📚 Ebooks: AI-Assisted Writing, Preselling, Writing in Public

In this Trends.vc Report, we talk about how to write ebooks faster, boosting visibility, getting early readers, building an email list and more.

🔍 Problem

You need an easy way to learn from the lives of others and explore new worlds.

💡 Solution

Ebooks offer an endless library that travels with you wherever you go.

🏁 Players

Ebooks

The Embedded Entrepreneur • How to build an audience-driven business
Landing Page Hot Tips • How to build effective landing pages
Doing Content Right • How to build successful blogs and newsletters
Deploy Empathy • Practical guide to interviewing customers
The Pathless Path • Imagine a better story for work and life
22 Laws of Digital Writing • The rules of sharing knowledge in the digital age
Team Lead 101 • Manage and grow engineering teams in small startups

Ebook Tools

Gumroad • Publish and sell ebooks
Canva • Design the cover and layout for your ebook
ChatGPT • Get help with storytelling, editing, proofreading and more
Hemingway • Check your writing complexity
Magic Author • Write, translate and format your books
Ulysses • Focused writing with proofreading and editing assistance

Ebook Publishing Services

StreetLib • Distribute ebooks and audiobooks to worldwide book retailers
Ebook Launch • Edit, design and format ebooks
Pique Publishing • Writing, editing and design services for ebooks

🛠 How to Write Ebooks

Repurpose your existing content to get to market faster.

Michael Hyatt turns his best blog posts into books such as Platform.

Victoria Kurichenko turned this article into an ebook on ranking higher on Google.

Anthony Moore used his older content to write ebooks such as What Extraordinary People Know.

Write in public to boost your visibility.

Michele Hansen wrote Deploy Empathy in public.

Kevon Cheung wrote Find Joy in Chaos in public.

Arvid Kahl wrote The Embedded Entrepreneur in public.

Base your book on interviews. Take the guesswork out of what to write.

Darko wrote Zero to Users based on interviews with indie hackers.

Lokesh Gupta wrote Art of Email List Growth based on insights from top email marketers.

Docu Magazine wrote Docu Books with interviews and images from street photographers.

Philip Kiely wrote Writing for Software Developers based on interviews with software developers and writers. He made $39,141.

🌱 How to Grow Ebooks

Use your ebook as a lead magnet to build an email list.

HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM platform. It has free ebooks on marketing, sales and more.

WordStream helps to manage online ads. It has 7 Fundamental Facebook Advertising Tips.

Springly helps to manage nonprofit organizations. It has A Guide to Nonprofit Networks to help you start one yourself.

Go on podcasts as a guest to reach new audiences.

Rachel Maddow talked about Prequel on Pod Save America.

Arvid Kahl shared the making process of his books on Uncommunity.

Alex Hillman shared the lessons from The Tiny MBA on The Business of Freelancing podcast.

Work with reading clubs to share your book with book lovers.

Sapphic Book Club lets authors submit books for readers to review.

Adam Grant hosted a book club with a giveaway of the Tokyo Vice ebook.

Rebecca Dekker offers free copies of Babies Are Not Pizzas to book clubs.

💰 How to Monetize Ebooks

Use crowdfunding to get early revenue, customers and feedback.

Don MacDonald raised $9,268 for Machiavelli.

Rob Walling raised $108,837 for The SaaS Playbook.

Nikki Jefford raised $6,000+ for Spellcaster Wild Card.

Sell your books on multiple platforms.

Arvid Kahl sells his ebooks on Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, Gumroad and more.

David Gaughran sells his ebooks on Amazon, Apple Books, Rakuten Kobo and more.

Add value with bonus resources such as templates, checklists and more.

Tomek Rudzki wrote The SEO Playbook. It has an SEO checklist with 140 items.

Sleepless Yogi wrote HTML to React. It has project ideas, code examples and more.

Mohamed Keita wrote How to Start Your Vending Business. Which comes with a contract template, buyer checklist and more.

🔮 Predictions

Authors will use AI to get help with writing, editing and visuals.

Joe Popelas shares how he made $200,000 by selling books generated with ChatGPT.

The Mystery of Chimney Rock is a visual novel based on the book "The Mystery of Chimney Rock" by Edward Packard. The backgrounds were generated by Midjorney and upscaled with Topaz Gigapixel AI.

We’ll use AI to chat with books. We’ll be able to ask questions, get summaries and more.

PDF.ai lets you chat with any PDF document.

iChatBook lets you ask questions to your ebooks.

BookAI.chat lets you upload and chat with ebooks.

REDiron Bookmate lets you chat with an ebook with your voice.

YouAi MindStudio made Book AI that turns ebooks into chatbots.

Sahil Lavigna let you chat with his book The Minimalist Entrepreneur.

Authors will build paid communities and offer their ebooks for free to paid members.

Mark Manson offers his ebooks for free to paid subscribers.

Paul Millerd offers The Pathless Path for free to paid subscribers of his Pathless newsletter.

Dickie Bush, Nicolas Cole and Daniel Bustamante offer 3 ebooks for free to Ship 30 for 30 members.

😠 Haters

“There isn't a lot of money to be made with ebooks.”
Many authors write books because they want to tell a story, feel fulfilled, build a legacy and more. If you want to make money, it can be wise to choose another business model.

“Some of the ebooks you shared have print versions.”
While this is true, a lot of strategies we shared work for ebooks and physical books.

“Ebooks are prone to piracy.”
This is true for all digital products.

🔗 Links

This Ebook Made $499,585 • The thread for this report.
Writing a Report on Ebooks • The tweet behind this report.
How to Write a Good Story • Universal elements that all good stories need.
How to Make an Ebook • How to write, publish and market an ebook.

📁 Related Reports

Micro-Education Businesses • How to learn new skills fast.
Build in Public • How to break through the noise.
Presales • How to get early customers and feedback.
Personal Brands • How to show why you are worth trust and attention.
Self-Publishing • How to publish “long-tail” books with more control and upside.

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