Tips for Self Promotion, Sales, and Advertising discussion
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Yasheve,Not only do ebooks sell, they are the future! I think there is some resistance by many readers to change with the technology, but the number of people who are reading ebooks grow every day. It won't be much longer before ebooks take the lion's share of the book market. Once the prices of the ereaders drop down to affordable levels, ebooks will dominate the book scene.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that marketing is the key to selling your ebooks. An author who publishes an ebook without the support of a large press will likely face difficulties in reaching his/her intended audience. But if the author is creative and takes advantage of the internet they can reach an unlimited amount of potential readers.
One advantage to publishing your ebooks is that you usually earn a substantially higher profit margin than you would if it were a traditionally published or hardcopy book.
As long as you price your book competitively and market your book to its specific markets you can sell a lot of books. In fact, my ebooks far outsell my hardcopy versions.
If nothing else, since publishing an ebook requires no money, not only will you make a profit, but its a great way to get your unpublished books read by the public.
Hi, Yasheve!I actually looked into ebooks for my three books and found that there was more of an up-front cost than the self-publising route I took. (Perhaps I was looking in the wrong places)
If you know of a way to publish via ebook with little or no upfront cost please forward the info.
Thanks!
Keith,I'm just curious. How did you arrive at the conclusion that it is costly to publish ebooks?
Hi, Kevis.I visited the top ten hits after a Google search on "free ebook publishing". I did't go any further as each of the first 10 options was more costly than the route I took for self-publishing.
That's not to say that they were VERY costly, but I didn't find any free self-publishing options in the top ten hits, even though the Google serach included the word "free".
I'm still open to ebook publishing as I still own the copyright to my materials. If you have any suggestions please pass them on.
Thanks.
Keith,Have you looked into publishing for one of the Mobile Book devices? Smashwords allows you to publish your ebook for free. So does Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket. The best part is that they all offer non-exclusive contracts which means you can publish your book with multiple publishers simultaneously.
Not only is the profit margin higher with these epublshers than hardcopy books, but the rate of sales is also significantly higher. Since this is a growing market there is nothing but upside. In fact, Smashwords just cut a deal with BarnesandNobles to have their catalog listed on B/N's online bookstore.
There is no price tag attached to publishing on any of these formats, so you may want to check into this.
I absolutely love e-books. I wouldn't be without my kindle now. However, I am trying to get my e-book version on kindle and that is getting harder. They have changed their policy and sent me an e-mail saying they wouldn't publish my book because it is a public doman title (it's NOT). I wrote back explaining that over a week ago, and I still haven't heard back. Also Mobipocket are not accepting any new authors/publishers, it all has to go through kindle now.I looked into smashwords but at the moment I am stumped as to how to change my format and take out the tabbed indents. I really want to get onto smashwords so if anyone has any advice they can offer I would be grateful. I read their guidelines book but it was like reading Greek. I'm a writer not a computer programmer.
Also Lulu.com is a great place to list your e-books and that is completely free and you can upload a word doc. Simple.
I agree with Kevis, E-books are the future. Let's face it what are we going to read on when they have chopped down all the trees to make paper books? If nothing else us e-book readers are doing our part for the environment.
Alison,I understand your frustration with formatting your book for Smashwords. Incidentally, I had much more trouble configuring my book for Kindle. I just couldn't wrap my head around how to use html tags.
The interesting this is now that I have published my book on Smashwords, I have learned that if an author were to apply the techniques used to format his book for Smashwords, he/she would likely have no need to tweak the formatting for their Kindle/mobipocket books.
Regarding setting your tabbed indents, I was scared out of my wits when I thought I had to reset each tab manually. But MSWord does it automatically. Once you reset the styles of your manuscript, all you have to do is to set the margin on the ruler bar from zero to your desired indent and your tabs will automatically be reset. Simply slide the top margin indicator button to the desired indent on the margin ruler bar and the all the indents in your manuscript should fall back into place. It worked for me. So you might want to give it a try. Hope that helps.
Kevis,You'll be happy to know that I just published all 3 of my books on Smashwords and the process was smooth as a baby's bottom.
