How to sell your ebook: From marketing and launching, to building an audience

By Kaleigh Moore November 14, 2023

You’ll be able to’t go on trip lately with out seeing somebody on their e-reader. 

And that’s improbable information for e book creators. The e book market ought to hit $14 billion within the U.S. alone by the tip of this 12 months. It is going to develop to an anticipated international market of 1.1 billion readers by 2027.

However even in a hefty market like that, success isn’t assured.

If you wish to promote ebooks on this local weather, you’ll want to face out from the opposite sellers. You’ll must know how one can place and persuade individuals to purchase your e-book. 

We’ve beforehand tackled how one can create a profitable e book. Now it’s time to speak about market liftoff. 

How will you promote your e-book on-line? How will you distinguish it from others already on sale? How will you ask for a worth individuals are keen to pay?

To be taught that, let’s deal with the most effective methods for promoting your e book within the present market:

First issues first: creating your e book

Have you ever created your e book but? 

No? Listed here are a number of fast reminders from our publish about constructing an e book for the primary time:

• Place your e book by beginning together with your market and your concept. Is it fiction or nonfiction? Who’s your superb buyer?
• Define and draft your e book with the assistance of AI writing instruments. You can even draft the e book your self, or just rent out the work to a ghostwriter on Fiverr or Upwork.
• Construct your e book with instruments like Calibre, Reedsy, or Canva so it’s able to publish within the format of your alternative.

Your e book ought to hit on a key ache level on your readers. Take into account Paula Rizzo, whose e-book Listful Considering tackles a selected topic: utilizing lists to get organized.

Nonetheless with us thus far? 

Good. As a result of when you’ve labored by these suggestions, you’ll have a shiny new e book in your fingers—digitally talking—that’s able to promote.

For a lot of, that is the enjoyable half.

Constructing a canopy to make your e book’s “pitch”

Should you deal with your cowl proper, a sale might occur instantly. A buyer solely has to suppose: “Hmm…that appears good.”

It’s a easy truth of life. Readers do decide books by their covers.

A great title—like “The Pleasure of Cooking,” with the font putting emphasis on “pleasure”—ought to instantly fill the starvation pangs of your superb reader.

However past the title, your cowl has to do an efficient job of conveying what’s inside. Take into account:

• Shade palette: Colours impression our notion of what’s contained in the e-book. Examine colour psychology to harmonize what’s on the entrance and the promise your e book is making. As an example, a colour like inexperienced works for books about well being, fertility, shedding stress, nature, and gardening. 
• Typography: Font measurement, fashion, and positioning all weigh into the messaging of the e-book. Serif fonts, says Kindlepreneur, are usually greatest for conventional themes. Scripts—fonts that appear like penmanship—are greatest for memoirs and keenness tasks. 
• Eye-catchers: What’s the chief aspect of your e-book cowl? Perhaps the title takes up many of the area. Different components—like flowers in a e-book on gardening—ought to have instant enchantment to your target market.
• Area: Lastly, take note of using area—together with empty area. There’s solely a lot actual property on a e-book cowl you should use earlier than it will get crowded. 

Platforms for promoting ebooks

Upon getting your e book—and a canopy to assist promote it—the next step is to make it simple to obtain.

Enter the e book platform.

Main platforms like Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and Apple Books are nice beginning locations. They’re the place many voracious e book customers flip to fill their e-readers.

Earlier than you market your e-book, keep in mind that outdated present enterprise adage: 90% of success is displaying up. Let’s discover what it means on your e book to “present up” by maximizing your publicity to the highest platforms:

Amazon: Amazon KDP is among the largest marketplaces for ebooks in all the world. Yearly, nearly 500 million ebooks undergo Amazon.

It incorporates a dashboard for monitoring your gross sales. And also you’ll have energy over the way you promote your e-book. Title, cowl, worth, promoting, class: it’s all beneath your direct management

Apple: Apple Books, typically generally known as the iBooks retailer previously, could also be your major conduit to individuals who swear by their iPhones and Macs. You’ll earn 70% royalties right here in your self-published work—about business customary.

To kick off the method of publishing, head to their Authors part. There you can begin to construct your e-book’s presence within the Apple world and measure your long-term success.

Smashwords: There have been over 31 million ebooks revealed on Smashwords. And the enjoyable factor about Smashwords is the way it’s constructed for the e book market. 

