Style Business

Writing, reselling other author’s ebooks and selling your own ebooks can be extremely lucrative. Writing and selling ebooks have become one of the most profitable work at home businesses on the Internet? Everyone looks for information on the Internet. If you can give them the kind of information they really want, they will be very happy to pay you for your knowledge. Learn from the prosperous about ebook marketing secrets to assure you of success.

There are many different ways to sell millions ebooks. If one of your goals is to become a Millionaire or make a six-figure income online then consider selling ebooks by the quantity. Most people just set a goal of making a million dollars over the Internet and that is good but most plans fall short of making that kind of income because making money is there only goal. When your goal of having your own home internet business that has that kind of success of earning one million dollars with the emphasis on selling a large number of units then your success will be very attainable especially with ebook sales.

The first thing you may want to consider is writing your own ebook and selling it online and having your own home base business. There are plenty of topics on which you can write an ebook, just pick one that you are suited for. Ebooks are not that difficult to write, compile or create and they do not take that long to write one. You can write an ebook in one day. Many ebooks are only about 25 pages. Some ebooks are about 200 pages. Just write about something that you already know. Think about your occupation or the hobbies that you have and you will realize that you are close to an expert on that subject.

If you only have one ebook that you want to sell in order to make a million dollars then you will have to sell one million ebooks making one-dollar profit on each one. This would be one of the hardest ways of selling one million ebooks. If your profit was 2 to 5 dollars on each ebook then you will not have to sell as many to make one million dollars. Selling a million units with only one ebook title may take some years even if is a popular subject and well written that would appeal to a large audience or attract many consumers and customers.

Although it is very possible to sell one million ebooks from just one title in a short period of time, most authors have a few ebooks from many ebooks for sale. Ebooks are a great home base business that will cost you nothing to set up and your selling is all online.

Your chances of selling one million ebooks increase dramatically when you have multiple titles that you are selling at the same time. If you have 30 ebooks that you have written and they are excellent ebooks and appeal to many customers then your goal of selling one million ebooks will increase greatly and much more quickly then selling just one title. Use your imagination and try to conceive of having 100 to 1000 ebook titles that you could sell and how long it would take to sell one million ebooks.

You can sell other author’s ebooks and make a profit off of them, which will get you closer to your goal of selling many ebooks up to one million ebooks, this will save you time on publishing. Obviously the more ebook titles you have the closer you will be to your goal in selling one million ebooks.

Realistically you can have only 25 titles of ebooks that you have written or have purchased reseller rights on and sell one million ebooks in about a year. The key is to select the popular categories on what sells best on the Internet. Then the next thing you will need is to advertise it by using an ebook description that would make all people want to buy your ebook. This would be the best ebook promotion method. I have more information on this subject.

• E-ditor

This software has a demo version that you can download to try out before purchasing. You can’t actually use the demo to create an eBook, but you can run the software and test it out thoroughly to see if it does what you need it to do for your particular eBook.

This eBook compiler is one of the easiest to use. The software has a very user-friendly help menu that provides instructions for and explanations of every field on every screen. The program also includes video tutorials demonstrating every step of this compiler with clear explanations of all fields that need to be filled out. There are 7 screens that you use to choose your eBook options.

This compiler requires your files to be in HTML format. You follow simple directions, and the compiler loads your files. If you decide to edit your eBook after it has been compiled, make any changes in your original files and click on “Compile you eBook” and your changes will appear in your compiled eBook.

E-editor allows for some customization of your eBook. You can create a special page that appears when the eBook is opened; create customized icons that appear on the desktop after downloading; use your own logo on the task bar of your eBook; customize the task bar’s buttons, where the task bar appears in your eBook, and

choose the task bar’s colours. Additionally, you can choose to have the eBook open to the last page read, which many of your buyers will appreciate.

An excellent and unique feature of E-ditor is the capability to choose a standard Microsoft window or to create your own design for a window to personalize

your eBook. The program provides some sample window designs, but you can use any .bmp (bit map skin) graphic you have stored on your hard drive.

E-ditor is a good choice if you are new at producing eBooks because it is easy to use and allows you to customize the appearance of your eBook.

• Desktop Author

This compiler does not require a browser, nor do you have to download software or plug-ins. The program converts exe. files into pages that look like a standard book. You can create and produce eBook pages scaled to fit on your computer screen without any scrolling. Additional features include WYSIWGY (what you see is what you get) page editing and creation, the ability to manipulate internal images, cut and

paste functions, hotlinks to pages, email, website, or other files. It is an excellent compiler to use for a marketing tool, such as creating brochures and manuals in addition to eBooks.

