by Bob Schwarztrauber
In the old days, writers had just a few options and tools for writing and making money from their work. Often, making money from your writing meant you had to rely on someone else to publish your work and provide payment. Distribution and printing costs were high.
Today, opportunities are wide open for the self-publisher. Many of them free.
Computers are the modern tool for creation, and in a pinch, most folks have free access to one at their local public library. So creation is free.
There are many free options for publishing your work as well. Digital publishing lets you create free or paid access to your work through blogs, file sharing, and email. And thanks to Amazon.com, it’s even free to publish a complete digital book, large or small through Kindle or even a full-color paperback book through Createspace. Amazon.com provides the free marketing and distribution channels as well.They take care of all the payments and returns stuff too. And automatically send you the royalty money each month like clockwork.
Can you imaging how frustrating it must have been for those writers who worked prior to digital publishing? Can you imagine having to rely on a publisher and be turned down over and over again and still have no viable means of getting your work out to the people who could most benefit or enjoy? Ugh!
So now that we know the opportunities to make money are out there, what do we write to get paid?
Here is a list, far from complete given all the options out there, but certainly enough for you to get started writing your own eternal money magnet today…
- Kindle or Nook Books, how-to, fun, picture, comic, fiction
- Paperback Print Books, Fiction or Non-Fiction
- Special Reports, 10-100+ pages of specific and useful knowledge
- Problem Solving Paper, 1 to 10+ pages, one problem, one quick solution
- Speeches
- Sales letters for other products
- Dialogue/scripts for audio books
- Transcribe audio books for creating print versions
- Publish your own blog, sell ad space
- No topic of your own? Seek out others in your town and help them tell their story
Oh, now some of you might be saying but I can’t type. Forget that excuse. I’ve one-handedly pecked my way through 100’s of thousands of words and they never once asked me how I typed before the cash arrived in my bank account. Even if you have a severe physical restriction that won’t allow you to type with your hands, there is a great program out there called Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 12.0, English
Our ancestors not so far removed would have killed for the opportunities we now have available. Don’t squander the opportunity. You have the means, for free, but you must provide the will. Ask me if you need help getting started.