Thanks again!
Keith,Wow. You work fast! Glad to hear everything went well with publishing your ebooks. Much success to your books!
I find it hard to follow you all's claims that eBooks are so great. Where are you getting this evidence from? I can't stand reading on a computer. I can't stand reading on any digital device I have. I've tried to read eBooks all the way through. It's quite impossible for me. I know lots of people who feel the same way.I'm wondering if eBooks aren't just for a few gadget hounds. I've seen people with their Kindles on the NYC subway, but NYC is a terrible measuring stick for the rest of the country. Very different habits in the rest of the country.
Maybe, in 20 years eBooks will be the future, but I'm only really concerned with sales in the next year or two. Lulu has been terrible for sales for me. Are you basing your comments on experience or gut feelings? Why did Barnes and Nobles do away with their eBook department if it's so profitable? (It's either b&n or borders that recently eliminated eBooks from their offerings)
I have three of my books on Smashwords. It was easier than putting them on Kindle. I love the idea of having all the books I want to read in one spot. I'm slowly filling up my Kindle.
I'm thinking about what you mean by competitive pricing. I put my books at about $10.00. Non-fiction, Metaphysics. I looked around and that seemed about right based on the pricing of other books.Do you think that's too high?
eBooks do sell and readers are buying Kindles and Sony ereaders and buying these more to save money. I have romances as eBooks and I am seeing my royalties rising. Get a better deal royalty-wise with an eBook than print, believe it or not.
But I don;t do my own eBooks. These are done by publishers I submit to and get accepted.
Kevis wrote: "Alison,I understand your frustration with formatting your book for Smashwords. Incidentally, I had much more trouble configuring my book for Kindle. I just couldn't wrap my head around how to use..."
Kevis, Thanks for the info. I did try the ruler thingy. I tried to follow smashwords instructions as best I could, but my indents didn't go back to where they should be. It just aligned the whole book against the ruler. Maybe I just have to go back to the drawing board.
Also, as for kindle, there was no way I could figure out html tags. so I uploaded the word doc and it formatted it correctly. I checked several pages on the preview and they all looked fine. Anyway it's a moot point if the buggars won't even publish it.
Yasheve, e-books are definitely the future. I know you want to see sales now but anyone who is environmentally friendly knows the impact e-books have on the planet (in a very good way). Also with the e-book readers it is just like reading a paper book. they are not backlit like a computer. I can't read an e-book on a computer coz I work on one all day. You really need to give it a try. Watch and see, the next generation will probably be the turning point to where paper books start to become extinct.
Yasheve wrote: "I find it hard to follow you all's claims that eBooks are so great. Where are you getting this evidence from? I can't stand reading on a computer. I can't stand reading on any digital device I have..."Yasheve,
All I can tell you is that seeing is believing. My books are currently available for the 3 major ebook formats: Amazon, Mobipocket, and Smashwords. The flexibility regarding my ability to set my own retail price gives me marketing leverage a hard copy book just cannot match. With Mobipocket I can price my book as low as 1 cent. On Smashwords, I have the option of letting my readers decide how much they want to pay for my book. Kindle is the hottest ebook on the market and the people who own Sony's ereader are just as voracious in their consumption of books as Amazon's Kindle owners.
Maybe you are asking yourself the wrong question. Maybe the question isn't how do we know that ebooks sell. The question ought to be, where do I market my ebooks? That question is the key to answering your question. If you don't know where to market your ebook, it certainly won't sell. But if you have a strong mareketing strategy that allows you to target your potential readers, then your ebook will not only sell, but it will sell very well.
And just for the record, the reason I know ebooks sell, is from experience. I was a little skeptical of the number of ebooks that I would sell until I published my first book on Kindle. Within 2 hours of my book's release I had sold 53 copies! Now that's not going to happen for everyone. But I personally know authors with Kindle books whose book is being downloaded several hundred times a week.
Again, how you decide to promote your book is the real issue, not how many people are buying ebooks.
ePub is a popular format over at the MobileReads Forums. For anyone interested in DIY e-book formatting, this blog entry lists freeware sites for e-book creation:http://hurricanecountry.blogspot.com/...
