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HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR WRITING

SUCCEEDING WITH SELF-PUBLISHING AND CONTENT MARKETING FOR YOUR WRITING BUSINESS

BOOK 1: WRITING & MARKETING FOR CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS

KERRIE LEGEND

WHILE EVERY PRECAUTION has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR WRITING

First edition. November 28, 2017.

Copyright © 2017 Kerrie Legend.

Written by Kerrie Legend.

Foreword

If there's anything that is a constant, it's the desire to be entertained, inspired, and educated. Because of this, writers everywhere are learning how to turn these three things into income. If you've considered starting a writing career to supplement your income or even replace income from an existing job, this book is written for you.

There are many people that wish they could become writers. Many feel they don't have enough talent or anything new to share with the world. I'm here to tell you not to sell yourself short. If you are longing to write, and are willing to write consistently, you could very well turn that passion and inspiration into a thriving writing business.

Chapter One: The Possibilities of Making an Income from Writing

The Income Solution That Pays Right Away and Over Time

If you've ever contemplated writing a book now is the time to do it! We are living in one of the best times ever to get into publishing and self publish books. About 10 years ago it became extraordinarily easy for people to write books and have them published without needing a traditional publisher. This created a major breakthrough for talented writers and artists alike, and has changed the way we get information. Big box publishing houses are no longer needed to become a published author, and the possibilities to earn a living while writing have abundantly increased.

The world has seen several independent authors and writers become success stories as they add to their repertoire of writing pieces. Several have gone from writers in a small, cramped office to a household name. Some have been able to change their lifestyles, and others have been able to pay off bills, debts and student loans as a result of their writing efforts. What has been an even better change has been the reader audience.

Readers are now, more than ever, taking chances on independent authors and writers. This has been providing an income solution for many people who have something creative to share, and has also created more work-from-home opportunities for creative people all around the world who have talent.

Obviously, the Internet has made all of this possible, and we are better connected as authors and readers as a result. You can now sell a book or a piece of creative work to a global audience in a matter of hours. You can now share that book in a Facebook group, your Twitter feed, or your Instagram posts within minutes, and start making sales. What a wonderful, digital world we now live in!

Using your writing is just one of the many ways you can earn money to build a certain kind of lifestyle that you crave. If you're willing to put in the work, be creative, and push yourself to improve upon the craft of your writing (while conquering a steep learning curve), you can learn to adapt, overcome, and conquer this ever-changing self-publishing market, which can be a very exciting and fulfilling time in your life.

I remember the first time I hit that publish button on my laptop. I felt an instant rush of adrenaline and excitement. The thought of sharing my ideas with the world was an incredible boost to how I spent my days. My book was being shared, sales were rolling in, and I just thought to myself, This. This is what I want to do.

This book is going to explain to you how I have made a living with my own writing and how you can apply the same concepts and skills to your own writing endeavors. You will receive realistic and practical advice with the aim of giving you actionable tasks. You can easily implement these tasks as depicted here as you go or after you've had a chance to digest this book. Each and every single chapter is going to give you ideas that you can use to document, research, and implement into your writing and publishing process. You could spend weeks upon weeks reading and researching about every single topic there is to know about self publishing. I'm here to send you down the right path - a simple one with basic decisions - which is going to save you time money and energy.

Writing is hard work, don't get me wrong. You have to be able to put in the work in order to prosper from it. I am not an advocate for get rich schemes and writing nonsense 24-page books that are listed for $8.99 on Amazon. To draw an income from writing, your books and projects must be reasonable, practical, enticing to buy, or solve a problem. Not everyone who publishes or takes on writing even as a part-time activity understands this. Not everyone who publishes a book or writes for a living makes money.

However, despite these facts, it is quite possible for a writer or a blogger to easily make a six or even seven figures of income just from their writing or creative efforts alone. I myself have made a substantial income from writing and I know that it's just a matter of time before my writing alone provides the millionaire status that I myself am looking to attain. I have set my own personal goals as it relates to my writing activities and hopefully soon in the next few years I'll meet those goals. You will start to develop your own goals and define your own version of success for yourself as you read this book, because not every writer has the same definition of success or goals.

There is even a group on Facebook that focuses on creating 20 different titles to reach a $50,000 a year income. That is just one philosophy and strategy to follow. I do believe and agree with many self-published authors that it takes more than just one book to make a living. So as you read this book, plan on creating multiple books and using your knowledge and creative energy to plan out and design what we call a series of books or even a certain product line of books. It has been my personal experience that I have needed several books and several titles to make the kind of income that I am right now.

