Selling the e-book with a Look! What Sends ebooks Sailing off Virtual Shelves?
When first I placed my work onto Kindle, I was lucky to make 60 bucks a month. 
I had an amazing spike in numbers since taking these steps. Of course promoting online is of great import but so to is professional cover art and editing. When I am working on a novel, I put it out there what I am working on, and I invite early readers, and it is amazing how much readers will catch. One does not have to pay huge prices for good editing as I have found my best editors – amazing editors – who love to read a book BEFORE anyone else help me create the best book I possibly can. Most people believe they had to pay out big bucks for excellent editing but truth be told many people pay out big bucks and get punk editing for their money. I’d rather have a passionate edit with no exchange of money than a so-so one that cost me a couple thousand bucks, wouldn’t you? I edit myself heavily and do many rewrites, but I know I need more sets of eyes on the project, so as I am doing a work in progres
Some simple changes I made turned my book sales on Kindle from a drip, drip, drip to big sales. I just clocked in at 935 books sold in my slowest month since sales have been going well for me—December 2010. Now in month one of 2011, I have sold 1,140 books – all at 2.99. I make almost $2 (70%) from each book or unit as they say.
When first I placed my work onto Kindle, I was lucky to make 60 bucks a month. How'd I do it? What changes did I make? First I went back to my book descriptions and made absolutely certain of no typos or errors of any kind as well as rewriting to make each the best damn short-short I could. This made a huge difference in sales, I kid you not. Secondly, I went on a TAG binge, tagging all my books below where they are found on Amazon to utilize genre-specific tags like Occult Horror, Generational Horror, suspense, mystery, police procedural, supernatural, paranormal female detective, etc. and I linked using my name along side other more successful authors in my field. This did two things – by placing my name on tags whenever anyone opens my book list, they also get my author’s page coming up. By ‘associating’ my work with the work of say William Miekle—as he did me—I am seen by his fans, and he by mine.
I had an amazing spike in numbers since taking these steps. Of course promoting online is of great import but so to is professional cover art and editing. When I am working on a novel, I put it out there what I am working on, and I invite early readers, and it is amazing how much readers will catch. One does not have to pay huge prices for good editing as I have found my best editors – amazing editors – who love to read a book BEFORE anyone else help me create the best book I possibly can. Most people believe they had to pay out big bucks for excellent editing but truth be told many people pay out big bucks and get punk editing for their money. I’d rather have a passionate edit with no exchange of money than a so-so one that cost me a couple thousand bucks, wouldn’t you? I edit myself heavily and do many rewrites, but I know I need more sets of eyes on the project, so as I am doing a work in progres
16 Comments on Sell That eBook - What Sends eboosk Flying Off Shelves?, last added: 1/31/2011
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Excellent advice that I'm going to take to heart. All it takes is time - right?
You and Konrath are the prophets in this new wilderness. Keep on preaching. We're listening (and learning).
Excellent advice. Thanks for the detailed post.
Best,
June
(who has a kindle book that needs more exposure and this help!!)
www.junesproat.com
Excellent advice. The importance of a compelling cover cannot be overestimated.
Keep us posted on how the $3.99 book does. I've been saying for a while that established authors should be going to that price in 2011.
Paul Levine
http://www.paul-levine.com
Thanks for the detailed tips. The basics for self-publishing: quality content, great title, professional copy editing; professional cover and interior design...then market, market, and market.
You might want to take your own advice to heart and correct the typo in your headline.
The tip about tags is a good one. Lately I've been checking out books I like to see what their rankings are in Kindle's Top 100 categories. I'm surprise that so many good books are not even listed, period. In checking back their Amazon page, I've found that some of them have no tags at all.
Also, reviews are so important. I have a good ranking in Kindle's Amateur Sleuths sub-category, and I only have 18 reviews. One of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum book which keeps dogging my heels there has 538 reviews. Some of them are uncomplimentary, but they keep the buzz going, and a buzz sells books.
Pat Browning
Author of ABSINTHE OF MALICE
Apologies for the typos.
Pat Browning
Good on ya, Rob. An incisive, cogent and clear path to better sales via the ebook route.
Rob, I can testify to your active presence on line, and your constant willingness to answer questions and help a fellow writer unsnarl the tangles of writing and marketing!
Marian Allen
Thank you, rob, you're the king of Ebook marketing and your generosity in sharing your "secrets" is a model of what our industry should be all about.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to stop in your busy day to leave a comment. I was going back in to fix that error on the title...to add an A at the end of EbooskA....but I was making other changes and additions at same time and I forgot to go back to the Title. ebooska is ebooks in Polish.
I appreciate all the kind words, too ladies and gents. Any questions, I'd be happy to answer.
I plan on using Stephen for my book covers. All of yours are great. I'm past the halfway point on Forever Young and going into the home stretch, so he'll be getting another email asking for a cover soon.
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Rob,
Thanks again for all of the help you are willing to give those of us new to the Kindle market. You are so generous.
Thanks for your concise post, Rob. Here's the "critical-path" list that I distilled from your post:
1. Short, professional, effective book descriptions
2. Accurate tags
3. Online promotion
4. Professional cover art
5. Professional editing
6. Effective titles with subtitles
7. Effective pricing
8. Additional titles
What say you? Does that nail it? ;-)
Suzanne Adair
Hello, Rob! I'm always reading your knowledgeable comments on the Five Star list so I had to follow you here.
Nothing teaches like the experiences of someone in the trenches.
I've been serializing a book about epublishing on my other blog (not the one listed below) and plan to contact you for an interview.
Thanks for sharing what you've learned.
Sincerely,
Joan Reeves
Great post Rob!