• EBook Edit Pro

This compiler provides a demo version, which allows you to test out its features. The software uses a Wizard that leads you step-by-step through the set-up and creation of your eBook. Customization includes text editing that appears on the pop-up starting

message window; the ability to allow or prevent resizing of your book and the mouse-click pop-up menu; enabling or disabling the navigation bar and choosing the buttons you want to appear; and customizing the eBook’s desktop icon and the logo that appears on the navigation bar.

Ebook Edit Pro is loaded with excellent features that allow you to create multi-media Ebooks, and includes a Wizard that is customized for beginners and for advanced users. The software uses HTML files, downloading them from the directory where they are saved. Edit and resave your files in the original software used to create those files, and then with a single click you can re-compile your Ebook.

Features include customization of icons, toolbars, and the “about box.” This compiler has a particularly useful feature called the Re-brander feature. This permits you to enter customized code into your Ebook pages and distribute the Re-brander software to your affiliates or distributors. They can then customize the links included in the Ebook, but they can not alter any link or information that you have not

entered a customized code for.

The software includes “eBrand-It” software that allows custom fields for your customer’s name, affiliate ID or URL. This feature is a powerful marketing tool

because affiliates are much happier giving away your Ebook from their own site when they can customize it.

• Ebook Compiler

This compiler offers a demo version that allows you to compile 10 files. If you don’t include graphics, you can create a 10 page Ebook that allows printing and copying of the Ebook. The catch is that you can’t sell any Ebook you create in the demo version.

The purchased software is user-friendly with easy-to-follow help files that not only guide you through the steps of compiling your Ebook, but also explains what an Ebook compiler does. The software provides detailed instructions on how to create source files from Microsoft Word 2000 and 1997, PowerPoint 2000 and 1997, and HTML documents. It contains less detailed instructions for creating source files from

other programs.

This compiler allows for password protection of your entire Ebook or for selected pages. Additionally, you can set a time limit on your Ebook. When the runs out,

the customer no longer has access unless they pay for it. In other words, it allows you to create a demo version of your Ebook for marketing purposes.

You can set a single password or multiple passwords. Using multiple passwords assigns each user their own specific password. Online help files guide you through

setting up your passwords. You can also create a Sales and Thank-you page for selling a password protected Ebook. This is a good choice for the novice,

particularly since it includes basic features for password protection and distribution.

• Activ Ebook Compiler

This is an easy to use compiler that provides excellent features. This software can support HTML, JPEG, GIF, and all active plug-ins. Features includes password protection, branding, internet linking, icon customization, assigning unique serial numbers, splash screen, file compression, and start-up messages. It also provides free lifetime upgrades. Additionally, it includes a pre-processor, re-brander, active script,

and detailed instructions for using HTML, Power Point, and Microsoft Word files.

There are several other excellent Ebook compilers on the market that are worth looking into.

Ebook Generator features splash screens, password protection, branding, icon customization, and compression control. Additionally, it includes virus prevention that alerts the user to any modifications made to your Ebook and offers usage statistics so you can track your Ebook’s use. With all these advanced features, this is an excellent compiler for the beginner because it is exceptionally easy to run.

Ebook Creator is another excellent compiler, supporting HTML, JPEG, GIF, and PNG graphics, and JavaScript, VB script, and Java applets. It also supports all Internet Explorer plug-ins. Standard features include unique serial numbers, direct linking

to a form or a page on your website, disabled right clicking, and search functions. The software allows for expiration after a set number of days or usages, which allows you to create demo versions. You can create up to 1000 different passwords; every time the Ebook is downloaded, a unique password is required to access protected pages. The software provides user-friendly menus and buttons that allow the beginner to the advanced user to easily create their Ebook.

Obviously, there are some excellent compilers out there. So figure out EVERYTHING you need in terms of features, and then compare prices and options. Do take advantage of demo versions if they are offered before purchasing. And then, have fun creating your Ebook!

Success at last, I am an avid reader of high quality ebooks, unfortunately, high quality ebooks being created to advance knowledge and being sold at an affordable price, being extremely difficult to find on the internet today. Internet being the internet, what you think you are buying, especially when relating to ebooks, is not always what you receive.

