How many e-books are you selling?

52 replies
Hi there!

For those of you selling e-books (not through Amazon) - how many are you selling in a month on avg - say around 6 months after launch?

Thanks,
J.
#ebooks #selling
  • Profile picture of the author sujit1717
    only 2 or 3..From my website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tyler Pratt
    You will sell 90% of all your ebook in the first 7 days of your launch.
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    • Profile picture of the author zdebx
      Originally Posted by Tyler Pratt View Post

      You will sell 90% of all your ebook in the first 7 days of your launch.
      What are you talking about?

      "Launches" are NOT the same for everyone...If you don't have a massive list or JVs, nothing will happen on the day when you announce your product.
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    • Profile picture of the author Highway55
      Originally Posted by Tyler Pratt View Post

      You will sell 90% of all your ebook in the first 7 days of your launch.
      I have to disagree with this, which is apparently assuming that you launch and never promote your book again.

      If you do launch - that should be just the beginning. If you spent the time creating a "quality" ebook then promotion should never stop (and sales should continue to come in regularly)
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave Kash
    Ebooks as in Ebook products?

    When I used to be involved in SEO I sold some Jewelry E-books.

    In the first month or 2 I made little to no sales because people didn't know who I was. Once I started creating lots of backlinks to my website and the search engines ranked my keywords higher, I then started to sell about 4 books a month.

    It was not until month 6 that I would average 20 to 30 e-books a month.

    Back then I got hit by the dreaded nasty google update which affected my and many other internet marketers websites, and severely dropped rankings.

    So yea, ten number one tip is to distribute quality content on the web and provide links to the page were you are selling your E-book
    patience also goes along way!
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  • Profile picture of the author gnojham
    about 3 fiddy
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisNosal
    Banned
    I sell courses 2 last week for $244.
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    • Profile picture of the author gnojham
      Originally Posted by ChrisNosal View Post

      I sell courses 2 last week for $244.
      is this the quality we can expect from your 'worlds most advanced copywriting course'?
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      • Profile picture of the author ChrisNosal
        Banned
        Originally Posted by gnojham View Post

        is this the quality we can expect from your 'worlds most advanced copywriting course'?
        The information is high quality. This is just my opinion, but if you would disregard valuable information that could change your life because of a grammar error or two, especially when someone quickly writes a response on a message board, you're more interested in judging the author than gaining success through the value of their information.

        Either way, I know you were just trying to bring me down. The mix of sarcasm and patronizing behavior over a small grammar error on a forum suggests a flaw in your logic in the first place, which is to get the best information, which may not necessarily come from the best speller, or proofreader, or most skilled writer.

        I will try harder to proofread my posts in the future. I apologize for not meeting your standards, and for any inconvenience this caused on your quest for grammatical perfection.

        As neither my customer, nor someone who has anything constructively critical, or positive to say, I really desperately wish to please you, and meet all your meticulously high grammatical standards, since you lack ethical standards, and would otherwise never try to bring someone else down for putting their work out there.

        Please let me know what else I can do to make you happy.

        Regards,

        Chris
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        • Profile picture of the author gnojham
          Originally Posted by ChrisNosal View Post

          The information is high quality. This is just my opinion, but if you would disregard valuable information that could change your life because of a grammar error or two, especially when someone quickly writes a response on a message board, you're more interested in judging the author than gaining success through the value of their information.

          Either way, I know you were just trying to bring me down. The mix of sarcasm and patronizing behavior over a small grammar error on a forum suggests a flaw in your logic in the first place, which is to get the best information, which may not necessarily come from the best speller, or proofreader, or most skilled writer.

          I will try harder to proofread my posts in the future. I apologize for not meeting your standards, and for any inconvenience this caused on your quest for grammatical perfection.

          As neither my customer, nor someone who has anything constructively critical, or positive to say, I really desperately wish to please you, and meet all your meticulously high grammatical standards, since you lack ethical standards, and would otherwise never try to bring someone else down for putting their work out there.

          Please let me know what else I can do to make you happy.

