Is it ok to outsource the writing of your ebook to a ghostwriter?

Since we have direct experience publishing top selling ebooks that I have written completely and others where I used a ghostwriter, we can confirm that either approach will work. 

There are however some factors you want to take into account when considering outsourcing the writing of your ebook or information product.

3 Tips For Getting Your Ebook Written

1. You want to control the outline. 

No matter how much of the research and/or writing you decide to outsource, you want to outline your ebook, book or info product yourself. "How To", informational ebooks (info products)  are best organized around a set of steps, tips, stages or tasks that will help your reader achieve the desired end result (lose weight, manage stress, train their dog, etc…)  After all, that's why they pull their wallet out of their pocket and send you their order – so they can accomplish something they desire faster, easier or less painfully that they otherwise would be able to do. So, you want to do your research and find out what system will help them achieve their desired outcome – that becomes your outline and you don't want to leave this to someone else because writers don't get this and yet it is so critical to the success of your ebook or info product

2. Writing is as simple as talking. 

When you write an information product, your reader is not looking for brilliant writing, they want to consume your information in a simple, effective, clear and concise way to help them achieve their desired result. Two things will kill an ebook – verbose writing or writing over the heads of your audience and wandering aimlessly around your topic instead of sticking to the outline.  Beyond that, writing is very straightforward if you keep your points clear and concise. 

3. Personalize your ebook. 

Use examples from your own research, experience or from 3rd party research (interviews, case studies) — even if you outsource the writing of your ebook, you want to bring in your own opinions, experiences, knowledge where you can…it personalizes your system and makes your ebook unique. 

Lastly – if you do decide to outsource part or all of your ebook writing, look first for a writer that has direct experience (or at least past experience writing) within your niche.  The advantage is that they can provide experience and examples that add to the value of the ebook and they will often charge much less because they need to spend less time researching and writing. 

The key to writing an ebook effectively is your outline, get that right and you will find your ebook almost writes itself. 

If you want to tap into the #1 resource for information product publishing and marketing to get help writing, selling and marketing your ebook online, then check out Information Marketer'sZone – your one stop training site for high paid information marketers.

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I had a question from a new member of InfoMarketer'sZone this morning that quickly prevented them from wasting their time and effort on an ebook that stood very little chance of selling.

This freelance writer had gotten an idea from a project they were commissioned to write – the topic had to do with technology, but targeted a topic that we know for a fact has very little demand. 

What was the BIG MISTAKE?

The first rule of information publishing and marketing IS…

NEVER trust anyone else with your own market research!

The key to making money with information products IS market research, so it quite simply cannot be left to someone else unless you are guiding them with the exact research you want them to do and then review the results yourself

For every top selling article, ebook, book or other information content campaign there are 100 other bad ones. 

Sure, you may get the sense that those you have written for really understand their business and their market, but most absolutely haven't a clue and will find out as soon as they release their infoproduct.

What you don't want to do is follow them off of the cliff. 

• Know your market
• Know their frustrations and desires
• Know what they are buying already
• If your idea is new, test it small before you go big

You have an amazing skill and passion for writing, but you cannot ignore the important of marketing (and specifically market research) when striking out on your own to become an information publisher online.

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1. From a traditional writing/author perspective where an ebook is thought of as an alternative or additive format to a traditionally or self-published book
2. From an internet marketing perspective where the "opportunity" of writing one's own information products – or how-to ebooks – is a major business model for those wanting to start their own online business without having to exclusively sell someone else's products

Either way, there is often a bias as to what ebook topics sell better than others.

Specific to #2, because the process of learning how to market online comes first, one gets the impression that the only ebooks that sell are those related to online marketing when nothing is further from the truth.

We have several infoproducts (some of which are ebooks) across 4 different niche markets, 3 of which have nothing to do with internet marketing or business at all. 

Topic areas that deal with relationships, self-improvement, hobbies, finance, parenting, health and wellness all do very well – and as you may have guessed, each of these broad ebook topic categories have hundreds of sub-niches with hundreds of thousands of specific topics in each. 

A word of caution however, not just any ebook in these markets will sell well. 

What you have to watch though are general "about" or "informational" works – they tend to sell very mediocre – instead you need to hit a desperate search for specific result – that's what really sells ebooks.

