There are lots of reasons for publishing an ebook but one of the best has to be the fact that you do the work once and then get paid for it for years and years after. It gets better. If you organise things properly (something which isn't difficult to do) the money keeps coming in while you do next to nothing!
It sounds like the ideal business, doesn't it. Well the truth is, for many people it IS the ideal business. There are people who make tens of millions of dollars a year publishing ebooks. This isn't fantasy, it's fact.
But before we get carried away it's only right to say that earning twenty million a year from ebooks takes a lot of hard work - and a considerable sized business. It is perfectly possible, but just like there aren't too many Bill Gates' in the world, there aren't too many multi-million dollar ebook publishing businesses.
There are plenty that turn over six figures a year though - small business and individuals just like you. Yes it takes hard work, but the rewards for it are substantial and I know of no other way for someone of average intelligence to get the sort of income you can from publishing ebooks.
Let's take the example of 'Janet'. Janet has worked very hard for the last four years. She has gone to the office 5 days a week at a job she didn't like much and evenings and weekends she worked on her ebook publishing business.
Nowadays Janet still works hard but she doesn't go to the office anymore. That's because she earns a hundred thousand dollars a month from publishing ebooks. Yes, per month.
Now Janet is not her real name but I know this person and the story is perfectly true. I know another guy, let's call him 'Bob', who doesn't earn anything like as much from his ebook but then he wrote it five years ago, spent a couple of weeks promoting it and then basically forgot all about it...
Bob has other business interests and he's not into ebook publishing, yet every year that one ebook brings him a couple of thousand dollars. For doing nothing.
In traditional publishing it's called royalties. In ebook publishing circles it tends to be called "residual income". Residual income is a very powerful thing.
When you self-publish an ebook you have no idea how well it will sell. Sure you can do research, you can try and write to satisfy a market demand, but until you get it out there there's no way of knowing. The downside is that you may have spent weeks or months of effort for zero return.
The upside is that if it does sell the chances are it will just keep on selling. Depending on your ebook marketing it may sell bundles at first and tail off. It may just sell steadily. The point is that after your initial effort you're doing very little to maintain the income. You may continue to market your ebook or you may go on to the next project but what you've started will very likely just keep on rolling. Very possibly for years.
It sounds like the ideal business, doesn't it. Well the truth is, for many people it IS the ideal business. There are people who make tens of millions of dollars a year publishing ebooks. This isn't fantasy, it's fact.
But before we get carried away it's only right to say that earning twenty million a year from ebooks takes a lot of hard work - and a considerable sized business. It is perfectly possible, but just like there aren't too many Bill Gates' in the world, there aren't too many multi-million dollar ebook publishing businesses.
There are plenty that turn over six figures a year though - small business and individuals just like you. Yes it takes hard work, but the rewards for it are substantial and I know of no other way for someone of average intelligence to get the sort of income you can from publishing ebooks.
Let's take the example of 'Janet'. Janet has worked very hard for the last four years. She has gone to the office 5 days a week at a job she didn't like much and evenings and weekends she worked on her ebook publishing business.
Nowadays Janet still works hard but she doesn't go to the office anymore. That's because she earns a hundred thousand dollars a month from publishing ebooks. Yes, per month.
Now Janet is not her real name but I know this person and the story is perfectly true. I know another guy, let's call him 'Bob', who doesn't earn anything like as much from his ebook but then he wrote it five years ago, spent a couple of weeks promoting it and then basically forgot all about it...
Bob has other business interests and he's not into ebook publishing, yet every year that one ebook brings him a couple of thousand dollars. For doing nothing.
In traditional publishing it's called royalties. In ebook publishing circles it tends to be called "residual income". Residual income is a very powerful thing.
When you self-publish an ebook you have no idea how well it will sell. Sure you can do research, you can try and write to satisfy a market demand, but until you get it out there there's no way of knowing. The downside is that you may have spent weeks or months of effort for zero return.
The upside is that if it does sell the chances are it will just keep on selling. Depending on your ebook marketing it may sell bundles at first and tail off. It may just sell steadily. The point is that after your initial effort you're doing very little to maintain the income. You may continue to market your ebook or you may go on to the next project but what you've started will very likely just keep on rolling. Very possibly for years.