Why The Book (even the e-book) is Dying

Here's why I believe the era of the book, especially the how-to/self-help book, even in e-book format, is dying faster even than most people think:

• People want info that's more current even than possible in an e-book. Most authors do not continually update their books. And even if an author does, if today he's updating page 300, page 1 may not be current enough.
• People want information in shorter bites: distillations like Top 10 lists.
• They expect it free: either as an article or, alas, a pirated book.
• An ever larger percentage of books sold are used, which means no royalty for the author. So, except for famous people, who can still expect to get lucrative book deals, writers who need or want to make money from books are less likely to write them.
  
• Book distribution is unwieldy. Certainly, traditional distribution is obsolete: print thousands of copies, store them in a warehouse, get a salesperson to flog chain buyers (forget about tiny-ordering independent bookstores) and when they don't sell, the books get shipped back to the warehouse. And, if you expect to make money selling your books, print-on-demand is too expensive. CreateSpace is probably best for creating a book but as long as Apple and Amazon keep fighting, the CreateSpace distribution network isn't wide enough.
  

That all said, I think CreateSpace-created-books with diligent e-marketing is probably the best way to go if you're eager to write something book-length. I think, however, that for all but the famous, book writing must be viewed only as a vehicle for consolidating one's learning or otherwise providing its own reward.

A good source of passive income?

What do you think of this no-cash-required approach to earning passive income?

Every month or two, search google.com/trends, which lists the currently most searched terms.

Pick out a hot topic that intrigues you but is likely to fade in popularity in six months to a year.

Quickly crank out a 25-page ebook on that topic. That's not as difficult as it may seem. It's like a term paper using reader-friendly rather than academic-stuffy language, with no citations required. Use Google as a key research tool, which speeds the process.

Sell your ebooks on Amazon, eBay, and Scribd. Money should start rolling in.

You'd get your book to market long before a traditional book publisher could or would--By the time such publishers would get the book out, that trendy topic would have faded.

Sure, this is not a totally passive income source--After all, you have to write the ebooks. But the only truly passive income sources require a cash investment, on which you hopefully get a return. I'm assuming you don't have enough to invest that you can live off investment income. Writing ebooks on trendy topics requires an investment of $0 and, like all passive income, brings in money while you sleep.