How to earn money by writing a book
Although there are many ways to earn money by writing, this needs expertise and there can be many platforms for them, but for a common user, is there any option in this field? Of course… If you write articles that target a specific field like if you write something related to health as a doctor, write something on education as a teacher that can help students, or you possess any technical talent and write something on a particular area related to technology or are an economic expert that writes business-related articles… or you are a poet and write poetry, a satirist and write satire, then you can publish it as a book so that not only people with interest in your area of expertise can be benefitted of this but you can earn money also.
Getting a book published is a very expensive process and even difficult to sell, as it will be difficult to get the cost back which will be spent on it. No publication will publish a book without taking any money, so a better option in this regard is to make the book an ebook and publish it without spending any money. There will be three steps in this whole process… First, design the book and the cover professionally. Second, upload the book on three to four platforms like Amazon Kindle, Google Play Book, Smashwords and Instamojo, etc. And the third is to promote the book and there are many ways for this.
In this article, you will get complete information about all the processes.
An advantage with Smashwords is that the book uploaded here also auto uploads on world level platforms of Smashwords’ partners like Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Sony. Apart from this, you can also upload on Google Play.
How to design an ebook
In simple words, an ebook is the PDF format of a text file and when you convert it to a PDF, it usually takes the form automatically in which you save it as a Word file but there are things that require special attention. Simple Word files may open differently on different systems while PDFs remain the same on all systems.
The thing to note here is that you will have to design the file professionally in word format only because the three-four platforms on which you will upload your ebook will only support PDF on Instamojo and Google Play, whereas on Kindle, word file has to be uploaded which the Kindle converts itself and if its format is not correct, then after uploading it will not be displayed properly.
And apart from these three, both these formats of the file will not be uploaded on Smashwords or even if it supports the word file, it will not find a place in the premium catalogue (that includes partner platforms like Apple, Sony, Kobo). Here, you have to upload the EPUB file designed on the Calibre so that it can be read uniformly on all platforms. So let’s first talk about converting a text file into an ebook.
What should be the format of an ebook
Irrespective of the page size, when converted to PDF, EPUB or Kindle format, it automatically adjusts according to the screen, but it is better to set the size that most readers read, that is according to a smartphone screen so that you can have an idea of what and how your file will appear.
For that, whatever page size is set in the file, go to the function tab of the “layout” of the file, click on customs margin and in the pop-up that opens here, choose the margins as top 1.27 cm, bottom, left and right 0.51 cm to all the content. Keep the orientation portrait. Keep the width 8.89 cm and height 15.24 cm in the “paper” size. There is no need to tick the section start> new page, odd-even or different first page in “layout”. Keep both headers, footer to 0.25 cm and select OK after clicking “apply to whole document” at the bottom.
Now your file will be designed according to a smartphone which will fit as per the requirement of the tablet or desktop/laptop screen on any system further. Now in this file, you need to turn on the paragraph marker, so that you can see unnecessary spacing, line gap or page break and section.
On the first page, name of the book and the author, on the second-page little information related to the book, on the third page, dedication if any, fourth is of preface, the content summary in the fifth and your book starts from the sixth page. Here this count does not just mean the page, but you have to go to “layout” and break the section from “break” function to “next page” here. This is the most important thing for an ebook or else the content will be jumbled.
Every new page you want to keep as a separate one is not meant to be created with the enter button, nor by page break with control+enter, but only by breaking the section with “next page”. Apart from this, there are few things to keep in mind, that any heading you wish to keep in the centre is to be kept from the paragraph section of “home” and not by moving it with the space bar. The content has to be justified from here. Select all the matter, go to the line spacing in the spacing tab, keep at least 15 pt for Hindi and 13 pt for English content. Rest of the font can be selected 9 pt for Hindi and 10 pt for English.
Here two points are important… First, there are no limitations like the paperback version, you can also attach multiple colour/black and white photos and videos with text to the file to make the entire book attractive and second that the ebook has two more things to add, which are optional on platforms other than Smashwords, but compulsory on the EPUB. The first is about the author and the second is about the other books or material written by the author.