          Regards,

          Chris
          heres a tip, if youre trying to sell something related to writing, dont make mistakes writing.
          if you werent trying to sell a copywriting course, and the worlds most advanced at that, i wouldnt have cared how many errors you made. i question the 'value' of your course if you cant put a simple sentence together.
          i dont know why you were 'rushing' to reply to the post in the first place, but i guess you should probably consider not rushing in the future if you care at all about your product.

          just out of curiosity, do you have multiple accounts on this site? i saw another poster 'chrisnos' trying to sell the same stuff you are in his sig. not a big deal, just wondering why a person would have 2 accounts with essentially the same name.

          as far as what you can do to make me happy, how about removing your signature to show everybody youre trying to help and not just trying to hawk your awesome course?

          thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author lolCashlol
      Originally Posted by ChrisNosal View Post

      I sell courses 2 last week for $244.
      Nice man!

      Is this from organic search traffic?
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  • Profile picture of the author winnermarketing
    The important thingsì is how much do you sell (how mauch do you earn)!
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  • Profile picture of the author RevenueGal
    I see it as sort of a numbers game... the more you have out there, the more likely you are to make more sales every month. So, don't limit to a certain number. I keep working on publishing, publishing, publishing. And those aren't all just for sale...some are for spreading my content online to generate traffic and affiliate sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author answergal
      I think this really is the gist of things.

      Ebooks shouldn't be for profits, primarily, but for promotion.

      Use them to interest people in your more developed training which could be delivered as a pdf course, a video training or whatever.
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  • Profile picture of the author icoachu
    It all depends on your niche

    Some Kindle niches are so hot that you only have to have ONE book to do well

    Others have such little demand that you have to literally PEPPER the category to get some beer money at the end of every month.

    Do your niche research.

    There are tons of WSOs and War Room materials that teach you how to do this
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  • Profile picture of the author Woodsusa
    Like icoachu said, some categories will be super easy to make sales, others, not so much. But, you have to promote your books, or they will get lost in the sea of books on Amazon. And, they have to be good quality. No rubbish, copied or PLR-copied-into-an-ebook.

    Believe in your books, promote like they're your kids, and keep on writing...the more, the merrier. People can trust a brand with lots of content to choose from much easier than someone with one or two one-off books.

    Hope that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author colie3188
    Really depends if you are continuing to actively promote the product...? there are other ways to drive traffic to your offer other than launches...

    I have products that I still see sales from every month even after a year
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    • Profile picture of the author toivo
      My Ebook Here cost me about $350 to set up and upload to BookBaby who launched it onto Amazon, Apple iBooksand many other platforms and this was a few years ago....to date, only a few sales. It is an all-humor and a cartoon related book for "family"....I kept it generic and light-hearted and I had hoped for better things...alas, such is not the case..... getting on Amazon and any other huge platforms means nothing as ebooks are a dime a dozen amidst a million "freebies".........
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    • Profile picture of the author DustonMcGroarty
      Couple things to add...

      First off, the OP said NOT on Amazon. That eliminates half of the good answers.

      Secondly, OP, in my opinion, you asked the wrong question... or, the wrong half of the question. It's great to hear how well others are doing selling their stuff but I'd much rather hear about HOW they're selling their stuff.

      So, I'll answer your question and add the "how-to".

      Last month (May 2015) we sold 477 of our $7 ebooks... shopping cart proof below:


      Here's how we did it (and WHY it's priced at just $7)...

      We get between 100-150 new subscribers per day to our gardening list(s). Our traffic comes from SEO, social media, and some paid FB traffic.

      Once they're on the list, we send out weekly emails with timely and USEFUL information. Inside these emails is a subtle pitch for our ebook.

      This ebook is considered our front-end sale and we use it to pull buyers from our main email list. They're immediately offered a $97 upsell (converted at 14% last month), followed by another immediate upsell for a $7 trial to our membership site (converted at 18% last month).

      The offers in this sales funnel are all completely congruent with each other. The ebook is just used to identify interested buyers.

      Hopefully seeing the "how-to" is helpful to others.
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      • Profile picture of the author lunghd
        Originally Posted by DustonMcGroarty View Post

        Couple things to add...

        snip/snip

        Hopefully seeing the "how-to" is helpful to others.
        Thank you for an educational & informative response.
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      • Profile picture of the author Lykkegaard
        Originally Posted by DustonMcGroarty View Post

        Couple things to add...

