RV and Motorhome Lifestyle
Writing novels can be profitable

Writing novels can be profitable

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If you look at the picture above, does it look like it could be the setting for a mystery novel?

If you were temporarily living in this area, would it get your juices flowing and allow you to write a great mystery or romance novel?

I don't write novels. I've written 15 self-help or how-to books. These are easier to write than novels, but not nearly as profitable. In fact, most novels are 10 to 20 times more profitable than the books I write.

Write what you like and what you're good at. If you want to make money, seriously consider gaining the skills necessary to write a novel.

Don't worry if you're not good at writing. My background is in engineering. I never made a grade higher than a "C" in any college English class in my life, and I was lucky to get the "C."

I go to www.Fiverr.com and hire experts to proofread my manuscripts before I publish a book. In my last book I had already read over my manuscript many times, run it through a grammar checking program, and I used MS Word's text to voice app to read the manuscript to me. (I found a lot of errors that way.)

After all of that, the proofreader still found 1,156 errors.

Obviously, I'm not a skilled writer, but my writing pays my bills and has allowed me to live and travel full time in my motorhome for the last nine years.

Write it once and get paid forever

One other advantage of writing is that some of my most profitable books are the ones I wrote four or five years ago. You write it one time and keep getting paid month after month.

Don't sweat it. Just write your novel, and let someone else fix the errors. Proofreaders don't get paid much—authors do. As an author, your job is to tell the story.

Skills you'll need to write a great (and profitable) novel

  • Learn how to develop a plot.

  • Learn how to write dialogue.

  • Learn how to develop characters.
There are plenty of books and YouTube videos that show you how to learn and develop these skills.

Your book cover is the most important part of your book

People will look at the picture of your cover on Amazon (and maybe read the description), and then decide whether or not to buy your book.

If you look at the covers of my books in the right panel, you will see several different cover designs. I didn't design any of these covers. You can use Photoshop and design your own cover, but I chose to contract out the cover designs. Like proofreaders, book cover designers don't get paid much—authors do.

If you'll notice, all of these covers have titles that are easy to read. The titles are in large print and use a color that shows up well against the background. You don't want to use fancy, hard to read fonts, or use text colors that don't contrast with the background.

One important technique I use that most other writers don't use is that I always have a working cover before I do much writing. I may (and I usually do) go back and tweak the title a time or two before I finish writing the book, but having a working book cover eliminates writer's block.

Below are the three sources I've used to design my book covers.

You can go to https://pixabay.com/ and find free images to use on your book cover. You can also get free images at http://shutterstock.com/.

When you're a writer, you'll have a location-independent stream of income. For most of your writing, you won't even need access to the Internet.

Bottom line: Writing a book has the potential to bring you income month after month for years to come. You don't have to be a writer to write a book. All you have to do is to tell your story. Proofreaders and editors can make you sound like an expert writer. Your only job is to tell the story—and of course, to actually write it down. What are you waiting for?

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