First of all, great thread and thanks to HeldforRansom. His post confirmed to me that my situation is not all that unique, and that truly, anyone can make self-publishing successful, with the right mindset and work ethic.
So why create a thread for me? Well, unlike HfR, I outsource 90% of the process. Is it easier/dumber/less prestigious/more fastlane than writing everything yourself? Well, I have no idea. And who am I to say. Will some look down on me for not being a "real" writer? Probably. Am I still putting out a quality product that readers enjoy paying for? Absolutely.
All I know is that outsourcing has worked wonders for me, and I wanted to share the idea, in case it works for anyone else as well. I posted part of this on a different internet forum when I first started to see real success in self-publishing (last summer), but I've updated it and hope that maybe someone here can benefit from the read as well.
Self-publishing is the most successful way I've found to make money online. Yes, it has a lot of drawbacks (which I'll mention in a minute), but wow, do the rewards ever make up for them! I only seriously started attempting to make money with Kindle a little under a year ago. At first, I wrote, prepped, and released a book a week, all by myself, until I figured out a better outsourcing system. I now have 100+ books up under about 8 different pen names and am averaging a new book every week. Last summer, I started having 4 figure months. Then, in the fall, I had my first couple of 5 figure months. I know, I still can't believe it when I look at the reports, but it's not going away. I quit my day job as an attorney when I consistently started earning more every single month just by self-publishing. This has allowed me to work from home, spend more time with my family and doing things that are important to me (but that could be an entirely different thread).
Okay, this isn't to say that this is easy or there aren't cons. There are. Lots of them. Which is why, I imagine, there wasn't a lot of self-publishing talk before HfR came around.
Con #1: It's a LOT of work, at first. Even if you're outsourcing. I started by doing it all myself: research, writing, formatting, cover design, uploading, marketing. Everything. It's a huge time investment, and I suspect this is the step that scares most people off.
Con #2: It's NOT instantaneous. We're always looking for quick money in the IM world. Self-publishing is not that. It takes time and effort to build up an audience, to learn how to outsource correctly, to streamline the process for efficiency, and to collect your earnings. It's worth it, but it does take a great deal of time.
Con #3: Self-publishing is not PLR friendly, is not article spinning friendly, is not black hat friendly, etc, etc. This probably also scares a lot of people off, but it's a great thing for all of us who are trying to do this right. Mess with Amazon, or the others, and it will blacklist you. But even playing by the rules has gotten me much more than black hat stuff ever did.
Okay, it's not all doom and gloom. Let's see some pros.
Pro #1: Once you've uploaded a book, it's (nearly) set, forget, and earn. My very first book took me a long time to research, write, format, etc. It was a pain. But you know what? Since I uploaded it almost a year ago, I have done zero marketing, zero promotion, and have spent zero extra effort on it. Guess what: it's still averaging about 5-10 sales per day. That's with zero work on my part. IMO, that's well worth the initial effort. A few days pain for recurring money daily - I'll take that any day.
Pro #2: Tied in with Pro #1 is the fact that, if you sign up for KDP Select (which I recommend only for the initial 90 day period), you hardly have to do any marketing (unless you want, of course). I have a series of books in a non-fiction, educational sort of niche. I have done zero marketing on them. No blogs, no twitter, no fb, nada. All 4 books are in the Top 10 in their Kindle category. If you create a quality book, Amazon will market it for you. It will start showing up in people's feeds, in "people who bought X, also bought Y", and all that type of stuff. It's beautiful. Set and forget.
Pro #3: Once you get a system down, you can easily produce a book a week, maybe even a couple. Even if you only make one sale a day, that's $2. You have 10 books? That's $20 a day. You have 50 books? Hello, $100 per day. The possibilities are endless. Literally.
Okay, okay, enough of the rant. Just wanted to share what (I think) is an under-looked tactic. Yes, some will think that outsourcing 90% of the process is cheating. I obviously don't. Yes, it's not quick and easy money. But it's sustainable and, if done right, really profitable.
My tips:
Do your research - niche, genres, etc
Produce (or outsource) quality content. Emphasis on the "quality".
Enroll in KDP, but only for one period (90 days).
Set a goal of 1 book per month or per week, and make yourself stick to it.
Use the same pen name for similar books or similar genres, to build up an audience and make each book easier to find.
Put links to your books at the end of all of your other books, to make them easier to find. You want to funnel your readers to your next book.
Sit back and enjoy.
Any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. I've only been at it for almost a year, but I've been doing it nearly 24/7, have earned enough to quit my day job, and have learned a lot. Been lurking this forum for awhile now, and finally have something to give back to the community, I hope!
