I stumbled across a blog stating that it is easy to self-publish and make $2000 per month. This person said he realized that was not a lot, but he was continuing to build his income. People were excited and probably out buying his whole collection of get-rich quick through gigs schemes.
Self-publishing is easy. You write something (or easier still--hire something to be written), and upload it to Amazon. Then sit back and collect the cash. The problem is that just as some people are not cut out to be parents (and others can easily juggle 12 children), some people can write books and some people cannot. Yes, I know, your 9th grade English teacher said you are an amazing writer and you even won a writing award. My 9th grade writing work is awful, in my opinion. I am not going to rip it up, but I won't be posting it any time soon. I wrote like a 9th grader. Terribly. It has taken years of reading piles of books and four college courses to hone my writing to the place where it is today. Even then, I would still love to get my MFA in creative writing (and yes, my college instructors told me I had enough talent that I should try to do this).
As I have said many times before, anyone CAN write in America because we are taught to write. But there is a refining process that goes beyond just writing that is required in order to have other people read your work and like it. Harper Lee was a great writer, but it took 2 years and drastic revisions to get To Kill a Mockingbird. It took the input of a competent editor. In order to sell all those copies and become mandatory reading in most high schools, it took massive publicity campaigns undertaken by a traditional publishing company. Her book had to meet the requirements for and be entered into legitimate contests so she could then win those contests. It had to be nominated for awards so she could win those awards. It had to have copies sent to the right newspapers and magazines so the editors and writers could read it and print things about it--now these editors and writers get millions of books each year, so anything you or I send is likely to get swept off with masses of other books into the circular bin to make room for those books sent by bigger names. A single person does not have the resources to do what a traditional publishing company does.
So, you write a book, put it out, sell it for free, become an "Amazon bestseller" and make $50 off it when you finally sell it for money--if you can get descent reviews from people whom you have not paid. Then you start getting some negative reviews because of editing typos (or worse poorly constructed material), and there goes your chances of making it big off that one. And you will have typos--everyone does. If you only have a few, you might not affect your sales, but the number of typos in your final work depends on two factors--(1) your level of grammar knowledge (or the level of grammar knowledge that the person you paid to edit it has) and how well you (or the editor) knows the style manual you are following to clean it up and (2)how many times it has been edited.
So your first book made you $50 before your sales dropped of, so you write another.
At some point, you may hire someone else to write it or edit it or market it. Then you might make a little more off the books, but now you are also losing money because you have to pay someone to do all this. If you pay someone who doesn't know what he or she is doing, you still get the bad reviews and lose even more money. Paying someone who does know what to do in each of these steps can cost you thousands of dollars.
I don't want to discourage you from the process, but I want you to go into it with open eyes. It takes a long time to build up enough books and publicity to support yourself. It is difficult to get people to review your book even if you give it away. It is difficult to make no money and still keep repeating the process until you do. Successfully self-publishing a book is in fact just as hard as trying to find a traditional publisher to publish a well-written book.
Self-publishing has been sold to the public as a cheap work around to traditional publishing (as opposed to the expensive work around of vanity press publishing). The truth is that you have to have just as much backbone to self-publish as you do to traditionally publish. Each book you put out that doesn't do well, is like a rejection letter from a traditional publisher except instead of getting one letter, you get five or ten 1-star or "I wish I could give 0 stars" reviews that detail why they hate your work--even if the work itself is good. Publishers usually just send you a short and sweet form letter. In some cases, it is obvious why you were rejected--poor writing, poor editing, poor formatting. In others where you get no reviews and few sales, it is simply that you don't have enough resources to market it to the right audience.
So what about the guy who is making $2000 per month? He openly admits he had to build his "business." He is also selling get-rich quick books, he has a rather large online presence, and he is getting that money from multiple books. He is successful because he can use one advertising campaign to support all his "gigs." That means he can spend a lot of money but when he looks at how much is being spent per "gig" it doesn't seem like much. He also is probably paying people to do his writing for him because when you have your finger in so many pots, it is hard to find the time to stir all of them yourself. The bottom line is that if you want to make money, you have to have money.
