Katharine Swan, ebook author

Thanks to a Success Story article on Writers Weekly about selling ebooks, I got started thinking last week about getting into the ebook business. Screw getting paid a crummy $100 or so (which is what many ebook publishers are offering their writers) to write an entire book. I can write the books myself and sell them on ebay.

I decided to test the waters with a doll stringing instructions booklet I had written for my technical writing class a year and a half ago. I started a free trial account with Adobe online, converted the file to a pdf (after a little touch-ups, of course), and listed my ebook on ebay.

I didn't know what to expect, so I priced my ebooks quite low. That means I only get a couple of bucks out of each one after the ebay fees are assessed, but at the same time, I'm hoping the low price will attract more buyers. It's a lot easier to take a chance on a $2.99 ebook than a $9.99 ebook (as I saw a similar ebook priced at).

So far I've sold 4 ebooks - and it's only been 4 days! I'm hoping to sell more by the time the listings end on Thursday. In any case, I think the ebook has proven itself worth listing again.

As soon as I have a chance, I'm going to start working on another ebook - one about restyling dolls' hair to copy the original set. I might also consider setting up an alternate ebay seller's account under my pen name, Katharine Swan.