Is the eBook Dead?

Hi Adam, by my side I think ebook business is yet viable. Sometimes, if we didn't keep our websites updated and we don't make any SEO or social, the site stops the sales process.
Your same situation happened also to me, but just a few more efforts and the sales restart.

The winning key is to update the project to keep it new on this fast changing world, in which new concepts and new trainings come out each and every day.

Be confident in ebooks, they will continue to sell well
See you soon,
Alessandro

Thanks for a thoughtful and helpful response, Alessandro!

Adam

Maximizing profits will likely occur when all relevant mediums through which to reach your target audience are used. Someone recently asked if developing desktop computer applications is dead, given the emerging popularity of mobile computing. If it's technically feasible, why not develop for as many platforms as possible.

Good point, CM. The main issue I'd avoid Kindle is that they take 70% of the profit!

I've sold hundreds and hundreds of eBooks at $27 and have only had to pay the transaction fee for the payment processing. No matter how I price my book on Amazon, I'm going to make under $10 per download. That means I need a 3X increase in sales just to get back to where I am now...

Adam

Hey yeah,

I don't think the eBook is dead. It's just a method of delivering information and a convenient one at that.

I think you should go ahead with updating your eBook and then possibly create Kindle versions, etc.

Personally, I would still buy an eBook in an instant as well.

Adam, from personal experience, I have found that a well optimized ebook (description, tags, etc) does very well on Amazon. I have about 8 books on Amazon that are so-so and they pull in a sizable amount of income.

There is more of an audience on Amazon so I'd say, try it out! You can always take it off KDP if you dont like the numbers

Those are ebooks. Just made for specific platforms.

Garrie

E-books will definitely not die. In fact, I hear a lot of talk about how newbies wish they would come back. Not everybody likes watching videos, and a lot of marketers actually hate videos. We're all on the INTERNET, which is mostly text. Don't you think that most people that use the internet prefer to READ things?

OFF TOPIC: BTW GarrieWilson, I LOVE your Screw You, Namecheap article. I use the recommended service that you mention in the article instead now

Ebooks are dead, just like all of our hopes and dreams.

Thanks. NameCheap didnt like the subject but it gets clicks.

I for one don't like lengthy videos much.... I love ebooks... about Kindle and other platforms.... they are ebooks all the same... some of the audience has probably moved from traditional pdf ebooks to these platforms so I think its best to keep all options open and try and market using as many platforms as possible... In fact a Kindle ebook can be sold from a blog as well. All that is needed is a link to the Amazon sales page

The great thing about ebooks is no overhead of product fulfillment and instant delivery. However, consider ways of producing videos as well. A little bit more effort and work on the production side, but again, they share the same attributes as ebooks.

eBooks are dead. They have been for quite a while. Electronic guides, courses, tutorials, special reports and other info products are hot. I know, it's all in the name. eBooks are considered low in the marketing food chain. Never call your work an ebook.

As for things dropping off... Summer's here. There are many markets that pull back during summer. Maybe that's it. Good luck.

You could create an audio version of your ebook, do some workbooks with exercises to help cement the concepts you've taught, add some handy checklists for people to print out, create a Skype group/forum (paid or free) for buyers, and other things to add more value to your book so it becomes less of a 'e-book' and more of an 'e-course'.

Adam - our ebooks are selling better than ever (we operate in 3 different niche markets). We've also done more back-end work this past year (upsell courses, coaching programs, membership sites) and those are doing wonders for evolving our various lists and markets.

You do have to keep an eye on a few things (your numbers will tell you alot)

1. Competition. If your numbers are approx the same (visitors to your blog and click through's to your ebook sales page) then a reduction in sales may be because new competition has come into the market. Many ebook publishers we know have been caught rather flat footed with an ebook that has done well for 1-2 years in the market and then tails off because there have been a bunch of new competitors come into the market. Always try and stay one step ahead of competition by coming out with new titles, continuing your marketing, getting more affiliates, and even changing the format of your products from ebooks into full-fledge courses, manuals, etc...

2. If the traffic on your blog has gone down (due to the Google changes that have occurred lately), then that should show up on your stats and could explain the lower sales

3. If overall traffic is stable or growing but conversion is down you can look to either competition (back at #1) or that you haven't kept your sales page design/copy up...sometimes a refresh will do wonders

The good news is that you have your ebook out there, have some customers you can poll (or may already have feedback from), have some feedback on your blog (I hope) in terms of popular posts, etc... that can help you develop/update new, in-demand products.