Friday, January 31, 2020
Friday, January 24, 2020
Professional writers don't get writer's block
Now, before you start throwing tomatoes at the screen and booing me off stage, hear me out. writer's block is a condition where a writer runs out of ideas and things to write. This cannot happen in the professional freelance/ghostwriting world. It does happen frequently with amateur writers and with some really epic writers who do something great and then some publishing company puts pressure on him or her to do another great thing.
The problem is that as a professional freelancer, you are being paid to overcome someone else's writer's block. And you don't have the next three years to do it. But in the real world where everyone has the idea for the next greatest novel, this does happen a lot. Mainly because you get an idea, and you don't flush it out. Instead, you start writing in a flurry of madness. And then you get stuck.
The worst source of inspiration is dreams. If you want a lot of writer's block try to turn that really great dream you had into a full length book. I know it was amazing--but you had that dream that felt like it lasted for days in only a few minutes. Dreams are like snapshots, and you remember more about them than what is actually there. But it isn't enough. It is very difficult to turn one snapshot into a full length feature film, no matter how much you immediately jot down to try and remember it. Can a dream become a book? Yes. Just realize it is extremely difficult to do this.
The next way you can get writers block is by not thinking the book through before you start writing. If you can not lay out all the chapters and put a plot summary for each, you are probably going to get writer's block halfway through. A summary outline helps you know what is supposed to happen next. A few minutes before embarking on writing a novel can prevent you from starting something you can't finish.
If you write a book that does well, and people ask for a sequel, that can also set you up for writer's block, especially if you didn't plan to write a sequel. In that case, move on. write something else--or nothing if you didn't plan to write any more. Or, you could find a freelancer to write the sequel for you. Your original book will be a new idea for him or her, not the old one that it is to you.
Finally, shutting yourself in a room for months on end to focus on your writing is also another good way to get writer's block. Life and observing life is the source of a writer's inspiration. If you shut yourself off from life, you shut yourself off from creative inflow. Should you write in a quiet room--of course. But come out and interact with others on occasion. If you have a detailed summary outline, you are not going to lose your place.
So what do you do if you find yourself getting writer's block? That's easy--hire another freelancer to write one chapter... or even the rest of your book. Or, you can even hire him or her to write about one of your characters going to the store or meeting the President. This doesn't have to be in your book, but it might help you find out something about your character that gets you past the block.
The problem is that as a professional freelancer, you are being paid to overcome someone else's writer's block. And you don't have the next three years to do it. But in the real world where everyone has the idea for the next greatest novel, this does happen a lot. Mainly because you get an idea, and you don't flush it out. Instead, you start writing in a flurry of madness. And then you get stuck.
The worst source of inspiration is dreams. If you want a lot of writer's block try to turn that really great dream you had into a full length book. I know it was amazing--but you had that dream that felt like it lasted for days in only a few minutes. Dreams are like snapshots, and you remember more about them than what is actually there. But it isn't enough. It is very difficult to turn one snapshot into a full length feature film, no matter how much you immediately jot down to try and remember it. Can a dream become a book? Yes. Just realize it is extremely difficult to do this.
The next way you can get writers block is by not thinking the book through before you start writing. If you can not lay out all the chapters and put a plot summary for each, you are probably going to get writer's block halfway through. A summary outline helps you know what is supposed to happen next. A few minutes before embarking on writing a novel can prevent you from starting something you can't finish.
If you write a book that does well, and people ask for a sequel, that can also set you up for writer's block, especially if you didn't plan to write a sequel. In that case, move on. write something else--or nothing if you didn't plan to write any more. Or, you could find a freelancer to write the sequel for you. Your original book will be a new idea for him or her, not the old one that it is to you.
Finally, shutting yourself in a room for months on end to focus on your writing is also another good way to get writer's block. Life and observing life is the source of a writer's inspiration. If you shut yourself off from life, you shut yourself off from creative inflow. Should you write in a quiet room--of course. But come out and interact with others on occasion. If you have a detailed summary outline, you are not going to lose your place.