        First off, the OP said NOT on Amazon. That eliminates half of the good answers.

        Secondly, OP, in my opinion, you asked the wrong question... or, the wrong half of the question. It's great to hear how well others are doing selling their stuff but I'd much rather hear about HOW they're selling their stuff.

        So, I'll answer your question and add the "how-to".

        Last month (May 2015) we sold 477 of our $7 ebooks... shopping cart proof below:


        Here's how we did it (and WHY it's priced at just $7)...

        We get between 100-150 new subscribers per day to our gardening list(s). Our traffic comes from SEO, social media, and some paid FB traffic.

        Once they're on the list, we send out weekly emails with timely and USEFUL information. Inside these emails is a subtle pitch for our ebook.

        This ebook is considered our front-end sale and we use it to pull buyers from our main email list. They're immediately offered a $97 upsell (converted at 14% last month), followed by another immediate upsell for a $7 trial to our membership site (converted at 18% last month).

        The offers in this sales funnel are all completely congruent with each other. The ebook is just used to identify interested buyers.

        Hopefully seeing the "how-to" is helpful to others.


        Thanks Duston, this was a very helpfull answer. The 477 7$ ebooks you are selling, where is that sold from? Your own website? Are you selling these by your-self or also through affiliates?


        Thanks!
        J.
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        • Profile picture of the author DustonMcGroarty
          Originally Posted by Lykkegaard View Post

          Thanks Duston, this was a very helpfull answer. The 477 7$ ebooks you are selling, where is that sold from? Your own website? Are you selling these by your-self or also through affiliates?

          Thanks!
          J.
          They're all sold from our website with no affiliates. Just to our subscribers. Like I said, some of those sales come from autoresponder sequences and some come from our weekly newsletter promotions.
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    • Profile picture of the author war3rd
      Originally Posted by colie3188 View Post

      Really depends if you are continuing to actively promote the product...? there are other ways to drive traffic to your offer other than launches...

      I have products that I still see sales from every month even after a year
      This is very true. I've got books that still sell after a few years. It all depends on how well its written and how easy it is to find (and of course that it remains topical).
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      • Profile picture of the author telecom1776
        Here's a bit of a twist on the subject. I don't have any Ebooks to sell yet but a question for all those in the E-Land out there and that is I've seen many Ebooks where the author may or may not have a very long landing page/squeeze page but they sometimes offer a Sip to taste the book such as the 1st 1 or 2 Chapters as a Free Download.

        Is this Tactic still being employed and how effective is it working for those who are using this?

        Thanks for any replies.

        Jay Adams
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    • Profile picture of the author kennyd3
      Originally Posted by colie3188 View Post

      Really depends if you are continuing to actively promote the product...? there are other ways to drive traffic to your offer other than launches...

      I have products that I still see sales from every month even after a year
      Hi Colie,

      Really? You have products the has sales after that long, any tips? My wife is about to complete en e-book on feng shui. And these is her first e-book. Planning to promote on JV-Zoo and Warrior+. No idea how its going to work out, hopefully it does well.
      She has been working on it for almost 2 months to make it sure the contents are of value.

      Any tips are appreciated.

      Thanks
      Kenny
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  • Profile picture of the author Seemore25101
    I sell between 1-6 copies a day on Kindle of my ebook. It's been on there since December.

    A ton and of sales flood in when you first launch and then thing slow a little. But if you keep working on your ranking, you can keep sales steady.
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  • Profile picture of the author sdsmith64
    Hi. I've been publishing on Kindle since 2012. I publish Erotica. You can see my books by searching "DigiSmith Press" on Amazon (NSFW). I also have my books on Nook, Google Play, and audiobooks on Audible.com. I make about $6000+ a month
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    • Profile picture of the author drlawrencekindo
      Originally Posted by sdsmith64 View Post

      Hi. I've been publishing on Kindle since 2012. I publish Erotica. You can see my books by searching "DigiSmith Press" on Amazon (NSFW). I also have my books on Nook, Google Play, and audiobooks on Audible.com. I make about $6000+ a month
      I am interested to know how you publish your work - whether self published or through a publishing service? Which way do you suggest a beginner like me to get started? Any pointers would be great. Looking forward to your response!
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  • Profile picture of the author jonnielu
    Over 7 years, I've worked my way down to none. I've written several Ebooks that pertain to my North American horse racing publication, and over that same 7 years my publication has had major impact on the horse racing industry.

