It is really good to go for the route where you can be able to make more money but is it with paperbacks or with ebooks? Find out which version has worked best for me in terms of generating profit.
The question I received today was, what would make money in 2020, writing a book or an ebook? Well, it's a very interesting question because of course, we don't want to waste money.
We don't want to focus on doing just an ebook or an audiobook or maybe a paperback book if it's not going to be making as much money. So, we must get it clear in our own mind.
We must understand what exactly is the best strategy. So that we don't end up wasting our time and our effort only to find out that we are not earning as much as we could.
This can be quite a bit frustrating when we are using our resources and time and only to find them to be wasted. But before I answer the question, check out my free Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist. It has helped me publish over 170 books and running, so take a look at that.
Well, where did I start? I started in 2015 with Kindle. The reason I started with Kindle was not necessarily because it would make me more money. But it is because it was the easiest place to start.
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So I started with Kindle and I got the Kindle book out. I then found that, that alone, the barriers to just writing the book and getting it structured and formatted. And then figuring out how to get it produced into a Mobi file that could then be posted.
What about the Table Of Contents, the Cover, the Description, and all of these other things? I found it to be a big enough problem that I didn't need any more complications than just with that.
Kindle Is Your Starting Point
The basis was not, where can I make the most money but rather where should I start? It's interesting because the answer to the question is that most money is to be made in the paperback.
Now, there are exceptions to this within the romance genre which I do not publish. But within the romance, because people do not wish to be holding books. So generally, ebooks or audiobooks will make a lot more money in that area than with the paperbacks.
Other than books, a person doesn't wish to have a print version in their hands, excluding those. Then you will find that it is going to be the paperback books.
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Even your Kindle books and your ebooks will need people to find your paperback books. Some people just like to hold the paper in their hands and so you will make more money with paper books.
However, I would just say that you do not want to start with paper books. You should still start with Kindle or ebooks because it is easier and it gets you started. And if you are using a tool like Jutoh which is the tool of my choice because it works across all the different platforms.
Here is my affiliate link for Jutoh that is the best tool in my opinion. It is easy to take what you have done for your Kindle version and very quickly put it into an ebook version. Into a paperback or hardback or within Lulu or Ingram Spark or Amazon Publishing Print.
You can then use it in these different areas. The other one I would just say is that you also wish to have it in ACX, in an audiobook as well.
Have All Of The Versions
So in 2020, the answer is to get yourself started right away with the Kindle version. Because it is the easiest and then afterward, you can slowly move over to the other formats. It will be the paper version which will make you the most money and then the audiobook version.
This is just from my experience and most experience of other publishers. It comes back to the paperback version of getting your pricing right on them. You will then find that you will be making more money.
But we do never wish to limit the distribution that we have on our books. We want as many people as possible to see it in as many formats as possible. That is going to give us our greatest profit which comes back to, which will make you more money?
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The answer is all of the above. Paperback first but we want all the formats because really, we don't know which outlet. Is it Amazon that's going to sell the most for us?
Or maybe it's Lulu in the hardback version? Or maybe the distribution within the paperback through Ingram Spark? So it is very difficult to know which one.
What have you found? Have you made more money with paperbacks or with ebooks? Which version or format have you found most effective? Leave a comment below in the comment section and let me know what has been the most effective for you.