Surprisingly, my paperback sales are actually higher than my sales on Kindle. I was somewhat shocked by this initially, but as reports about book sales, particularly online book sales, started rolling in back in early January 2017, it made sense. Paperback books sold online (regardless of traditional vs. independent publishing) were on the rise. You may find that as you create your books and have a marketing strategy in mind, that you have mixed or even surprising results. We will talk about these surprises a little bit later on, as sometimes these little surprises work to your advantage!

The most important thing I believe is to continue to create, write on a blog, and market your books in an ethical fashion. I am not a fan of spamming or using what are known as click bots or even controlled reportable buying with paperback books. Too many authors try to cheat the system and get burned by the writing community in doing so.

I also believe that it does take a little bit of money to get a book going initially and sometimes paying people for their time to read and review your book is appropriate because they're providing a service. There will be those I disagree with the concept of paper views, however I would point them in the direction of Kirkus reviews and the notoriety that their own company has with readers. There will be things that you choose to do as part of the marketing of your book and there will also be things that you will NOT do either because of the principal of it or it just doesn't feel right for your writing and author platform.

Regardless, you're going to get a lot of information in this book that will steer you down the road of self-publishing or traditional publishing, and it will help you make some decisions on what you feel your own path truly is.

Chapter Two: How I've Made a Living from Writing

What I've Done to Transform My Life

First I'd like to share with you a little bit about my own journey. I feel that it will provide some context for you as you read this book. I have a Masters degree in design, and a bachelor of science degree in business administration. I still use my design degree today in designing fonts, book covers, working with small and medium size businesses in creating a visual social media strategy for them. Having my degrees and the experiences I've had as a business owner has allowed me to be flexible with my decisions and how I spend my day. I am now self-employed and I homeschool my six children. My husband and I run a a goats milk soap candle store on our farm. So you can imagine how busy we are with our business and our children! You might be thinking, how on earth does she find time to write?! We'll get to that!

Before I became self-employed and had children I was practically living in a cubicle for a larger corporate giant designing stationary letterhead and wedding invitations. That's right, I designed those beautiful, coordinated invites and response cards you'll find in the big binders at the local bridal boutiques. Essentially everything that I created became the property of a giant, and I was creating some beautiful stuff!

It's an awful thing when you have a job that is only mediocre for your soul. While I was grateful to be employed, there was another part of me that aspired for more. Something where I had more control over the output. My job was often thankless and there was no reward associated with how many sales the company generated as a result of my design work. And when you don't feel good about what you're doing and what you're creating, your creativity stuffers.

It was one of those things where it becomes detrimental to your creative spirit and it often will shut you down. Giving birth to my first child was my best excuse to leave my job and my fluorescent-lit cubicle to stay at home and work from there. And when you're graphic designer and you're talented, people recognize your work it's very easy to get hired. So becoming a freelancer was one of the best decisions that I had in my life besides giving birth to children and marrying my now husband.

In 2017, we decided that we were done having children and that it was a great time for me to get back into writing again. I had written something before and just to test the waters but never actually published anything until 2017. The results that I had were amazing to say the least. The first thing that I did was I focused on my website. I wanted to kerrielegend.com to be something amazing. It was serving as a hub for other bloggers and designers to go to to get advice and to learn. I shared how I was able to achieve certain metrics with my writing and my social media accounts, and gathered a following. I created a course on re-purposing blog content, which was very popular because people were looking for ways to re-use their content to reach a wider audience, and also re-purpose their photos. From there I was building a massive email list which would pay off later.

I knew that I had a lot of fiction novels within that I wanted to write about but I really wanted to focus on nonfiction titles initially. One of the things that frustrated me about publishing on Amazon was the amount that the company took. I wanted to find a better way to sell my book without giving so much of the sale to a middle man.

This past year I researched a lot about Pinterest and developed a course on this search engine giant. I quickly realized how easily it is to build an email list from scratch that includes a ton of people that are interested in what you have to say based on what they are searching for. I used that as a base for launching a book.

I also took my course that I built and I turned it into a book. I wanted something that people could read on their own without having to pay for a live course or a course online to learn about Pinterest or re-purposing content. So that was my initial first book. And then I started doing spin off of that book into different professions and am actually in the middle of doing a re-write due to the changes recently implemented at Pinterest.

Re-writes and updates happen a lot for non-fiction writers - with things that change or different functionalities in technology - this is just part of the game in order to keep your book current. So that it might be one of the downfalls of writing in nonfiction. However if you are interested in writing nonfiction I would recommend picking a topic that doesn't have quite so many technological changes in the same year. I say this with a smile on my face and a heaping number of books to re-write. As a writer, you'll never be NOT busy.