So what do you do if you find yourself getting writer's block? That's easy--hire another freelancer to write one chapter... or even the rest of your book. Or, you can even hire him or her to write about one of your characters going to the store or meeting the President. This doesn't have to be in your book, but it might help you find out something about your character that gets you past the block.
Friday, January 17, 2020
Beware The "Best-Selling Author"
I am always skeptical of other freelancers who claim they are "Best-Selling Authors." It isn't the fact I have never heard of their names--I am sure I haven't heard of the names of thousands of best-selling authors. It is the fact that if you have truly sold the millions of books it takes to be a real best-selling author, why in the world are you still freelancing? This makes absolutely no sense.
So, I pretty much dismiss anyone with this designation, but I helped a guy write a book. I think he had hired someone else to write this non-fiction book and they screwed it up, but maybe it was his. Since he knew there was some factual information wrong with it and I could see he had paid another freelancer, I really doubt he had written it, but I don't ask questions. Saying things like, "wow, this is a piece of garbage, I hope you didn't pay for it" and then later finding out he did write it is not the best way to get employers to like you.
I finished the fixing the book and he immediately hired me to write another.--this time I could write it with my own free will which is much easier. I love regular jobs that are relatively easy so I can focus on my own writing. However, during the course of writing the second book, I asked if he wanted an Author Bio at the end. And he sent me one. "Holly Berra is a mother and best-selling author..."
Hold on here!! I have never heard of Holly Berra, and I am writing her book... and basically wrote the good half of her last book... but although I clearly have an ego about my own work and feel it deserves to be a best-seller, I didn't touch the first half of the first book.
I did a quick check on Holly, and sure enough, for a brief day she had made it into the Amazon top 100 sales. I sighed and refused to add this detail in about Ms. Berra to her bio. My employer can do it later if he really wants to. If I have any future situations like this, I will do the same. I am okay with fabricating an entire fake author, I am not okay with then giving that author accolades he or she has not, in my opinion, earned.
There are many people, like this one, who claim the Amazon best selling list is just as valid as any other reviewed best selling list. This is false. Are there books on real best selling lists that do not deserve to be there because of self-promotion (i.e. they bought thousands of books to influence their sales enough to land them a spot on the New York Times or washington Post lists)? Of course. That does not make those lists less valid. That simply makes those authors devious and undeserving of their titles.
But Amazon is much easier to manipulate. Here is a great post about a guy who was also suspicious of best selling author claims and checked how hard it was to become an Amazon best-selling author. To do so, he wrote a book that had only a photo of his foot inside it, and became a best-selling Amazon author in only a few minutes. I do not recommend doing this and neither does he. The point this proves is that just as anyone can write a book and self-publish it, anyone can also be an Amazon best-seller, even if you hold that position for less than a day. Amazon does not review the books. They publish way too many (and 80% are simply garbage equivalent to click bait) to care. Their computers review everything, and their computers are not even programmed to distinguish between a poorly edited work and one with beautiful layout. Maybe some day they will realize that seeing how many misspelled words and grammatical errors are in the books people upload and preventing people with thousands of such errors from publishing, would actually help indie authors sell more books, but I doubt if at this point Amazon cares. The point is, if you see someone--anyone-- make the claim of being a best-selling author, ask them to prove it. If they send you an Amazon screenshot, run away.
So, I pretty much dismiss anyone with this designation, but I helped a guy write a book. I think he had hired someone else to write this non-fiction book and they screwed it up, but maybe it was his. Since he knew there was some factual information wrong with it and I could see he had paid another freelancer, I really doubt he had written it, but I don't ask questions. Saying things like, "wow, this is a piece of garbage, I hope you didn't pay for it" and then later finding out he did write it is not the best way to get employers to like you.
I finished the fixing the book and he immediately hired me to write another.--this time I could write it with my own free will which is much easier. I love regular jobs that are relatively easy so I can focus on my own writing. However, during the course of writing the second book, I asked if he wanted an Author Bio at the end. And he sent me one. "Holly Berra is a mother and best-selling author..."
Hold on here!! I have never heard of Holly Berra, and I am writing her book... and basically wrote the good half of her last book... but although I clearly have an ego about my own work and feel it deserves to be a best-seller, I didn't touch the first half of the first book.
