Writing an E-book Is Not the Side Hustle for You

And I’ll prove it — Read this before writing your e-book

I published my first e-book on Aug. 15, 2021. Naturally, it’s a book about side hustles because if you didn’t already know, I love extra income.

Over the last 2 months, my book earned around $100 in royalties. While this money does excite me, writing a book as a side hustle isn’t something I’d recommend.

Books are a great source of passive income and they will remain just that unless you’re really willing to put in the extra work. Making a side hustle out of an e-book requires a lot of work, even after the final product is published.

Here are a few pointers to be aware of if you’re thinking about writing your first e-book.

More than just writing

As a new author, I can safely say writing the e-book is only half the battle.

The other half includes paying for marketing, monitoring ad campaigns and watching your Amazon Best Sellers Rank rise and fall, to name a few.

There are a ton of unspoken caveats that go with publishing an e-book. The crazy part is you won’t learn about these caveats until after you publish your book.

Here’s an example: On Amazon, published books can be added to additional categories to get more sales and better rankings. However, figuring out how to do this and finding the best categories for your book is not explained by Amazon.

A tool called Publisher Rocket takes data from your e-book and tells you the best categories it would fit in. It’s a $100 tool that you might not have known about before reading this story.

Sadly, Publisher Rocket doesn't detail how to add your e-book to these categories. You still have to discover that part on your own. Better turn to YouTube and figure that step out next!

This is one example of the twists and turns involved with publishing an e-book — and it had nothing to do with writing!

Many writers fear the strenuous writing schedule associated with publishing an e-book, but the publishing and marketing processes are just as rough.

Most books can be blogs

Even as a published author, I’m a strong believer that most books can be blog posts. I didn’t need to type out 100+ pages to explain 50 side hustles you can do from your house. I could’ve created a nice, fat listicle instead.

The internet is proof we don’t need a book to find answers. One quick Google search and walla, you now know how to bake a cake or start a side hustle.

For anyone thinking about writing an e-book, I highly suggest first trying writing online to some degree. Even if it’s just sending out a daily tweet, you might quickly find you can reach your desired audience without having to publish it in a book.

As cool as it is for my mom to go to work and talk about her author son, the work involved isn’t worth it when you can write online instead.

Marketing sucks

Marketing an e-book is hard.

Maybe it’s because I went to school for writing instead of marketing? Maybe it’s because I’m cheap and don’t want to spend a lot on ads? Maybe it’s because marketing is for marketers, not writers?

Whatever the reason, paying Amazon to spend your ad campaign money for you and shove ads in front of online shoppers is expensive.

Finding relevant, competitive keywords is my least favorite part of the ad experience. The good keywords that drive sales for my book are crazy expensive. The crappy keywords are cheap but don’t convert.

You either have the bankroll to market your book and churn a profit or you don’t and you pay for your ad not to show up.

I suggest building an email list before writing your book. My email list is probably the only reason my book has any sales. I know this because my ad campaigns have been so unsuccessful it’s laughable.

You can also pay for email blasts on platforms like Fiverr or Goodreads, but those are hit-or-miss.

Write your e-book for fun

My best advice for anyone who still wants to write an e-book is to do it for fun.

Do it because you want to become an author with a published book. Take your time writing it, spend a little money on a cover you like and promote it for free wherever you can.

It’ll be cheap, easy and — hopefully — enjoyable.

Do not write an e-book if you’re looking for a sure-fire way to make money.

It’s not a side hustle that can guarantee instant or extra income. You could quickly find yourself owing a lot more money to ad campaigns than you’re receiving in royalties.

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