Are you making money from writing?
Of course, authors should, by definition, be making money from writing books. But this can become a complete furphy when it comes to matters that concern the Internet, and especially when one looks at writing ebooks as against writing blog posts.
I do both. Which means I publish ebooks and blog regularly, and both are satisfying and enjoyable in so many ways, but at the same time it can be a bit disheartening. Let me explain.
When I write a book or ebook that is, I promote it and people buy it and read it. Some like what I have written, and naturally, some don’t. But, they buy a product and do what they will with it. Ok, it’s only an ebook, which is simply an electronic file, but it’s still a product that has value. A few bucks
Okay, it’s only an ebook, which is simply an electronic file, but it’s still a product that has value. A few bucks buys about three to four hours of reading, which took me, at least, a few months of hard work to write. Quite honestly, whichever way you look at it, it’s a pretty good deal.
But with blogging, it takes me mere minutes – well about thirty to forty-five minutes to be precise, to write a six to eight hundred word blog post. Of course, no one buys my blog posts, so I have to rely on PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to make money from writing to cover the costs of my hosting and software costs.
In a perfect world, my ebooks would make me a tidy income, and my blogging would cover its costs. I mean, an ebook is a product offering value, while blogging may be informative, but it is certainly not a saleable item.
Yet here’s the killer. As has been the case with the Internet since day one, the number of people who are prepared to buy something is far outweighed by those who are all too happy to click – on anything, including ads of course, so long as it doesn’t cost anything. Yes, the Internet is free! It’s an old cliché, but still too true.
Sadly, though, what these happy ad clickers fail to realise, is that they are contributing to a massive ‘paid’ Internet advertising economy, in a huge way, and perversely, discouraging me from doing what I love. Writing books.
For the current year to date, the graphic above shows my split of ebook royalty income against my blog advertising income. So where does the value in my making money from writing lie? It’s a no-brainer. I should forget all about publishing ebooks and concentrate on blogging. To put it in even more (horrific) perspective, my ebook royalties average between $1.50-$2.20 per ebook sold while my PPC advertising averages between $0.70 – $1.60 per click. So much for value!
Then, if I factor in the amount of time I invest in writing ebooks and blogs, the graph above would be completely inverted, as I spend 75% of my time writing ebooks, and 25% of my time writing blog posts.
So don’t wait for my next ebook. But instead perhaps, await my new blog on hamster husbandry.
The Internet is indeed a perverse market.