    Mostly because my most and earliest buyers were various "front" people for the horse racing industry itself. It is funny, looking back, because last weekend we finally get a Triple Crown winner after 37 years of not, because the industry has been my best students.

    Not profitable at all, but I can say that the internet is the best way to circulate information widely, and quickly.... profitably is the very hard part. If your information is any good at all, "the powers that be" will suck it up and distribute it faster then you can think of the next idea.

    I've been a member here since the early days on internet marketing, and today I will say that you are best to develop your network first, your info product second. The only way you will make a profit as an info developer is by rolling it out lightning fast and distributing it widely, just as fast.

    The whole time you are building, the corporate competition is looking to suck up what you have, if it is any good. I sold Ebooks on Amazon until kicked out, the "powers that be" don't like competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrJill
    I have a product that makes my e-Books compatable with Amazon so that is the only way I sell. But, I have only sold a couple that way. I need to purchase the software so I can do my own e-Book and offer directly through my web site. Amazon is NOT the best way to sell e-Books. Found out the hard way.
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    • Profile picture of the author popbop
      Amazon. Definitely not the best way to sell anything!
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    • Profile picture of the author Tara Garmon
      Originally Posted by DrJill View Post

      I have a product that makes my e-Books compatable with Amazon so that is the only way I sell. But, I have only sold a couple that way. I need to purchase the software so I can do my own e-Book and offer directly through my web site. Amazon is NOT the best way to sell e-Books. Found out the hard way.
      As someone who has seen $20,000 months on Amazon, I have to disagree. Amazon is a great way to sell eBooks, but you can't just put them up and not promote them. Well, you CAN sell books that way, but it's a lot harder.
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  • Hi Luke! I sell anywhere from 25-250 eBooks from my site each month. My eBooks are for a target market (pet business owners) and I'm a pretty well known pet business coach (been coaching for nearly 15 years) so that helps. My books also sell very well on Amazon print version. I have over 40 products plus eBooks and lots of affiliates who sell my products/eBooks. If any affiliates are out there who would like to tap into this niche, feel free to contact me.
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  • Profile picture of the author kidino
    Assuming that your website is well-built with good copy and converts well, then it is about traffic. Traffic can be from
    - paid source
    - organic source

    to validate that you really have a product that people will pay for, just pay for traffic. You will get to know this immediately. Put a budget of $10, $20 or whatever you are comfortable with. Even if you lose money, but made some sales, that proves -- PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR YOUR EBOOK / PRODUCT.

    After that, it is about tweaking it for profit. You can work on SEO traffic, tweak your copy, create a new funnel, test out different pricing, test out different ads, etc...

    All the best.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Hadfield
    I wrote a "How to" book and contracted with Amazon to sell it. I received three dollars and fifty cents from Amazon after two years, so I agree, don't try to sell anything with Amazon.
    I would like to know from all our correspondents what they find is the best way to sell books. What about emails to a paid email list? Some of us have sold a lot of books that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Kness
    Revenue Gal is right, it is a numbers game. As I add more books, my monthly sales keep increasing.

    Blog Profits Coaching Program
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  • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
    Originally Posted by Lykkegaard View Post

    For those of you selling e-books (not through Amazon) - how many are you selling in a month on avg - say around 6 months after launch?
    Without giving you an exact amount...

    It's a good amount

    There's too many factors that go into it...

    The biggest one being which product I choose to promote the most.

    Either way...

    The more new customers I bring in...