Instead of a general book about ways to lose weight, you will find top selling ebook titles focused on the more specific weight challenges such as losing love handles, or getting rid of belly fat. 

So, a good deal of the profit potential in your ebook has to do with drilling into specific desires for improved results or outcomes within a given target market…instead of losing weight, the desire is to lose love handle fat, instead of improving overall health, the desire is to cure hemhorroids…you get the picture. 

Think of the really big questions, the most significant frustrations, the most desired outcome people want in a given market – that's what you want to target with your ebook.

Sometimes we need to stand back and take a look at ongoing discussions and others with the same experiences to see it more clearly (this is especially true when we write about topics we have lots of experience in ourselves, we tend to forget what the really big desires for information were in the earlier stages)

My only point being that e-books sell based on emotional desire to gain IMMEDIATE information that one believes will help them become instantly more able to achieve their end result.

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For those who have followed the step-by-step plan inside Information Entrepreneur's Success Package, suddenly it hits them, the key to selling ebooks online is right in front of them…their own experiences, information, knowledge and stories.

Here are a few examples:

1. A grandmother that battled debilitating arthritis for years and wrote her tips down for others to benefit from created a thriving online business selling her ebooks
2. A former loan officer and mortgage salesman packaged his knowledge about borrowing money into a highly demanded book that sold exceptionally well online
3. A fitness coach's 15-years of experience led to a series of ebooks that has allowed the fitness coach to retire and passively earn income from their own ebooks that sell online 24-hours a day
4. Here's another example I just came across today, a cab driver who compiled short stories about his experiences driving a cab are being packaged into his own book – I can hardly wait to read that one!

You can publish your own book too…and chances are you already know what you have that will help people, entertain people, instruct people, make them feel better or overcome challenges they are having in their lives. 

With the step-by-step instructions provided inside The InfoProduct Success Guide, nearly any interests, experience or knowledge can be packaged into top selling ebooks or books you can sell online. 

Critical to your book or ebook sales success are:

• Picking a specific purpose or BIG idea for your book or ebook
• Choosing a compelling title that will help your ebook sell
• Learning how important an outline is to getting your book or ebook out within weeks…almost every book writer (including experienced authors) get this totally wrong, the result is months of wasted effort
• Understanding what people really want…and why that can mean a 30-page ebook or book will sell better than a 100-page work
• Inside information on how to quickly pull together the content filling your book or ebook with high quality content leaving your readers wanting more
• Operationalizing every aspect of your book or ebook business so that you keep the majority of profit from your books and ebooks
• Advanced marketing techniques highly effective at getting your book in front of those who really want to buy
• Much more…

Curious about your potential to write an ebook…you really can, leave us a comment and we'll help you get started.

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Case in point, Amazon is beginning to clean house of Kindle e-books that are uploaded containing the exact same content often sold under the publishing rights method of PLR or Private Label Rights. 

The scheme goes like this, you decide to write a 10-page e-book on a topic and then instead of selling that on Kindle, you sell PLR "rights" to hundreds of others so they can publish it as "their own" to unsuspecting customers and make money. 

Only one problem…that ends up littering the market with thousands of e-books that contain the same or very similar content under different titles and author names, rather irritating for the customer as you can imagine.

That's where schemes like this go so wrong…they forget they actually have a customer that needs to be taken care of.  How do I know that? 

If they DID consider the customer, there is no way in hell they would agree to publish the same crap that hundreds of others are publishing…period!

So good on Amazon removing this stuff.

And…if you are a person who really is serious about packaging information to meet a customer's needs and wants, it really is not that tough – you can find out how over at InfoMarketer'sZone. 

Why not have your own unique, popular, top selling e-books on Amazon instead of trying to game the system and get caught?

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Ebooks are HOT…topics from recipe ebooks to health ebooks through general self-improvement and hobby-related ebooks hold incredible opportunity for ANYONE to package what they know or some basic research into a top selling ebook. 

Several of those who have taken our 6 Week InfoProfits Fast-Start Program inside InfoMarketer'sZone are amazed at how simple and quick the entire process from idea through profit can be.

A common question though is around alternative methods of writing or getting content for your ebook…do you have to write the whole thing yourself or can you outsource part of your ebook writing to a freelanceer, expert or author?

OUTSOURCE EBOOK WRITING

We have indeed outsourced writing in the past, but have never outsourced an entire ebook.  In today's market your ebook is not only the key to generating ongoing profits for you, it is your signature, your stamp on a particular market which means you want to keep some of "YOU" in your ebook.