The problem with the modern internet is that the internet is now an excellent medium to be used to exploit the buyers of all available products and services and in most situations that is exactly is happening in reality.
As I gained experience and expertise in using the internet, from many years of studying through the medium of physical books and electronic ebooks and a four years university undergraduate course – gained Honours with Degree, I realised that the majority of ebooks being sold in the ebook estores. Was in actual fact ebooks which can be obtained for free on the internet?

As a website owner, I write numerous factual articles, which are freely published on the internet using the sometimes free services of Article Distribution Websites. These free articles are used by webmaster/website owners for article websites, newsletters and for email article distribution.

The main attraction for writing articles and giving them away for free to Article Distribution Websites is simply, for promoting an individual website, as every written article contains a specific back link to my pre-selected website.
Major search engines determine the high ranking of individual websites by the number of back links – popularity, of the website. Popularity is not the only criteria which determine the high ranking an individual website, but arguable the most important. Although, the back linking must be of the highest quality, or the back linking can have a reverse affect.

The time consuming activity of writing high quality articles, which can take up to a days work, do not increase my wealth, as the articles are distributed free and with reprint rights, which allow the articles to be freely reprinted, but must include the back link to my individual website.

So in reality, I am creating popularity for my websites which will, in time, elevate my websites, or even longer, combined with other types of advertising, marketing and promoting, to the first three pages of the major search engines for various keywords, being used by search engine users.

The type of website promotion I use by writing articles and distributing the articles free, means I am not exploiting the users of their hard earned dollars. In addition, I refuse to spend a cent on the advertising, marketing and promotion of my many websites. Yet I have all of my websites in the first three pages of the two major search engines, Google and Yahoo. It is hard work, but I enjoy every minute, with no exploitation.

Unfortunately, that statement is not true for all website owners/webmasters, writing an article to be at an acceptable standard to satisfy the publishers is very difficult, because the best and certainly the most affective Article Distribution Websites will review the article, and reject if the article is not written to an extremely high standard.

The only alternative for the unfortunate is to create ebooks which contain the website link, then give them away free of charge and hope they will saturate the internet and multiply by thousands, at the same time increase back links, which will be indexed – recorded, by the major search engines.

Generally these free ebooks are of very limited value, as they are not written for an exclusive audience, only as a tool for creating back links, nothing else. Because of their poor readability, the free ebooks remains valueless as a vessel of gaining knowledge, even worse will contain as many advertisements as the words in the description.

Even worse, many cheap ebook websites will harvest the free ebooks available on the internet, and use the useless – sorry but that’s the best way of describing the free ebooks, on the websites as downloadable ebooks, and sell them as high quality ebooks. In the past I have purchased some of these payable free ebooks, and left a nasty taste in my mouth.

Another disadvantage in collecting or buying free ebooks, is that the free ebooks remains an ideal carrier for the most damaging and persistent viruses and remote controlled Trojans – read descriptions on the internet, if not understood meaning, These unwelcome visitors can be very damaging to ones computer and could easily result in damage and replacement.

As a direct consequence of my nasty experience relating to payable free ebooks, I have created a high quality ebooks estore website and only sell the highest quality ebooks guaranteed with no free rubbish, only the highest quality reading with no exception.

The ebook estore website only stock the highest quality ebook contents, as I write articles on most subjects on a regular basis, and these articles are published by some of the best Article Distribution Websites on the internet, I believe I am more than capable of determining high quality ebooks. I only select the highest quality ebooks available on the internet.

Prices of the ebooks is very affordable, they are all under $8, and in the Bargains category, high quality ebooks being priced on sale at sale prices, as low as $0.99 and $1.99. The ebooks estore have over 700+ ebooks and software available, and this number increases weekly.

So, if you have a love and a desire of reading highest quality ebooks, and wish to enhance your worldly knowledge by reading the highest quality ebooks available on the internet, then look no further and visit an ebooks estore where high quality in ebooks matters and even more important, all high quality ebooks, software and turn key websites are priced below $8. http://www.ebookspals.com The Essential eBooks eStore for Gaining Knowledge and Best Value

When you hire for a writer for your ebook, what you are doing is enlisting the services of a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is a writer who publishes under someone else’s name, with the consent of both parties.

Traditionally, ghostwriters have been and are still today hired by celebrities to write autobiographies when the celebrities are not talented writers. Ghostwriters also sometimes create works for well-known authors, such as Tom Clancy. This practice is done for business reasons, because the author’s name alone will sell the books, no matter who actually wrote them.