    The more sales I make for all of the products I have it.
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  • Profile picture of the author tlim13
    about 24 a year
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  • Profile picture of the author stackman
    I sell a kind of eBook on my web site and sell between 0-5 a day. It's not the main source of income, so the low numbers don't matter.
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    • Profile picture of the author rosario1990
      Originally Posted by stackman View Post

      I sell a kind of eBook on my web site and sell between 0-5 a day. It's not the main source of income, so the low numbers don't matter.
      I don't think it's low nubmer of selling. As you said 0-5 a day. So, better selling.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lykkegaard
      Originally Posted by stackman View Post

      I sell a kind of eBook on my web site and sell between 0-5 a day. It's not the main source of income, so the low numbers don't matter.
      What do you sell it for?
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  • Profile picture of the author rosario1990
    Not a big only 3.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Ashtone
    Originally Posted by Lykkegaard View Post

    Hi there!

    For those of you selling e-books (not through Amazon) - how many are you selling in a month on avg - say around 6 months after launch?

    Thanks,
    J.
    Firstly why aren't you selling through Amazon? It is where the 'Big' sales are.


    MY story is quite complicated, however I notice the other answers fall into two categories, those who know what they are talking about, and those who only think they do?


    There is a difference between fiction and none fiction, fiction is down to how well you write and tell a story, and then good editing.


    None fiction is much more complex.


    However both require good editing, I have de-listed my best seller, it was a niche market 'English medieval history' however I was only outsold by BBC backed Michael Wood. But I de-listed because of quality, although I had edited the book at least 8 times complete, and some sections over 20? I still found flaws in the punctuation, or in how I had worded something.


    This is where having a good independent editor comes in, they cost money, but are worth every penny. Fiverr/Fivesquid are your friends.


    At the moment I am struggling to get my first sales on a topical subject, 'Magna Carta', however the previous book de-listed, ~A concise History of England 'Dark Ages to the Vikings'~ sold a couple of hundred copies, and I shall have it re-edited and out again this year.


    It will be in all formats, which is why I can't understand why you are losing sales (and sales promotion) by not having your book on Kindle.


    I use question and answer forums and Twitter to promote my book, at sometime I shall reinvigorate my various facebook profiles.


    I find though Facebook is an age difference thing, as a rule of thumb, I find twitter has an older age group profile, facebook is great for under 30s with time on their hands?


    Now I must go, there is a W-7 form to fill in for my U.S tax returns lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author OkonGeorge
    Personally, there's no success with at all. However, running autoresponder of huge list of time to time product promotion, does so much to generatings sales.
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  • Profile picture of the author EelKat
    Originally Posted by Lykkegaard View Post

    Hi there!

    For those of you selling e-books (not through Amazon) - how many are you selling in a month on avg - say around 6 months after launch?

    Thanks,
    J.
    Not on Amazon? Almost nothing. Smashwords, RPGnow, Lulu, etc. All combined, all non-Amazon places, I sell maybe 7 to 12 copies of each title a year.

    On Amazon, that's another matter entirely. All of my Amazon titles are Amazon exclusive so they are in Kindle select, Kindle Unlimited, and a signed up for the Free days promos and Count Down Deals. I haven't had much luck with the CDD so I rarely use them. The Free Days on the other hand, always have a long tail sales effect AND a sharp boost in KU borrows.

    How many sales, varies depending on the current promo I'm doing, the time of the year (holidays effect sales), and the genre of the book in question. I have 15 pennames and 170+ titles spread across them. I can usually plan on each book to sell between 1 to 3 copies a week. (Yes, I set my goals low.)

    Hold on a second and I'll go look at my dashboard and tell you what my sales for this week are...

    ...Okay, I'm back...here is what I've sold in the past 3 days: (On Amazon - which will show you why I'm such a big fan of selling on Amazon)

    Okay, 9 titles have had sales in the last 3 days:


    1 T.N.o.T.S.U. (Fiction, Novel, Monster P-o-r-n Volume 1 of a serial, 190 pages, $2.99) 30 copies sold

    2 W.T. (Fiction, Horror, Short Story, 24 pages, .99c) 16 copies sold

    3 T.N.o.t.R.L. (Fiction, Short Story, Erotica Volume 1 of a serial, 12 pages, .99c) 8 copies sold

    4 W.t.H.I.t.C. (Fiction, Horror, Short Story, 8 pages, .99c) 4 copies sold

    5 T.V.L.o.F.M. (Fiction, Novel, Monster P-o-r-n Volume 5 of a serial, 160 pages, $2.99) 3 copies sold

    6 E.F.R.P. (Non-Fiction, Writer's Guide, 90 pages, $2.99) 3 copies sold

    7 Q.a.T.V.I.T.S.o.D. (Fiction, Novel, Monster P-o-r-n Volume 8 of a serial, 175 pages, $2.99) 1 copy sold

    8 H.W.G.S.T.A. (Non-Fiction, Cultural Studies, 400 pages, $2.99) 1 copy sold

    9 T.G.o.W.M. (Fiction, Horror, Short Story, 32 pages, .99c) 1 copy sold


    Originally Posted by winnermarketing View Post

    The important thingsì is how much do you sell (how mauch do you earn)!

