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A lot of people asked me questions about making money on Amazon with eBooks. They asked me how to do it and if it is still possible?
Right now, someone is working on a book to put on Amazon this month or next month and they’re going to make six figures. So, the question isn’t, is Amazon a good way to make money with eBooks; the question is: do you have the skills sets to make it happen. That’s the real deal.
Many people seem to think they can come up with a book and throw it on Amazon and make money. It’s not going to happen. There’s a process. People who are trying to make a lot of money with a little effort will be disappointed. It’s not going to happen. Part of the success of an eBook happens long before the book is written.
The reason so many people fail is because there is a lack of research and they don’t know the marketplace. If you don’t do your due diligence, then you will fail. That fact really throws a lot of people off.
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Question: Is Amazon still a good place to sell eBooks?
Answer: Yes. If you have the right book and the right marketing, you can make money. There are a lot of intangibles.
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Every night across the world there are millions of people fucking. There are some fat people fucking. Do you want to see that? No, you don’t. The thing is that these fat people are having a great time. It’s wonderful. When you’re in that moment, it’s a good story to you, but it may not be a good story to someone else. This is the type of confusion and perspective that writers must consider if they want to be successful. Is there an audience for the story you want to write?
I know you’ve got a story and you want to put it out there. I am not suggesting that you don’t put it out there. What I am suggesting is that you become realistic about what you think you can get out of that story.
Unfortunately, there have been many people betrayed. There have been many children orphaned. Unless you have a super hero story like Jimmy Graham, there are no guarantees that your story will sell.
Jimmy Graham’s mother put him in an orphanage when he was eleven years old. Do you understand what a mind fuck that is? He was aware of what was going on. He knew his mother didn’t want him and that she put him in an orphanage with other kids whose parents didn’t want them. He excelled in the orphanage and went to college, later becoming a football star in the NFL Now, that’s a story.
Now, let’s look at this story from a different perspective. Let’s say Jimmy wasn’t 6’6” tall. Let’s also assume he doesn’t have natural athletic ability and that instead of becoming a professional football star he became a postal office worker. It’s still a good story, but it’s probably not going to sell millions.
That book that you want to write, write it. It will teach you a lot. Put it out. While you finish that book, think of a book that can make you some money.
I was in a writer’s group in 2010. You need to be working on your second book as soon as you finish your first one. You need to be promoting your book before you even finish it. There are too many people who write their books and then they start marketing and promoting it late in the game. Really, the marketing is where it is.
On Amazon, the big issue you’ll have is discoverability. Just because you write a good book and the cover is nice, that doesn’t mean it will sell. My experiences with Amazon are varied.
You don’t have to be Hemingway to succeed. You just have to be able to put sentences together that people understand that will entertain or educate your readers. That’s it. If you are competent, you can write a book and make some money.
When you put a book out there, unless that book gets lift, you’re not going to sell many. Lift is marketing and paid traffic. It is an influencer who promotes your books and gives it a public review that is good. If you don’t have lift, your book will get lost in the sea of books.
If you are a writer and you want to make money with a book on Amazon, you have to write something people want to read. In the fiction genre, you need to have a main character that people love and can root for. You need to put that character through some twists and turns. Write a series of 4, 5, 6 books.
With eBooks, it’s a 60-day payment window before you get your royalties from a sale. I didn’t really like that. When you sell books with other distributors or on your own, the payment window is much shorter. It can make a difference if you’re barely making it.
You can make money on Amazon. You can make a lot of money on Amazon. Is it easy? No.
I think a good book with a good cover and a good marketing campaign will make you money. I’ve done it in my name and in pen names. So. It’s all about the system.
An important factor that impacts your chance for success is the genre. You can write a shitty book in a popular genre and make money. You can spend ten years writing an epic and not make a dime. These are the types of things you have to consider when writing a book to put on Amazon.
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