Magic Formula for Selling Ebooks

Article first published as The Magic Formula For Selling E-Books on Technorati. (Updated here for October 2011.)

I read a lot of blogs posted by seemingly knowledgeable people telling others how to sell ebooks, and it amazes me how lacking many of these recommendations are. Typically half of these experts advise simply signing up with Clickbank or using E-junkie for a shopping cart on your site. That’s it, that’s the magic formula? Sounds more like a pitch for those paid services than truly helpful advice.

Assuming you have an ebook that contains useful information or entertainment and is not a waste of money, you want to sell it everywhere possible online: e.g. your own website, major retailers like Amazon, etc. I prefer these later options since they don’t cost any money. But to keep it even simpler, the vast majority of your sales can be accomplished by selling ebooks from these locations: your website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. What about Apple and other retailers, you might ask? I’ll explain.

In my experience the 2nd best place for total number of sales and the 1st best for royalties, are sales that happen at my own websites. Plus it runs on autopilot, which is nice when I’m asleep in bed and still making sales. After PayPal’s modest cut, I keep 100% of the profits and grow my email list. Setting up your website with a PayPal button that automatically sends buyers to a URL for download after the purchase is a piece of cake. Now you can sell and fill orders no matter where you are. Keep simple stats of download visitors with a free company like StatCounter, and you’ll know if any pirating is happening, which can be fixed with a simple URL change to your download page.

You must sell with Amazon Kindle because they sell more ebooks than any other retailer. Sign up at KDP Amazon where you’ll be asked to create an Amazon account if you don’t already have one and start making 70% on sales if your ebooks are priced in the $2.99 to $9.99 range.

Pubit with Barnes & Noble is also a great venue. Sign up there is very similar to Amazon; just go to pubit.barnesandnoble.com.

Finally upload and sell with Smashwords because they convert your document into multiple formats and then upload it to Apple, Sony, Kobo, Scrollmotion and Diesel (Amazon and B & N too, but you’re already there). And yes, you make good royalties when selling from those companies via Smashwords. (Mac users can also upload directly with Apple, but the rest of us can’t.)

That’s it, that’s the magic formula. Upload and sell ebooks from these  locations and your bases are covered at no cost to you. Should you also sell from places like Google Ebooks, My Ebook, Bookmato, Scribd, YouPublish and so many more? You can if you want to, but I haven’t found any of those places worth the effort. Things could change in the future though.
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$39 Pro Plan by CreateSpace

Several readers have asked questions about CreateSpace like “Is it really free?” and “How do I access the $39 Pro Plan” and other related things.

The answer is yes, it’s entirely free if you’re willing to do it yourself. If creating a document and formatting it to fill pages of a book is something you’re comfortable with, then you can do it. You can also either create a book cover from scratch or use one of their templates. I chose to do it all by scratch and had several issues with Microsoft Word for the interior files and Inkscape for the cover design, but I did get through them. After having done 3 books this way (and now 5), I feel very comfortable with the process.

For those wanting to check it out, here’s what I told an author friend about it;

CreateSpace is Amazon’s print-on-demand (POD) company. They offer a range of services for writers to make books in print. It can be a do-it-yourself and 100% free experience, or it can also be catered to your needs with bells and whistles (and far from free).

I chose the free version and have done 5 books this way. When it came time to actually order a proof copy (something required before your book goes live and usually costs me between $6 and $9 with shipping), I also chose the $39 Pro Plan which allows a significant reduction on cost per books that I buy plus a better royalty payment when others buy the paperback through Amazon or CreateSpace. But you won’t get prompted (or have any need) for the $39 Pro Plan until you’re at that stage of ordering your proof copy. This will only be necessary after you’ve filled in all the pertinent information about your book and after you’ve uploaded the interior files and the cover file and submitted it for publishing (which is a review by them). Once it’s accepted, a proof needs to be ordered for newbies. Then it makes sense to get the Pro Plan which they will give you prompts for.

First go to https://www.createspace.com/
Click on the link for Authors – Make your books available.
Under Book, click Create One (or Learn More if you want to read it from them).
It will then ask you to either sign in with an existing Amazon account or to create one.
Afterward there will be a series of prompts and items to fill in, which should be self-explanatory.

They also have an excellent community support forum that can do an even better job with instructions, and in some cases you’ll find detailed answers for the exact same questions that have been asked by others in the past. Here’s the link for the community support forum https://www.createspace.com/en/community/index.jspa

For much more information and advice on free methods to sell ebooks, please check out How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks All for Free.

You can also contact me by email without any of the following spaces, jason @ the little universe (dot) com
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Click here for the home page of How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks All for Free.
Subscribe to this blog for updates on what Indie authors can do to sell ebooks.