(I don't check Amazon best seller lists, but I am not and do not claim to be a best-seller. when I hit the Times list, then I might add that designation. It depends on if I feel I truly deserve it or not. If you want to go drive my sales up and purchase my books, though, to try to help me get there, I certainly won't complain. :) )
I did a quick check on Holly, and sure enough, for a brief day she had made it into the Amazon top 100 sales. I sighed and refused to add this detail in about Ms. Berra to her bio. My employer can do it later if he really wants to. If I have any future situations like this, I will do the same. I am okay with fabricating an entire fake author, I am not okay with then giving that author accolades he or she has not, in my opinion, earned.
There are many people, like this one, who claim the Amazon best selling list is just as valid as any other reviewed best selling list. This is false. Are there books on real best selling lists that do not deserve to be there because of self-promotion (i.e. they bought thousands of books to influence their sales enough to land them a spot on the New York Times or washington Post lists)? Of course. That does not make those lists less valid. That simply makes those authors devious and undeserving of their titles.
But Amazon is much easier to manipulate. Here is a great post about a guy who was also suspicious of best selling author claims and checked how hard it was to become an Amazon best-selling author. To do so, he wrote a book that had only a photo of his foot inside it, and became a best-selling Amazon author in only a few minutes. I do not recommend doing this and neither does he. The point this proves is that just as anyone can write a book and self-publish it, anyone can also be an Amazon best-seller, even if you hold that position for less than a day. Amazon does not review the books. They publish way too many (and 80% are simply garbage equivalent to click bait) to care. Their computers review everything, and their computers are not even programmed to distinguish between a poorly edited work and one with beautiful layout. Maybe some day they will realize that seeing how many misspelled words and grammatical errors are in the books people upload and preventing people with thousands of such errors from publishing, would actually help indie authors sell more books, but I doubt if at this point Amazon cares. The point is, if you see someone--anyone-- make the claim of being a best-selling author, ask them to prove it. If they send you an Amazon screenshot, run away.
Friday, January 10, 2020
The Next Scam in Publishing: Publishizer
Okay, so Publishizer isn't really a scam in that it does what it says: gives you a platform to share your work and also provides a platform for publishers to find you.
But, just because it does what it says doesn't mean it isn't cheating you out of money. As a crowdfunding site, it takes a 30% commission compared to the much lower commissions on Kickstarter. Plus, it sets the cost of your book extraordinarily high. This makes it more difficult to find people who are wanting to buy in to your project. It also requires you to get a certain amount of people to pre-purchase your book before it will submit a "query" to a publisher. All of these things are slightly shady and not things a normal literary agent does.
A normal literary agent will look at your book, decide if it is marketable and which publisher would be most likely to market it, and then proceeds to submit it to those publishers. A real literary agent then helps you in negotiating your contract and usually takes up to 20% of what you make from commission. Publishizer does not formulate your query--it seems as if you are responsible for creating your own pitch. A real literary agent would do this for you. A real literary agent would not require you to pre-sell your book in order to pitch your book.
In this case, after you post your book, you may find yourself inundated with offers from self-publishing companies. My question is: why would you pay someone to self-publish a book? Yes, hire me, of course, to edit, format, and help you upload your book to Amazon and hire a cover designer for the cover, but why would you pay a company to hire me? That is, unfortunately, how most of these self-publishing companies work. It is also how vanity presses work--they do the editing and formatting and charge you a huge fee, but they are just going to sub-contract the work. Which means you could find it cheaper yourself.
The "traditional" publishers that work with Publishizer are mostly small indie publishers. I followed the posted links (some of which were broken) and found out that at least the random ones I checked all allowed you to submit queries without an agent. At least one of the traditional publishers requires you to purchase a minimum number of your books after you publish with them which sounds very similar to a vanity press.
