago, and what are the chances it will be valid in three months’.

Let me show you something that will save you some precious time.

Exercise 1:

Let’s say I am a multi-passionate individual. My head is full of ideas. I have a proposal for five e-books, but I’m not sure which one I should write first.

• I’m a programmer with a background in Python. (I could write a book on Python, but I don’t think I want to.)
• I also use Twitter (X) and have grown my audience to a modest 10K. (Maybe I should write about X. Would anyone bother with it, though? You know, ‘cos of Elon?)
• My hobby is yoga. I qualified as a yoga teacher years ago and I make a few bucks running local yoga classes (I could write a book about yoga)
• I also have a dog I adopted a few months ago. Lilly was a nightmare, but I managed to train her, and now, Lilly is the best dog ever! (I could write a book about dog training!)

If you find yourself overexcited, going back and forth from one idea to the next, there is a great place where you’ll find the answers to your problems.

The place is called Google Trends.

Exercise 2.

Every idea you come up with will seem like the best idea in the world. But before you put pen to paper, and waste another minute, it’s important to check out some facts.

Let’s see how my previous topics compare in real-life.

A quick GOOGLE TRENDS Web Search reveals that worldwide, out of my five ideas, an e-book about Twitter (X) stands the highest chance.

But if I look at You Tube Searches on Google Trends, I see that a book about Yoga might be a contender too.

What next? DIG DEEPER!

Let’s say you decide to write an e-book about Twitter.

What is it about Twitter (X) that makes it a profitable idea?

How is your reader going to benefit from knowing how to use Twitter?

In order to sell an e-book or any service for that matter, you need to find an audience who’s in pain.

This pain (dilemma) could be:

• How can I monetize Twitter?
• How can it help grow my personal brand fast?
• How can I get more leads through Twitter?
• How to cash in on longform content on Twitter?
• How to reach 10K followers in 30 days?

The list is truly endless. And so are your opportunities to make money.

STEP THREE — Market Research Cont.

In real life, the first two steps will probably take you 10 minutes to complete. These ten minutes have saved you a lot of time and effort.

The next step is to dig deeper and it will save you even more time!

Let’s get really specific about our e-book idea. Simplify it and niche down as much as we can.

Let’s say we decided to write about ‘How To Monetize Twitter (X).

The next step is to perform a quick Gumroad search. You are writing a ‘How To’ tutorial. Gumroad is a heaven for digital products and e-books that offer a solution to a problem.

It looks like our competitor has ‘niched down’. They’ve created a specific deal and want to appeal to a certain persona. What does this mean to you?

1. You might want to be more specific, too.
2. Dig deep and see if having such a niched down offer would benefit you.
3. Sometimes, being too specific can accelerate your sales. Other times, it can hinder your growth. It all depends on what your research reveals.
4. Go and look on other sites like Amazon to compare more products.

STEP FOUR — Who Are You Writing For?

Many wordsmith entrepreneurs jump to biased conclusions. They think they need to write for everyone if they want to cash in FAST. They also often attempt to write in many genres and niches and appeal to all ages.

The problem with this approach is that it won’t get you far.

Even Hormozi says that to make your first million, you need:

• 1 specific person
• 1 specific product
• 1 specific channel

The same applies to selling an e-book.

Describe the specific person your e-book can help solve a specific problem. This will help you determine where to find more of the same people – social media, forums, etc.

Then go ahead, analyse your offer and potential outcome.

• 1. Dream Outcome — the result is 100% guaranteed for little effort
• 2. The Perceived Outcome — if your reader does X two times a day for Y amount of days = the results they want

If I write a book about X, my best bet is to look at the detailed analytics about the people who bother with X.

Where are they from? What age group do they belong to? What is their background, social status, education, interests, etc?

This is the part that will help you make some sales.

There’s no point trying to sell your book about X to moms with three kids who hate politics and sales.

But you will sell bucketloads to people who are full of enthusiasm, want to make easy money and can dedicate time to grow on the platform.

You’ll find both these types of people (personas) in different corners of the internet.

STEP FIVE — Create an Outline and Write Your E- Book in Two Days

By now, your research should have provided you with enough information about what it is that your readers are looking for.

At this point, you might even have a clear idea about how the book is going to flow.

If you struggle to draw up an outline, prompt GPT to help you.

After that, it’s time to write your book.

I prefer to create my e-books in Canva. You can write yours in Notes, Word, InDesign or any other tool that suits your needs and budget.

Edit and format the e-book to your requirements and download the finished products as a PDF.

STEP SIX — Sell Your E- book

Your success comes down to these three ingredients:

• a good offer (What does your reader have to sacrifice to get the desired outcome? This will help you determine the price of your book.)
• the right platform (Check out this article hereto help you decide)
• the best time (Checking Google Trends and a quick Google search will reveal this to you)

You could sell an e-book for a $100. You could easily price one at $500. It’s all about the offer.

If your e-book promises little effort for substantial results, everyone will want it.

But if you tell your readers it will require six hours of intense work for thirty days straight to reach their goal, it’s going to be a push to shift those books.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do I need an audience to sell my books? — No, you don’t, but it does help if you have a following.
2. How can I promote my e-book if I don’t have any followers? — Your best bet is Pinterest and publishing your book on Gumroad (Gumroad Recommended can help you make more sales). Setting up a Profile on LinkedIn, Substack or Medium can also help you gain traction. Use these three platforms (pick one) to create SEO-optimized blog posts that will drive leads to your books.
3. How long will it take to make $100 a day from my e-book? — This depends on how have you been preparing for the launch. If you decide to write and publish an e-book today without any followers, no blog posts to drive traffic, and no optimized product page — then probably a couple of months if you start using Pinterest from day 1.
4. What shall I do to make sure my e-book is a success? — Do your research. Start promoting it before it launches. Don’t overcomplicate. Start small.
5. How long should my e-book be? — Instead of asking this, think about what problem will your e-book solve. A thorough market research will provide you with many valuable answers.

If you want to make money from writing a book, just remember this:

The quicker you start, the quicker you’ll make money.

OVER TO YOU!

Have an idea for an e-book?