Can one writer do it all? Can you write your book, edit it, design your cover, and publish it to multiple platforms? Even better, can you get word of mouth about your book to others?
It sounds like a lot, and of course, anyone can do these things. However, chances are they would get horrible results. It is incredibly challenging to get book sales on Amazon.
After 14 months of trying this myself, I can safely say one person can do all of these tasks. Even better, you can do it all for free.
Pumpkin Spice & Royalties
For free? Yes, I turned a profit my first year as an Ultimate Writer. My only costs are Grammarly and PIxlr (stock photos & editing). Together they cost roughly $300 annually, and I made $530 my first year on the Kindle platform.
The Secret Formula. So what is the secret sauce to selling books that you create? The answer is to push a lot of content. I am talking about an unbelievable amount of work. Most people on this Earth can’t commit to building a sweat equity business.
If you can wake up every day and write 1000+ words, you can become amazingly successful. You see, in today’s world, content is king. People forget about what you did yesterday.
To stay top-of-mind, you need to be in front of your audience constantly. They need to wake up and trust that you will have new content. It’s truly the only way to stand out in a world with Tik Tok.
The only other way to get in front of eyeballs is to spend a fortune on advertising. So you can create one book and continually advertise the heck out of it, but there is one significant difference.
Living Overseas Passively on Rental Income
Content vs. Advertising. When you create a ton of content, you have assets to resell, repurpose, and reuse. If you create evergreen content (content that stands the test of time), people will continue to find your back catalog.
If you advertise, you can become good at the marketing game. It is an entirely different skill set than creating a ton of content. However, you won’t have a fantastic body of work to show for yourself.
Creating content versus advertising is a personal choice; however, I prefer building a library of stellar books. I currently have 400+ books between my website, Military Family Investing (where I offer free pdf downloads), and Amazon Kindle Unlimited.
Today, I want to give you an overview of my writing business. It is a lot of work; however, the results are entirely passive. I can step away from the business for a month or six months, and I would continue to turn a profit. Let’s begin.
We Make $650/mo in Passive Income
Learn to write! The most important part of a writing business is learning how to write. Now, do I write better than trained writers—Nope. Do I write better than most people in the world—Yes. Ultimately, all that matters is that people understand you.
I read the book “On Writing Well” early in my writing career. This helped me understand the importance of word flow and making each sentence count. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.
As a prolific writer, you will also have to read many books. I have read 98 books in about 18 months. Reading books will expand your vocabulary and mindset, according to the book “Limitless.”
I choose to do most of my writing under cover of darkness during the magic hours. I use Google Docs to write an article that is over 1000+ words. I do this every day, rain or shine.
Within 18 months, I have published two mega books with over 350,000 words each. The average book is 30,000 words, so my books are 11 times the size. The books are “The Biggest Book on Passive Income!” and “The Biggest Book on Passive Income 2!”
Why You Need a Job
When you accumulate so much work, you’ll be overflowing with content. This content has helped me grow my Facebook Group to 1,700 members. I can use my old and new articles to start new conversations.
I also can drop my free pdfs into the group. I just have so much content. Again, I am only 18 months into my writing career, and I have 700+ blog posts.
Learn to Edit. The first draft on anything you write will suck; this is where you need an editor. I use Grammarly to help me get my documents into fighting shape.
Grammarly can teach you to write. If you are writing every day, you’ll start to predict how Grammarly will punish your writing. Then, you’ll begin to correct yourself so that Grammarly doesn’t have to later. That’s you becoming a better writer.
Debt-Free? So, What’s Next?
The most challenging part of writing for me was overcoming using passive voice. It took me about six months to truly understand the concept and stop forming these ugly sentences. I also learned to stop using prepositions at the end of sentences.
It takes 10,000 hours to become good at anything, and I am roughly 2,000 hours into writing and editing. So, I have years to go, and I will always strive to improve.
Why don’t I use a person as an editor? I have two choices: I can either publish a ton of content for free or pay $200 to $400 to hire an editor for a 30,000-word book. I’d rather get as much content out as possible than try to recoup my money via selling books.
Learn to Design. Most authors will tell you not to design your book covers. I can see the logic if you are creating one book every three months. However, why not learn to design your own covers?
Losing Friends? You’re Doing Something Right
They will be wholly unique to you. Yes, you probably won’t reach the mainstream audience with your own covers, but do you genuinely want to be mainstream?
