“Many people buy the title of books and not the contents.” – Napoleon Hill
Becoming an author and writing a book is one of the lowest cost ways to get started building a passive income. You need nothing more than a pen and some paper. Of course you need to invest a lot of time writing about your chosen subject or topic as well as a lot of determination and commitment to succeed.
You can choose to write fiction or non fiction. Generally non fiction is easier to write because you write about your existing knowledge or research a subject to gain knowledge. According to Forbes, traditional publishing sell much more non fiction than fiction.
Getting a book to print is a lot more straight forward than it used to be. You have one of two options. You can either self publish with a site such as LuLu or use a publisher.
If you choose to self publish you will have more work involved because you will need to do jobs such as pick your book title, edit your book, create your art work, market research and promote your book. You can outsource all of those jobs to a freelancer if you would prefer. The positives is that you will be able to set your own book price, keep almost all the profit and have more control.
If you want to go down the traditional publishing route it can be much more difficult to get the deal in the first place. You will need a good literary agent because usually publishing companies only deal with them. The process of getting your book to print will be a lot slower and they will keep a percentage of all profit. However you will have access to their team of editors and marketers.
Whichever route you decide to go down publishing a book is not only a great way to make money if you are willing to invest the time but also a great life goal to achieve by becoming a published author.
Extra cash
Once you have written your book you can make additional money by converting it into an ebook or audiobook.
Recommended Reading
How To Write Your Book Without The Fuss – The definitive guide to planning, writing and publishing your business or self-help book.
Successful Self-Publishing – How to self-publish and market your book in ebook and print.
Sites to use