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FIB - Scams 101 - Ye Olde Archives
Posted By: Mel. White <cyberwizard@spamcop.net> In Response To: Rob Parnell and 'easywaytowriteebooks' (BAFFLED BEGINNER)
Friday, 7 January 2005, at 9:45 a.m.
If you're a writer (I am) there's a number of ways to do the business, and it doesn't really take someone else's ebook to tell you how to do it. Yes, that can be a "confidence builder," but frankly I don't want to spend $30 to build my confidence. I'd rather have someone pay me $30 and build my own confidence.
To be a successful writer takes time. There are lots of badly written ebooks out there and a lot of "me too!" ebooks and a lot of well-written ebooks that get lost in bad marketing and swarms of copycats. The first thing every writer MUST know is "what is it you're going to write about?"
And if you say "well, I'm going to write ebooks about getting into ebiz," I can promise you that we'll all come hunting for you with a switch. The number of know-nothings who do this is legion (I can't tell you how often we've seen someone show up here, trying to market the book they've written on "how to make money on Internet.")
Find a topic that's an unusual take on something you know about already ("Bigfoot Spotting For Fun And Profit," for instance.) Write what you know, edit it, and decide how you're going to offer it (online sales? Through on-demand printing? Through Amazon?) and what's needed to get it to that delivery (ISBN number? Level of copyright protection?) and how you're going to deliver it (locked PDF? autoresponder?)
Next, know who your target market is (and don't make the mistake of saying "everybody.") -- what do they read, what interests might they have, who else does this appeal to? That tells you where you can do your advertising and announcing.
If you're doing nonfiction, it's always a good idea to put out some articles BEFORE you do an ebook. Articles are shorter and a good way to get some name recognition. Books by a no-name author seldom get many sales. Reputation is everything.
So pick your market, find online ezines and write an article or three while you work on your Ebook. THEN do your ebook.
I have a friend who's trying to break into the science fiction novel market who's doing just that and doing a lot of blogging work. It seems to be making an impact -- this is a very difficult market to crack these days, but she's built up a nice following and is starting to earn money from short stories.
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