Ghostwriters may also write for book series’ that don’t actually have a real-person author. An example of a series written this way is the Hardy Boys series you may remember from your youth. The Hardy Boys cover author, Franklin W. Dixon, does not actually exist. Many romance novel series’ have also been created in this way, where the author name on the cover represents any number or variety of commissioned writers.

With the advent of the Internet and ebooks, today, ghostwriters also write ebooks. When you outsource your ebook to a ghostwriter, you are giving them the job of creating the words in your ebook in exchange for a fee. You still get to put your own author name on the finished product. Ultimately you will own the copyright, and you can sell the ebook as many times as you like. If it sounds like a pretty nice arrangement, it is. It’s all completely legal and commonly done. And you do not have to be a celebrity or Tom Clancy to hire one.

Great things about ghostwriters

Just because a ghostwriter does the writing does not mean that you do not deserve to be the credited author. You will be the originator of the idea, and provide direction to the ghostwriter, so that the written material reflects what you want it to say. You may also create a pen name for yourself if you wish your real name to remain anonymous to casual readers.

Once you hand off the reins to a ghostwriter to prepare an ebook for you, you may never go back and try to write one yourself ever again. A ghostwriter can do so many things for you, from researching to editing. And any writer knows that the process of writing and polishing a book or an ebook takes a significant amount of time. Much more than most readers will ever know. Start-to-finish writing is a large task best left to those who love their jobs, who are willing to spend the time writing and re-writing incessantly until things are just right, and who has talent and experience in the craft.

What they can do

You can outsource more than just rote writing to a ghostwriter. In fact, ghostwriters can be hired to research your topic fully on the Internet or elsewhere. They can then translate your or their research into organized sections and create palatable, conversational paragraphs for your readers. They can interview people that you designate or that they seek out for the ebook.

They can separate the ebook-worthy material from non-ebook-worthy material for inclusion with an eye on what readers are interested in and what you have hired them to write about. In other words, good ghostwriters will stay on the topic as they write and not veer off into irrelevant tangents. It’s actually an art form in itself to be able to insert quips and images that are designed to hold a reader’s interest while quickly and smoothly getting back on track to deliver the information promised by the title and table of contents.

Speaking of the table of contents, an experienced ghostwriter can review rough notes from you and propose a title and table of contents. Ghostwriters can start from notes, organize the material into an outline, generate a table of contents, research and add filling text, make boring information flow like an entertaining conversation, and more. They can basically start with whatever you’ve got to start with and get you from there to a completed ebook.

If you have already tried your hand at preparing an ebook, a ghostwriter can whip your existing draft ebook into sell-able shape. She can review the content, make suggestions, do necessary research, add new sections, repair grammar, or revise any not-quite-perfect portions of the ebook. In fact, it has been known to happen sometimes that one ghostwriter will be hired to edit another ghostwriter’s work. This may be done in a case where you are not satisfied with the result from the first ghostwriter, or can also be done if you just want to polish your product – going on the two heads are better than one philosophy.

She can use a writing style and language that is appropriate for the book. Should it be in first person like this ebook is? Or perhaps it would work better in third person like many reference books are written. Should it be written from a female or male perspective? Ghostwriters will accommodate your preferences, and if you don’t know your preferences, ghostwriters can help you make those decisions.

She can put the ebook into the format that you choose. If you want your pages to appear the size of regular notebook paper (about 8 ½ inches by 11 inches), then the writer can prepare the manuscript to fit. If you like large margins, where the text appears in-between in a narrower column, the ghostwriter can do that. Narrow column ebooks are popular, and easy on the eyes. If you like a blank page preceding chapters, ask for that. For items such as page dimensions, font, and layout, she can make recommendations. She can also, in most cases, provide you the electronic file type that you prefer (MS Word, WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat, Internet html, or other), or make suggestions to you on format.

Finally, good ghostwriters can write quickly. Ghostwriters cannot perform miracles, but it’s not unheard of to get an ebook done in 30 days when you need it fast. Depending on your need and schedule, you can usually find some who will work even more quickly. It’s nice to allow six weeks, but not necessary.

Where ghostwriters lurk

You can find ghostwriters the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is to locate writing or authoring organizations in cities around the globe, and interview writers until you find one that you believe is qualified to write your book.

The easy way to find a ghostwriter is to go to an Internet site where ghostwriters are hanging out, ready to respond to classified ads. You place an ad for your project, and you wait for bids to come in. Two large sites with gobs of ghostwriter of traffic are Elance and Guru.