Shortened URL:
http://bit.ly/44GnU
Yasheve,I don't sell many books on the internet, but what I have sold are eBooks. Also, as a reviewer, I must demand print books or all I get are eBooks. I still end up reading at least one eBook per week. Finally, as a reader, I buy just as many eooks as I do print books.
Another ebook option is ireadiwrite. This is managed by Michelle who is helpful with any questions you may have but you have to submit and be accepted. She is also working on extending the approved books to other sites, one being Barnes and Noble. Try it out and let her know that Colleen sent you:)
Happy ebooking!
Kevis wrote: "Again, how you decide to promote your book is the real issue, not how many people are buying ebooks."The issue is how many people are buying ebooks. That's a lot of extra steps if it doesn't pay off.
I agree with you that it's also important how you market it.
I believe all of you know what you're talking about, but I am just not convinced. And yes, I feel like a dinosaur because of it. I'm a very social person (even though I'm not quite a fan of humans), but I don't know anyone personally who has a kindle or anything like it. From LA to NYC to Miami and various points in between.
I still think it's a gadget junkie thing. It's probably a VHS to DVD thing, a cassette to CD to mp3 thing. The only way I see it seriously having an impact in the next ten years (as someone said "accounting for half of book sales") is if the libraries start loaning these readers out. Or a HUGE celebrity publishes a tell-all that can only be read via download.
You guys know that we have readership issues every few years where we are crying and complaining because no one reads anymore. Then, there is an explosion because some genre gets hot.
Plus, these ereaders aren't crossing cultural and economic boundaries yet. Laserdiscs, Beta, you name it. If the general public doesn't want it, it won't last.
I do think there will eventually be a market, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon to make a significant difference. And that difference is always money.
Kevis wrote: "Alison,I understand your frustration with formatting your book for Smashwords. Incidentally, I had much more trouble configuring my book for Kindle. I just couldn't wrap my head around how to use..."
I was able to figure it out today, I got my book uploaded to smashwords. Still not having any luck with Kindle though. Oh well, keep on plugging I guess
Hi Alison,I'm happy to hear that you got things rolling with your Smashwords ebook. If I can give you a quick pointer, I have learned that the technique used to prepare your book for Smashwords is quite effective for converting your book to Kindle. If you have tried to convert your book for Kindle without using the steps mentioned in Smashwords guidebook, you'll find the conversion process a little more tricky.
It seems that the problem with converting MSWord documents to an ebook start with manually entering tabs, indents, etc.
By using the MSWord Styles feature as mentioned in the Smashwords guidebook, you eliminate many of the problems that pop up in the conversion process. I have learned that in the future, I will prepare my ebooks for Smashwords first, then release them on Kindle since the process for preparing your book for Smashwords can eliminate most of the problems you encounter for converting your book for Kindle.
Like you I had hell trying to figure out how to apply HTML tags to fix the errors in my kindle book. For instance, my book had plenty of blank pages between chapters. Other times, my chapters headings showed up on the last page of the previous one. I tried to manually use the pagebreak and chapter break HTML tags to separate the chapters. Other times I had to eliminate lines of HTML code to keep my chapter headings consistently aligned.
Thanks to having read the Smashwords guidebook, I now know that you should never have more than 4 or 5 carriage returns in succession. The reason for this is that it creates blank pages in your ebook.
Also, the Smashwords guidebook teaches you that you can manually insert pagebreaks and chapter breaks into your word document which will keep you from having to go back and manually enter HTML tags to force pagebreaks into your kindle book.
What I suggest to you is to upload the same file you used to build your Smashwords ebook (minus the Smashwords disclaimer) and see if your Kindle book isn't better formatted than your current one. If you still have problems with your Kindle book, feel free to check back with me. I'd be happy to see if I can be of any help.
