How I Turned 1 Ebook Into a Full-Time Business

How to Create, Market & Sell your eBook

Photo by Major Tom Agency on Unsplash

Take one step at a time!

How many times have you started writing your ebook but failed to complete it?

How many drafts are there in your drive right at this moment?

How many ebook ideas do you have in your mind right now?

Let me answer this for you. In my case —

1. 57 incomplete books (around 20k word count per book)
2. 13 in the draft stage (not edited yet!)
3. More than 100 right now. (for multiple pen names!)

I am slow, I admit it. It takes me at least 5 days to write a short perfect ebook. The revision takes a few more days to complete.

Before this, it took 2 weeks to complete an ebook.

Then not to forget that I need time to —

1. Market the book
2. Keyword research
3. Topic research
4. come up with chapter headings
5. and so on.

If you are in the same boat then this article will be really helpful for you. I will give you some concrete steps so that you don’t have to worry about your books anymore. Consider this as a checklist. Change it according to your needs!

The more I write. The more I improve. Simple.

Choose Your eBook Topic

Now time to choose a topic for your book. The best one is to stick to the topic you already know. This way you never have to research for it.

for those who want to try new niches then this is what you can go for —

1. wealth (Finance advice, side hustles, how to make money online)
2. Health (lose weight after 30, weight gain, diet plan)
3. Relationship (parenting, dating)

Every niche out there comes under these three alone. So if you are looking for a new niche then pick something from this.

For example — I always go for a Wealth niche. 90% of my business is based on wealth niche. I MAY go for a Health niche in the future. But NEVER for the Relationship niche.

So according to your interest choose your niche!

Example — Most of my ebook topics are on selling ebooks, making money as a writer as so on.

screenshot from my dashboard

How to Market to EASILY Sell

Have you heard of funnel before?

If not then this is what it looks like —

1. Pick a topic (niche down if possible)
2. Pick a platform (one is sufficient)
3. Pick a problem
4. Write content around the topic
5. Have a CTA at the end and in your bio. Attach your newsletter link here.
6. After you have your first 1000 followers, send them emails. (Make it more from personal stories. Avoid AI)
7. Promote your work at the end.

screenshot from my Gumroad Page

Content I created that grew my audience & helped me sell my ebook

There is only one method out there that can make money quickly.

The art of storytelling!

You don’t have to become an expert it in.

Or undertake any course.

Promotion and Marketing Tips and Tricks

I use these simple techniques to drive traffic to my ebooks.

1. Create Quality Content — This is at the top of my list. People know you by your content. The more quality content you have the more chances of exposure in your selected niche. On my TWO MEDIUM BLOGS, I write blogs personally. If you want you can use AI for research. 50% niche content, 50% personal stories.
2. Pay attention to SEO — I am not into SEO much. I don’t use SEO tools now as I love to write what I ACTUALLY want to. But when I optimize my title and subheading, I see it ranks up in the search engine. I use Google Trends and Keyword Tracker for this. Both are free.
3. Share on various platforms — As a writer, you are not limited to only one platform. if you are new to the ebook world, then I would recommend Medium to you. After having few followers on medium, try to expand your business to other platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
4. Testimonials — Some were collected before the launch. That’s called beta readers. After readers have bought my book, if they enjoyed it then they get access to the Review Now feature. They leave reviews on my ebooks and this helps me for my next launch. This has also helped me increase my ebook sales as well.

screenshot from my Gumroad page

5. Be consistent — Consistency pays off. So don’t worry why you are not getting sales or why no one is clicking on your ebook links. Just post quality content, engage as much as possible, and you’ll start seeing sales soon.

screenshot by author

The eBook Creation

There are two ways to do so.

1. Google Docs — Old method
2. Canva — New method

I prefer the first one. But I leave this up to you.

Follow these steps to create a unique eBook for your audience —

1. Make a list of chapters first. Hint — Check out similar titles on Kindle for chapter ideas
2. Write a summary for each chapter. This is necessary so that you don’t miss out on any important information.
3. Have multiple rounds of edits. You can also use any grammar tools for this. Hiring an editor is also an option but this can be costly.
4. Format the ebook using Calibre. This free software will format your ebook in various formats like PDF, Kindle, EPUB, etc.
5. If you want you can also use Canva for making attractive ebooks.

How to Sell that eBook and Get Paid

Selling an ebook is the simplest task of all. Let me show you how I do it.

1. Catchy eBook titles — My best-selling ebook is Small eBook, Big Income. Have simple and catchy titles. That’s the first step to grab the audience’s attention.
2. Good description — Have a simple and easy-to-understand description. Don’t use AI for that. You can also have results screenshot as I did in one of my courses.
3. Price — This totally depends on what you are offering. I will suggest starting with $5 and increasing as you start getting sales. If it’s a bundle then start from $20+. I have written in detail over here.
4. Where to sell — Amazon KDP, Apple iBooks, Nook, Barnes and Noble. My favorite one is Gumroad at the moment.
5. How to get paid — Different platforms have different options. If you are from the US, then you will receive it directly in your bank. But for those who ate outside the US, you need one of the following — Paypal, Stripe, or Payoneer.

Selling Ebooks FAQs

Q. Where Can I Sell My Ebooks?

You can sell ebooks on various marketplaces like Amazon KDP (my personal fav.), Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Hoopla, Kobo and also Gumroad.

Q. Is It Profitable to Sell Ebooks?

definitely! I make a living writing ebooks. I started my journey with romance books and later shifted to writing non-fiction full-time. Ebooks aren’t the only way you can monetize your writing business.

Q. How Much Can You Make Selling Ebooks?

How much are you willing to work for it? side hustle? Then you’ll pay only once a month. Full-time? You’ll get paid multiple times throughout the month! More about multiple income streams here.

Q. Which Ebooks Sell the Most?

I don’t write romance anymore. But I know that many of my fellow writers are earning more in the fiction category as compared to non-fiction. Again, the category doesn’t tell anything. It’s all about how good the book is and how well you do the marketing.

If you have read this far, I hope you are finding it useful. Do check my book The Medium Program, if you wanna grow on this platform. I’ll share my tips and tricks with you. Thanks!

Related articles —

How I get more engagement on Medium articles