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How to Make Your eBook Sell: 3 Simple Methods to Get Your Book Up and Running

Mar 16, 2022

 Last updated: 10 January 2022

"I've written an eBook ... now what? !"

That's what a lot of authors feel when they realize that they aren't sure how to sell their ebook to potential customers.

Whether you're just thinking about making an ebook or completed one, you'll need to determine how you're going to sell it.

Many authors publish their book on Amazon and expect to earn a large amount of ongoing passive income ... but this may result in zero sales whatsoever. Additionally, Amazon will take 35 percent - 70% of any sales the author does make.

In this piece, we'll be covering some key tools you can use to sell your ebooks. We'll also take a detailed analysis of the best way to launch and promote your book, how to price it as well as other.

Although we'll be mostly focusing on nonfiction books, a lot of these tips will apply also to fiction-based ebooks - and we'll look at some fiction-specific advice where appropriate.

Find links quickly to things we'll cover:

How can I sell ebooks on the internet?

We'll start by defining the basics: Where can you actually sell ebooks online?

The main choices are:

These options aren't mutually exclusive. Many authors utilize all three to sell their books, though others prefer to stick with one.

Let's take a closer look at each one of these options

Amazon

Amazon is a massive platform and an extremely well-known brand. Most people with an e-reader device have the Kindle - so when you upload your ebook in multiple online bookstores, you're likely to see that most of your sales come via Amazon.

If you decide to make your book exclusively available on Amazon, you can get additional benefits. They include the option to add your book into Amazon's "Kindle Unlimited" program, so that readers with a Kindle Unlimited subscription can borrow the book at no cost. It is possible to earn money for every book you borrow and then read.

The key drawback to making use of Amazon is the fact that they collect an enormous percentage of the royalties you earn. If your book is priced between $2.99 to $9.99 (inclusive), Amazon is able to take 35 percent. If the book's price is $2.98 or less or $10.00 or more, Amazon takes 70%.

It's not likely to be paid very promptly, either. Amazon only pays out monthly in the case of sales completed within 60 days or more prior to.

Smashwords

Smashwords will distribute your book to several channels, including Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books. The readers can also purchase your ebook directly from the Smashwords site.

If you're looking to sell your book through a variety of various online stores of different sellers, Smashwords is a great method to accomplish this. They can help you get your ebook file into the right file format and uploading it to these stores.

One of the major drawbacks with Smashwords is that your ebook file needs to be formatted according to their requirements before uploading. This can be fiddly, and may involve stripping out all the formatting (chapter headings, italics, bold, etc) from your book before putting everything back in again by hand. There are, however, many people and businesses that will format your manuscript on your behalf, for a fee.

Another problem is that it may take a long time to receive your cash. Smashwords only pays out every quarter and has the time frame of between 30-60 days to get the money from the eBook stories that are published online.

Through these platforms, you create an account, add your ebook and choose a price. There is no need to provide all the details that Amazon requests, including keywords or categorical categories.

You'll be in complete control of your book. You'll be able to uploading multiple files so that you could package your book with extras like videos or .pdf worksheets: this can be very valuable in the event that you are looking to promote your book as a premium product.

Once someone purchases your ebook, (or your chosen platform) instantly delivers the ebook to them on your behalf. The money you earn from the sale instantly. There's no minimum payment which means that even if your ebook only sells for one dollar, you'll be paid immediately.

This is a big benefit over other sites such as Amazon as well as Smashwords, which pay long after the ebook sale occurs.

doesn't take a hefty amount of royalties from ebook sales, neither. With the free plan, you pay a transaction fee of just 5percent of the sales cost of the ebook. If you realize that you're selling a lot of ebooks each month, you may want to switch to a paid-monthly plan, which has less or no charges for transactions.

(Note: You'll also need to pay for the fees applicable for your payment gateway, such as PayPal or Stripe.)

Plus, when you use platforms like , you know the names of your customers. Because they are buying directly from you instead of through an intermediary such as Amazon or Kobo You'll have their email address. You can also connect your account with an email marketing service like AWeber and MailChimp. This lets you remain in contact with your customers and market your ebooks' future releases to readers.

How to make your book sell on the internet in just three easy steps

Have you completed your book? This is what you must do to start selling it online:

Step #1: Getting Your Ebook Prepared to Sell online

 Editing and Proofreading

The ebook you write should be well-edited and proofread. That's non-negotiable. In fact, many ebook authors pay professional editors and proofreaders for their books to ensure they are top-quality.

If you're unable to pay for it, at least run your text through an automated editing software such as Grammarly. This will help you spot the grammatical errors and typos that you've missed. If possible, have a friend or family member review the work on your behalf.

 Cover Design

Cover design is critically important. Don't be tempted to do this yourself, unless expertly designed. It's all too easy to end up with unprofessional-looking covers that turn people off purchasing.

If you're unable to afford a the design of your cover, you can use tools such as Canva to create a simple cover. Pay particular attention to the typography. It's a good thing that, if you're using  Canva, you are able to instantly modify your cover anytime should you decide to make changes.

