eBooks are becoming more and more popular as the number of Kindle, Nook, and other e-reading devices increases. Many ebook “authors” prefer to merely come up with the topic and let someone else do the actual writing. There are many good reasons for that writer to be you.
If you’ve never considered ghostwriting ebooks, you may want to take a second look at incorporating this type of freelance writing job into your marketing mix. Here are some reasons why:
Why Add eBook Writing to Your Freelance Writing Mix
1. Higher pay. An ebook order virtually always pays more than a standard, 500-word web article. Although the per-word rate may be similar to that of the article, you know that you can count on (and thus budget) a higher pay-out than you can with just a few articles. The average length of a how-to ebook is approximately 40,000 to 50,000 words. You’d have to snag 80 to 100, 500-word articles to make the same money.
2. Less research. When you write individual articles, you have to research each one independently, since they are usually all about different topics. When you write an ebook, you only have to research one topic, saving both time and effort.
3. Less of a client “learning curve.” Each copywriting client has what I like to call a “learning curve.” That refers to the time it takes for the writer to get familiar with the style of writing the client prefers, what “person” he likes you to write as, and little style issues, like whether or not he likes the Oxford comma. When you write a 40,000-word ebook for a client, there’s just one such “curve,” as opposed to up to 80 different client personalities for the same number of words in 500-word articles.
4. Less marketing. Freelance writing isn’t just about writing. Successful freelance copywriters spend up to 25 percent of their time (unpaid) looking for new clients and new work. When you snag a few large ghostwriting jobs, you can relax your marketing a bit and simply concentrate on writing.
Any good freelance writer knows that he or she needs a variety of clients and writing venues to be successful and provide a cushion, should a client go out of business or a style of writing become unpopular and/or unprofitable. Adding ebooks to your writing mix can help your writing while reducing the amount of marketing and research you need to do.
Sandy M has been writing web articles, blogs, social media posts, and ebooks for more than a decade. While you may not have seen her name, you may very well have read one or more of her books.