The whole reason an author would need to raise funds Kickstarter style is if he or she is going to use a vanity press. Traditional publishers just don't require upfront funds. But even if I recommended the vanity press route, why would you pay 30% of what you earn to a company when you can pay 10% for the same service. I know, you get the chance of a real publisher seeing your book, and yes, there are one or two on their list that require agented submissions only, but (1) They won't even send your book to a traditional publisher unless you sell 500 units at an elevated price in 30 days. Do you even know 500 people? If you do--are all of them going to buy a book that costs more than $20 just because they know you? (2) Does your book happen to fit in the niche that those two or three publishers requiring an agent sell or are you too busy to send your own proposal to the other publishers (something you could do yourself for free)? (3)If your book is good enough to do the above, why would you pay 30% when you can get a real literary agent to represent you for less?
Are people successful at this using Publishizer? Yes. These are the ones they brag about. However, all of these success stories are usually working on their 2nd+ book. They have huge online followings of 100,000+ visitors and followers to their blogs and other online social media. These people are so busy marketing themselves and their books, that they do not want to spend time researching a traditional publisher, but they do want to move in that direction to take some of the pressure off themselves.
For comparison, I have had over 60,000 visitors to my humble blog. All my Facebook friends are really friends, and I could tell you how we know each other. Plus, I have Facebook followers and Goodreads followers on top of that. Realistically, I don't think I could generate 500 sales of my next book in only 30 days. And why would I want to put that much effort into boosting the sales of only one of my books? I also could not in good conscious make people pay $20 for a book unless it was large and full of images like some of my education workbooks.
But, just because it does what it says doesn't mean it isn't cheating you out of money. As a crowdfunding site, it takes a 30% commission compared to the much lower commissions on Kickstarter. Plus, it sets the cost of your book extraordinarily high. This makes it more difficult to find people who are wanting to buy in to your project. It also requires you to get a certain amount of people to pre-purchase your book before it will submit a "query" to a publisher. All of these things are slightly shady and not things a normal literary agent does.
A normal literary agent will look at your book, decide if it is marketable and which publisher would be most likely to market it, and then proceeds to submit it to those publishers. A real literary agent then helps you in negotiating your contract and usually takes up to 20% of what you make from commission. Publishizer does not formulate your query--it seems as if you are responsible for creating your own pitch. A real literary agent would do this for you. A real literary agent would not require you to pre-sell your book in order to pitch your book.
In this case, after you post your book, you may find yourself inundated with offers from self-publishing companies. My question is: why would you pay someone to self-publish a book? Yes, hire me, of course, to edit, format, and help you upload your book to Amazon and hire a cover designer for the cover, but why would you pay a company to hire me? That is, unfortunately, how most of these self-publishing companies work. It is also how vanity presses work--they do the editing and formatting and charge you a huge fee, but they are just going to sub-contract the work. Which means you could find it cheaper yourself.
The "traditional" publishers that work with Publishizer are mostly small indie publishers. I followed the posted links (some of which were broken) and found out that at least the random ones I checked all allowed you to submit queries without an agent. At least one of the traditional publishers requires you to purchase a minimum number of your books after you publish with them which sounds very similar to a vanity press.
The whole reason an author would need to raise funds Kickstarter style is if he or she is going to use a vanity press. Traditional publishers just don't require upfront funds. But even if I recommended the vanity press route, why would you pay 30% of what you earn to a company when you can pay 10% for the same service. I know, you get the chance of a real publisher seeing your book, and yes, there are one or two on their list that require agented submissions only, but (1) They won't even send your book to a traditional publisher unless you sell 500 units at an elevated price in 30 days. Do you even know 500 people? If you do--are all of them going to buy a book that costs more than $20 just because they know you? (2) Does your book happen to fit in the niche that those two or three publishers requiring an agent sell or are you too busy to send your own proposal to the other publishers (something you could do yourself for free)? (3)If your book is good enough to do the above, why would you pay 30% when you can get a real literary agent to represent you for less?
Are people successful at this using Publishizer? Yes. These are the ones they brag about. However, all of these success stories are usually working on their 2nd+ book. They have huge online followings of 100,000+ visitors and followers to their blogs and other online social media. These people are so busy marketing themselves and their books, that they do not want to spend time researching a traditional publisher, but they do want to move in that direction to take some of the pressure off themselves.