I did a lot of reading about writing books, marketing online, blogging, and podcasting. Podcasting is something that I recently took up and I really enjoy doing. I found that there was an audience willing to listen that might not have wanted to read. I started creating an audible bit on each of my blog posts so people could listen instead of read.

So it's important as an author or writer to keep your options open and understand that you can turn something that you've written into something audio just as much. I focused on Pinterest as the main player for marketing my books. After I realized that I could get an audience much better on my own on without Amazon I decided to take Amazon out of the picture. Not completely, obviously, because my books are still on Amazon. However, I decided to focus the majority of my sales on my own website.

This has created a substantial stream of income that has made it easy for me to target my audience and provide easy downloadable links for them without my books getting lost on Amazon's website. If you recall, going shopping on Amazon it's very easy to get distracted by other titles and other things. By shifting my customers' focus on my own site I am only distracting them with my own stuff which is available for sale. So obviously my sales have increased as a result because I've isolated their viewing to my own content and deliver quality content that easily converts into a subscriber.

The one thing about selling books on your own website is that you can see the sales, but obviously that doesn't count towards Amazons ranking system. But, I also have that customer in my database and can market to them again in the future. As a writer sometimes you have to make important decisions and you need to either put your value on the income or some sort of ranking system that can easily be hacked or even be prone to fraud. Amazon Kindle has so many holes being poked in it at the time of this publication that authors have labeled it as practically useless in terms of being a fair playing field with distribution of KDP Select funds, review policies and copyrights.

I decided personally that it was more important for me to make sales and distribute my knowledge to other people by getting my books in the hands of as many people as possible than it was for me to focus on some sort of ranking system that I have no control over. Especially a system that could be easily manipulated by click bots, fraudulent book ordering techniques, review scams, and more.

By shifting my focus away from Amazon's mind-boggling algorithm to my own website and selling my books from there I have made so much more money for myself and my family. This has brought me a level of happiness and a greater deal of focus in my work as I create future books. Writing for me has become meaningful work that I enjoy doing as much as I enjoy creating and designing. I'm much happier now as a writer and designer then I was working for someone else. And although the road was a bit rocky at first and I felt so lost; I'm sure sometimes overwhelmed,  I overcame those obstacles when I did research and read about strategy in marketing books. As I implemented and tested my strategy, I learned a great deal. One of the key points was that not every single book (even in the same genre) can be marketed the same way.

Because of the research and writing that I've done in the first year of my career as a full-time author, I've been been able to grow in my reach of people online and have grown my email list. What started out as basic writing and publishing has grown into a strategy of strategic writing with a purpose in mind and an end goal. The income and amassing of creative digital assets in the last year has grown exponentially and continues to grow with each month. So part of my journey has been to share some of my knowledge about becoming an author. You'll benefit from what I've learned and achieved and you'll soon you know that it's actually possible to take that leap and conquer your dreams.

Chapter Three: How Do You Want to Spend Your Life?

Is Writing Your Passion or Is It Out of Necessity?

The real question you have to ask yourself is what do you want to do with your life? Becoming a writer full-time or even a full-time blogger can be a scary jump to make if you've only had a full-time out-of-home career working for someone else. And this is something that you may want to proceed with caution. At least hold off on quitting your secure job until you can make sure that writing is for you.

What I recommend is writing on the side initially to make sure that it something that you actually enjoy and also that it fits with your lifestyle. Try blogging and putting out a small e-book on your site just to get started. Ask yourself if you enjoyed the process or if it was unbearably stressful. Before you make the leap or even gradually ease into full-time writing, you'll want to make sure that not only is it your passion but also that it financially makes sense. This is especially true if you have children and a spouse/partner or dependents of some sort. You'll want the transition to full-time writer to be one that you're supported by and encouraged to do - not a choice that brings stress financially or upheaves a certain lifestyle. I will be here to encourage you - and if I can kick out a book or even 10 in a year with six kids in the house and a full-time home business then you can do it, too.

One of the lures of writing was the money side of things. I had something I could teach to people and have them learn from it. I have a marketable skill already demonstrated by income, and knowing that my children would benefit from everything I worked on 70 years beyond my death income-wise was a big draw for me.

Still, you are the one who has to decide if you want to continue doing what you're doing and whether not you actually enjoy it. Life is too short as well is too long to be doing something that you do not enjoy. I would hate to have you lying on your death bed wishing that you would've taken the risk of writing a book than regretting it when it's too late. I also wish for you to be successful with writing so that you can have more time with your friends and family than you might currently have now. Granted this may require some time investment initially but sometimes inspiration comes in the most unlikely of places and times. And from my own experience it has been my children - working with them during the day and writing around their needs at night.

