Selling E-Books to Earn Extra Cash

With low production costs and little hassle, creating an e-book can help boost your income and reputation.

Tara Jefferson spent a year and a half on a book proposal for traditional publishers before she decided to just write the book. Last May, she produced an e-book titled Make It Happen: The Young Mommy Guide to Creating the Career You Crave using Amazon's Create­Space, at no cost. Jefferson, 26, has sold some 650 copies, pocketing about $840. "It exceeded my expectations," she says.

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As e-books become mainstream, authors are taking advantage of low do-it-yourself costs. Self-published titles at e-book publisher Smashwords more than tripled in 2011 to 92,500, up from 28,800 in 2010.

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Anyone can create a digital book free with such publishers as CreateSpace, Lulu and Smashwords. You'll keep a percentage of your sales, often in the range of 60% to 90%; the publisher or distributor takes the rest. If you're serious about selling, invest in professional design, editing and marketing, says Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. Basic serv­ices from self-publishing sites or outside sources run as little as a few hundred dollars. Top-of-the-line serv­ices could run $10,000 to $20,000. Be aware that you may not recover your costs.

Jefferson, who is making a career of writing for young mothers, has widened her circle of connections and landed speaking gigs. And successful self-publishers sometimes snag traditional publishing deals.

Lisa Gerstner
Editor, Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine

Lisa has been the editor of Kiplinger Personal Finance since June 2023. Previously, she spent more than a decade reporting and writing for the magazine on a variety of topics, including credit, banking and retirement. She has shared her expertise as a guest on the Today Show, CNN, Fox, NPR, Cheddar and many other media outlets around the nation. Lisa graduated from Ball State University and received the school’s “Graduate of the Last Decade” award in 2014. A military spouse, she has moved around the U.S. and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two sons.