Publishing E-Books For Dummies

Becoming a Freelance E-Book Writer

Perhaps you enjoyed the experience of writing your nonfiction e-book, but you didn’t enjoy the publishing process, or you struggled with marketing your book. Take a look at writing e-books as a freelancer, to produce written material for individuals, businesses, or companies who want a book but need for someone else to write it.

If you choose this route, you’ll likely work as a ghostwriter, someone who writes content under the name of another person (or a company). You can expect to write fairly specialized material, usually for businesses that sell books directly to customers rather than via Amazon.

As with any sort of freelancing work, writing e-books in this way has benefits and drawbacks. If you enjoy the researching and writing process, or if you want a guaranteed return on the time you invest, freelancing should suit you well. However, if your e-book is successful — perhaps selling thousands of copies — keep in mind that you still receive only the pay that you agreed on up front. (You can still try to negotiate a flat fee plus a percentage of royalties.)

Setting a rate for freelance work can be difficult. Freelancers commonly quote by project cost rather than by hourly rate. Clients care about the total project cost, not the number of hours you work. Hone your skill in accurately estimating the time you spend researching, writing, and editing, and be sure to allow for revisions and margin of error.