How I Sold $12,500 in eBooks From My Newsletter

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I’ve been a full-time freelance writer for nearly 19 years, and I’m an evangelist for it. Not only do I have a better work-life balance than any office job could provide, but I continue to bring in six figures every year without worrying about being laid off.

But this way of making a living gets a bad rap and is often lampooned as low paying — or sometimes no paying — which is not my experience, as long as you can run your freelancing business like a business and work to cultivate clients who are more partners than people you feel like you owe a favor to. That’s why I started a newsletter: to write about how I built my freelancing business. That newsletter led to a successful ebook series that brought in almost $13,000 and created a passive form of income for me.

Start by writing what you know

Notes From a Hired Pen started as a blog and then transitioned to a newsletter in 2015. I chose to send my newsletters via TinyLetter because it’s easy to use for a non-tech person like me. It is also free for up to 5,000 subscribers, which was the right price for a newsletter I didn’t plan to charge for.

The newsletter also solved a problem for me. Because I have long been vocal about how to be a successful freelance writer, I am flooded with requests from people who want to take me out for coffee or schedule an hour-long phone call to “pick my brain” about their own careers. If I agreed to all these (unpaid) chats, I’d never get my work done. So after I gently tell these folks “no,” I offer them the free archives of the newsletter instead so I can share what I’ve learned in an expedient way.

I’ve kept the newsletter free because it takes the pressure off making it perfect. I can publish when I want, and if there are spelling or grammar mistakes… well, it’s a free product. Sometimes, I write three issues a month; sometimes, I’ll go weeks without writing one. No one’s complained because, again, it’s free. Each newsletter typically takes about an hour to write, from the initial to the final draft. But if I don’t have a good topic, I’m not going to force it.

How I decided to monetize a free product

The idea of monetizing the newsletter came in late 2019. I’d just had the best freelancing year of my career, earning $135,288.

I had seen a lot of freelance writers on Twitter share dour year-end wrap-ups of how little money they had earned over the last 12 months, complaining about how this career path was impossible — which was not the experience of me and my freelance friends. I had proof that this was a sustainable way to make a living, and maybe that proof was worth paying a few dollars for.

So I took the week between Christmas and New Year’s and banged out a 10,000-word ebook that I titled “Notes From a Hired Pen: How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing.“

Priced at $10, the book shows exactly where my money came from in 2019, how I found my top-paying clients, convinced them to pay me, and effectively provided a roadmap for other freelance writers to vamp up their own careers.

So, in my first newsletter of 2020, I told readers that I’d just completed my best year ever as a freelancer. I broke down where my revenue came from and talked about my strategies for direct outreach to editors and publications. I also teased the book, telling readers:

The point of the white paper is not really about becoming a $130,000 freelancer or a $100,000 freelancer or even a $30,000 freelancer. It’s about setting goals and earning the income you want so you can live the lifestyle you want to lead. I worked about 30 hours a week this year, and took 10 weeks of vacation, including a full month off to drive to and from California. It is the kind of work life balance that, as a kid writing in her journal that she didn’t want to work in an office, I could only dream of.

That newsletter ended up being a key to the success of the book. When I sent out that first newsletter, I had 813 subscribers, but the web version of the newsletter was shared widely on social media and in other freelancer-focused newsletters. It helped get readers excited about buying the book weeks before they could actually buy it. At that point, I hadn’t even finished the book. That month, I hired a copy editor and graphic designer to give it a polished look, costing about $1,300.

A month later, my list had grown to 894 readers, and I announced the book. I made the most practical pitch possible to readers who A) Were my exact target audience and B) May not have had tons of disposable income to spend on something like this:

If you’re on the fence about paying for it, how about this: if you get just one new assignment or client from something you learned in here, it’ll be worth the $10. And it’s a tax deduction from your freelancing income! 

Sales shot off like a firework. The $1,300 I spent on copy editing and design? I earned that back in two weeks. In total, I sold 1,200 copies of the book, and “Notes from a Hired Pen: How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing” has brought in $9,500 after deducting fees from Stripe, the payment platform, and Gumroad, the platform I initially sold the book on. When Gumroad raised their fees last year, I switched my sales platform to ConvertKit, which takes just 0.6% in fees per sale. (Stripe also takes 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.)

