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 unbelievable information for e-book creators. The e-book market ought to hit $14 billion within the U.S. alone by the tip of this yr. It can increase 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 have to know place and persuade folks to purchase your guide. 

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

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

To be taught that, let’s sort out the perfect methods for promoting your e-book within the present market:

First issues first: creating your e-book

Have you ever created your ebook yet? 

No? Listed here are just a few fast reminders from our submit about constructing an e-book for the primary time:

• Place your e-book by beginning along with your market and your thought. Is it fiction or nonfiction? Who’s your very best buyer?
• Define and draft your e-book with the assistance of AI writing instruments. You may also 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 selection.

Your e-book ought to hit on a key ache level on your readers. Think about Paula Rizzo, whose guide Listful Thinking tackles a particular topic: utilizing lists to get organized.

Nonetheless with us to date? 

Good. As a result of when you’ve labored by means of these suggestions, you’ll have a shiny new e-book in your arms—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”

If you happen to deal with your cowl proper, a sale might occur right away. 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 superb title—like “The Pleasure of Cooking,” with the font putting emphasis on “pleasure”—ought to instantly fill the starvation pangs of your very best reader.

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

• Coloration palette: Colours affect our notion of what’s contained in the guide. Research color psychology to harmonize what’s on the entrance and the promise your e-book is making. As an illustration, a shade like inexperienced works for books about well being, fertility, shedding stress, nature, and gardening. 
• Typography: Font measurement, model, and positioning all weigh into the messaging of the guide. Serif fonts, says Kindlepreneur, are usually greatest for conventional themes. Scripts—fonts that seem like penmanship—are greatest for memoirs and keenness initiatives. 
• Eye-catchers: What’s the chief ingredient of your guide cowl? Possibly the title takes up many of the area. Different parts—like flowers in a guide on gardening—ought to have instant attraction to your audience.
• Area: Lastly, take note of using area—together with empty area. There’s solely a lot actual property on a guide cowl you should utilize earlier than it will get crowded. 

Platforms for promoting ebooks

Upon getting your e-book—and a canopy to assist promote it—the next move is to make it straightforward 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 guide, do not forget that previous present enterprise adage: 90% of success is exhibiting 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 the complete world. Yearly, almost 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 guide. Title, cowl, worth, promoting, class: it’s all beneath your direct management

Apple: Apple Books, generally generally known as the iBooks retailer up to now, 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 guide’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 intensive classes in each fiction and non-fiction. You shouldn’t discover it too troublesome to search out your e-book’s house, irrespective 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 guide in an advantageous pricing context.

Kobo: Kobo Writing Life is a superb “gateway” for writers who need to focus much less on promoting and extra on writing. You probably have your e-book file prepared, it simply takes just a few brief steps after signup to have it able to promote on the platform.

The draw back? You would possibly surrender a bit of management. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, for instance, provides you all kinds of variables to manage. 

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

Google: Google Play is the principle 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 need 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 take into account Google Play Books a necessary platform.

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

If you happen to favor the hands-off method to publishing, it could be the platform for you.

The draw back is price: Draft 2 Digital will take a ten% price for the retail worth of your guide in every sale. But it surely additionally has no upfront costs and allows you to proceed to edit your guide with out extra charges.

Lulu: Lulu is very in style as a print-on-demand service, but it surely additionally provides providers for e-book publishing. Their guides and templates represent a newbie’s “toolkit” that may function a helpful introduction for anybody who’s breaking into e-book publishing for the primary time.

Gumroad: Due to its reputation for social media creators, resembling these on Twitter, Gumroad is a platform that works nice for publishing data 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 personal e-book promoting platform. As a result of AWeber isn’t a market, you’ll have to build an audience, too. However the benefit is that AWeber gained’t ask for a minimize of each e-book sale through royalties.

The right way to get readers to need to purchase your e-book

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

If you happen to’ve already positioned your e-book appropriately, you’ll have achieved a few of the legwork already. However in order for you folks to pay what you ask, it is best to be taught one other facet of buyer psychology: pricing.

Pricing your e-book

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

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

Alternatively, a hardcover cookbook that prices $40 may not 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 just a few 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 take 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 sure an excellent 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 value is working for different sellers in your area of interest, it might probably in all probability be just right for you.

Pricing psychology suggestions

Simply as there’s quite a lot of psychology to your guide cowl, pricing psychology will be downright advanced. Think about the next: 

• Allure pricing: Ebooks usually promote for $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99 for a cause. Dropping the value by one cent does make a distinction, dropping the primary quantity your buyer sees by one. Whenever you store, your eye gravitates towards $1.99 reasonably than $2.03.
• Tease pricing: This is identical idea behind launching a lead magnet. For instance, author Eric R. Asher provides a free novella to folks 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 may need heard of this technique in eating places. A “wine record” would possibly embrace low-end and high-end wines—with the concept a discerning buyer will need to select the relative cut price of the medium-priced wine. You’ll be able to “create your personal” context equally by providing a number of ebooks on the market at totally different worth factors
• Go for an aspirational worth: If you happen to’re promoting complete data merchandise, you may also take into account redefining it not as an e-book, however as a full-length course. Package deal it with different parts on Gumroad like movies, and you’ll cost way more. As with wine, the next worth usually will get clients to ascribe extra worth to what the product incorporates.

