I don't know about you, but I've always been really fascinated by the publishing world, in particular, Amazon and the ebook phenomenon. Writing eBooks has become a bit of a passion of mine, one I would never have thought I'd take to.
Many of you already know that I started my own ebook journey over 5 years ago, where I started learning aggressively how to make money writing ebooks and self-publishing them.
Now, let's get one thing straight. Anything that you do that's outside the norm, i.e., not making money from your job, is going to require some extra effort on your part.
The reason why many self-published authors are successful is that they got up off their asses and did something – they didn't sit around waiting for the book to write itself or market itself – they researched, tested and made things happen.
If you want to make an extra $1000 writing ebooks – it's gonna require some effort on your part!
Since I started writing ebooks in July 2014, I've self-published 40+ since then. I was making between $1500-$2000 USD per month from these books and while that might not seem like a lot – it made a difference to our bank balance!
I hope you're excited by that because if you're anything like me, you'll be thinking to yourself, “Wow, if Lise can publish another 20 books, she could double that income…”
Just think about that for a second – now I don't know about you, but I'd rather write ebooks over taking on a second job to pick up that sort of cash. You too? Thought so…
If you're still not sure about this whole ebook thing, read on to learn more about how you can make an extra $1000 writing ebooks right now – as a ghostwriter!
Whoa, bet you didn't see that coming…
Table of Contents
Make an Extra $1000 Writing eBooks
How? As a Ghostwriter… even easier with AI tools!
If you’ve never heard of the term ‘ghostwriting’ before, here’s a brief explanation so you can understand what the heck I'm talking about!
A ghostwriter is a ‘writer for hire’ who is paid to write an ebook, but takes none of the credit for the ebook once it’s completed. This means that your name does not appear as an author for the book nor would it appear as a contributor. You are giving all rights to the work your write to the person paying you to ghost write the ebook.
This might sound odd to you, but it’s quite a common practice. Many people use ghostwriters, not just to write ebooks, but to write blog posts, speeches, social media posts etc.
In fact, for many of my clients, I ghostwrite their social media posts. I act like I’m them – this is ghostwriting at a simple level.
And just in case you're wondering – no-one ghostwrites MY blog posts or my ebooks 🙂
Ghostwriting ebooks is a great side hustle to do because it allows you to charge higher rates, get paid what you’re worth for the writing you do, but take on none of the responsibility (or recognition) associated with being the author of a book.
As a ghostwriter, you can charge higher rates because you’re doing all the work. You can charge even more if you’re an expert in a certain field, such as a doctor, nurse, vet etc, etc. Imagine getting paid to write about your current job or expertise…
You can also negotiate different deals with an author, depending on what you’re writing about.
An Example:
You could take a lower fee if the book you’re writing is likely to sell widely and sell well. You could opt to take a $10,000 advance to write the book (we’re talking large books here, in excess of 300 pages) which could be a lump sum or part payment. Then you could opt to take 10-20% of the books gross profits over a specified period of time or once it hit a ceiling cap that you’d agreed on.
This type of deal would only work when the book is nearly guaranteed to be published for high profits. This would be a traditionally published book in most instances.
From a self-publishing viewpoint, you could take a lower fee if you were listed as a contributor or editor of the book and would receive some of the gross profits. Similarly, if the book was less than 25,000 words, you might accept a lower payment.
Conversely, if an author approaches you with a tight deadline, you could charge a premium price for the quick turnaround. This is the great thing about being a ghostwriter – because there is such a demand for this service, you can charge rates that are fair and just for your experience.
But there is a lot of competition in this space for cheap, quick ghostwritten books, more often than not, these are low-quality books.
You want to find the clients that are prepared to pay you what you’re worth and are looking for quality. Leave the cheap stuff to those people willing to write for peanuts – that's not you!
#1: Finding Good Clients
To find good clients, review some of the sites below:
- Upwork – this would be the place I’d start as there are a lot of people looking for ghostwriters to write ebooks
- The Write Life – the job board on here provides some great opportunities for freelance writers
- Freelance Writing – great job board that curates a lot of freelance writing jobs including jobs for ghostwriters
- Funds for Writers – a good site to find ghostwriting ebook jobs
Once you’ve found a few options, submit your proposal and get yourself hired!
#2: Find High Paying Ghostwriting Gigs
If you want to get started quickly, then you need to find the high paying ghostwriting gigs now. If you've taken my advice and jumped on Upwork, you'll probably be finding a lot of the cheap and low-paying ghostwriting gigs.