A third way is to contact ghostwriting companies directly.

Of the avenues available, I recommend going through one of the large sites that have high ghostwriter traffic. Sometimes these types of sites are called freelancer databases, ghostwriter banks, freelancer job banks, or similar.

Get ghostwriters competing for your ebook

The two large online freelancer databases where ghostwriters lurk that I mentioned above, Elance and Guru, operate in essentially the same way. Basically, you post an ad and wait for responses. You choose a writer from the list of responders, agree on a schedule and fee, and then move on and do something else until your ebook arrives to you in your email inbox.

Both sites maintain catalogs of people who provide freelance services. The Elance catalog has over 50,000 people listed. Some of the people in the catalog, or bank, provide software programming or other service. Not everyone in the bank is a ghostwriter. So when you get to the site, you’ll need to navigate to the area that applies to ebooks and ghostwriting. Although this may take you a few minutes at first, the site is easily navigable once you get your bearings. Let’s walk through Elance.

Go to www.elance.com. From the home page, scroll down to the menu along the bottom of the page, and click on “Marketplace.” From the marketplace page, look to the left hand side of the screen, and from that menu, click on “Writing & Translation.”

In Elance’s writing marketplace, browse through others’ ads to see how they are finding ghostwriters, and roughly what the projects are paying. With a quick browse you can see how ads are written and which ghostwriters have responded, and additional details about the advertisers and the ghostwriter responder.

Placing ads is free as of this writing. The ghostwriters are the ones who pay to review the ads. Isn’t that nice? You will need to “subscribe” however, and get some of your information into the database in order to advertise. This is only fair so that responders know what they are responding to and so that there is trust that payment will be made when the job is completed.

I recommend that you subscribe right away, so that the processing can take place while you’re getting your other pre-work done (selecting a topic for your ebook and creating your ad for posting).

Once you place an ad, writers will begin to post online bids for your project. They may offer to write your ebook for less money than the maximum pay you stated in your ad, or they may offer to write the ebook more quickly than you’ve stated you require. Basically, they start a friendly competition (usually friendly) to get your business. Lots of them will be appealing. That’s because it’s a buyers market – good news for you.

Each responder will provide some background information along with their offer. There will be navigable links you can click on to review their history with Elance, their portfolio, and ratings given by some of their clients. Unsubscribed web surfers will not have access to all the detail that you do on the ghostwriters. Likewise, casual surfers will not have access to all of your ad’s details either. From the bids you get, you read up on the materials available and make a selection.

Once you’ve awarded the project to a writer, you’ll work up an agreement between you and the writer, and arrange payment through Elance. There are agreement templates you can use on the site, and there are recommended methods of paying also. You may want to browse through some of this information early on regarding scheduling and payment, even before you place your ad, to make sure you understand the “fine print.” There’s nothing terrible there that I know of, but read it all anyway because it’s the smart thing to do.

Payment can be made before the writing starts, after the writing is completed, or half before and half after the writing is completed. When you do pay, a percentage will be taken by Elance. This fee is currently less than 10 percent and is considered a finder’s fee. Basically, you won’t pay anything to your ghostwriter or to the databank service until you have actually selected a writer.

Guru operates similarly. You can visit www.guru.com to find the company’s agreements, paying procedures, and finder’s fee amounts. The home page of Guru lists categories of freelancers available. You will want to head directly to the “Writing/Editing/Translation” category list on Guru. Currently, there’s a fee structure at Guru that varies depending on what type of subscription freelancers or service companies have purchased. Some freelancers can list basic skills and respond to some ads for free. Paid members and companies will have higher profiles and be able to bid more frequently. To post a “ghostwriter wanted” ad is free. You will still have the power to peruse the entire catalog and invite certain service providers to bid on your project. The finder’s fees range from 5 to 10 percent, and the finder’s fees are pulled from the buyer and/or the seller at Guru.

Guru is a larger site that has won some awards and has a catalog of hundreds of thousands of service providers in their database. Like with Elance, only a fraction of the service providers are ghostwriters looking for ebook work though. But a fraction of almost 500,000 is a good number.

The information available about each service provider, i.e. ghostwriter, can be compared to information available on vendors on the popular eBay auction site. Histories and rankings on the large sites are readily available for each writer or company you are thinking of hiring. You can see if other clients have been satisfied with a writer’s work, and see how many ebooks a ghostwriter has written through the use of the freelancer bank. These indicators can be very helpful when it comes time to make a selection, and I’ll talk more about how to choose a writer in the next chapter.

