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Write and Sell Ebooks Online in 2011: 6 Reasons It’s Easier Than Ever to Self-Publish and Make a Profit

Updated on December 22, 2010

 

I write and sell ebooks online for a living. I published my first ebook in 2004. To date, I’ve written and self-published 18 titles. Anyone who wants to can do this. Why? Because what I call the “eSelf-Publishing” world has evolved a lot since 2004.

One of the biggest changes has been the explosion of e-readers (eg, the Kindle, iPad and Nook). These little devices have made reading on electronic devices more popular than ever. And this is just the beginning. For those who are ambitious and hardworking enough, starting an online business writing and selling ebooks can be one of the most lucrative enterprises of the 21st century. The following 5 reasons detail why.

6 Reasons to Write and Sell Ebooks Online

The following changes highlight why there are more reasons than ever to write ebooks and self-publish them if it’s something you’ve been wanting to do.

I. Ebooks Outselling Hardcovers: In July 2010, online bookseller Amazon.com reported sales of ebooks for its proprietary Kindle outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010, saying it sold 140 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there was no digital edition. [Source: Wikipedia.com]

II. Bestseller List: In an acknowledgment of the growing sales and influence of digital publishing, The New York Times said on Wednesday that it would publish e-book best-seller lists in fiction and nonfiction beginning early next year. [Source: Times Will Rank E-Book Best Sellers, The New York Times, 11/10/2010]

Source

III. Sales Explosion: U.S. consumers are projected to spend $1 billion in e-books this year, according to a recent report from Forrester, who also expects that sales will surpass $3 billion by 2015. [Source: “The New York Times” to Launch Bestseller Lists for E-Books, Mashable.com]

IV. Free to Publish: When I first looked into publishing my ebooks on Amazon in 2007, you had to have an ISBN number. They cost was somewhere around $150. I put it off ostensibly to “get to” later. And of course, I never did.

Now, you don’t need an ISBN number to publish an ebook on Amazon. It’s 100% free. All you have to do is upload your file.

V. Forget Traditional Publishers: In traditional publishing, author’s get around 17% of a book’s cover price – yes 17%. Usually, publishes get over half, and the distributors get another 25-30%. So, it leaves you, the writer/author, with very little profits.

But with ebook publishing, you don’t have to wait to be signed and published by a big name publisher. You can actually sell fewer ebooks and do quite well for yourself because you keep all the money.

VI. Make More Money: This year [2010], more than 50% of my income came from ebook sales (I’m a freelance writer). The more I write and publish, the more money I make. With 32 new titles planned for next year, I only expect this to increase.

What I hope you’re beginning to understand is that if you want to write and sell ebooks online for a living, now has never been a better time to take the plunge.

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