I’d just finished a book for a traditional New York publisher and was waiting on a promised contract from another publishing house. Because I knew I’d be working on a book soon, I didn’t want to get involved in a major project…but I also wasn’t sure what to do to scratch my creative itch – or contribute to our family funds.
Then I ran across some material about eBooks written by Angela Hoy. My interest was sparked. Hmmm, I wondered. Do I have an eBook in me?
On a whim, I removed a free “how to” article from one of my websites, formatted it into an eBook, and plopped it into an eBay auction. I’d offered my print books on eBay for over ten years (always in a category that corresponded with the book’s topic), and they’d sold well. But how would an eBook do? I figured I had little to loose, since I’d originally written the material for a long-defunct newsletter and no other publisher would find the material publishable today.
To my delight, I immediately made sales. Stunned by my success, I added an eBook page to my website…and made even more sales.
It seemed almost too good to be true. I was spending very little time creating, marketing, and distributing the eBook. Each sale was almost pure profit; my only costs were an eBay listing fee and a small charge for accepting credit cards.
Creating and selling eBooks also fit well into my lifestyle as a new mom who was trying to juggle work and caring for a baby.
What else could I turn into an eBook? I wondered.
How about a short book on pregnancy bed rest, which I’d written to pass the time while on bed rest myself? All I had to do was format the book and put it up for sale. Since women on bed rest can’t visit bookstores, it was a great topic for an eBook, and it sold well.
And then there was the book on singing that I’d written and published via Print on Demand (POD). The book was already in .PDF format on my computer, so all I had to do was announce that it was now available in electronic format. I made it just a bit cheaper than the print version, and soon readers from all over the world were snatching it up.
These eBooks were so successful, and consumed so little of my time, I even wrote an eBook about writing and selling eBooks. It took a bit more commitment (it was the first eBook I wrote from scratch), but it’s already helped many writers explore – and profit from – the eBook experience.
From now on, when I’m in between projects, there’s no doubt what I’ll be doing: Writing eBooks. It’s quick, fun, and profitable! I think you’ll find it so, too.
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Kristina Seleshanko is the author of 14 traditionally published books, including Carry Me Over the Threshold: A Christian Guide to Wedding Traditions, published by HarperCollins-Zondervan in 2006. All her books and eBooks are available at https://www.kristinaseleshanko.com, including her most recent title, The Easy Way to Write & Sell eBooks.
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