There is another freelance database on the web where ghostwriters lurk sometimes called AllFreelance. There, ebook creators have been known to find ghostwriters using a procedure similar to the ones at Elance or Guru. Ads are placed, and freelance writers respond with bids. I don’t like the site myself because of the irritating popups. But, it’s got some traffic. If you’d like to check it out, swing by www.allfreelance.com. But don’t say I didn’t warn you about the popups. I’m a busy man, focused on what I want to get done, and therefore I personally don’t generally return to popup sites (as you may be able to tell by now!).

If you don’t want the project details public

You may not wish to reveal your one-of-a-kind ebook subject or title to just anybody in what amounts to a classified ad. But you still want to attract competing ghostwriters to your interesting project. Here’s what you can do. Both of the freelance database sites provide a mechanism for you to post some information in your ad that only the paid subscribers can see. This is a good way to go, and you’ll see during your initial browse of others’ ads that many advertisers do this. You’ll see a symbol next to the project listing that indicates some of the detail is locked from public view. Already, portions of the ads are hidden from public view, and extra “locking” reduces the visible portions even further.

Also, you can be vague in your ad. There’s no need to list your title, ideas of chapters, or even the precise nature of the subject matter. In your ad, you can call your project a “business ebook,” if you like.

When you hire a ghostwriter, you will of course need to deliver the particulars so that they can do a great job for you. Even then, it’s common to have the writer sign a confidentiality agreement. So, basically, don’t worry too much about someone else seeing your idea before your ebook is done. The threat of an ebook idea or title being stolen is not really that high, although as mentioned earlier, ideas are not copyrighted, so someone could rightfully go running off with your idea. The truth is any reader of your book or related sales web site could swipe your ideas just as easily. Regardless of the risks, try not to deliberate or worry excessively. I’m sure you are busy too, and you have better things to do.

You may wonder why the ads are made visible to the public at all. The sites make all ads available in partial form so that unsubscribed visitors may, by viewing samples, be enticed to become members. Everyone starts as a browser and needs something to browse before making larger decisions.

As you browse, you will surely see that invariably, advertisers get some responses that are outrageous. Offers to write a 100 page book in a day for a few hundred bucks. At this stage, just ignore those, and know that regardless of a few sour grapes, overall the system tends to work.

You can move things along a little in terms of trying to get the type of responders you want. Obviously, offering a legitimate amount of time and pay is one way to attract a good ghostwriter. On Elance, you can peruse the database and select certain writers to invite them to bid on your project. On Guru, you can screen out certain types of people from the list to bid on your project.

Once you get to the list on Elance, follow the site’s instructions to invite certain people to bid on your project. You can either browse through the list line by line, and select candidates you like to invite, or you can do a site search for certain types of qualifications. There’s usually a limit on how many freelancers you can “invite” to bid. Ten or fifteen writers should be plenty though. The sites limit invitees to keep advertisers from mass-inviting the whole list. That would serve no purpose since ads are viewable by all members, but some advertisers would surely mass-invite to be more visible than competing projects. Limiting invitees takes care of that potential problem.

On Guru, you can limit your ad allowing only writers with certain qualifications to bid. Because Guru’s database is so large, most advertisers screen out writers who do not have paid memberships. This, in theory, eliminates fly-by-night writers who are not willing to pay or to maintain a monthly subscription to the service.

On Elance and Guru, most ebooks are outsourced for a flat fee. When I say flat fee, I’m talking about the money you offer to pay the ghostwriter (as opposed to the various percentages and fees taken by the database site). If you choose to, you may, in addition to the flat fee, offer a ghostwriter a per-sale percentage. This is a good-hearted thing to do, since the writer created the work. Even ghostwriters have to live. You are never under any obligation, and most ebook owners don’t offer percentages to their ghostwriters.

Alternative to writer banks

Frankly, placing your project ad into a large database like one on Elance or Guru and getting competing bids is the most efficient way to find a ghostwriter. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least let you know that there are some ghostwriters that you can hire directly. I mentioned you could look around in writing organizations, but also, you can go directly to any of the web sites listed in the last section of this book. You will need to do your homework, check references, etc. on any of these ghostwriters, just as you would with ghostwriters on the database sites.

