Selling my first ebook

First of all congratulations!!

To answer your questions:

1) Yes you should consider it. Should you do it? It's hard to say without knowing the content and the context of the ebook. If there are visual cues in your ebook (screengrabs, graphs, etc.) then it may not be that great of an idea. You have to consider what people are going to be doing while they're listening to the audio. Will they be in their car on the way to work? Will they be on their laptop doing other work? If the audio doesn't require any visual aids, then I think that makes it much more feasible.

2) This is subjective. I personally feel that if the quality of your ebook exceeds the value of the asking price, there is no reason to offer bonuses. My advice is to test and measure. If it sells without the freebies, don't bother. If not, then you might need to consider it.

3) If you are considering offering hardcopies of your ebook, a simple Google search will turn up many companies willing to print them and ship them as needed.

Everything depends on your niche, audience and marketing plan. You should try everything you can in order to promote your ebook, but be careful. Otherwise you’ll spend a lot of money, and nobody knows if you’ll really manage to sell it.

It may be excellent, but there is a huge competition online in all fields.

Yes I would consider all of the things you mentioned. Ask other people to review it for you as well. They can find flaws that need to be fixed before publication.

Here are my two cents

1) Should i consider having someone read it and sell the recording as an audio book? Could this be an add on or sell it it sepeartly? Yes definitely.. the more options you provide.. the more you will reach many different reader and audience.

2) Do you have to sell the book with a bonus to appear to give more value?
You can do that in the beginning to add more volume.. just put yourself in their shoe and ask yourself why you would get this ebook rather than other out there.. it is worth it?

3) What about offering a physical copy - where could i have that done?
Visit your local printing area.. the more copies you make the cheaper the price will be.

You could add this to create a tiered pricing structure. For example: 1) ebook only $19.95; 2) ebook and audio version $24.95; 3) ebook, hard copy and audio $39.95. Prices are just examples of course.

You don't have to but it helps. Be sure to add bonuses that don't look dated/junky otherwise they could detract from the credibility of the main product. You could offer the audio version as a limited time bonus perhaps.

Have you considered Create Space? Audrey Harvey (a fellow Warrior) introduced me to it but I haven't used it yet. She wrote an article on Vred about it too, if you're interested you can read it here.

1) Do and upsell with the audio....that will work well.

2) The more bonuses the better. I have had some people by my ebook because they wanted one of my bonuses. Yes you have to make the bonuses as good, and people will see tremendous value. Do not tell them, let them see how much value are giving...and make it a no brainer to click the buy now button.

3) I think you need to see what sort of a response you get with the ebook first. After you may want to get publishers and go down the route of having a hard paper back copy.

Good luck.

Thanks guys!
Some great advice here.

I agree with John on the video series part..

Also, I would suggest you to split test extensively. Split test with audio book as an upsell, as a free bonus.

I would also suggest you to provide free bonuses. But make sure that the bonuses complement the product. They must be of same theme.

As for physical copy, I would suggest you to sell it through Amazon. Not on your site.

That statement alone deserves a thorough comment.

First of all, who said that the quality is excellent?

You? Well no offence, but everybody thinks his/her work is excellent, you can't take that as a measure.

Your family / friends? Again, no offence, but you have to know 100% that the people close to you are a bit pedantic and they do not hesitate to hurt your feelings by pointing out your mistakes.

The only one opportunity and the one and only time you are allowed to say about your work "it's excellent" is when you have dozens of so-saying reviews from complete strangers, who should also have a firm grasp in whatever area you're writing about.

Once again, no hurt feelings here, it's just how things are.


Second thing I'm a bit concerned about is that selling long electronic books doesn't have to be the best of ideas.

While 100 pages is perfect for a shorter regular book, electronic media tend to be shorter and more apposite. It may have been better to split it in two or even three e-books, but that very much depends on your niche...

Do this as an upsell to the digital version
and you'll make a lot more money :-)

Audio and bonuses cant hurt, as long as your book is as solid as possible, and you're just looking to add gravy. I would focus more so on pushing the excellent digital product instead of having to manage or semi market a physical product also.

When considering hiring an seo company to assist you in marketing your website, there are many companies to choose from and not all offer the same caliber of service.

Length is no guarantee of quality

I would find out how good it is before you start strategising further, as that may effect the strategy you settle on. Have you had anyone read it and critique it?

I agree that it's important to first sell the ebook at a low price first, and if the response is good, then consider turning it into an audio product. That way, you also get to include testimonials from customers who like the ebook. A low priced ebook that has great content will always be good value, so don't worry about including bonuses if it's say, below $10.

Just a quick note on question #2. I made myself the same question about bonuses with a recent product I created... And finally I turned one of the chapters form my ebook into an audio MP3 product, and yet another into a video tutorial (It's title was "10 steps for a xxxxxxx"). Those became my two bonuses.

Of course I took that content out of my ebook without much pain and the ebook itself was still very well valued. And yeah, my sales increased after that... And the perceived value form my customers went up too.

Just my personal experience...

Cheers.

To answer your questions:

1. I would first try and make some sales before you spend more money on an unproven product. If you make good sales, yes, create an audio version and offer it as an upsell. You can then contact your previous buyers who did not get the offer and see if they want to buy the audio although, it may be too late by then


2. Adding bonuses definately adds more perceived value but offer something of a real good value, not some cheap crap. What Ive done on one of my sites is to actually give the bonuses as a surprise once they have bought. It reduces refunds but ideally you want to offer the bonuses on your sales pitch


3. Lulu.com is a good place also, if you want to offer it in the form of a dvd you can use kunaki.com

Thanks a lot , you have make great thing & great idea

yeah i agree with iobeek

My 2 cents

1) Yes you should do that, for many non native English speakers this is a MUST.

2) Bonuses always help to increase the response, furthermore add bonuses.

3) It is a good idea, but managing physical inventory seem like a little bit of a hassle to me, have you seen amazon programs? they seem to have something like that to help you.

Hope it helps.

1) Should i consider having someone read it and sell the recording as an audio book? Could this be an add on or sell it it sepeartly?

No. You should just sell the book. You don't need an audio book for it.

2) Do you have to sell the book with a bonus to appear to give more value?

This could help lead to more sales if you provide bonuses. However, it is not necessary. You need trust to convert sales. Put some videos on the page and demonstrate what the product does and how it can help them.

3) What about offering a physical copy - where could i have that done?

You could sell it on createspace.com. This website is supported by Amazon. You will have the ability to sell your book to the public in physical form, but you will have to split the profits that you get per sale.

Congratulations on your first eBook. In my experience the promotional items, or bonus material, is a big deal. Everyone wants something for free...

I know a guy who sold on his web site at first. He became huge authority in sub-niche of a niche
Then he went to clickbank. He sold hundreds of ebooks there. In the meanwhile he built his web site and went lulu.com way with his book and today the web site is one of the best in the niche and not only sub-niche. He added podcasts, interviews, he went on radio, established non-profit organization, etc...
His book now sells on amazon.
I bought ver 1 of his ebook. Then I bought ver 2 of his ebook and ordered hardcopy also.

The thing is...his book is really good. Has good reviews all over the net and on amazon. He is well respected in the niche now. Might I add that his product is of high quality unlike other ebook crap you can buy ( no pun intended ).