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Barnes & Noble, Amazon Slash Prices for e-Readers

Barnes & Noble has added a half-ounce, Wi-Fi only Nook and lowered the price of its e-reader by $50 in a move to encourage sales. The device will retail at stores like Best Buy for just $150. The world’s largest brick and mortar bookseller also dropped the price of its original 3G Nook from $259 to $199. Although ebooks themselves haven’t dropped much yet; Barnes & Noble still prices ebooks primarily in the $9.99 to $14.99 range which, to me, still seems pretty high.

Both Sony and Kobo (Borders) have e-readers for $149 but neither currently has Wi-Fi capabilities.

So how did Amazon respond? The world’s largest online bookseller dropped the price of its basic Kindle from $259 to $189. The 3G enabled 10 ounce device has tremendous sales numbers and loyalty from consumers. Amazon still offers ebooks primarily in the $9.99 to $14.99 range though they have fiercely pressured the big six publishing houses to lower prices on all ebooks.

Obviously both of these moves are in response to Apple’s iPad, which retails for a starting price of $499 but does much more than just read books. Amazon and B&N are wisely doing whatever it takes to keep the book reading consumers in their camps while Apple easily runs off with the app-lovers.

What’s next on this front? Clearly the prices of ebooks will drop, and they’ll likely drop dramatically in just a few years. I can’t see how they can remain high for much longer, especially when more and more authors are willing to sell ebooks directly to customers without getting trapped by publishing house standards of old.

What’s the best way to sell ebooks? Drop the price of your e-reading device.

What’s the next best way to sell ebooks? Drop the price of the ebooks.

Another victory for Independent authors.

Uploadnsell

One of my readers informed me about Uploadnsell, a website and program for selling electronic files (or to sell ebooks). Normally I’m a “more the better” fan for things like this, as in the more places to sell ebooks the better, but in this case I’m not convinced and have decided not to upload and sell my ebooks with them.

Definitely the strongest selling point they have is that there are no fees or commissions with Uploadnsell. They guarantee 100% of the profits (after PayPal’s cut) to the authors and claim to make their money entirely through advertising. That’s the good part.

The rest is what makes me not so interested. For starters, there is no bookstore for anyone browsing. A customer needs to already know about your ebook, want to purchase your ebook and have the direct link to buy your ebook, and that is information they’ll have to get from you. To sell an ebook this way, you will have to do all the marketing and get someone to want to buy your ebook, then they’ll click on the Uploadnsell link and the process goes through PayPal and then a download page. Well, that’s funny because that’s exactly what I recommend doing for the times that you sell from your own website and blog. You don’t need a third party to do this when it can easily be accomplished for free on your own.

Uploadnsell requires you to give your PayPal account information to them to handle transactions. Now even though they are likely ethical businesspeople, I really don’t enjoy giving out my banking information to anybody unless I have to. Especially considering that their website is somewhat basic, still in Beta mode without much evidence of customers, and it contains more typos than I’d like to see (feels as if English is a 2nd language). Currently it just doesn’t feel professional enough to make me want to do that.

So I’d love to hear from anyone who has experiences with them. I could be totally wrong (wouldn’t be the first time), but I’m presently more than a bit skeptical. Can you sell ebooks successfully with Uploadnsell? If so, please share with the rest of us.

Thoughts, comments?

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Apple Reports 2 Million iPads sold in less than 2 Months

While some dispute the number, Apple claims to have sold 2 million iPads in less than two months as fans and critics alike weigh in on the pros and cons of iPad. If the sales figure is inaccurate, it’s still a safe bet they sold a boatload anyway for a tablet device that critics said nobody needed and doesn’t play flash. And if it is the right number, at a starting point of $500 apiece, over a billion dollars worth of sales in two months is good business by any standard. Remember sales were first introduced in the US while much of the world has just gotten their chance or are still waiting. Apple predicts over 7 million units will sell in the first year. And even though some competitors like Microsoft and HP are dragging feet to get their own products on the store shelves, it appears that room exists for everybody.

Even though I’m stoked for this device and the ones to follow for what it means to self-publishing, I still have some questions that typically keep me holding out for several months before leaping in with a purchase. One question is how many first generation issues and/or bugs will need resolving? And while that happens, how will the updated versions of Google’s Android and other competitors evolve and lower prices even more?

What I don’t question is the giant step the iPad, Android and other devices are doing to help us Independent authors sell ebooks. Sure, most people prefer movies and music on their tablets but Apple has reported 1.5 million books sold in just the first month. I haven’t heard the recent tally but it should easily be over 2 mil.

While time will be the ultimate factor in the apparent success of the iPad, for now I’ll just focus on yet another platform to work from and sell ebooks. Thank you, Kindle, for getting this whole ball rolling.