I already have a day job, so I am a “10% Entrepreneur.” I don’t want to go on book tours, spend time on my email list, attend functions, and visit different podcasts. Mainstream authors do all of these things.
I just want to wake up, write, edit, design, publish, and market my book. I can do all of this in 3-5 hours in the middle of the night. Then, I can spend the rest of the day with my family and work on my business’s administrative tasks.
I have streamlined the process of creating so well that I can also upload my pdf books to Draft2Digital for a wider audience. I also made paperbacks for all my books over the last two months.
“The Non-Designers Design Book” and “The Magic of Short Books” can give you solid ideas for non-fiction book designs. Fiction covers are a little more complicated, but you should try it yourself.
The Magic of House Hacking
If you are pumping out books for free, what are you truly losing? Eventually, you’ll find the magic formula that gets your audience to take notice.
Learn to Publish. Publishing on Kindle direct is pretty straightforward. However, I took an online course within the first month to help me hammer down the technique.
Publishing an eBook requires a description, cover, and manuscript (word doc). You’ll get good at writing a description, also called a book blurb. I recommend reading “Cashvertising” because it is all about writing ad copy (short form advertising).
Publishing a paperback is a little more nuanced. You’ll need to resize your word document to fit inside the same size book. You’ll have to figure out the number of pages. Also, the cover and back cover can be a pain.
What Type of Home Business Should You Start?
It took me a year to figure out how to publish paperbacks, as I mainly focused on ebooks. I recommend taking an online course for paperbacks if possible. They are their own beast.
Publishing PDFs on my website is pretty straightforward. The most challenging part is adding a cover to your word document and printing it as a pdf. Resizing your book cover can take some time to understand. However, having total control of your books is a fantastic feeling.
Publishing quickly is the name of the game. Amazon knows me now and sometimes can publish my books in under an hour. Paperbacks take around 24 hours, which is quick.
The Magic of an Automated Business
You’ll definitely increase the speed of publishing over time. Don’t let people scare you away from publishing your own books; you’ll just need to do many repetitions to get comfortable.
Learn to Market. Now, the final step is marketing your book. Luckily, your latest book is the best marketing for your past books. Since you are releasing books daily or weekly, you’ll always be top-of-mind.
It’s imperative to link your catalog inside each of your new books. Give people the opportunity to go down the rabbit hole of your prior works.
It may be tempting to advertise on Amazon Ads or Facebook Ads but fight the temptation. If you don’t have enough reviews, it would be pointless. It may be a good idea once you have an audience and tons of reviews.
What’s So Great About Being Independent?
You have to build credibility by building a massive back catalog if you are just starting. This will lead to a bigger audience. Then, your audience will help you grow to the next level. Growth is exponential, so just keep on the path. Your work is all the marketing you need for the first couple of years.
Passive Income. The ultimate writing business is a game that only dedicated writers should play. I plan on doing this for a long time, so I am setting myself up for long-term success.
I have no timelines or schedules. I only need to write and publish a book every day. This takes 3-5 hours a day. If I do this for the next ten years, I cannot even fathom the success I can achieve.
I am not exchanging time for money; I am exchanging time for assets. Each day I produce an asset that can make me money. Even books that don’t sell are good advertising vehicles. I can give them away to get people into my ecosystem.
Become a Lifelong Learner. Become Rich.
The money I earn is passive, and it leads to a sales funnel with my paperbacks being at the bottom of the funnel. I am building a massive advertising platform via all of my books—if you haven’t guessed.
I control what I can advertise in my books. In that case, book sales are actually secondary to subscribership. If I create an online course, I can advertise it via my books. Now, I can get in front of readers with high-quality books and upsell an online course for potentially $500+ each.
So, writing is just the tip of the iceberg. Think long-term, and you can see the fruits of your labor. Yes, it sucks starting out, but what begins easy?
The Woman’s Guide to Investing
Conclusion. Build your own advertising platform by creating high-quality books—what an incredible idea. My current mission is just to keep creating. I want to reach 3000+ books.
There is so much you can do with these high-quality products. What if I can give these books to schools for financial education?
Your path will be different, but that’s okay. No two income streams are the same. The central concept is to create as much as you can. This same technique can apply to podcasts, artwork, and videos.
Once you start creating enough, your skills will improve quickly. Keep going strong and stay motivated. You’ll see the results in short order. However, prepare for a year of releasing your work to no one.
If you can get past the first year with your motivation intact, you are well on your way. Good Luck out there!
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
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