A. What Is Self-Publishing?
When most people think of self-publishing, they think of books. But media is broad and encompasses everything from ebooks and videos, to music and online courses. And, that's why I said "Self-Publishing (Re)Defined" in the introduction.
One of the main goals of this course is to get
you to think broadly about your self-publishing career from day one.
The
rationale is, if you see all the possibilities self-publishing
non-fiction info products offer from the beginning, you can plan decisively
for how to capitalize moving forward.
Think
of Yourself as an Infopreneur
An
infopreneur is
just
a self-publisher of
pre-packaged
information products. Most
of these tend to be in the “how-to” sector, by
the way. But, they don’t necessarily have to be.
In
my opinion, an infopreneur is much more accurate when referring to
self-publishers of non-fiction because it captures more specifically what
they do.
Types
of Non-Fiction Info Products You Can Publish
Info
products include a wide range of media, including, but not limited
to:
- Ebooks
- Workbooks
- CDs
- DVDs
- Videos
- Forms
- Online Courses
- Worksheets
- Manuals
- MP3 audio files
- E-zines
- Newsletters
- Workshops
- Seminars
- Conferences
- Printables
- Etc.
As you can see, the non-fiction info-selling market is wide-ranging – which means more opportunities than ever for you to earn as a self-publisher.
The Risks & Rewards of Self-Publishing
In traditional publishing, the publisher assumes most of the risks (and the rewards) of publishing, eg, marketing, artwork, author fees, production costs, etc.
The publisher almost always pays for all of this upfront, and they make their money back if a book (media product) sells.
And boy do they make their money back!
For example, take books. On average, authors earn pennies on the dollar for every book they sell with a traditional publisher – somewhere between 5% and 7% by most industry averages.
Although authors usually get paid an upfront fee, it usually isn’t a lot, unless you’re a Stephen King or JK Rowling. Hence, it would take a LOT of sales to make decent money with a traditional publisher.
With self-publishing, as you earn the bulk of the money, you don’t have to make very many sales to make very good money.
Although
they usually get paid an upfront fee, it usually isn’t a lot,
unless you’re a Stephen King or JK Rowling. Hence, it would
take a LOT
of sales to make decent money with a traditional publisher.
With
self-publishing, as you earn the bulk of the money, you don’t have
to make very many sales to make very good money. I speak from first-hand experience here, as I've been traditionally published, and I self-publish.
Earning
$1,000/Month: The
Numbers
If
I write a non-fiction book and sell it for $9.95 on Amazon, I earn 70% of that price ($6.96). If my goal is to earn $1,000 per
month, I’d only have to sell 144 copies – or about 5 copies per
day – to reach my goal.
If I developed an ecourse and charged $500 for it, I only have to sell two a month to earn $1,000. And this is sooooo possible.
In fact, I have several courses in InkwellEditorial’s writing school on Teachable, including this one. I’ve been doing it since 2009, when I developed an ecourse that still sells to this day – the one on SEO writing.
I hope you can see that self-publishing more than makes financial sense. It’s really a no-brainer once you run the numbers.
There are writers you’ve never heard of earning from a few hundred, to tens of thousands of dollars per month, self-publishing non-fiction info products. I know. I’m one of them. So strap in for a wild ride. It’s a lot of work, but man are the rewards worth it.
Next Up ...
This brings us to the next section, where I tell you about my non-fiction, self-publishing journey.
I share not to brag, but so you can see how I did it, gain more insight into how I learned about self-publishing – and why it’s so feasible for you.
P.S.: Learn How to Create a Cottage Industry of Products from One Product
It's covered in the course in Module VIII.