Fiction authors need to pay special attention to design and layout of the cover. An appropriate design can signal the genre of your book.

 Include an "About the Author" Page

The best place for this to be placed is towards the conclusion of your publication, however before any material such as acknowledgments or copyright pages. It's likely to be seen rather than omitted.

It could also include a short biography and a description of other information you can provide, and an "call to act" that encourages the reader to take action, such as visiting your site or downloading additional content.

 Consider Bundling Your Ebook Alongside Bonus Material

Do you plan to package your book with special benefits? If so, with Amazon as well as other book retailers it can be a challenge: you have to host the bonus files on your website , and then include a link in the ebook.

In fact, it's very simple to incorporate additional material. You can simply upload those documents along with the ebook itself.

The best bonuses to take into consideration are:

  • Video walkthroughs that demonstrate a key strategy you'll are discussing in the book you wrote.
  • Interviews (audio or video) featuring experts from your area, in order to provide an entirely new perspective, or to add greater depth to the content of your book.
  • for your readers to remember and apply what they've learnt. For instance, you might provide a summary in a PDF format of a key framework in your book.

Step #2: Pricing Your Ebook

Many authors have trouble when it comes to pricing their eBook. If you are selling a printed physical book, you need to charge an amount to be able to earn a profit. With the very low distribution costs of ebooks, you could set a low price , or even offer the ebook completely absolutely free.

You can also charge highly for special information. For instance, some ebooks sell at least $97.

The best place to start is by looking at other similar ebooks. What do other authors charge?

With fiction, you'll probably sell at $4.99 or less in the event of the kind of "box set" with multiple titles. Take a look at the pricing the other genres are offering.

A lot of ebook authors release their books with a limited-time low price. For instance, they might offer a standard price of $19.99 but launch their ebook for sale at $9.99. This is a fantastic way to bring in an initial burst of sales.

The ability to lower or raise prices is easy on a platform like where you have the ability to make immediate changes. If you're selling via Amazon, it can require several hours for your price to be changed in real time, once you have changed the price in the KDP dashboard.

Other important things to keep in mind in determining the price of your ebook include:

  • If you're selling your product on Amazon, pricing between 10 and $19.99 will cost the seller less than pricing at $9.99 due to Amazon's royalty structure. Plus, you're unlikely to offer any eBooks priced above $19.99 through Amazon because buyers who use that platform prefer low prices.
  • Your aim is to maximize profit, not only sales. In other words, if could sell 10,000 copies of your book for $2 (making $200,00) but 5,000 copies at five dollars (making $25,000) It would be preferential to price it at $5.
  • A higher price can make customers feel more secure by establishing your book as a premium item. If you charge a much cheaper price than similar books, it could turn readers off and they'll wonder what's wrong with the book!
  • If you're writing fiction, you'll need to stick to the standard price for comparable books that are in the same genre. Most people won't shell out $9.99 to read a novel written by the first author.
  • If you're struggling Try "pay whatever you like" price. It lets you establish an amount that is a minimum for your book (e.g. $5) - customers can then choose to pay whatever they like provided they meet the minimum price.

Step #3: Step #3: Making Your Ebook Sellable

Once you've got your ebook itself ready and set your price, now is the time to make it available for customers to buy.

If you decide to use , this is really easy to do.

The first step is to sign up for first a (free!) account. Just go to the home page, add your email address to the box, and select the "Start" link:

homepage

After that, you'll be asked to pick a password. Type in the password you're looking for and then press the 'Create account' button:

register

will now prompt you for:

  • Your name or business name. This will be displayed on your online store. Sometimes it makes sense to just use your own name.
  • Your store username. It will be defaulted to the username you typed in, but you can alter it should you wish to.

You'll then see the welcome page, where you can simply click on icons to establish your store on the internet:

Tip Be sure to create a system that people can pay you. Click on the Setup check out button to accomplish this. If you don't have an account with PayPal or Stripe account, you need to create one first.

Your store means you don't even need any website for yourself It's enough to link customers to your store's page, which will be .com/username.

Naturally, you are able to sell ebooks on your site too. makes this process seamless, by using specially embedded checkout buttons. It is possible to see an example in action at James Coglan's web site:

checkout flow

For this kind of payment on your site, simply click the 'Share the Product' button next to your product in your account. After that, you can click on the  button 'Embed Button.

You can choose the button text, theme, and the type before you click "Get Your Embed".

share embed

How can you promote your ebook (before or during and even after the your book's launch)

Making your book accessible for purchase isn't going to earn you a fortune. You must market your book as well.

Marketing isn't a one-off event. Here are some suggestions that you can accomplish:

Before you launch your Ebook

Find reviews or testimonials for use in your advertising (e.g. on the sales page for your book in your website). One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to distribute the advance versions of your ebook for free, encouraging people to write a brief review.

Create an email list. It's not necessary to set up a full site for this. There's a simple attractive "coming soon" page with a sign-up for people to sign up to your email newsletter.

Make social media profiles for yourself in your capacity as an author. You should keep these separate from your personal profiles, so you don't bombard readers with images of your family or of your latest vacation, and to ensure that your family and friends do not have to keep reading every day updates about your book.