To find more individual ghostwriting web sites, search the Internet for “ghostwriting service,” or “ebook ghostwriters.”

If you hire directly, you will save yourself the finder’s fee charged by the database web sites. However, you will not have access to the competitive marketplace and the ranking information from the large sites. On Elance and Guru, after projects are completed, many clients provide some very valuable and useful feedback on their experiences with the ghostwriters they hired. This feedback is available to future clients and people who are placing ads.

Individuals and companies who provide ghostwriting services but are not bidding for your job through Elance or Guru may charge flat fees, percentages, or per-page rates. Some require partial credit in the ebook. Some of them advertise rates that are rather high compared to the ghostwriter banks, but you may also find some that are comparable, such as www.truetalentmedia.com.

Talk to individual-site potential ghostwriters online to find out their fees, experience, and such. If one can’t help you, he or she may be able to direct you to someone else in their line of work that can.

However you go about finding one of the many ghostwriters that are lurking day and night, for efficiency’s sake, do use the Internet. Post your project on Guru or Elance or both, or initiate contact with an online ghostwriting service. Once you start getting bids from the banks and/or pricing and service information from the individual ghostwriting services, you’ll have decisions to make, and I’ll tell you how to choose a writer in the next chapter.

Some tips on posting your ghostwriter wanted ad

Back to the database sites, posting an ad is simple once you have your topic or title selected. You want to include some particulars, but not all of them at this stage. (Once you negotiate terms with a writer, then you will of course put every item that you require into a contract.)

Your ad should include the following items:

1. Short description of the project. A few lines at most.

2. Maximum amount you are willing to pay. Writers can bid lower than this, but they cannot bid above your maximum offering for your project.

3. Date you will close bidding on your project. Close bidding in a few days or a few weeks. Don’t leave your ad lingering on the site too much longer than that, because it loses momentum. Besides, if you are not getting responses you like, you can always place another.

4. Deadline the ghostwriter will have to meet. Give the writer a month or six weeks if you can. But, if you really need an ebook in seven days or less, then specify that.

If, for example, you’d like to have an ebook written on the subject of how to home school your gifted child, here is some text you might include in your ad.

1. An 80-page or longer ebook covering successful homeschooling techniques to use specifically with gifted children. Research to be done by the writer. Two revisions if necessary.

2. Maximum acceptable bid: $1200.

3. Close bidding date: 12/05/05.

4. Will need completed book within 21 days of job start.

You can specify any other parts of the book you like, but keep your list of requirements relatively short. For example, you may specify that you need a glossary chapter or that you will need drawings and/or photographs included. For an ebook on how to tie your own flies, you may ask that the ghostwriter provide drawings, or you may provide the drawings yourself. The former is easier for you, but will probably drive the cost and delivery time up somewhat.

When you come to an agreement with a writer, you will naturally provide all the other details he or she will need to complete the book. He may need to know what font you would like or what personal details you want included.

It is a good bargain to pay around $1,000 to get an 80-page ebook ghostwritten without drawings, photographs, or cover art included. It is possible to get good ghostwriters sometimes for a tad less. If you offer to pay a maximum of $150 for an 80-page book, you will not likely get a ghostwriter who knows what he is doing. You can advertise a maximum of $1,000 for a 60-page ebook, and you will get some legitimate offers in the range of $500 to $1,000. Although you don’t want to pay a huge amount more than necessary, I do recommend that you offer and pay an adequate amount to get a good ghostwriter. It’s worth it.

My rule is for a simple ebook, I will pay up to $1500. I add more if drawings or photographs are required or if length is greater than 80 pages. My math indicates that I will need to sell roughly 100 ebooks to recoup that money. No problem, since I’m working the marketing and sales end instead of writing the book. And my sales are much higher, generally.

Tell viewers what kind of qualifications you are looking for. Either make the selection on the screen by clicking on the categories provided by the service, or indicate clearly in the text of the ad what type of person you’re looking for.

You will also want to indicate that you may require that the ghostwriter make revisions after you review the ebook. Note this in your ad as well. It is okay to indicate that you would like two sets of possible revisions to be included in the bid. When you negotiate the final terms with the writer, you can specify what types of revisions are included and the timeframes for them to be done.

One thing you do not want to do is to change your mind on what you want after you have already posted your ad. Although posting is free on the ad sites, if you make changes or otherwise renegotiate on terms already established, word will get out. Besides it’s just not a good idea. It wastes your time.