However, there is no reason that you can't outsource 50% or more of your ebook writing to others, enhancing it with your own information, examples, personality and style throughout.

In fact, the combination of outsourced content can work extremely well to…

• make writing your ebook much faster
• providing additional points of view and information sources
• fill in research gaps with real experience
• mix up the flow to keep your ebook fresh and interesting for your reader

So, what are some of the techniques we have used to outsource content for our ebooks?

1. Hired Help – Outsource a chapter or two – I've done this as outsourced articles with very precise questions to be answered. If you outsource sections of your ebook as "article" projects you can reduce the cost significantly. The key is to make sure your outsource freelancer knows you want specific content (send them a question by question outline) as they are often used to doing SEO (keyword focused) general articles which don't make for good content.
I typically look for people that have experience AND writing ability with the topic so they can add their personal touch to the ebook as well

2. Expert Interviews - I have also created entire ebooks as well as enhanced with chapters that were the transcription of a telephone interview with an expert. That way they don't have to write, they talk and you get dozens of pages of great content

3. Public domain material. On occasion I have found historical works in the public domain that enhance my ebooks., For example, one ebook I wrote was on a specific benefit of Yoga (applied to a common societal problem) and I wanted a short chapter on the history of Yoga…I found that quickly in the public domain, cleaned it up and used it for that chapter.

In-depth examples of how we planned, outlined, researched and outsourced using these techniques are given inside InfoMarketer'sZone – there are some techniques that can save you money, trouble and time…well worth checking out. 

Have a question about your ebook project?  Leave us a comment and we will respond within 24-hours.

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The most common question I get asked over at InfoMarketer'sZone is "How long will it take to make $X with my ebook?" 

Typically the $X is somewhere between a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars a month. 

Having dozens of e-books and diigital information products on the market, let me assure you there can be significant income generated from your own e-books or online training programs…but there are other positives that you may not have even fathomed.

1. A Follow-Up Training Program, Course or Home Study Program.  Since information products (by design) help people have, be or do something they badly desire – there tends to be significant opportunity post-sale to help those who initially bought your e-book.  Whether these requests come from 5% or 25% of your buyers, the fact is there IS opportunity to follow up with more detailed, hands-on, and in some cases, personalized training.  Often this is really just an elaboration of what is in your e-book or book, but can often fetch you in excess of 10X the price of the ebook or book.  Launch an e-book on stress relief that sells for $27 and you will get 10-20% of those who buy your ebook willing to pay you for a more involved, back-end course for $100-$300 depending on the content and format. 

2. Coaching – Personal or Group.  This one is your call, not everyone wants the direct contact with your market that 1:1 or group coaching demands, but for others this can turn into a very profitable, exciting and effective way to grow their business.  For many topics, 1-hour of consulting can range from $150-$350/hour and beyond.  Personally, I limit my coaching, but do find it both profitable, as well as a great way to keep close to my market AND test new products, tips and ideas. 

3. Leverage Publicity – If you have something else to sell, an existing business, an e-commerce site, an offline business, a software product or a partnership where you link up with another product creator to help market their product, then books are great ways to gain publicity.  With a good hook, you can gain speaking engagements and really take your marketing to the people

4. Additional info-products.  I've had some students decide to roll out 2-3 ebooks or books each year and to keep their business humming along with just those products.  Not only can this make you a very good living, but over time amasses a huge amount of content that can be delivered in other formats for added profits…or even licensed to more ambitious people while you sit back and collect ongoing royalties. 

5. Sell A Service:  If you are a lawyer that specializes in helping businesses with legal issues as they relate to the internet, an accountant that specializes in a certain niche of business, a search engine optimization expert, or any other service imaginable, you can turbocharge your web marketing by writing a book and selling it online.  Suddenly you become more visible, gain crediiblity and become a top expert in your field that previously had no knowledge of you or your service.  

I have yet to come across anyone who has spent time writing their own ebook or book and regretted that decision. 

The fact is the benefits far outweigh any risks, at least in our experience.  What about yours?