Make friends with affiliates. Your target audience could be small or nonexistent ... however, you could benefit from other people's audiences through affiliate marketing. The easiest thing to do is to let affiliates sign up to help promote your book. You decide how much percentage of commission they receive (50 percent is fairly typical).

During Your Launch

It is important to let people know about your book. Don't be afraid to share it on Twitter or blog on it several times (though be careful not to go excessively). Be aware that the algorithms of social media means that most of the people who are part of your circles won't get to read every blog post. It's also possible to email those with whom you're in contact. Be sure to send several emails to your newsletter list, in the event that you already own one.

Invite your affiliates to promote your ebook. You probably already have affiliates in place: now's the perfect time to remind them about your book. Let them know how easy it is to market the book. Offer them pictures they can use (like the cover of the book) as well as suggestions for words they could include in emails as well as for postings on social media.

Guest posts on blogs that are related to your book. This is an excellent strategy for marketing non-fiction because it allows you to reach an audience that's already interested in your topic. When you guest post your work, you're putting a glimpse of your ideas and writing in front of them. Use the bio of your guest post to let readers know about your book, and give them a hyperlink to the ideal location to purchase it (probably your store or website).

You might want to consider the possibility of a blog tour. If you've written novels or other fictional book, a blog tour can be a great option to spread the word out. This can be a lot similar to a typical book tour, only online. Write guest blog posts or interview guests for various blogs. Usually, you have a blog post that is published every day. There are many companies which can organize blog tours for you or you can contact blogs by yourself.

After You Launch:

Create your subsequent ebook. Successful ebook authors very seldom stop after putting one novel out. Write a book on a related topic, or even a sequel your original book. People who've bought one ebook from you may decide to purchase another.

Be aware of how you're selling. It provides you with detailed information of your sales. frequently reviewing these reports will help you determine what's working (e.g. whether you made lots of sales during a specific day during an offer). To view these reports simply login to your account and click the Analytics tab.

Five Common Ebook Selling Questions Answered

You might have some queries or doubts about selling ebooks. This is a list of most frequently asked questions that pop to mind:

 How Can I Stop people from stealing my Ebook?

This might seem like an odd answer, but even for those who are just beginning to write ebooks privacy is greater a danger than privacy.

While you can put certain safeguards in place to stop your ebook being pirated but they could be a hindrance to legitimate purchasers. They won't do much to stop pirates from taking over your book, also. Frankly, if someone really wants to pirate your ebook, they will.

It can be depressing, or perhaps even exasperating. The people who piracy the ebook might not be willing to pay to purchase it, so there's no reason to be missing out on money.

At the moment, don't be concerned about piracy. Just get your ebook out there, and encourage as many people to buy it as much as you possibly can.

 Are Ebooks Sale Profitable?

It certainly can be! There are plenty of fiction and non-fiction authors making great money from ebooks - and many have done since the beginning of time including Tim Ferris (non-fiction) and J.F. Penn (fiction).

There is a lot of ebook authors who don't make much money, for a number of reasons. If you're new to ebook selling, the most effective method of making money is to not invest too much upfront.

Invest in crucial things like covers as well as (if you have the money) paying for editing. However, don't invest a lot of money in advertising, on buying thousands of print copies of your book. You may find that you can't recover your expenses.

The most successful ebook authors have discovered that it can take several books before they can build momentum in sales - particularly with fiction. Therefore, if the first book you write doesn't quite bring about your hopes of wealth and fame Don't quit: just get on with creating the next book.

 Do I have to pay tax on my Sales?

The answer is simple to reply:"Yes. Earnings through your writing is considered income. You must pay the income taxes apply in your nation, and will likely need to register as self-employed (or even a limited company) for author status.

If you're selling to customers within the EU You'll also have to be liable for EU VAT. You're expected to pay this even if you're resident outside the EU. takes care of this for you.

 What types of Ebooks could I offer for sale?

There are many ways to make all kinds of ebooks - you're limited only by your imagination. eBooks could be short or very long; they could be written on a variety of subjects; they may contain lots of pictures or not have any at all.

Below are some ebook sellers on , covering many topics, to inspire you:

 How Can I Be Paid for My Ebook?

The way you are paid on ebook sales (and the speed at which you are paid!) will depend on the method you're using to sell it.

lets you take payment through both PayPal and Stripe. Stripe is a payment gateway that allows the use of credit and debit cards.

PayPal payments come directly into your PayPal account instantly and can then be withdrawn into your bank account. Pay with Stripe takes up to a couple of business days.

Others platforms, including Amazon accept payment through options like direct payment, wire transfer and check. Amazon makes payments monthly, and the process takes anywhere from 60 - 90 days after you actually sell a book to get the money in return.

Ready to start selling your ebook?

Create a account now (it's completely cost-free) to explore the choices you get. It's possible to upload your eBook anytime you're ready.

If you require adjustments at any time, you can instantly add or remove the files in your ebook, change its description, alter your ebook's price as well as more.