A great way to make sure you’ve included all necessary details, but have not gone overboard with too much detail in the initial stages, is by browsing other ghostwriter-wanted ads Elance or Guru. In ten minutes, you’ll be able to jot down your ad by using one of them as a template.

Posting projects (or, running your ad to find a ghostwriter) requires a little bit of reading time on your end. But once you learn how to post ads the first time, you can repeat the process over and over again with little effort whatsoever.

Do it your way with ghostwriters

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can have it your way with any other route. To get exactly what you want without writing it yourself, hire a competent ghostwriter. There is another way to sell or give away an ebook without having to write it. I’ll tell you about it and then tell you why I don’t much care for it.

Ebooks that have already been written are available for purchase. The process is often called “ebook reselling.” You can actually buy, and pretty cheaply I might add – sometimes for less than a hundred bucks, a pre-written ebook. With the price, you obtain the license to resell. Then you can sell that ebook as many times as you like for any price you like.

I don’t recommend ebook resales for several reasons. First, you don’t get to create your own personal and unique book. Others will also have resale rights. The very customers you are trying to sell to may be also receiving marketing materials from someone else for the exact same book!

Second, many of these resale ebooks contain marketing information or links to other services which serve the purposes of the original writer and not you or your targeted readership. This is one of the ways that an originator gets by with selling the ebooks so cheaply for resale. He heads straight to the bank whenever a reader that you sold the book to buys one of his offered services or other ebooks.

Third, ebook resale services are heavy-handed with advertising. You can’t even pay a visit to one of their web sites without getting bombarded with popups. Nobody likes over-the-top selling or advertising. In fact, no one likes sneaky, subtle advertising either. If your readers go back to the originating web site, which will most definitely be listed in the ebook, then they’ll be bombarded too. With your own ghostwritten ebook, if you utilize advertising of your own services boldly or subtly, at least the advertising you’re exposing to the readers is for products or services that you will receive compensation for. And then maybe you could resell your book…just something to think about.

Ghostwriting gives you a one-of-a-kind product. In the end, although someone else wrote it, you dreamed it up, and you own it outright. Ghostwritten ebooks, compared to resales, offer maximum flexibility for you to market, revise, advertise, and more. You can actually legally pursue anyone that tries to copy the written work or resell your ebook without your permission. You’re protected by the copyright law. Pay the money to get a unique book created that you have control over. Pay extra to get an excellent ghostwriter if you need to (what I mean is don’t always take the lowest bid necessarily). Then you will be proud to sell your well-written, distinctively-your-own, ebook.

Get more interesting articles on Internet Marketing at my blog: http://mfuzi.com

Selling ebooks is not that difficult, but there is a bit of a learning curve.  If you’re somewhat web-savvy, you can do it –  only takes time and some financial investment to sell your ebook by yourself.

The following is a list of virtually everything you need to write and sell your ebook online:

• A Word Processing Program to type it up in.  You’ll also want to use an attractive template — you want the final product to look more like a nice-looking book and less like a college term paper.
• PDF-making software, such as Adobe Acrobat (you can also find free software).  You’ll use this to turn your document into an ebook, as PDF is the standard format for ebooks, and most computer users have PDF-reading capability.
• Automatic digital content delivery service such as e-Junkie, so buyers have immediate access to your ebook.
• A website or blog to promote and sell your ebook.  You can get a free website (such as Webs.com) and simply buy a domain name.  Note that if you plan on using Clickbank to sell, they prohibit you from using a free website.
• A PayPal account to receive payment. Alternatively, you can use the above-mentioned Clickbank to process payment. I strongly prefer PayPal, as they don’t take a significant percentage, and you get your payment immediately.  If you get yourself a PayPal debit card (for free!), you’ll have instant access to your cash.  I’ve been in love with my PayPal debit card ever since I was a poor grad student: I’d sell something on eBay and get instant access to the money, so I could go out and by more instant noodles.
• An autoresponder such as Aweber to stay in touch with customers and prospective buyers, or to deliver free sample chapters of your ebook.
• An education in SEO (search engine optimization) and internet marketing.  After all, you’ll never sell a thing if you don’t get website visitors.

With these elements in place, you should be able to sell your book. If you’d like help releasing and selling your ebook visit MisterEbooks.com, where we’ll provide you with all the resources to set-up and sell your ebook — for free!

Mister Ebooks (a.k.a., Mike) helps you publish and sell your ebook for free. Go here for more info: http://www.MisterEbooks.com

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