Stop Trying To Sell Your eBooks

Home
>
E-Book
>
Stop Trying To Sell Your eBooks

Stop Trying To Sell Your eBooks

Throughout the Internet there are many people who have written ebooks, are writing ebooks or have produced other information products such as reports. No doubt, each writer wants to sell them. And many people have problems selling their ebooks. That's because they try too hard. Here's a different approach which will change the way you see what you do.

Firstly, let's take a look at the traditional book publishing business. An idea is turned into a series of words by an author. A team of people at the publishing company then take those words and fashion them into a book. Then a printing company takes the output from the publisher to produce the final copies. These printed volumes are then taken to a wholesaler who then delivers them to a retailer. A series of customers then buy the book (hopefully!).

Now, look closely at that process again. The customer is buying the book from the retailer. The person doing the selling job is the retailer - not the author. The author is the first part of the manufacturing process which allows the retailer to sell something. So as an ebook author you are not a retailer, you are in the manufacturing business. Manufacturers don't sell - retailers do. So, because as an ebook author you are a manufacturer, not a retailer, perhaps your sales would increase if you concentrated your efforts on the manufacturing process, rather than the selling process.

In the traditional publishing sector that's exactly what happens. The publishers work out which book formats are best for a target market, they deal with pricing issues and they arrange all of the promotion. They hand all of this on a plate to the retailers who then do the selling job. The same is true for cars. Almost no car manufacturer sells cars; dealers do. But the car manufacturer does all the research and promotion. They provide the dealers with the advertising, the brochures and the support they need to help them sell.

So, take these analogies into the ebook publishing business. What happens? Instead of ebook authors stopping their work at the end of the manufacturing process, they then try to be retailers as well. And then they wonder why they don't have many sales.

Here's a plan which works. Other ebook authors have demonstrated it time and time again. Stop selling your own ebooks - get other people to do that for you. On the Internet such retailers are called 'affiliates'. Most affiliate schemes do not result in sales. The ones that work adopt the model of the publishing industry or the car market. Here, the ebook author does all the promotion and provides affiliates with every support necessary to help them sell the books. So provide your affiliates with brochures, adverts, newsletters, articles - anything they can use to sell your books. The more you do for your affiliates, the better they will be at selling your books. And because there are more of them, you'll end up with far greater sales than you could achieve on your own.

Remember as an ebook author you are a manufacturer, not a retailer!

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has specialized in the way we use the Internet. He is an expert on information products and runs Infoselling.com where you can get a FREE report on how to sell your own infoproducts.

http://www.infoselling.com

In The News:

GeekWire
Apple Claims US Government Sides with 'Amazon's Monopolistic Grip' in E-book Case
PCWorld
By John Ribeiro, IDG News The US government has sided with monopoly rather than competition in bringing a case of e-book price-fixing against Apple, the company said in a filing on Tuesday before a federal court. The Department of Justice filed in ...
Apple: US e-book lawsuit 'fundamentally flawed'Reuters
Apple: US e-book lawsuit "fundamentally flawed"Chicago Tribune
E-books: Apple rails against DOJ and 'monopolist' AmazonGeekWire
Times of India
all 83 news articles »

Variety
E-Books, Caveats And All, May Be Boon to Cash-Strapped Libraries
WNYC
By Ben Bradford Digital books are the fastest growing area of publishing, and libraries are seeing a surge in demand for e-book titles — but finding an e-book can be tough. The Central Library in Queens became the first in New York City to start ...
Libraries debut new e-Book ServiceNews-Sun
Menomonee Falls Library Patrons Trade Pages for ScreensPatch.com
Warning: You Are About to Enter the Ebook ZoneAmerican Libraries
Variety -Meadow Lake Progress -Malaysia Star
all 15 news articles »

Co.Exist
Worldreader Kicks off Campaign to Send 1 Million E-Books to Africa
MarketWatch (press release)
Having already put more than 100000 e-books into the hands of 1000 students in Africa, Worldreader is committed to further increase access to digital books in developing nations. Children in the Worldreader program have access to materials ranging from ...
Worldreader Wants To Bring 1 Million E-Books To AfricaCo.Exist
Worldreader and Barcelona FC Announce Campaign to Bring 1 million eBooks to AfricaUbergizmo
Worldreader Announce "Send 1 Million E-Books to Africa" Campaign with FC ...Barca Blaugranes (blog)
Memeburn -The Next Web (blog) -Good E-Reader (blog)
all 14 news articles »

Apple rejects e-book pricing lawsuit as “fundamentally flawed”
Digitaltrends.com
Did Apple illegally fix the prices of e-books in collusion with five publishing houses? Not at all, says the company, and to suggest otherwise - as the US Justice Department is doing with its current anti-trust lawsuit against Apple - is "fundamentally ...

Tahanto mulls electronic books
Worcester Telegram
By Ken Cleveland BANNER CORRESPONDENT BOYLSTON — Tahanto librarian Linda Maresca pitched e-books to the Berlin Boylston Regional School Committee in explaining her plans for the new middle/high school's library, which should be open to students in ...

Why Sex Sells Better on E-Books
Smartmoney.com (blog)
By Quentin Fottrell E-books brought erotica out of the bedroom and onto public transportation. But with the wild success of the bondage-themed “Fifty Shades of Grey” novels, experts say readers may now be in for a deluge of dirty words.

E-Book Usage Skyrocketing at Whitefish Bay Library
Patch.com
With e-book usage quadrupling in the last year, the library board's incoming president says the library will look into new ways to introduce technology. By Jeff Rumage A growing number of Whitefish Bay Public Library patrons are setting down their ...

Siliconrepublic.com
Edco's e-books could make textbooks a thing of the past
Siliconrepublic.com
The full curriculum of post-primary schoolbooks for the next school year are available as e-books, as Edco now plans to tackle primary school editions. The Educational Company of Ireland (Edco) has completed a five-year project to make schoolbooks on ...
Wide range of e-books on offer for childrenInsideireland.ie

all 3 news articles »

RealWire
Intershop Powers the Launch of Pottermore Shop
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Intershop's Enfinity selected as E-Commerce platform by the Pottermore Shop, the exclusive retailer of the Harry Potter eBooks and digital audiobooks. Intershop has announced that its Enfinity E-Commerce platform has powered the launch of the ...
Harry Potter's publishing wand can tame Amazon, piratespaidContent.org

all 13 news articles »

Daily Mail
One-third of e-book readers admit to using gadgets to hide that they're ...
Daily Mail
By Rob Waugh E-book readers 'free' fans from having to show off what they're reading - and it seems many users like to go for rather racy fare. Around a third of e-book users read erotic novels on their devices, confident that others can't see them.

Google News