A Letter To My Fellow Writers: Advice I've been given that I'd like to share.

Here's some advice on generating a passive income by writing and publishing e-books. I found all of it very useful and I hope you do, too!

Courtesy of Google Images.

Dear friends,

I’ve been listening to a lot of webinars and reading a lot of blogs lately that talk about having a passive income through writing and publishing e-books. I tell you what, I’ve caught the bug. I have a plan to write so many e-books that I should be making a pretty decent income that way! That is, if anyone buys them!

We all know the risks involved with publishing. They are spouted at every turn. Write well, have a platform, submit to a hundred agents/publishers before you get any interest, and you still might not get published, and if you get published, you might not sell any books!

The publishing world is changing. The playing field is being leveled. I’ve compiled five of my favorite tips for writing and publishing e-books. These are tips on writing the books. This is not a definitive list, just a short one. I plan on sharing more as time goes on. The marketing tips will come later!

1. Get Ideas
2. Write Top Quality Books
3. Don’t write Just One
4. Share the Love-Become a Publisher
5. Get A Handle on DIY Illustrations and Images


1. Get Ideas

The first step in writing is to generate ideas. You can get ideas from just about anywhere, the toy store, your kids/spouse/significant other, life experiences. You name it and you can probably get an idea for a pretty decent e-book.

BUT…

How do you separate the really great ideas from the mediocre ones? I’m going to say that the best ideas are always going to be the ones that you already know the most about. They always say that you should write what you know, and it’s true.

Say you are at a football game with a friend. While you’re sitting there in the stands, You realize that you are only a few steps away from a few of the teams super fans. You have this great idea that you should write an e-book about how to be the best Super Fan. The trouble is you are not a super fan. This may not be the best idea for you. BUT maybe you are a top notch journalist and you specialize in interviewing people. Now you’ve got an angle you can work with. You can interview super fans about being super fans. It’ll market to the same audience, and this is something that you can do! And who knows maybe you’ll become a super fan yourself someday.

Remember, when you are generating ideas for e-books, play to your strengths. Write what you know and write things you feel strongly about.

2. Write Top Quality Books

Since the advent of self publishing, more and more people have taken to writing. Unfortunately, few people really understand how to write quality pieces. The result of low quality writing is bad reviews, which really can’t be recovered from, even if you update the book, you can’t delete a bad review. 

Besides, I would like to issue a challenge to my fellow writers. Let’s bring the quality of writing and literacy in the world up a notch. By flooding the world with high quality pieces of literature, we are raising the bar. I’m not saying that you should only write to a level where most folks need to read your piece with a dictionary, but I mean really write well no matter what age group you are writing for.

In order to do this, you will need to learn and hone your craft. I recommend reading blogs, taking classes, watching lectures. Really dig in and gain more skills. Even if you are already a top notch writer, you can always learn to be better!

3. Don’t Write Just One

People have an innate desire to collect things. When you are considering writing e-books, think about taking advantage of this little nugget. Here are some ideas that I got from a few other writers:

• Top 10: A series done in this way might have titles like a podiatrist writing Top 10 ways to Shop for Shoes, Top 10 ways to wear Heals without hurting your feet, Top 10 ways to Rehabilitate you Feet after an injury, etc., and marketing them to his clients.
• Interview Experts: Find experts in your field. Interview them and record the interview (with permission of course!). Transcribe the interview, lightly edit to get rid of the um’s and double clutches (places where you start one thought, don't finish, and continue on to the next), and publish it as an interview! Really easy, and you get the added benefit of having that persons audience to market to, as well as the clout of “knowing” the expert.
• How To: People want to know how to do things that they don’t know how to do. I would suggest you troll the Internet, specifically forums and Facebook pages you already associate with, and look for questions that you can answer, and things that you can teach others how to do. When writing this kind of series, remember this: write what you know!
• Picture book Series: Biographies, Science and Math, History, Art, Fiction and more. The picture e-book industry is poised to explode. Especially with the new Kindle Kids Book Creator which was just released a couple of months ago. Publishing picture books is getting easier every day. Now if only being a writer meant you had a handle on the visual arts as well! I have some more on images later in this article so stay tuned!
• Contest series and other “Publish For Others” options: What you do is put it out there, however you can think of doing it, that you are hosting a short story and/or poetry contest. Have a registration fee of $5-$10, set a word limit, and collect stories. When the time comes, the top three get prime placement in the publication, and maybe another prize of some sort. All you have to do is collect, edit, and compile. A really great example of this type of book is the Chicken Soup books. They started as a contest book (or so I've heard), and now they have so many entries, they don't have to run it as a contest anymore.

Other publish-for-others options include the Top 10 and How to ideas, and I think I am going to publish some picture books that I’ve commissioned my sister to write and illustrate with her kids! Which brings us to the next section!

4. Share the Love-Become a Publisher

Once you become an expert on how to publish an e-book for yourself, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do it for others. Whether or not you use this skill for the aforementioned ideas, or actually start your own publishing company, there is a need for people who are capable of navigating these rough and technical waters. Especially for those authors and illustrators who want to take advantage of the new Kindle Kids Book Creator and other similar products. Some people are just to afraid to learn the software. You can be there for them!

5. Get a Handle on DIY Illustrations and Images

It’s been said, and I’ll say it again, the picture e-book industry is just starting to really take off. The trouble is that most writers aren’t visual artists. I can’t stress the importance of strong images enough when it comes to the success and effectiveness of your writing.

No matter how you spin it, customers will judge a book by it’s cover (and it’s reviews!). If you really want to be successful, you will need to have strong images, whether for a picture book, or for covers. Whether you do it yourself, do part of it your self and outsource the rest, or outsource the illustrations entirely, you need to have strong, consistent imagery. I’ll dedicate on of my next few posts to this, so keep your eyes peeled.

I've got some ideas for writing more technical posts on the actual publishing of the e-books, but I need to get a better handle on the information myself. I'll be sure to post as I learn more. 


Thanks for your time folks, let me know in the comments below if you learned anything new, or if you've got anything to share! You rock!

Sincerely,
Lindsay