The quickest way to get through all of that crap is to figure out what you want to be paid as a ghostwriter and then search for those jobs by following these steps:
- Step 1 – Make sure your Upwork profile is completed and optimised appropriately
- Step 2 – Decide on your per project fee, i.e., $500 etc
- Step 3 – Bring up the job search page and enter in your dollar amount, i.e., $500
- Step 4 – Filter the jobs by category
- Step 5 – If there are a lot of jobs at this price point, you can refine your search. Enter in your fee + ghostwriting. This would look like this “$500 ghostwriter”
- Step 6 – Submit your proposal!
From there, it's just a matter of selling yourself and listing the reasons why an author might want to work with you.
If you're not set up on Upwork, then try a couple of the other sites. The same theory applies when searching for jobs, always put in the dollar amount first then refine your search from there.
Have you ever tried ghostwriting ebooks before? What was your experience? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
To get more clarity on your online business, check out Cultivate Your Hustle Workbook. It's got everything you need to get clear on your idea, create a plan, and make money in your online business.
If you want to jump straight to the meat of how I'm making this work for me right now, pick up my ebook, “Side Hustle Blueprint: How to Make an Extra $1000 per month Writing eBooks!” – you can hit the ground running now and be receiving your first payment from Amazon in 3 months (Amazon pays out 60 days following any sales made).
32 replies to "How to Make an Extra $1000 Right Now Writing eBooks!"
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Hey I’m a junior lawyer based in Nagaland India and I’m currently wanting to start earning online by contributing to a cause and this is exactly where I want to learn earn and write up.
Hey Tongpang, thanks so much for your comment. Writing books is definitely a great way to start earning online. I’m sure you’ll be able to share your own learnings and experiences with others through this medium.
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Is the choice between ghost writing vs. building your own brand / portfolio a matter of cash sooner vs. later?
Hi John, I think it really depends on your goals. I tried ghost writing, but I didn’t like doing all the work and only getting a fraction of the pay I would had I published the book myself. But yes, if you’re looking for faster cashflow, then ghost writing will get you there, although, if you go the brand route, ie, publishing your own books, you can be making money within 2-3 months 🙂
Thanks Lise, I just bought your book because I definitely could use $1500-$2000 extra a month! Thanks again!
Thanks Danielle, let me know what you think and if you need any further support!
Hey y’all! Hopefully this is OK but I’m sharing this article with a few friends. We are trying to get our ghostwriting business off to a start at bookproservices.com and this article was super helpful thank you!
Hi Chloe, it’s absolutely fine to share and congrats on getting your ghostwriting business up and running 🙂
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Thank you for your article! They are always very helpful! But you said ghostwriting is a great side hustle?
It depends on your commissions but i think that gostwriting is more a fulltime job than a side hustle. Dont get me wrong. Ghostwriting could be an activity next to your regular job, if you really could bring the effort to master both. But i don’t want the people to think that there is not much time needed to be a ghostwriter. The reason i am writing this is: I tried it! I tried to be a ghostwriter as a side hustle, but the result was that i ended up completely stressed. I got my commissions ( from https://www.writeree.com/ ) and also homework from business school. I love writing but to deal with this work, my sport and my girlfriend was too much for me! So if you want to be a ghostwriter and want to write stories, blog-articles or something, do it FULL TIME. For that you could use platforms like writeree, fiver, … oder you work for ghostwriting-agencys. Professional ghostwriting is a job connected to talent and hard work, so respect to all these writers out there!
Hi Carlitihno, thanks so much for your comment, I appreciate your point-of-view. But I disagree with it being a full-time job rather than a side hustle. The key to having a successful ghostwriting side hustle is not taking on too much work. You need to know what you can handle. It’s also about understanding how much time you have available and how much time you want to dedicate to it.
No side hustle is easy, they all take effort and management, but can be very lucrative if you know how to manage it successfully. So while I agree it can be a lot to juggle if you’re trying to study, work a full-time job, and ghostwriting, it still comes down to figuring out what you CAN do. You’re in charge of your own time, right…
It’s important to remember that, while the opportunities are certainly out there, ghostwriting will not pay well in the long run and much less as a short-term gig.
Remember that you must be expert from the outset in the subject matter you are offering. Otherwise, how can you possibly market yourself as a ghostwriter, competing with likely hundreds of others, unless you have clips to prove you’ve done it? I know I would not hire a ghostwriter if they had not done similar work for other clients, or could at least document professional background.
At least, not for anywhere near a decent fee. This is the reality of a field that, even with today’s online opportunities, has always carried that dime-a-dozen label for anyone trying to break in.
Fantastic article. Thank you for sharing. I know how hard it is breaking into ghostwriting. I am a marketing consultant and I tend to do a lot of writing. One of the best ways to ensure consistent work is to over deliver to your clients. So, from word of mouth and my inbound funnel, I make between $1500 to $4000 per month just from ghostwriting. Again, fantastic article and thanks for sharing.