Here's what I find helpful...always ask yoursself "What Else Do My Customers/Readers Need?"...keep a list going and validate it through blog posts until you have some actionable items you can help them with.

Finally, if you haven't gone into proactively approaching affiliates, that is a great place to put your time to refresh both your traffic and sales.

Jeff

The Ebook is still very much alive but I would not look at it like it's that OR the Kindle/iBooks etc. You really should be everywhere with your books.

Kindle is huge right now and I haven't talked much about this but I really believe that Kindle is the new SEO (when done right).

I do Want to tell you a story about eBooks. I think that we will be selling them for a long time to come. Very one need to learn something new in what they do. Someone always come up with new products and services and we will get them from eBooks.

According to eMarketer a couple of months ago, e-book sales are projected to have growth for at least the next 8 to 10 years. So they're far from dead. We've expanded our own title offerings for this very reason. The demand is growing.

Adam,

If your sales are down, how much are they down? What % compared to 30 days ago? Last quarter? Last year?

What about your traffic sources? Are they the same?

I'm asking because I sell e-books using a variety of traffic sources and all of them have flucutations. So if they've tapered off a bit, I wouldn't be too concerned. Just make sure you're monitoring and tracking all your traffic sources.

Regards,

RoD

Good point Paul - we are just starting to use Kindle as a lead generator with low-end products for the exposure. You can partition your products to do some low-end Kindle products and higher back-end. Looks like the best alternative moving forward.

Jeff

The ebook is still profitable. As long as it's YOUR original product, you can put it up on Kindle and earn sales from it. It will be for less than $10, but you do get autopilot sales everyday. Another point about Kindle is that they dont give you access to the customer name. So no backend sales here - unless you include links all throughout your ebook.

E-book is not dead if you know how to promote it and also provided that your ebook provide information which people wanted to know.

With worldwide sales projected at around $8billion this year, they are not dead; not even ailing.

Will

Ebooks still sell, as someone said above, just keep them updated with latest information and you are golden.

Same, same.

I don't have a kindle and have always bought real books from Amazon. That might change in the future but I still like an eBook.

Perhaps it comes back to knowing your market and understanding the format that your market likes to have their information delivered in.

On a side note I was reading a blog post which was a teaser to get people to listen to the audio interview below.

One of the comments was "What a great way to alienate your deaf followers!" Wrong end of the 80:20 rule perhaps but a very valid point if you care.

In my opinion, ebook will not die. However, due to changes on the net, you need to add more and more value to your ebook product. For example, if you are going to sell internet marketing ebooks, you need to include more information, techniques, case studies and additional software to help the buyers.

It depends a lot on the niche you are targeting.

What I have found most successful for myself:
- Recipes/Cooking/Entertainment/Health publish through Kindle
- Internet Marketing/Software/Technical publish eBook on your blog/mini-site

According to my clients books as E-books in the version of Kindle, IPad and Nook are that what their reader wants to read. As print version only if needed.

Timo

I don't think the ebook model is dead. Different people still prefer different media for their information.

Have you looked into doing your information in different form like videos for instance?

Thanks everyone!

This has all been great feedback!

I've definitely slipped in my marketing efforts. A "problem" I've had is that my book and blogging has gotten me new exposure and I've been writing for print magazines and other blogs as well as doing some public speaking. That's been great - I think I'm better known than ever. The drawback is that I've spent less time doing social marketing and less time blogging and writing. This has all been a big learning experience for me.

My plan going forward is this:

1) I have the Genesis platform installed on my blog now and I'll be working at getting my SEO back up to speed.

2) Speaking of Genesis, I just installed it last week after finding that my original (free) theme was displaying TERRIBLY on iPhone, iPad. I've always worked on my Mac and only recently started using mobile. I just bought an iPad a month ago. I think part of the issue has been that all my marketing for the book on my blog was computer-centric and getting completely lost on mobile devices. Since mobile has been exploding this past year, it makes sense that I'd take a hit on sales. You might even say that my "big screen" marketing was working as well as ever - but the number of big screens dropped off dramatically.

3) Currently, my plan is to take from some of the above suggestions and create more in-depth courses that I can sell at a higher price point. My current book could be expanded into a massive course with workbooks, videos, etc. Really no limits there. I'll be focusing on courses that include multiple media formats and are sold exclusively on my site.