Construct social proof into your e-book providing

If you happen to can’t management your pricing, you possibly can nonetheless management the perceived worth of your e-book by means of social proof.

Social proof is an idea relationship to Robert Cialdini’s guide Influence. It basically implies that we people have an intuition to adapt 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 folks loving the e-book, we’re extra prone to need to purchase it ourselves.

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

• Testimonials. Excessive-quality critiques, particularly on Amazon, will 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 critiques” into their product descriptions.
• Creator blurbs. If you happen to’re linked to well-known authors, even a single sentence from them will be game-changing to incorporate on the duvet. You will get over the “identify recognition” downside when you can safe a suggestion from somebody your market acknowledges.
• Creator forewards. The phrase “foreward by Kaleigh Moore” is one other sneaky solution to work in extra 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 possibly can associated to your area. Chances are you’ll not have a protracted resume as an writer, however when you’re writing a guide 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, an excellent worth, and even your “social proof” able to go. 

Now, at any time when somebody in your market comes throughout your guide, they need to suppose: that is precisely what I’ve been in search of.

The one factor left? Getting extra folks to see your e-book. Individuals 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 all the time helps to have a longtime social media presence. However perhaps 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 favor visible to written content material. This provides any social media submit with efficient visuals an immediate “increase” in engagement potential.
• Do breakdowns of in style figures: If you happen to don’t have a big social media presence, you could lack “credibility” as you construct it. However one solution to borrow such credibility on your social media content material is to play on the identify recognition of others. You probably have a YouTube channel, as an illustration, you are able to do breakdowns of profitable figures in your area 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 reputation earlier than scheduling your posts to make sure most engagement.

These would possibly look like 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 adverts: Sponsored adverts will price you cash, however additionally they assure a sure stage of engagement. If you happen to don’t have an enormous viewers, assured engagement comes at a premium. Simply be sure to stick to a couple guidelines:

• Clearly outline your audience: If you happen to’ve achieved the work on “positioning” your e-book, you’re already midway there. Instruments like Meta ads can help you get particular about who sees them, from age/location to individuals who have expressed curiosity in related ebooks.
• Create a number of variations of your sponsored adverts: Writing one advert just isn’t the tip of the road. Certain, you would possibly get some engagement from it—in any case, you’re paying. However you possibly can 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 provide extra attention-grabbing. These ways are particularly necessary when introducing your self to your viewers for the primary time. If you happen to’re unknown to your viewers, you’ll want that preliminary spark.

Newsletters and electronic mail blasts: Eric R. Asher provided his readers a free novella to individuals who signed up for his e-newsletter. That was the purpose: construct a neighborhood of readers. As soon as they had been signed up, he had a bunch of shoppers 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 Dangerous” and “Whispers of Struggle,” however now it’s time to leap into a completely 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 strive 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 submit and submitting it to in style 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. But it surely wasn’t till he wrote “38 Critical Books Every Blogger Needs to Read” 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 utilize a Link-in-profile from AWeber that makes it straightforward to create one hyperlink on your numerous e-book touchdown pages. Or just ship your new guests to at least one 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 web site stuffed with distinct “subreddits” for particular subjects 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 massive platforms for locating small niches.

One of the best ways to market your guide is to start out with the folks most keen on your matter. Would you reasonably promote 2 books to 10 related clients or 1 guide 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 advocate your e-book to others.

Be a 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 fame and a few credible person historical past.

Over time, you can begin creating invaluable content material after which throwing your e-book hyperlink into the combo.

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 start out nurturing.

What’s nurturing? Right here’s how we’ve explained it before:

Nurture emails are automated and usually tied to a lead magnet — one thing you give to folks after they subscribe to your electronic mail record. Nurture emails embrace focused content material based mostly on the lead magnet they downloaded. The purpose is to encourage prospects to transform to clients.

You don’t should make the sale immediately. 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 helpful information in the identical area. This encourages sign-ups.

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

Whenever 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” will 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 device like AWeber makes it pure to construct a “nurturing” marketing campaign that unfolds logically:

If you happen to use all the methods above, you’ll practically assure extra folks will come throughout your e-book—and grow to be prepared 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 necessary journey. So be sure to seize each buyer’s electronic mail handle so you possibly can market future ebooks just by asking for the sale. Sign up for AWeber to start out constructing your record right now!