Hopefully you will find the courage to write for your own reasons, whatever they may be. There is no right or wrong reason why people choose the writing path. And if you don't write with a sense of passion initially and are using this book to formulate an income stream then by all means do that as well. You may be more of a in it to win it type writer, and there's nothing wrong with that. Don't let other authors shoot you down for writing strictly for the money. Writers come in all shapes and sizes, as well as backgrounds and have their reasons for writing.

Sometimes people follow their passion in a specific niche market and become great writers over time. Sometimes people follow their need for income and become a great writers that way as well. There is no direct path for writers that works for or applies to everyone. You're going to have to figure out what works best for you. Sometimes writers become writers out of necessity to feed their family. Sometimes writers become writers to fill a need emotionally and are longing to tell a story. Sometimes writers become others to share their knowledge or for fame and fortune. Everyone has their own reasons for becoming a writer. There is no right or wrong answer and whatever your reasons are, are yours alone and no one else's to judge or question.

You could easily write about your experiences using something, trying something, learning something, etc. The topic list for books is epically long and extensive. Anything goes these days. And before you count yourself out as not being an expert in something, you'd be surprised at how many people are able to sell books and spread knowledge to others that are not considered gurus or experts. Don't sell yourself short here. You've got this, boss!

If you're writing fiction there is an endless market of readers out there that simply want to escape or be inspired by a book. There are book clubs for readers and there are clubs for in the author world and there are fans of different genres that you will encounter. They will absolutely love every single word that you write. Granted, you will probably have a few trolls and haters out there eventually, and that's when you know that you really made it!

The fact that somebody actually took the time to write a review is something that you will treasure or loathe. Either way they've heard of you. And you shouldn't let this fear of getting a bad review on your creative work keep you from creating in writing. Your first books may even suck a little bit.

I remember my first 1-star review on my first fiction romance novel. Horrible book. Did not finish. I looked at it and was crushed for about 24 hours. I looked at the person who wrote it and they've never had the guts to write a book, so there you go. It hurt especially initially because she posted the review on my first day as a non-free book on Kindle. I had racked up so many downloads and then when I flipped the switch after my ranking got up a bit she posted a negative review. And so it goes. Fiction is subjective, and not everyone is going to like what you write. It's what you do going forward that makes a difference. Don't let the haters get you down. Keep writing and hone your craft.

Think of it as breaking down a huge wall or a barrier that you finally overcame. Your following books will be even better after you've gone through the first experience. And with practice and experience, you will fine-tune your voice (after you initially find it), and work your magic.

Chapter Four: How Much Do Writers Make?

Income Reports & Revenue Streams

There are income reports all over the place about how much money independent authors actually make. Without an independent party doing a survey on both paperback and e-book sales along with getting all authors to participate it's really hard to determine whether or not the reports coming out are skewed or biased in anyway. Some could be making six figures and not participate in the survey. Reports like this after often derived on self-participation and are not mandatory reports, and typically Amazon and Barnes & Noble release their stats each year, but this often leaves out revenue earned by independent authors from their own websites.

Some authors will not make a single sale on their book. They work hard, pay for editing, and something just doesn't fly. Either their marketing was off, or their images were not professionally done, or their launch fizzled. Sometimes it's really hard to determine what happened. And unless you get some practice and try one thing at a time, you're not going to really know what works for that particular project.

Some authors make $5000 a year. Some authors make $30,000 a year. Some others make six figures. These numbers are largely based on the quality of the book, the amount of marketing that has been done, and the demand for the book. Certainly, what may be a little earned money to some others may be a lot to others. So it's really hard for me to say what is a lot of money because every writer's financial position is different. What you could gauge in terms of success is whether or not your income is paying bills. Real bills. Real financial responsibilities. Also, whether or not your author business is operating in the black or in the red.

The question that you may need to ask is whether or not those sales are covering your time spent doing the work of writing. Could you have made more money doing something else? Or another way to gauge success is income and happiness level. Are you happier doing writing even though it's not as much money? Do you feel creatively inspired? Are you a better parent or spouse as a result of your writing change career? Success does not always have to be defined in terms of income although for writers that are actively writing for the purpose of creating income - they need to focus on sales. For people that are writing for the sheer joy of writing to make an income of it they may need to focus on whether or not they're getting enough creative inspiration to keep going.

Certainly it's not my position to say that $30,000 a year earned from book royalties is a making a living based on US income statistics. Not many people or families can survive on $30,000 a year with all the financial responsibilities they have including student loans and other debts. With the rising cost of utilities in and living expenses, an extra $30,000 a year would make a bit of a difference but doesn't necessarily replace the income