4) Following the lead from Seth Godin, I'm going to publish small Kindle, iBooks, etc. that are in the under $10 range. I can push these out quickly instead of taking a year to write a big book like last time. I have my current book all outlined, so it's nothing to take the major sections and break them up into 50-100 page Kindle books instead of a single 200-300 pager. And, four books at $9.99 or whatever will likely net me more than one at $27 - even after amazon takes it's fee. The Kindle stuff will increase my exposure and get more people back to my blog and onto my mailing list,

5) I need to rework, update and test my sales page. It sucks and I know it has for a while. My social and word of mouth was making up for the page and I think now it's just reached a point where it needs to go to another level and have regular split testing.

6) I already have a good foothold on YouTube and rank #1 for a bunch of Long Tail Keywords in my niche. I'll continue this with new video content. (Any good courses you can recommend for creating video content is welcomed and appreciated).

7) Incidentally, some of you might find this blog post interesting. This guy has been selling a Travel book in multiple formats. (I think he was interviewed in one of the ProBlogger eBooks I just bought.) He talks about what's it's been like selling in multiple formats and how Amazon pays worst of all of them but sells highest. Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000% | Andrew Hyde

8) He had a few interesting graphics in the above post. This one is showing his % of sales across all electronic platforms:



9) He ALSO has a great way of offering multiple eBook versions on his site. I thought the popup box was great. It's along the lines of the suggestions a few in this thread made as far as selling Kindle, iBooks, etc. from your own site as well as on amazon, etc.. The link says: "Want the Kindle version but want to give the author 95% of the profit? Click here!"

So, that's about it. would love to hear more thoughts and input and I hope I added some value with the above for others who read this.

Thanks again everyone!

Adam

I don't think it's dead. I guess it depends on the topic and quality.

Ummm...

Ebook Sales Surpass Hardcover for First Time in U.S.
http://mashable.com/2012/06/17/ebook-hardcover-sales/

It depends on the sales funnel , ebook of course will be at the lowest rung , but once marketed with a bigger picture in mind at a minimal cost or even free is still a great option to build your business funneling the ebbok buyers in to the other high cost offerings... and of course all kindle , ipad's are ebook anyways ... And with regards to your concern on amazon taking more money , that should be ok because they are going to compensate be sending you more traffic and also by great cross promotions of your books on their platform.... I think that is WIN- WIN for both the book author and amazon...

It isnt right now...still making money off them...I just started an article here on the warrior forum... Case Study: Watch Me Create An eBook From Scratch

I dont think ebooks are the main source of income, but I do think it can lead and direct people to larger portions of our income. Even though I make money everyday off ebooks, i can not say it is the main stay of income.

We have to remember that people will always buy content...teaching us how to chase our dreams, those external things we always want. To be healthier, sexier, wealthier. We will always buy these products...

• Ebooks is just a vehicle we use to deliver that content...
• membership sites, another vehivle
• article are another vehicle

Mobile phones are a tool we use to access those vehicles...same with computers and notebooks. I buy just as much crap off my phone as I do my computer these days...

I do just as much business from my phone as I do writing articles for a living...

But eBooks is not dying but growing...the reason why is because the deliver of ebooks has become more trusted and easier to access...computer-notebook-phone.

I buy ebooks from kindle all the time and read them off my phone...I dont even own a kindle...never read a book on a kindle...but every device i own has an app to read kindle books...

The market is dying for content...and wating for people to fill those markets.

The Kindle is dominating and will continue to dominate reportedly being worth 100bn by 2020, so definitely not!

You've got some good thinking going on gixxer. Smart questions.

I'd say ask you audience. You have a blog audience who may be looking to get your 2.0 version, and you've got a whole bunch of customer who may be looking to get your next book. Ask them if they'd prefer a Kindle version to an ebook version. While you're at it you should ask them if they'd want some coaching or a video serious or a webinar to go with it. I hope you're upselling SOMETHING to those hundreds of ebook buyers

In my opinion ebook is still actual. I personally like to have book in my hands and to read content in more relax manner. So even it is digital form of book, ebook has one of the main roles in internet world.
You can also as a addition to your ebook make a printed version for your customers.
Good strategy for a building a brand!

Best wishes!

This is really tough to answer. You say you know there are lots of things you could be looking at - but have you looked at them yet? Hard to answer if you don't really know WHY your sales have dropped.

Why not offer both? Id be silly to purposely cut an area of potential profit.. Im still a huge ebook fan myself.

It's like asking - is money dead? ))) Too generic a question.

It is not the ebook. It is the content that matters.