Earning money with eBooks is one of the oldest internet business models. Now comes the funny thing, it really works! The eBook is actually just the medium, the content is important. Ideally, you create a guide on a specific ailment topic and help the reader or show him a way out of his problem. How exactly you can earn money with ebooks and what you have to consider in this article.
You create an eBook in the form of a guide, in which you solve a very specific problem. The eBook is then either marketed in-house or offered on ebook platforms. The earnings per sale are between EUR 1 and EUR 50. It depends on the topic itself, or how well you’re doing your marketing.
Anyone who has perfect knowledge of German can theoretically write and sell an eBook. However, it is not necessarily the content of the eBook that makes the success of it, but rather the marketing. If you decide to market yourself, you will earn larger margins per unit sold. However, if you have the goal of building a passive income, marketing via Amazon (KDP) is more worthwhile. But let’s just go one step at a time.
What is an eBook?
The eBook is a very new way of reading and has established itself over the years. You can read an eBook as a PDF on your PC or smartphone, or with a so-called e-reader. This is basically a tablet, but it is only intended for reading. It does not have a color display, as this is not necessary for reading and also saves a lot of energy. This means that the battery life of an e-reader lasts for several days.
E-book e-reader:
Devices like this e-reader are revolutionizing the way we consume books.
The e-reader has been around in a different form since the 1990s; it had its real breakthrough in 2011 with the Kindle, which is manufactured by Amazon. There are now many different providers of these devices.
The eBook itself is just the text displayed on the device. You can only buy eBooks online. In most cases, however, they are a lot cheaper than a real book, since no printing or publishing is required.
In the meantime, some libraries and Amazon also offer e-books to be borrowed. Here you pay an annual fee and you can borrow various books from the library’s website. These expire after a certain period. Many people appreciate the e-reader because of its greater compactness and lighter weight. You can save a lot of ebooks on the device and the weight – unlike real books – is no longer.
Critics say that eBooks are extremely bad for local bookstores because they sell much less. Opposite, however, proponents of eBooks argue that it is better for the environment. The purchase of the e-reader costs between 30 and 100 euros, depending on the model.
With the help of e-readers, however, the eBook achieved its final breakthrough. Experts believe that it has revolutionized the way we consume books and will continue to revolutionize it in the future.
The advantage of this is that freelance authors are now also given the opportunity to market their content themselves and earn money with eBooks. The advantages are obvious:
You don’t need a publisher.
You don’t have to make an advance payment, because printing and everything that goes with it is completely eliminated.
The content is available to the reader within seconds after purchase.
How Much Can You Earn With eBooks?
Money with eBooksThat is the question that authors ask themselves most often. Basically, you can set the prices yourself. Of course you can sell your work for 50 euros, but for that the content has to solve a very specific major problem and you have to be very good at marketing. Otherwise hardly anyone will buy it.
The price shouldn’t be too low either, because that’s why people consider the eBook to be of poor quality. That is why your own pricing is a topic that everyone has to deal with carefully. To do this, you should look at the prices of similar books. You also have to note that you have to add 7% VAT (since 2019) to your price .
The profit margin is slightly different depending on the marketing route. If you do the marketing yourself, about. 90% profit left. Whereby, one cannot assume a clear profit here. You have to deduct your own advertising costs and they are not insignificant.
If you market your book on Amazon, you will have a profit margin of around 70%. There is also a data transfer fee of 12 cents per MB. At Amazon, the gross price has to be between 2.99 and 9.99 euros, otherwise you only get 35% of the sales price (net). This varies on other platforms, but only by small amounts.
An example:
You decide to sell your eBook on Amazon for 3.99 euros. At first you have to deduct the 19% VAT (at Amazon), you have 3.35 euros net left. Minus the assumed 12 cents data transfer fee, we are at 3.23 euros. Finally, subtract the 30% for Amazon and you get 2.26 euros per unit sold. But you always have to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer, who gets a reasonable work for the price. Of course, your income must also be taxed.
Write eBooks yourself or have them written?
You don’t necessarily have to write the eBook yourself. There is also the option of having the eBook written by an author .
There are many reasons for that. Either you have very good book ideas, but you can’t put the idea into words, or you simply have little time.
Let e-book write:
If you are not good at writing texts, you can easily have it written.
You can easily contact ghostwriters via various author platforms or Facebook groups. They then do the research and then write the content together for you. The ghostwriter is given very clear guidelines. You determine the number of paragraphs, headings and how many words the text should contain.
The possibilities are almost limitless: You can also have individual passages written, or have the text checked grammatically at the end. The text can also be written completely by the ghostwriter.
Most of the time, you give the author a one-off wage and otherwise you are no longer dependent on it. But it can also be the case that a certain amount per copy sold goes to the real author.
One advantage is, for example, with scientific eBooks: The ghostwriter has specialized in exactly a certain topic and has much more knowledge about it. The eBook looks much more professional and can be sold better.
Marketing of eBooks:
As already explained above, there are two ways to market your own eBook. Marketing is the be-all and end-all. There are marketing professionals who sell inferior books at high prices. This is because such providers specialize in marketing. On the other hand, there are authors who can write great books but are bad at marketing.
Article tip:
Marketing is the be-all and end-all. You can also market your own e-book on Facebook. Here are the instructions for making money with Facebook
For beginners, it is advisable to offer the e-book on Amazon. Because Amazon already has the necessary visitors to the marketplace. Under certain circumstances, you may end up making more profit from marketing via Amazon than if you do the marketing entirely on your own. But be careful: You should still familiarize yourself with the Amazon marketplace, because here, too, know-how determines the success or failure of the eBook.
For example, there is the option of offering your eBook free of charge for a short period of time. Free books are downloaded very often and of course that pushes the general listing. In the best case scenario, the e-book will be downloaded and reviewed by a large number of people. The more downloads an eBook has, the better it is listed on Amazon. If you then offer your eBook for a fee after a certain period of time, more and more people will be aware of the eBook due to the better marketplace placement.
The number of reviews also influences the ranking. If a lot of people write positive feedback, the Amazon algorithm assumes that the respective eBook is most relevant to the respective search.
How do you get ideas for your own eBook?
Ideas for an ebook
Libraries are also suitable for collecting ideas for your own eBook.
Anyone who has tasted blood and is interested in earning money with eBooks needs ideas for an eBook.
Basically, you can write eBooks for a wide variety of book categories. For a career changer who has never written their own book before, however, it is difficult to land the big hit with a novel or a thriller.
A walk through a library can inspire ideas. There are countless books in which to get inspiration.
Guides work best. The respective topic can vary. The deeper you dive into a subject area, the better you can adapt your eBook to your target group with the respective search terms or the book title. That is why one speaks of niches within the industry. You have to find your very special niche. On the one hand, you should have an understanding of this area and, on the other hand, it should solve a very specific or an everyday problem.
