So, you want to create and sell an ebook. That’s great; they are a wonderful way to get your writing in front of real people, free of the red tape of going through a publisher. These five steps to selling your own ebooks will help you turn your dream into reality.

“These five steps to selling your own ebooks

will help you take your writing from a lonely

desktop icon to a profitable venture.”

Step 1: Writing an eBook

The first thing you’ll want to do is research your target audience. Who will be reading your ebook? Will your writing focus on money management tips for young adults, or are you writing recipes for time-strapped stay-at-home dads? Whatever you’re writing, you should make sure it speaks to your intended audience.  

Remember to make your writing personal and clear. For example, if you are writing a book on startup success, you may want to put in your own experiences of building and growing an SMB. It’s important to realize your ebook isn’t the only literature on the topic, so you should find your own unique spin.

Step 2: Formatting & Design

Whether you like it or not, people really do judge a book by its cover. Formatting and design are important to establishing your credibility. Think about it, would you rather read a fitness-focused ebook with clipart images of dumbbells and comic sans font, or would you prefer an original cover with bright colors and daring font choices?

People are going to be looking at your book, so make it easy on the eyes. Use high-definition photos, follow smart design principles and stay consistent throughout. Otherwise your work could look unprofessional.

Step 3: Publishing

Once you’ve written and designed your ebook, you’re going to need to find a way to put it on people’s laptops, tablets and e-readers. There are several electronic publishing formats of which you need to be aware. These are PDF, MOBI (for Amazon) and ePub (for other stores). PDFs are very simple and might be good enough for newbie writers, small business materials or freebie downloads; but this isn’t exactly the most professional or engaging format.

Step 4: Selling Your eBook

Once you’ve completed all of the above, you’ll be considering how to sell ebooks on your own website. Here, there are a couple options. You can build your own site, implementing payment processing and other functionalities; or you could take the easy route by leveraging an ecommerce site builder like Shopify.

The latter option comes with nicely designed templates for an attractive website, with payment processing built in. You’ll also find dozens of other tools to help you track your sales and downloads. This is likely the best option for anyone who wants to start making money from their ebook right away.

Step 5: Marketing

You’ll need to get the word out about your ebook and there are plenty of cheap (even free) ways to do this. Start by building a social media presence to promote your book and engage with prospective customers. You can also break into paid advertising on social media sites to expand your reach and find new audiences.

Another idea is to work with digital influencers such as bloggers, social media stars and podcasters. This can be as easy as identifying someone online and asking them if they’d be interested in promoting your ebook, reviewing your writing for an upcoming blog or interviewing you in a future podcast. Most content creators would be happy to do this if they think it fits their audience.

So, what are you waiting for? These five steps to selling your own ebooks will help you take your writing from a lonely desktop icon to a profitable venture.

Have you considered creating and selling your own ebooks?

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