Earn money by writing for Kindle
If you move overseas, you may want a way to earn some income without finding a 9-to-5 job in your new country.
For those of you interested in writing, consider creating a book to sell for Amazon’s Kindle. While you probably won’t end up getting rich from being an author, you may create a steady way to pay a few bills.
Here’s what I did to create a book to sell on the Kindle.
1. Decide what to write about
This is the most important step. Your first decision is whether you want to write fiction or non-fiction. I prefer non-fiction, since they are often easier to sell.
Think about it. If you write a fictional love story or thriller, you have tens of thousands of books to compete against. What’s going to make someone buy your book over someone else’s book?
With a non-fiction book, you’ll usually have less competition than a fiction author has. Plus, the people who do find your book will be more likely to buy it. They are looking for information to solve a problem, or answer a question, and you have it right there.
One thing to watch out for is any topic that needs a lot of drawings or pictures to appear in a book. They often don’t show up very well in a Kindle book. So, you should avoid subjects like a step-by-step guide to repairing a carburetor.
2. Write your outline
I write informational books, and not fiction. If you want to do the same, I suggest you come up with an outline of the book first.
An outline helps you get your thoughts in place, and lets you see if you’re missing anything or if the chapters are out of order.
Even if you’re writing fiction, an outline can help. You’ll be able to see the flow of your story. Now is the time to remember all those English and Literature classes. There are some classic ways to structure a story. Maybe you can create your own, but I stick to methods that have worked for centuries.
In case you’ve forgotten those classes, you can refresh your memory at http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-structure-a-story-the-eight-point-arc/
3. Write your book
There are several books out there on how to write a book. Find one that makes sense to you, and follow their suggestions.
The one general piece of advice I’d give is to write something every day. Even if you only add a hundred words, it’s always inspiring to see that you are making some progress.
4. Have your book edited
If you’ve written the book using a word processing program, run the spell-checker on it. You may also be able to have it check your grammar. However, there may be times when perfect grammar isn’t the best thing to use. If you have dialogue in your story, perfect grammar won’t sound like real people speaking.
Then, don’t look at your book for a few days. If you try to edit your book right after writing it, your brain may read what you think you wrote – and not what you really wrote. If you give your mind a break, it will see the words fresh. Then you’ll see what is really on the page, and be more likely to notice any errors.
Once you’ve done your editing, you should have someone else read your book. If you don’t have someone who will do that for you for free, look for an editor to hire online.
The amount you’ll need to pay will be roughly based on the size of your book (number of words).
Go to the freelancing websites and search for people who have “editor” in their description, and are listed in the “writing” sections. For a rough idea of the cost, plan on around one dollar per thousand words.
5. Have a cover created for your book
Even though they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, that’s exactly how many people will judge your book.
If you aren’t a good artist, you can find some on the freelancer websites listed at the end of this article.
Expect to pay anywhere from five dollars to fifty dollars. Before hiring them, see what other covers they’ve done, to make sure their style fits in with what you want.
6. Have your book formatted for Kindle
If you plan to write several books, or you want to save money, then you can format your book yourself.
Amazon has instructions and programs to help you with this at Kindle Publishing Programs.
Personally, I find someone from a freelancing website who specializes in formatting and pay him or her to do this for me. If you send them a Word or OpenOffice file, along with the cover picture, you can get this done for somewhere around twenty dollars.
7. Upload your book to Amazon
You’ll need to create a free account at http://kdp.amazon.com.
Once you have the account created, just follow Amazon’s instructions for uploading your book.
When you add your book to Amazon, make sure you have a good description ready. This is what shows up when people find your book on Amazon’s website.
Your description should be about what is in the book, and how it will help the reader (if it’s an instructional book). This is the “sales” page for your book. It needs to make someone really want to buy your book.
Amazon gives you the ability to have an ISBN number for your book. This is a standard “serial number” for books. However, it costs you money to get one, and you really don’t need it.
After you upload your book, it will take a couple of days for Amazon to approve it and start selling it.
8. Look for other places to sell your book
Another website, http://www.smashwords.com, can sell your book for other e-readers, like the Nook or iPad.
They do have a different format from the Kindle. So, if you had someone format your book for the Kindle, you may want to see if they can format it for Smashwords too. Smashwords is pickier about the layout than Amazon is.
General tips
Don’t get a public domain book (something with an expired copyright) and submit it to Kindle. It’s legal to do that, but so many people have tried this that Amazon really doesn’t allow it any more (except with some special restrictions).
Additional resources
Websites to find freelancers
Websites for Kindle authors
Kindleboards’ author sub-forum
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