So why create a thread for me? Well, unlike HfR, I outsource 90% of the process. Is it easier/dumber/less prestigious/more fastlane than writing everything yourself? Well, I have no idea. And who am I to say. Will some look down on me for not being a "real" writer? Probably. Am I still putting out a quality product that readers enjoy paying for? Absolutely.
All I know is that outsourcing has worked wonders for me, and I wanted to share the idea, in case it works for anyone else as well. I posted part of this on a different internet forum when I first started to see real success in self-publishing (last summer), but I've updated it and hope that maybe someone here can benefit from the read as well.
Self-publishing is the most successful way I've found to make money online. Yes, it has a lot of drawbacks (which I'll mention in a minute), but wow, do the rewards ever make up for them! I only seriously started attempting to make money with Kindle a little under a year ago. At first, I wrote, prepped, and released a book a week, all by myself, until I figured out a better outsourcing system. I now have 100+ books up under about 8 different pen names and am averaging a new book every week. Last summer, I started having 4 figure months. Then, in the fall, I had my first couple of 5 figure months. I know, I still can't believe it when I look at the reports, but it's not going away. I quit my day job as an attorney when I consistently started earning more every single month just by self-publishing. This has allowed me to work from home, spend more time with my family and doing things that are important to me (but that could be an entirely different thread).
Okay, this isn't to say that this is easy or there aren't cons. There are. Lots of them. Which is why, I imagine, there wasn't a lot of self-publishing talk before HfR came around.
Con #1: It's a LOT of work, at first. Even if you're outsourcing. I started by doing it all myself: research, writing, formatting, cover design, uploading, marketing. Everything. It's a huge time investment, and I suspect this is the step that scares most people off.
Con #2: It's NOT instantaneous. We're always looking for quick money in the IM world. Self-publishing is not that. It takes time and effort to build up an audience, to learn how to outsource correctly, to streamline the process for efficiency, and to collect your earnings. It's worth it, but it does take a great deal of time.
Con #3: Self-publishing is not PLR friendly, is not article spinning friendly, is not black hat friendly, etc, etc. This probably also scares a lot of people off, but it's a great thing for all of us who are trying to do this right. Mess with Amazon, or the others, and it will blacklist you. But even playing by the rules has gotten me much more than black hat stuff ever did.
Okay, it's not all doom and gloom. Let's see some pros.
Pro #1: Once you've uploaded a book, it's (nearly) set, forget, and earn. My very first book took me a long time to research, write, format, etc. It was a pain. But you know what? Since I uploaded it almost a year ago, I have done zero marketing, zero promotion, and have spent zero extra effort on it. Guess what: it's still averaging about 5-10 sales per day. That's with zero work on my part. IMO, that's well worth the initial effort. A few days pain for recurring money daily - I'll take that any day.
Pro #2: Tied in with Pro #1 is the fact that, if you sign up for KDP Select (which I recommend only for the initial 90 day period), you hardly have to do any marketing (unless you want, of course). I have a series of books in a non-fiction, educational sort of niche. I have done zero marketing on them. No blogs, no twitter, no fb, nada. All 4 books are in the Top 10 in their Kindle category. If you create a quality book, Amazon will market it for you. It will start showing up in people's feeds, in "people who bought X, also bought Y", and all that type of stuff. It's beautiful. Set and forget.
Pro #3: Once you get a system down, you can easily produce a book a week, maybe even a couple. Even if you only make one sale a day, that's $2. You have 10 books? That's $20 a day. You have 50 books? Hello, $100 per day. The possibilities are endless. Literally.
Okay, okay, enough of the rant. Just wanted to share what (I think) is an under-looked tactic. Yes, some will think that outsourcing 90% of the process is cheating. I obviously don't. Yes, it's not quick and easy money. But it's sustainable and, if done right, really profitable.
My tips:
Do your research - niche, genres, etc
Produce (or outsource) quality content. Emphasis on the "quality".
Enroll in KDP, but only for one period (90 days).
Set a goal of 1 book per month or per week, and make yourself stick to it.
Use the same pen name for similar books or similar genres, to build up an audience and make each book easier to find.
Put links to your books at the end of all of your other books, to make them easier to find. You want to funnel your readers to your next book.
Sit back and enjoy.
Any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. I've only been at it for almost a year, but I've been doing it nearly 24/7, have earned enough to quit my day job, and have learned a lot. Been lurking this forum for awhile now, and finally have something to give back to the community, I hope!
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