Sunday, March 25, 2012

Writing and selling the non-fiction e-book

Some people say that writing non fiction is the way to go if you want to make money fast. I haven't the slightest if this is true. What I do know is what is true for me and that is that I haven't made enough money yet to even cover my costs.

So why am I continuing to write non fiction? Especially when so many writers are caking it (making money hand over fist) with fiction?

Because I genuinely enjoy writing about shoestring budget travel, time flies when I am writing and doing research and crunching numbers. And I believe that once I get my name and books "out there" and noticed I will be helping so many people that are just like me. Single parents that believe the only way to take their kids on a vacation is to either visit family out of town or set up camp and sleep in a tent.

In this day and age there is no reason that almost everyone shouldn't be able to take a week off and have a grand old time of it without going into credit card debt. My 5 day Chicago vacation was around $400, including Amtrak tickets, parking, food and hotel and we got blessed and stayed at the amazing Embassy Suites a few blocks from the Navy Pier. Meanwhile my sister went camping near Washington DC for 4 days and spend $400 just on the camp site. A nice camp site to be sure, with a lake, pool and cafe, but at the end of the day she was still roughing it.

I do want to write a novel, most writers do. But for right now I will write my next few non fiction books to add to my virtual shelf space and take it from there.

So if you have a passion for something, gardening, cooking or playing the piano and want to share your knowledge and write about it, then do. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't a market  for it or that you are wasting your time.

Do what makes you happy and then market the heckaroni out of it! And if it works then yay for you! If it doesn't? Well at least you won't spend the next 20 or 30 years wondering "what if".

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Here Ye Here Ye!

I have changed my business focus which actually suits my blogs name to a tee. I will be building a business around myself, literally. I am shifting away from trying to start my ebook publishing business with other peoples work and instead I will be writing and publishing my own ebooks on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Nobles etc. While I've been published on Yahoo's Associated Content, I am a newbie through and through when it comes to the new frontier of ebooks. I am so scared I wanna pee my pants, but I am going for it anyway!