Yasheve wrote: "The issue is how many people are buying ebooks. That's a lot of extra steps if it doesn't pay off."Yasheve,
Have you considered publishing at least one of your books to Kindle just to see what kind of response you will get? Without a doubt, the choice of whether to publish an ebook or not is exclusively yours. But if the sheer number of Kindle books sales is any indication, you are really missing out on a great opportunity to introduce your book to a whole new readership.
Reportedly, over 240,000 Kindle 2's were sold this year in addition to hundreds of thousands of Kindle 1's and Kindle DX's that are currently on the market. Amazon projects that they'll likely have to double their production number to meet sales next year. Consider that the millions of people who own ipods and iphones can also download Kindle books.
Now Time Warner is introducing their own ereader device to compete against the millions of ereaders sold by Amazon, Apple, Sony, ebookwise, irex, Legacy, and others. The number is only going to grow.
The ebook market is not a niche market. It is a burgeoning market that is poised to dominate the book scene probably within the next five years.
To respond to some of the questions you raised, here are some sites with some information that might interest you. Feel free to check them out when you can:
http://ireaderreview.com/2009/06/16/l...
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-...
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.c...
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/0...
Oh Okay. Thanks Kevis. This is what I was looking for. Evidence. Thanks for digging up those supporting documents for me.I still don't believe it. "Dominate the book scene within the next five years"? NO WAY.
But I'm no fool. I will make sure all my titles are downloadable. I'm sure I'll never sell any that way, but it's an option I haven't ignored, I just wanted to ignore it.
Kevis wrote: "Hi Alison,I'm happy to hear that you got things rolling with your Smashwords ebook. If I can give you a quick pointer, I have learned that the technique used to prepare your book for Smashwords i..."
Hi Kevis
Thanks for the tips. The problem I am having with Kindle isn't the formatting though. I have done all that and it looked ok on the preview. The problem is that they have put my book into what other people are calling "Amazon Book Jail" Basically they e-mailed me to tell me that they will not publish a public domain title. I wrote back FOUR times now, telling them that this is not a public domain title, that I wrote the book and have complete ownership over the copyright. I asked what else I need to do to get my project going forward and have not heard anything back from them (even after 4 e-mails). It has been nearly 2 weeks now and it is still posted as under review.
I am getting frustrated because I am a kindle owner and know the value of being published to kindle but if they won't even respond to me, how on earth can I move forward? Grrrrr!
Back to Smashwords though, I am currently writing my next book in the series that I'm doing and will change the formatting to what smashwords tells you to do. I agree that it will make life easier next time.
Kevis, knows what he's talking about, but I've seen other authors successfully market their ebooks. There are some caveats. If you're targeting a massmarket an you're not published by a major house, you need to consider what's going to convince someone to pick up your book. Reviews and synopsis are important but price is too. Unfortunately, $10.00 won't net you many sales. A penny will take you on to the best seller list for at least a period of time provided you market it well.
A penny may not make a lot of sense to you, but what it does is get it 'out there' once you've got a half dozen reviews you can increase the price. I personally wouldn't go beyond the $5.00 mark for an Indie book, but that's just a gut feel. If you've got a paperback version it may facilitate these sales (but I personally believe print and ebook are almost entirely different markets because ereaders still don't have sufficient penetration for mass marketing techniques).
Yasheve wrote: "Oh Okay. Thanks Kevis. This is what I was looking for. Evidence. Thanks for digging up those supporting documents for me.I still don't believe it. "Dominate the book scene within the next five ..."
Good for you, Yasheve! Good luck on those books. When you have finished creating your ebooks, let me know. I'll give you some pointers on where you can market them. ;)
Alison wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Hi KevisThanks for the tips. The problem I am having with Kindle isn't the formatting though. I have done all that and it looked ok on the preview. The problem is that they have put my book into what other people are calling "Amazon Book Jail" Basically they e-mailed me to tell me that they will not publish a public domain title..."
Sorry to say, Alison that the Geroge Orwell's 1984 fiasco has caused Amazon to adopt a new policy against publishing new public domain titles. This has really caused them to scrutinize every book that gets publshed on Kindle. Even the ones that are already there, such as mine, are evaluated and reevaluated every time we try to change the price or update the content of out books.