Smashwords options in depth classes in each fiction and non-fiction. You shouldn’t discover it too tough to search out your e book’s house, regardless of your class. 

It’s additionally widespread to see ebooks fetch as a lot as $9.99 and up on the platform, which places your e-book in an advantageous pricing context.

Kobo: Kobo Writing Life is a good “gateway” for writers who wish to focus much less on promoting and extra on writing. When you have your e book file prepared, it simply takes a number of brief steps after signup to have it able to promote on the platform.

The draw back? You would possibly hand over slightly management. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, for instance, presents you all kinds of variables to manage. 

Should you discover all of that overwhelming, attempt getting on Kobo as a “gateway” to the remainder of the opposite platforms. 

Google: Google Play is the primary market app on Android telephones, which is why Google Play Books is the important thing touchpoint right here. 

It’s particularly helpful for individuals who wish to goal clients who like to learn on their telephones. That quantity eclipsed 50% of readers within the mid-2010s. And as telephones solely grow to be extra ubiquitous, it is best to contemplate Google Play Books a necessary platform.

Draft 2 Digital: How a few self-publishing platform that handles different platforms for you? Draft 2 Digital presents a distribution service for getting your e book out to a number of e book storefronts worldwide.

Should you want the hands-off method to publishing, it might be the platform for you.

The draw back is price: Draft 2 Digital will take a ten% price for the retail worth of your e-book in every sale. Nevertheless it additionally has no upfront fees and allows you to proceed to edit your e-book with out further charges.

Lulu: Lulu is very well-liked as a print-on-demand service, however it additionally presents companies for e book publishing. Their guides and templates represent a newbie’s “toolkit” that may function a useful introduction for anybody who’s breaking into e book publishing for the primary time.

Gumroad: Due to its recognition for social media creators, equivalent to these on Twitter, Gumroad is a platform that works nice for publishing information merchandise. Gumroad’s easy-download interface requires minimal signup friction from the client’s perspective, which is important for turning engaged followers into clients.

AWeber: Construct a touchdown web page with AWeber and also you’ll basically construct your individual e book promoting platform. As a result of AWeber isn’t a market, you’ll have to construct an viewers, too. However the benefit is that AWeber gained’t ask for a reduce of each e book sale by way of royalties.

The right way to get readers to wish to purchase your e book

The primary problem for e book creators isn’t getting their ebooks on-line. It’s convincing people who their e book is a must-purchase.

Should you’ve already positioned your e book appropriately, you’ll have carried out a few of the legwork already. However if you’d like individuals to pay what you ask, it is best to be taught one other side of buyer psychology: pricing.

Pricing your e book

After the quilt of your e-book, what’s the second factor most clients have a look at? {Dollars} and cents. They should know what the phrases inside your e-book are going to run them.

Pricing an e book at all times occurs in context. $9.99? Low cost—till you’re subsequent to somebody charging $7.49 for theirs.

However, a hardcover cookbook that prices $40 won’t make readers bat an eye fixed. Not when there are different cookbooks on the cabinets that price $50.

So how do you make context work in your favor? Listed here are a number of methods:

• Conduct analysis into your area of interest. Use the platforms listed above, particularly Amazon and Smashwords, to browse what ebooks price inside your area of interest. For instance, a have a look at “featured new releases” within the Well being class on Smashwords reveals books from $0.99-$4.99. $1.99 is widespread right here, and certain worth level.
• Search for long-lasting costs. Don’t simply browse the brand new releases, both. Search for costs on bestsellers and books which have been listed for weeks, even months. If the worth is working for different sellers in your area of interest, it will probably in all probability give you the results you want.

Pricing psychology suggestions

Simply as there’s numerous psychology to your e-book cowl, pricing psychology might be downright complicated. Take into account the next: 

• Allure pricing: Ebooks typically promote for $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99 for a cause. Dropping the worth by one cent does make a distinction, dropping the primary quantity your buyer sees by one. Once you store, your eye gravitates towards $1.99 reasonably than $2.03.
• Tease pricing: This is similar idea behind launching a lead magnet. For instance, writer Eric R. Asher presents a free novella to individuals only for signing up for his e-newsletter. This helps him construct an viewers, which generates curiosity when it’s time to promote his full-length novels.
• Create your context: You might need heard of this technique in eating places. A “wine record” would possibly embody low-end and high-end wines—with the concept that a discerning buyer will wish to select the relative discount of the medium-priced wine. You’ll be able to “create your individual” context equally by providing a number of ebooks on the market at totally different worth factors
• Go for an aspirational worth: Should you’re promoting complete information merchandise, you may additionally contemplate redefining it not as an e book, however as a full-length course. Bundle it with different components on Gumroad like movies, and you’ll cost far more. As with wine, the next worth typically will get clients to ascribe extra worth to what the product comprises.