A bookmarked summary is the most important part in the ebook formatting because it is not a physical book that if you had read eighty-two pages in a book of one hundred and twenty pages, then you can mark that page and when you start reading again, you start from there. In the ebook, you have to take special care that your content is divided into small sections and every section has a heading that you can bookmark and link later so that the reader can touch the specific heading from the summary and go to the desired section or the page directly.
How to bookmark and link every section in the file
For this, you have to select the heading of each section, starting from the first section. Click on the “insert” function tab and go to the option “bookmark” and write the initial letter or the heading itself without spacing and add it.
Now select the same headings that you would have written in the summary one by one (you don’t need to write page numbers next to them like paperbacks here), and go to the “link” option of “insert” and in the option of Link to: place in this documents, select the same bookmarked heading to “OK”. In this way, the entire summary will be linked, and the reader can touch the desired heading to reach the desired part directly.
Now come to the finishing touch of the ebook which is your cover page. Cover of the paperback is a difficult thing, in which many things have to be kept that only an expert can take care of but the ebook has only the front cover that even a common user can make according to their subject with Photoshop or Coral or can create with the help of tools of any self-publishing platforms such as Canva, Pothi, Notion, CreateSpace, etc. Or if it seems difficult to do it yourself then you can get it done by a freelancer in five dollars with the help of Fiverr.
So now your ebook is ready to be published. Now save it as a simple word file and save a copy as PDF as well which is to be uploaded in Instamojo and Google Play.
How to publish an ebook on Instamojo
First of all, go to Google Play and complete the sign-up process. It will take time to get approval. After this, sign up on Instamojo as per the pictures given. Please note that you have to create an account in the individual category everywhere and give your exact details, including bank account and PAN card. If you are going to cross the limit of ten thousand on Instamojo, then only KYC is mandatory otherwise it is not required.
If you wish, you can give a professional look to your profile by putting a profile DP and cover photo here. From here go to add product. In the product type, select digital, then upload your PDF file, fill the title and subtitle. Enter HSN code, ignore it if you do not know. Fill the price, write about your book in detail in the product description below. Select from the category option below about the subject of your book and fill the words in the tag below that match with your book.
At the moment there is no need to do anything in advance settings according to your product, but in the SEO option below, fill the title, short description and keywords keeping in mind the Google search. Keywords are very useful in terms of optimization, that can rank your book in Google search. Then click on “add a product to store”… Now your book has been published on Instamojo.
How to publish an ebook on Google Play Books
After getting the approval mail, come to Google Play, click on get started and complete the process of sign up. Keep “self-published writer” in the publisher type. Give a name in the publisher name, or write your own name, write India in country field, fill in your contact number prefixing code for India below and select OK. When you will proceed after agreeing to the terms and conditions on the next page you will directly reach the home page from here.
Here, from the option given in the left side, you have to click on the book catalogue and go to the option “add book” from the next page. On the next page, select “sell book on Google Play” in the sell option and “get a Google Book ID” in the book ID option and proceed after save continue.
The title and description of the book are to be filled in the next section. Select the language Hindi, write whatever name you want as publisher, enter recent publication date, fill the number of the pages, fill the format as an ebook, ignore the series name and number, make the minimum edge as 15, maximum as 18. Keep “no” on the audiences, escape the related book option then save and continue.
The next is the category section. You can write and search for the desired category, leave BISAC in the genre then save and proceed. Give the details of the contributor if any on the next page or save it and proceed. Apply DRM “yes” in the setting, select the preview to 20%, copy-paste limit to 0 and save.
After this, the file upload page will open where you will get a new pop-up as soon as you upload, in which upload both the cover and the PDF file. After this, the page for the book price will open. Here you have to note that if you want this book to be purchased only in India, then select India and write a price accordingly or if you wish to sell it worldwide then fill the price which is applicable globally, however, it is a bit tricky step because books are sold at different price in different countries that have a big variation. However, if you save it, after taking some time, this book will be published on Google Books or Play Store.
Ashfaq Ahmad 
Good Tutorial
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Thanx
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A friend of mine is a teacher and he feels that he can make such notes about his subject which can be of great use to the students of his subject, then this article is very useful for him, I have asked him to read.
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🙂🙂
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Okay, now we too will publish and become writers
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🤓🤓
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I think publishing only on Kindle and Smashword is fine
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Instamojo is also not bad
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