    Income wise that translates into this:

    1 $2.99 x 70% = $2.09 x 30 = $62.70

    2 .99c x 35% = .35c x 16 = $5.60

    3 .99c x 35% = .35c x 8 = $2.80

    4 .99c x 35% = .35c x 4 = $1.40

    5 $2.99 x 70% = $2.09 x 3 = $6.27

    6 $2.99 x 70% = $2.09 x 3 = $6.27

    7 $2.99 x 70% = $2.09 x 1 = $2.09

    8 $2.99 x 70% = $2.09 x 1 = $2.09

    9 .99c x 35% = .35c x 1 = .35c


    Grand total is $89.57 income in 3 days from 67 books sold.

    If those sales were consistent all year, that would average out for about $10k a year. But I have weeks of 100% ZERO sales and I have weeks of several hundred sales, so that offsets things quite a bit. I have weeks of .35c income and days of $600+ income. It's all over the place.

    All but 2 of these books have been out for more then 6 months.

    What did I do to promote them? Absolutely not one damned thing. Monster P-o-r-n sells itself and everything just follows along for the ride.

    January to May are my low sales months. Sales pick up in August, then take a huge spike last week of October (Monster p-o-r-n and Horror sales go through the roof the week before Halloween, each title selling as many as 198 copies a day - 198 is the most I've ever sold of any one title in any one day - that was the same title that sold 30 copies so far this week.)

    I don't have a single book that qualifies as a best-seller. Most of them a super lower ranking bottom feeders with a sales rank between 800,000 to 2,000,000. Major low ranking bottom feeders here. Most of my titles sell only 1 copy a week. But you got to keep in mind I have 170+ titles on Amazon, most priced at $2.99 so, it only takes 1 or 2 sales per title per week, to add up fast, which is why I only aim for 1 to 3 titles sold per title, per week - if you have ENOUGH titles, you don't need a best seller to make a good income, you only need a huge amount of bottom-feeders to get yourself a good income.

    Think of it this way:

    170 titles @ $2.99 x 70% times 1 sale per title per week times 52 weeks:

    $2.99 x 70% = $2.09 x 170 x 52 = $18,475.60

    And I can plan on most of my titles selling 3 copies a week, not 1 copy a week, so

    $18,475.60 x 3 = $55,426.80

    Now take that and multiply it be multiple sales per title per day. I had 1 title this week already sell 30 copies in 3 days. You can see how fast it adds up.

    In short, s-e-x with monsters, is a very good income for me, but you really have to love it enough to write a lot of it. In this genre you gotta just write, publish, write, publish, write, publish, write, publish, write, publish, write, publish, write, publish, repeat. You can't put up one or two titles and expect to make a full time income. Ain't gonna happen. But if you write a lot of it and put up at least 2 new copies a month, aim for at least 1 a week, you can do good in this genre. And I love writing freaky s-e-x with monsters, so, hey, best job in the world for me.

    I don't know if my method of write, publish, repeat and not doing any promotion at all, other then Kindle's 5 free days once every 90 days, will work for other genres and niches or not. It works for me with monster s-e-x, that's all I know.