For comparison, I have had over 60,000 visitors to my humble blog. All my Facebook friends are really friends, and I could tell you how we know each other. Plus, I have Facebook followers and Goodreads followers on top of that. Realistically, I don't think I could generate 500 sales of my next book in only 30 days. And why would I want to put that much effort into boosting the sales of only one of my books? I also could not in good conscious make people pay $20 for a book unless it was large and full of images like some of my education workbooks.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
How Much Does Hiring a Freelancer Cost?
This question is of course very ambiguous. You can find Freelancers who work for very little. These people either live in third world countries where the national average income is less than USD 2,000 per year or they have little to no experience as a Freelancer.
You can also hire old-school Freelancers who have been working since before the Internet. These people will ask for much higher pay, but they have vast amounts of experience under their belts and they usually work for established companies such as the Washington Post, Forbes, and other big media names. Finding them and getting them to commit to your project will mean you need to have connections and a high budget.
And then there are those of us Freelancers who work online. Many of us are experienced and have been doing this for years, but we cannot generally ask for the budget that a traditional freelancer should get. Why? Because we are bidding against Joe Dolittle and Amal Pradesh who are more than willing to write that book for you for less than $250 and edit your 350 page tome in one day for the same. In addition, they have bolstered their profiles with fake credentials because they know 90% of the people looking at it will not fact check to see if they really wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.(Seth Graham Smith and Jane Austen are the actual authors.)
As you could probably tell from my last post, I appreciate honesty when employers post about budgets. If you do not have $500 or $1000 to spend on a book, I would rather you posted it as a $50 job. If you do not, you are wasting my time and yours. But better still, save your money until you have a good budget to pay someone and then post your job. You see, if you want a 25 page "e-book," it is fair for a freelancer to ask $1000-$2000 for it. The traditional freelancer would ask $5,000+ so you are getting a deal.
Look at it this way. It takes someone 2-4 weeks (or longer) to research and write a 25 page book. In college, I had to produce 20-40 pages of written work every week, so I might be able to push it out quicker if I had an ideal situation (i.e., my family didn't need me to do anything the entire week and I was not interrupted). But is $50 a fair income for two weeks worth of work (or longer)? Could you live off that amount of money--$25 a week? This isn't even enough for someone in Jamaica to live off, where minimum wage is set at $135 per week as of this post. Even people in India make more than $25 per week on average. That leaves your choice of workers from places like Cambodia, Afghanistan, or the DRC. Or the another option: You could be hiring someone that is for whatever reason completely unemployable in their country. You are also probably going to get plagiarized work--because the freelancer is not going to waste his or her time actually writing the book for that low amount or because the freelancer does not write English well-enough to not use other people's words and complete the book or because the freelancer does not know what plagiarism is. A person doing research who takes too detailed of notes is going to be prone to plagiarism. This is also true from people writing out of their scope of knowledge.
Now granted, a new freelancer who does not realize the time and effort required to write a book might apply. Or, like I did in my early days, they may apply for such pittance simply to get good reviews and begin building their profile. And, you will get a good review back, but you shouldn't feel proud of yourself for the deal you scored. You are taking advantage of someone. In addition, that someone is not going to keep working for you. They will quit as soon as they find better pay. They will quit if you fail to leave good feedback to help them build their profile. It is no secret that one main reason any employer has high turnover is because of poor pay. If you are good to your workers, they stick around.
In addition to the fact that you are asking someone to do something for you and basically not get paid, have you looked at the further implications? I can write a new book every 2-4 weeks and post it myself on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles. I have a lot more experience, knowledge, and ability to do this than you do. My book will generate me over $50 in income if it is well-written, and it will continue to generate income for years. Experienced freelancers are not ignorant of this fact. You may smugly say, but I am giving the plot for the book to the freelancer. Do you really think you are the first person to ask a freelancer to write a book about a Keto Diet or Rockstar Romance? We see them all the time and using this vague "idea" for our own means is not plagiarism. After all, 50 other people have exactly the same idea and have also posted it. Plus, chances are good you got the idea after seeing some other book on the same topic that was selling well.