Construct social proof into your e book providing

Should you can’t management your pricing, you may nonetheless management the perceived worth of your e book by social proof.

Social proof is an idea courting to Robert Cialdini’s e-book Affect. It basically implies that we people have an intuition to evolve to what different individuals are doing. 

Take Andy Weir’s ebook-turned-mainstream revealed novel, The Martian. Purchase it now, and also you’ll see “Now a Main Movement Image” stamped on the entrance cowl.

If we see different individuals loving the e book, we’re extra prone to wish to purchase it ourselves.

However for social proof to work, it has to look natural. Spamming pretend on-line evaluations gained’t work. How do you incorporate social proof right into a static product like a digital obtain?

• Testimonials. Excessive-quality evaluations, particularly on Amazon, may also help introduce your e book to a brand new viewers. That is so highly effective that many Amazon merchandise will construct phrases like “over 500 5-star evaluations” into their product descriptions.
• Creator blurbs. Should you’re related to well-known authors, even a single sentence from them might be game-changing to incorporate on the quilt. You may get over the “title recognition” drawback when you can safe a advice from somebody your market acknowledges.
• Creator forewards. The phrase “foreward by Kaleigh Moore” is one other sneaky approach to work in further social proof. Forewards are typical for nonfiction during which a longtime writer inside a distinct segment or business will lend their credibility as an introduction to the remainder of the content material.
• Creator bios. In your writer bio, stack up as many awards, recognitions, and honors as you may associated to your subject. Chances are you’ll not have an extended resume as an writer, however when you’re writing a e-book about promoting actual property and had been the #1-performing actual property agent in your metropolitan space, it’s price mentioning.

Advertising and marketing your e book to promote

By now it is best to have the weather for a sellable e book: correct positioning, an evocative cowl, worth, and even your “social proof” able to go. 

Now, at any time when somebody in your market comes throughout your e-book, they need to suppose: that is precisely what I’ve been searching for.

The one factor left? Getting extra individuals to see your e book. Folks should have heard of it in the event that they’re going to purchase it, which is why the ultimate piece of the puzzle is amplifying your message.

Avenues for advertising your e book

Social media posts: It at all times helps to have a longtime social media presence. However possibly you don’t. How do you get consideration for an e book with restricted follower counts?

• Create compelling visuals: As Forbes notes, 91% of customers want visible to written content material. This provides any social media publish with efficient visuals an instantaneous “increase” in engagement potential.
• Do breakdowns of well-liked figures: Should you don’t have a big social media presence, chances are you’ll lack “credibility” as you construct it. However one approach to borrow such credibility on your social media content material is to play on the title recognition of others. When you have a YouTube channel, as an example, you are able to do breakdowns of profitable figures in your subject by enjoying chosen clips from their interviews.
• Discover related hashtags: Let’s say you’re a author advertising a brand new self-published fiction e book. Do you know there could also be a built-in viewers on X or Instagram with established area of interest hashtags, like #Steampunk? Analysis hashtag recognition earlier than scheduling your posts to make sure most engagement.

These would possibly appear to be small particulars now, however each view counts. And don’t overlook that each new follower is a possible new engagement for future posts. 

Social media advertisements: Sponsored advertisements will price you cash, however in addition they assure a sure stage of engagement. Should you don’t have an enormous viewers, assured engagement comes at a premium. Simply be sure to stick to some guidelines:

• Clearly outline your target market: Should you’ve carried out the work on “positioning” your e book, you’re already midway there. Instruments like Meta advertisements help you get particular about who sees them, from age/location to individuals who have expressed curiosity in comparable ebooks.
• Create a number of variations of your sponsored advertisements: Writing one advert shouldn’t be the tip of the road. Certain, you would possibly get some engagement from it—in spite of everything, you’re paying. However you may increase the efficiency of your campaigns by A/B testing distinctive headlines and taglines. 
• Supply incentives: Promotions, reductions, and contests can all make your e book supply extra fascinating. These ways are particularly vital when introducing your self to your viewers for the primary time. Should you’re unknown to your viewers, you’ll want that preliminary spark.

