Learn How To Create A Profitable Ebook With Abby Lawson

Today, I have an informative interview to share with you that will show you how to create an eBook. I recently had the chance to interview my friend Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog, who explains how creating eBooks may be a great income source for you.

Abby made over $110,000 from sales of digital products (such as eBooks) in 2015 and is on track to crush that in 2016. She started 3 years ago knowing nothing about blogging and now makes six figures a year, due in large part to her eBooks. She is now teaching others the process she uses to write and launch profitable eBooks, and you guys, it is genius!

If you are looking for a new business idea or even just a side hustle, then you may want to look into how to create an eBook.

Check out the interview below for more information on how to create an eBook. If you've ever thought about writing an eBook but weren't sure where to start, today's interview will help you learn how to create an eBook and successfully sell it! Abby also has a course that teaches you how to create an eBook called BookBoss that I highly recommend. I am currently taking it and applying everything to my affiliate income eBook. 

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Please give us a little background on yourself. Can you tell us more about your blog, why you started it, when you started it, etc.?

I started Just a Girl and Her Blog on a whim in January 2013. I was staying at home with my two sons at the time and was just looking for a creative outlet and a project to keep me busy. I didn't start with the intention of turning the blog into a full-fledged business, but I soon caught the blogging bug and began to learn everything I could about growing my site.

Today, Just a Girl and Her Blog focuses mostly on home decor and organization posts, and we also (like Michelle!) have a transparent business and publish income reports each month. My husband, Donnie, works with me on the blog full time as well, and we recently started a second site, BuildingAFramework.com, which focuses solely on blogging and online business topics.

 

What's your favorite way to make money blogging?

Creating and selling my own digital products, like eBooks and courses, is my favorite way to make money blogging.

There is something really gratifying about earning money from something you created yourself from beginning to end, and I love that digital products allow me to help people in a more in-depth way than I ever could through a blog post alone.

 

What made you decide to write an eBook? 

I wrote my first eBook because Donnie made me. 😉

I was terrified to write an eBook because I was afraid no one would buy it or that people would think I was silly or that I wouldn't know how to market it. Donnie is pretty convincing, though, and so I got writing, he began figuring out what tools we needed and which strategies we should use to launch, and our first eBook, Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook, was born!

Since then we have written two more eBooks, Simplify: 35+ Printables to Help You Organize Your Life (a collection of organizational printables) and The Paperless Home: How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Life (which explains how to get rid of paperwork and use a digital system instead). We also have a printable planner called The Intentional Life Planner, and we just released our first online course, BookBoss: How to Write and Launch a Profitable eBook in 90 Days or Less.

 

If you don't mind, how much money have you made from eBooks?

In 2015, we made over $110,000 from sales of digital products, and in the first quarter of 2016, we've made over $58,000 from digital product sales already.

 

Is it hard to learn how to create an eBook? 

I wouldn't ever say that writing an eBook is an “easy” task, but if you know the steps to take to plan and execute a launch, it is definitely doable to learn how to create an eBook.

I typically recommend a time period of about 90 days to write and launch an eBook– it would be a challenge to do it well in a much shorter time period, and when we've tried to go longer than that, we end up feeling like “Oh we have so much time!”, put things off, and end up doing everything in the last 90-ish days anyway!

 

Who can make money from an eBook? Do they need to have a blog?

I would recommend that people have started a blog and developed a consistent posting routine before beginning to write an eBook. You definitely don't have to have a huge following or have been blogging for years and years, though.

I would say that most people wait too long before writing their first eBook!

What do you like about writing eBooks? 

I love that they allow me to help my readers solve a problem or meet a need in a more in-depth way that a blog post could. I love that they're fairly simple to create, which allows you to focus on the all-important launch process.

They're also a great way to help readers transition from coming to your blog just for free content to getting used to purchasing something from you since eBooks are typically lower priced than courses or larger products.

I love earning money from eBooks because when you have the right systems in place, your sales are on autopilot, so it really can become passive income.

 

What specific steps does a person need to learn how to create an eBook?

I think the biggest thing bloggers can do to set themselves up for success with eBook writing is growing a focused, dedicated email list full of people who are interested in their eBook topic.

The quality of the email list will play a huge role in determining how successful the launch is. It is also important to create an organized, detailed launch plan so that you know when you're going to post and guest post about your topic, when you're going to email your list, when you're going to do social media series and shoutouts, when you will set up all of your systems and payment processors, etc.

The more specific the launch plan, the easier it will be to execute the launch because you will know exactly what you have to do when. After launch, you can continue to drive sales by sending people to a lead magnet that is related to your eBook topic, continuing to post and guest post about your topic, and getting the word out on all of your social channels.

 

What costs are associated with writing an eBook?

There can be very little cost to writing an eBook.

For our first book, the only money we spent up front was $100 to a designer to create the cover for us; we did everything else ourselves.

We now typically spend a little more than that for the cover plus related graphics we use for promotion (we pay our designer $50 per hour). We pay a monthly fee for Instapage, the service we use to create our landing pages.

There are monthly fees and small transaction fees associated with the provider you choose to use to process your payments (we use both Gumroad and SendOwl). We pay a percentage to affiliates for any sales they send our way. We also pay for our email service, ConvertKit, though we use it for purposes other than launching eBooks as well.

 

Are there any other tips that you have for someone who wants to learn how to create an eBook?

Set a firm launch date, make a solid plan, and go for it!

So many people say they want to write an eBook, but they never take action and actually do it! Yes, there are a lot of steps in the process, but if you just take it one step at a time, you will get there!

 

What can a person learn from your course?

BookBoss walks bloggers through the entire eBook writing and launching process step by step, teaching them everything they need to know in a way that is easy to understand.

There are 9 modules that cover everything from choosing the perfect topic to making a launch plan to email marketing strategies, and much, much more. Detailed tech trainings teach students all about how to set up their landing page and shopping cart system, how to organize and execute their email systems, and how to format their eBook to make it look professional.

We truly tried to include everything in the course that we wish we would have had when we were learning how to write and launch eBooks ourselves.

Bloggers could definitely spend a few years doing research, trying different methods, and learning from their mistakes– that's what we did! But BookBoss can save them a lot of time and frustration by laying out a clear, proven path to eBook success and helping them to have a profitable launch the first time around.

Click here to check out BookBoss.

Are you interested in learning how to create an eBook?