Unfortunately, no one can predict when or if Amazon will unfreeze your book. And trying to communicate with them is like talking to a chimpanzee. At this point, all I can do is hope that Amazon is able to verify that what you are telling them is the truth so that they can publish your book.
Kevis wrote: "Alison wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Hi KevisThanks for the tips. The problem I am having with Kindle isn't the formatting though. I have done all that and it looked ok on the preview. The problem is tha..."
Good news. They finally published it today!!
Alison wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Alison wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Hi KevisThanks for the tips. The problem I am having with Kindle isn't the formatting though. I have done all that and it looked ok on the preview. Th..."
Congratulations, Alison! That certainly is wonderful new. Looks like your patience and perseverance with amazon has paid off. I'm am certain this takes a load off of your mind. Now comes the fun part: marketing your Kindle book! Cheers!
I find this interesting. I launched my kindle edition at the same time as my paperback release. I've promoted the paperback more and its sold more copies but my Kindle sales have lagged. Only 4 of the new novel and about 6 of the older one in the last few months.
I even placed it at a low price point of $3.99.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002...
Is there a specific place or way to promote e-books? I mean I have my website but is there a specific market other than my sci-fi fantasy market?
Goodreads of course, by sending off to new readers. Of course, if you have your book in other formats, helps too. A reader didn't have Kindle but wanted couple of my stories. The publishers had them in pdfs and others. Shelfari.com as readers are there.
Yahoo groups. Twitter.com.
Join forums to do with Kindle on Amazon and put out about your ebook if you haven't already.
Of course, depends if you're a new author that readers don't know--takes time.
Pamela, yes, of course, goodreads, although I try to being too forward with the "check out my book" stuff because I don't want to be labeled a spammer.I guess I never realized if you published your e-book with Amazon you could do other formats, too. I thought they were exclusive. Don't know where I got that from.
I'm strongly considering my next book (a collection of short stories) to be e-book first (and eventually paperback later on).
Are there e-book reviewers?
There are a lot of e-book review sites. Do a search for e-book reviews and one that is specific to your genre. Then check blogs and other authors that might do reviews for you as well. You shouldn't have to look very hard, they are out there.
As for the expense of e-publishing, it may be more expensive if you're self publishing. I haven't compared self-pubbing with print vs. ebook. I do know there are a lot of legit e-book publishing houses that, if you can get a submsission accepted, cost the author absolutely nothing. But then, it's not self-published either.
And as for the future? Well personally I believe in the e-book. I never would have dreamed it, but since I've had my Sony, I get frustrated when I have to read in paperback. I'm not into debating if it will happen, (or more apropriately, when it will happen) but I do think electronic is here to stay. All the arguments about gadgets, and technology were right in the eighties, but they've sorted most of that out.
The important thing, in my opinion, is will our kids, kids be reading at all?...not what format they'll be reading in. From what I've seen of kids and cell phones/ipods... If we want them to have any interest in books at all, the books better fit into that little handheld device of the future.
:-D
Frances
JC wrote: "Pamela, yes, of course, goodreads, although I try to being too forward with the "check out my book" stuff because I don't want to be labeled a spammer.I guess I never realized if you published ..."
Here Here!!
Ebooks definitely sell and are a growing market! If you are looking to publish your book in an ebook format, BooksOnBoard.com is currently searching for authors.
Mod
Wild,
Given that you posted three similar messages in different areas on our loop at one-minute intervals, one is obliged to wonder if you have a particular interest in this ebook site.
If you have a financial interest, please promote it in the area designated for self promo, or add a disclaimer.
Your profile has been set to private, which means that I cannot address this question off list, which would have been my preference.
Rowena Cherry
with moderator hat on
I'm just trying to help people out, not trying to spam. I apologize if it was taken the wrong way!
I've just tagged several, which included K. M. Johnson.Thank you for tagging my book.
Urenna Sander
I've read in industry trades that eBooks don't sell. I also read that Barnes and Nobles or some other major chain just eliminated that department for the same reason.
Are eBooks just for big names or classics? Is it a waste of time to publish shorts or niche subjects in this format?