Newsletters and e-mail blasts: Eric R. Asher supplied his readers a free novella to individuals who signed up for his e-newsletter. That was the objective: construct a group of readers. As soon as they had been signed up, he had a gaggle of consumers prepared to purchase his writing.

Good e-newsletter advertising doesn’t finish with the e-mail seize, both. Asher created automated campaigns to slowly introduce new subscribers to his writing:

It’s time to combine issues up a bit! I hope you loved “Days Gone Unhealthy” and “Whispers of Warfare,” however now it’s time to leap into a very totally different world. “Steamborn” is a YA steampunk journey…

With every pivot and clarification, Asher gave one thing away. Consider it just like the sampler platters on the grocery retailer: you’re extra prone to attempt one thing new when you get a chunk of it without cost.

Visitor posting on different websites: One other technique to find your viewers is to borrow another person’s. You are able to do that by making a free weblog publish and submitting it to well-liked blogs. The one cost you ask in return is a hyperlink to your web site, the place an e book touchdown web page awaits.

The important thing? Don’t be salesy. Create genuinely useful posts with particular audiences in thoughts.

Danny Iny began a enterprise known as “Firepole Advertising and marketing,” for instance. Nevertheless it wasn’t till he wrote “38 Crucial Books Each Blogger Must Learn” for Copyblogger that he discovered his viewers.

Use “hyperlink in profile instruments” to transform: When you’ve established an viewers, you want a spot to funnel your newfound social success. You should use a Hyperlink-in-profile from AWeber that makes it simple to create one hyperlink on your varied e book touchdown pages. Or just ship your new guests to 1 e book touchdown web page and name it a day.

On-line discussions, boards, and communities

Need extra eyes in your e book? Go the place the individuals are.

And on-line, individuals are speaking:

• On Goodreads, a platform for sharing what you’re studying—and loving
• On Reddit, a social media website filled with distinct “subreddits” for particular matters and pursuits
• On Quora, a discussion board for asking all of lives questions—and sharing your favourite responses

Discover one thing all three of those websites have in widespread: they’re large platforms for locating small niches.

One of the simplest ways to market your e-book is to begin with the individuals most all in favour of your subject. Would you reasonably promote 2 books to 10 related clients or 1 e-book to 100 individuals who couldn’t care much less?

Likelihood is, these two gross sales you made to extremely related clients are people who find themselves going to like your work and suggest your e book to others.

Be part of these websites and begin becoming a member of within the discussions. You don’t should promote your e book at first—simply construct a status and a few credible person historical past.

Over time, you can begin creating priceless content material after which throwing your e book hyperlink into the combination.

Nurturing e book leads with AWeber

When you’ve used the instruments and platforms above to get extra eyes in your e book’s touchdown web page, it’s time to begin nurturing.

What’s nurturing? Right here’s how we’ve defined it earlier than:

Nurture emails are automated and customarily tied to a lead magnet — one thing you give to individuals after they subscribe to your e-mail record. Nurture emails embody focused content material based mostly on the lead magnet they downloaded. The objective is to encourage prospects to transform to clients.

You don’t should make the sale straight away. Not when you’re correctly nurturing leads.

All it’s a must to do is seize the lead.

Give away a small piece, like a pattern of your e book or a useful information in the identical subject. This encourages sign-ups.

You’ll be able to then create a collection of automated emails introducing your e book’s idea. Deal with how the e book may also help your buyer’s ache factors earlier than you ask for the sale.

Once you ship potential clients the hyperlink, they need to already have an interest.

Even when a e-newsletter record is small, giving freely a small “piece” may also help to make sure that extra leads and potential patrons have an interest.

In the long term, you seize extra curiosity this manner than when you had merely requested for the sale upfront. And utilizing a software like AWeber makes it pure to construct a “nurturing” marketing campaign that unfolds logically:

Should you use all the methods above, you’ll practically assure extra individuals will come throughout your e book—and grow to be keen patrons.

However you continue to want a subsequent step. 

Even when this primary e book isn’t as profitable as you want, it’s nonetheless step one in an vital journey. So be sure to seize each buyer’s e-mail handle so you may market future ebooks just by asking for the sale. Join AWeber to begin constructing your record right now!