    Originally Posted by Tyler Pratt View Post

    You will sell 90% of all your ebook in the first 7 days of your launch.
    I've not found this to be true. Perhaps in your genre/niche maybe? I don't know what you write. But I write in 30+ fiction genres. I have 600+ short stories, 30+ novels, a few dozen stage plays, and 2,000+ non-fictions articles (most of which are in print not in ebook editions) and I've never seen a bulk wave of sales in the first few days, with the exception of Monster p-o-r-n. My Monster p-o-r-n gets a bunch of sales the first few days, only because I have a devoted fan following who wait for new releases, and jump on them hours of publication. My Monster p-o-r-n titles each get their biggest spike of sales within 5 hours of publication. My newest Monster p-o-r-n release sold 53 copies it's first hour of publication. But other then my Monster p-o-r-n, none of my other titles have ever had any big spikes in sales, either in the first 7 days or later on. They just sell pretty consistently a few copies per title per week, week after week, month after month, year after year.

    Originally Posted by popbop View Post

    Amazon. Definitely not the best way to sell anything!
    Yeah...me and my bank account are gonna have to disagree with you. I'm sorry, but I've not had much luck outside of Amazon, but putting my books into Kindle Select, best thing I've done for my books.

    Maybe your genre/niche just isn't popular with the folks who shop on Amazon? Don't know. I think a lot does depend on what it is you write.

    Originally Posted by Tara Garmon View Post

    you can't just put them up and not promote them. Well, you CAN sell books that way, but it's a lot harder.
    But that is what I do! LOL!

    Originally Posted by toivo View Post

    How to sell ebooks on Amazon through "promotion"....i.e., what techniques work best?
    I just use the Kindle Free Days. Once every 90 days, the title is free on Amazon for 5 days. I don't tell anyone about it. People who browse Amazon for free books, find them, download them, and then for the next few days sales across all my titles take a spike upwards. and with 170+ titles, that means I've got at least 1 free title out there ever week all year long.
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    • Profile picture of the author lolCashlol
      Everything is a numbers game with this stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Respectfully - leaving the sale of your ebooks to a "numbers game" analogy tells me people have no idea how to build an information-based business.

    90% of my ebooks and information packages and services are sold outside of Kindle.

    Look at it this way - for non-fiction - you are selling your market information that will help them transform their lives in one way or another. Lose weight, look better, live a happier life, train their pet so they can take pride in their companion, save or get a relationship, etc...

    The real profit (and arguably value) can be delivered via higher-end information products and services - your lead-in product is really just a lead-generator. Same thing for print books - their main value is in branding you an expert, guiding your prospects to higher-end products and building that reputation/exposure - so as such your topic and treatment of your subject needs to be high-demand and widespread for your overall strategy to work

    Fiction works a little differently in that your main product is the low-priced, low-margin books which means you have to make that up in sheer volume - very few authors can make a living, that may be ok depending on your goals.

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author GregDeTisi
      Whether you sell on Amazon or off Amazon somewhere else you have to figure out your strategy. For example...

      1) IS IT YOUR PRIMARY BUSINESS?
      2) IS THIS JUST A WAY TO GET TARGETED TRAFFIC TO UPSELLS
      3) ARE YOUR PRICES RIGHT
      4) ARE YOUR BOOKS RIGHT
      5) HAVE YOU LOOKED AT COMPETITION
      6) BE THE CUSTOMER WILL THEY BUY YOUR BOOK
      7) ARE YOU SELLING HIGH VOLUME LOW COST BOOKS OR LOW VOLUME HIGH COST

      You have to ask yourself many questions in order to actually make sales. I have 14 now and have started another 3 so far. For me they are a great source of income and pay bills, plus they position me and brand me. Not to mention I can add affiliate products/services in the books for extra income. So with a little number crunching you can see which books perform well and WHY and then try and edit your other books to be the most effective they can be. You don't have to write that many words either as long as it is good value.

      Any Questions contact me below and i'll be glad to show you!

      Best
      Greg
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  • Profile picture of the author lanceorndorff
    If Amazon is out, then zero.
    But on Amazon and outlets, I have print, e, and audio.
    Sales started okay, after seven months....trickle.

    I've got books written, books in my head, and lots of skills from video to web to email bla bla bla. Bought every course since Adam, from $2k to $7. Got a library of about 200 courses about writing, Amazon, Kindling, building email lists, etc etc.

    The responses to the question have been insightful, but I have a question of my own - Where does a very smart, prolific, deep thought writer like myself (19 years of college and a string of degrees) disabled veteran who's Achilles heal is focus and management find and hire a mentor or project manager?
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