Leveraging a brand to create passive income

The success of this book spurred two follow-ups: “Notes from a Hired Pen: Where to Find New Freelance Writing Clients and Turbocharge Your Career” and “Notes from a Hired Pen: Freelance Writing for Laid-Off Journalist (and Those Who Want to Quit),” which have netted me an additional $3,000 overall.

I’m not surprised they’ve earned less since they target a narrower audience. But I’m not concerned because they’re all part of the Notes from a Hired Pen brand, and one ebook sale generally leads to another. The original ebook would not have continued to be so successful without the other two.

These ebooks have also become easier and cheaper to create. Writing “Notes From a Hired Pen: How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing” felt like an experiment — I wasn’t even sure if I was going to publish it. It took me a solid week to write. With the next two, I knew what I was getting into, with most of the work taking place over a three-day period apiece. They cost less to make because the graphic designer’s fee has been lower, as she’s using a template she created for the first ebook instead of starting from scratch.

Combined, the three ebooks still continue to be a nice form of passive income, where I get a direct deposit every other week that covers a chunk of my grocery bills without any additional marketing effort on my part.

Plus, at the request of some readers who wanted to support me beyond buying the ebooks, I also added a tip jar in November of last year, which has brought in another $200.

Building a brand and leaving the door open for expansion

The newsletter and ebooks have created a platform from which I can move in a lot of directions. I primarily switched to ConvertKit because of the lower ebook fees, but being on that platform also provides an opportunity to grow down a few different paths, including a possible free and paid newsletter split, should I choose to in the future. TinyLetter’s cap on subscribers is 5,000, so I don’t expect I’ll need to move anytime soon, but sometime down the road, I’ll have to make a choice, and ConvertKit might be it.

I could write a “Notes from a Hired Pen” book and try to have it published in the traditional way. However, I’ve still earned more from my ebooks than I have from my first (traditionally published) book’s advance, so I’m not sure yet if it would be worth the risk that I’ll write a proposal that doesn’t sell, or if a publisher’s advance offer isn’t enough to justify the work — especially when I’ve done well financially on my own — but I haven’t ruled it out. I could always market my ebooks more and push the tip jar, but for right now, I’m content to let it run as it is because it’s working.

I still bring in new subscribers, mostly from my newsletter being shared in other products, like newsletters or podcasts. I have 1,785 subscribers right now, and add 10 to 20 each month, depending on my own output and any sharing by other freelance writing instruction creators.

Now, when someone emails me for advice, I can offer them two options: the free newsletter archives or one of three $10 ebooks. If they get one tip that leads them to a new or better client, then that more than pays for the cost of the ebook.

As for what’s next: I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the Notes from a Hired Pen brand. More ebooks? Seminars? Coaching? I’ve established a brand, and with the support of my newsletter audience, I’ve got lots of possibilities on the table. 

Three takeaways for anyone trying to sell ebooks via your newsletter

You don’t need to be big to be powerful — I don’t have a ton of newsletter subscribers, but they are all invested in a very niche topic, which leads to strong sales. If you’re writing for the right audience, your newsletter can drive remarkable results.

Your marketing pitch doesn’t need to be super polished — Write it in your voice, and keep it in the style of your normal newsletter. My first marketing pitch to readers didn’t follow many email best practices for a sales email — it didn’t even feature a button linking to the purchase page! — but it still performed well because it came from me and was targeted to the right audience.

Take a look at a few different platforms for selling your ebook — Some email platforms, like AWeber or ConvertKit, come with the ability to sell products directly to your audience. But there are other options out there for selling ebooks or other products, like Gumroad, which takes 10% of all sales, or Podia, which takes 0% but has a monthly fee to use. Explore a few options to see what works best for your newsletter.

Thanks to our sponsor

The stories you’re reading on inboxcollective.com are made possible thanks to the generous support of our fall sponsor, Who Sponsors Stuff, which gives you and your team the tools to quickly find and reach out to relevant sponsors for your newsletter. They track 350+ newsletters, have direct contact information for 6,000+ sponsors, and keep you on the cutting edge of who’s spending money in the email advertising space. Find out how their Sales Pro product can supercharge your ad sales operation today.