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Yes, your ebook, book, report or other information product does have these benefits:

• Instant branding – you become one of the leaders in your market very quickly
• New partnership and co-branding opportunities.  Suddenly others with influence see you as important and treat you that way in the eyes of the market
• You open a new, powerful line of publicity
• You create a new line of income…information is extremely profitable and is nearly unlimited in potential
• Is a pre-requisite to getting interviews, speaking engagements, seminar gigs, etc…
• Sets the foundation for future opportunities to produce infoproducts

We have helped hundreds turn their desire to create products, write books and share information into tangible and digital information products through InfoMarketer'sZone – not once has anyone regretted the experience and often they were blown away by the response.

The Lifehacker article hit on some very important aspects of writing your own book:

• Choosing a topic you are passionate about is absolutely necessary in our experience
• Formulating your own unique angle (unique value proposition in old speak)
• Promotion – even the best books in the world require hard work and smart promotion

But here is a concept they DID NOT mention – that is as important, if not MORE important these days:

• Building your platform in ADVANCE of your book launch

Today, you have so many options of generating content that sets your market up for your book launch…

• YouTube for videos
• Ustream for live video streaming
• Facebook for building a following
• Twitter for building a network and chatting up your marketplace
• Your own blog that can go viral with syndicated content and comments
• Commenting on other authority blogs (I made one comment on an authority blog this morning that brought in nearly 100 new Twitter followers and dozens of list signups in under 2-hours!)

Look – if you can amass a few thousand followers, a blog with hundreds of readers daily, a mailing list of 5000 or more subscribers and thousands of watchers on video sites, then you have the start of a nice platform that can be leveraged with your effort to seek out publishers or to help with a self-published book launch.

So, even if you are not 100% sure on your book topic or haven't written your ebook yet, go ahead and start building your platform right NOW!

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Sure, writing ebooks takes time.

Yes, writing your own ebook takes some thought and some research

And yes, there is a learning curve to turning your idea or dream into an ebook or book with your name on it that ends up in people's hands.

However, when you really commit to turning your idea into action for 30-60 minutes each day and get your ebook to market you will feel satisfaction, excitement and delight that cannot be explained by most. 

Ebook writing involves 3 very distinct phases:

1. Picking an ebook topic and angle which is closely aligned with choosing a target market and purpose, problem or desire within that marketplace.  Choosing your market is not only critical to the level of demand for your ebook, but will also make a big difference on your ability to finish and market your writing. 

2. Product development…which involves outlining, researching and developing the content for your ebook.  Some people write everything, others dictate and translate their dictation into text while still others look to outsourcing, freelancers or public domain for some or all of the content for their ebook or book. 

3. Marketing your ebook is where many people fall on their face.  It is one thing to create an ebook around a hot topic, and then quickly write that ebook so it is ready to sell..but how well your ebook sells or gets distributed has everything to do with how well you market it.  Marketing involves everything from design and packaging of your ebook, getting setup with ebook directories and retail distribution, website and blog design, content development, SEO for web content, publicity and PR, social networking and more….

The great news is that each phase of writing ebooks is now completely within reach for ANYONE who wants to share information with the world – at InfoMarketer'sZone we see amazing examples of completely untrained, new people packaging information into ebooks and books that go on to sell like crazy. 

Here is an intriguing blog post from Cara Stein who provides some good advice based on her experience writing here ebook on "How To Be Happy"

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Many people assume that unless you have an idea or expertise in business or health you don't stand a chance of seeing the benefit of selling your own books or ebooks.

Yet we've had hundreds of people through training within InfoMarketer'sZone that have proven their are markets as varied as Pets, Sports, Hobbies and even specific trade topics that can be the target of an ebook publishing business you can turn into your own principal income generator.

I remember back in 1999 a used car salesman named Corey Rudl authored Car Secrets Revealed, one of the first-ever ebooks launching a generation of Millionaire information publishers who took inspiration from his achievements.

Now we get another auto dealership owner coming out suggesting that those in the auto sector (this goes for any profession including lawyers, real estate sales reps, accountants, counselors or any other self-employed profession) can significantly benefit by having their own ebook or book to help elevate their position in the marketplace.

Write a book that helps people choose the correct vehicle, understand the in's and out's of buying a car, or compile stories that you collect from car buyers that can help prospects get first hand information from others who have purchased.

Turn that into content such as a report, ebook or book and self-publish your work to enhance your position in the market.

It doesn't matter what profession, career or business you are in – writing a book can be your ticket to more leads, higher sales and customer retention.

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