Show Me The Money!
It is usually the job of my esteemed colleague Tumblemoose to offer advice on how to increase your earnings from writing. I – if you hadn’t already noticed – simply like to whinge about all manner of writing-related shit.
Today is going to be different. Oh yes. Today I am going to show you how to make some money writing. I will then obviously ruin it by whingeing about the whole idea, but that’s got to be better than a blog that is 100% whinge.
Okay, here goes …
E-books
Apparently, you can earn a decent crust by setting up an e-book business. Straight off the bat, doesn’t that sound both fab and puzzling all at the same time?
Because we’re not talking about writing e-books on a subject you know inside out thanks to your involvement in that particular area for aeons. No. We’re talking about writing lots of information about things you previously knew absolutely nothing about.
That’s right, you find out what topics people most love to or need to learn about, then you research the required information, then you tell these people what they want to know and you charge them for the privilege.
Wow, I mean WOW!
Clearly, when you reference your sources, you shouldn’t just say “Google”, nor even list the Ezine articles you pilfered the information from. In fact, you probably shouldn’t bother with a list of resources at all.
Okay, yes you’ve noticed … I have started to whinge.
Personally, I find the whole notion of setting up an e-book business deeply disingenuous. I have written e-books for clients, and some of these have then been charged out to the mugs – sorry, customers of these clients. What these customers don’t know, and sshh, don’t tell them, is that I got all the information for free from Google. Tee hee.
The reason people are willing to pay for regurgitated information that is common knowledge is because of clever marketing.
“Learn the secrets the professionals don’t want you to know!”
“Discover the little-known tricks that can help transform your life!”
I’m sorry, but the people who have found the marketing pages for these e-books have clearly got some grasp of how to Google using keyword searches. Therefore, why don’t they go the extra inch and Google for the information they need?
The answer is that they cannot be bothered, and they clearly believe that the people hawking these e-books are genuine experts. Ah, bless.
Genuine experts who really have valuable information to impart are often too busy being successful at what they do to bother writing an e-book, nor would they need the money. And e-books that truly contained secrets only a select handful of people know would probably be morally dubious, thoroughly illegal, or utterly useless in the real world.
How to fly a B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber
Chapter 1 – Building a B-2 flight simulator out of common household items.
Chapter 2 – Stealing a B-2 from the U.S. government.
Chapter 3 – Finding a good defence lawyer.
Chapter 4 – Lodging a credible insanity plea.
The glorious exceptions
Of course there are genuinely useful e-books to be had; the problem is knowing where to look for them. How many times are you willing to say: “Damn, that one was useless, I’ll pay for another.”
For freelance writers, Monika’s Freelance Superstar e-book on this site will certainly restore your faith. This has been written from genuine experience, and there is plenty of information in there that I was shocked she was willing to share.
But the truth remains that the “e” of e-books generally stands for empty – i.e. bereft of information you couldn’t easily find for free by Googling. And don’t let the fact that an e-book contains 50 pages fool you. The first 10 will contain information that could be given in just 2, and the remaining 40 will be the first 10 rewritten with a bunch of extra rubbish thrown in to bulk it out.
However … however … if you can put your cynicism aside for a moment, and you are happy to peddle this garbage yourself, I expect you will make a nice living from it.
For more information on how to write an e-book, you can download my e-book – How to Disguise Blatant Plagiarism and Earn Good Money From It – for only $75 (previously $350 – discounted today only!)
About the Author: I have two novels published hardback and paperback by Hodder & Stoughton - The Short Cut and Man On A Murder Cycle. I live on the Murcian coast of Spain with my beautiful wife and daughter. For the past five years I have been working in corporate intelligence for some of the largest companies in the world.
George Angus | Jun 19, 2010 | Reply
Mark,
You are -ahem- right on the money with this. It’s about the marketing, not the content. Savvy internet users will never buy it, newbies will never find it.
Once again you shed light where there was once darkness.
You can work my side of the street anytime, snookums.
George
vern | Jun 20, 2010 | Reply
OK MR Pepper, Now I’m glad that I popped In here this fine morning only to find that you are not only making an extremely strong point with your statements about e-books and there creators, but you are releasing what has been a huge secret regarding most of the now “Make Money Online market” industry. I am sure that you are quite aware, of the magnitude of such statements. Personally i have no squirms about these comments you are making as my new book. “How to lose any Amount of Weight in 30 Minutes or Less” has already been published with Amazon, I hope to be signing big deal soon with both Google/You Tube. And yes you can get your copy in PDF today.$29.95
Great Read Thanks keep it coming V.H.
Mark Pepper | Jun 20, 2010 | Reply
Hey George, I hope I haven’t singlehandedly destroyed the world’s e-book market overnight. I fear that might be the case. No doubt I shall have the literary equivalent of a fatwah placed on me by all e-book peddlars. If you would like to know how to avoid such an outcome, you can download my e-book, “Learn to piss off any section of society and get away with it” for only $49.99.
Vern! Nice to hear from you. That sounds an amazing book. Any amount of weight in 30 minutes or less. Awesome. What’s that involve? Hacking off a leg? I expect you shall be inundated with millions of sales from people who “have tried everything, boo hoo” (except a sensible diet and exercise). Any more gems in the pipeline? Keep in touch!
Regards,
Mark
Cath Lawson | Jun 23, 2010 | Reply
The marketing is important. But a lot of folk don’t care how you know what you know – they just don’t want to have to do the research themselves. And if you’re solving a problem for them, they’re happy to pay you for it.
My first ebook, or whatever they were called back then, was less than 30 pages long. But nobody complained about the length, so long as it did what it said on the tin. I do agree tho – a lot of ebooks are complete crap.
BTW is Monika OK? Is she still alive? Everytime I come over here, it is you guys and no Monika. Don’t get me wrong, I like the stuff you write but I miss reading her posts too.
Mark | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
Hi again Cath,
Thanks for your comments. You are right – people sometimes don’t really know where to look for the right information or just don’t have the time. I agree that e-book writers can provide a very useful service, but I think anyone researching an e-book which subject they are not pretty familiar with already runs the risk of missing crucial points. Much of what you find out there on certain topics has clearly been plagiarized from one original source and then slightly tweaked. If that original source is lacking, then all that follows will be. I think it comes down to the integrity of the writer – are they willing to carry out the necessary research that goes way beyond already regurgitated Ezine articles and the like? A good e-book takes a long time to compile. My criteria would be whether a publisher would be happy to get behind it and commit their cash to putting it into print. I don’t see why information conveyed electronically should be any less powerful than that printed on paper, but so much of the time it is.
As for Monika, yes she’s around but I think very busy. I’m sure she will see your comment and know she is missed.
Chat again soon!
Mark
Cath Lawson | Jun 25, 2010 | Reply
Hi Mark – I get what you mean. I guess some folks write an ebook on a topic they know bugger all about and don’t research it properly. That sucks. I think you’ve really got to love researching to write ebooks.
Please say hello to Monika for me if you get chance and tell her I was thinking of her.
Mark | Jun 27, 2010 | Reply
Hi Cath, I’ve already passed on your comment. Cheers for now.