It is true that if you want to make money, you must have money. If you want a professional writer and a product that will sell well, you need to have the money to do hire a professional--otherwise write the book yourself and don't waste your $50. Well-written books that are properly marketed will generate good income. Poorly written books will end up with bad reviews to the point you might not even be able to give them away for free. In fact, you might not even make your $50 off of them.
You can also hire old-school Freelancers who have been working since before the Internet. These people will ask for much higher pay, but they have vast amounts of experience under their belts and they usually work for established companies such as the Washington Post, Forbes, and other big media names. Finding them and getting them to commit to your project will mean you need to have connections and a high budget.
And then there are those of us Freelancers who work online. Many of us are experienced and have been doing this for years, but we cannot generally ask for the budget that a traditional freelancer should get. Why? Because we are bidding against Joe Dolittle and Amal Pradesh who are more than willing to write that book for you for less than $250 and edit your 350 page tome in one day for the same. In addition, they have bolstered their profiles with fake credentials because they know 90% of the people looking at it will not fact check to see if they really wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.(Seth Graham Smith and Jane Austen are the actual authors.)
As you could probably tell from my last post, I appreciate honesty when employers post about budgets. If you do not have $500 or $1000 to spend on a book, I would rather you posted it as a $50 job. If you do not, you are wasting my time and yours. But better still, save your money until you have a good budget to pay someone and then post your job. You see, if you want a 25 page "e-book," it is fair for a freelancer to ask $1000-$2000 for it. The traditional freelancer would ask $5,000+ so you are getting a deal.
Look at it this way. It takes someone 2-4 weeks (or longer) to research and write a 25 page book. In college, I had to produce 20-40 pages of written work every week, so I might be able to push it out quicker if I had an ideal situation (i.e., my family didn't need me to do anything the entire week and I was not interrupted). But is $50 a fair income for two weeks worth of work (or longer)? Could you live off that amount of money--$25 a week? This isn't even enough for someone in Jamaica to live off, where minimum wage is set at $135 per week as of this post. Even people in India make more than $25 per week on average. That leaves your choice of workers from places like Cambodia, Afghanistan, or the DRC. Or the another option: You could be hiring someone that is for whatever reason completely unemployable in their country. You are also probably going to get plagiarized work--because the freelancer is not going to waste his or her time actually writing the book for that low amount or because the freelancer does not write English well-enough to not use other people's words and complete the book or because the freelancer does not know what plagiarism is. A person doing research who takes too detailed of notes is going to be prone to plagiarism. This is also true from people writing out of their scope of knowledge.
Now granted, a new freelancer who does not realize the time and effort required to write a book might apply. Or, like I did in my early days, they may apply for such pittance simply to get good reviews and begin building their profile. And, you will get a good review back, but you shouldn't feel proud of yourself for the deal you scored. You are taking advantage of someone. In addition, that someone is not going to keep working for you. They will quit as soon as they find better pay. They will quit if you fail to leave good feedback to help them build their profile. It is no secret that one main reason any employer has high turnover is because of poor pay. If you are good to your workers, they stick around.
In addition to the fact that you are asking someone to do something for you and basically not get paid, have you looked at the further implications? I can write a new book every 2-4 weeks and post it myself on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles. I have a lot more experience, knowledge, and ability to do this than you do. My book will generate me over $50 in income if it is well-written, and it will continue to generate income for years. Experienced freelancers are not ignorant of this fact. You may smugly say, but I am giving the plot for the book to the freelancer. Do you really think you are the first person to ask a freelancer to write a book about a Keto Diet or Rockstar Romance? We see them all the time and using this vague "idea" for our own means is not plagiarism. After all, 50 other people have exactly the same idea and have also posted it. Plus, chances are good you got the idea after seeing some other book on the same topic that was selling well.
It is true that if you want to make money, you must have money. If you want a professional writer and a product that will sell well, you need to have the money to do hire a professional--otherwise write the book yourself and don't waste your $50. Well-written books that are properly marketed will generate good income. Poorly written books will end up with bad reviews to the point you might not even be able to give them away for free. In fact, you might not even make your $50 off of them.
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