Fiction E-book: would it fly?

I think it would definitely be worth trying. If the ebook is priced right and you have a good squeeze page, you should be able to make some money there. These days you can buy hand held devices made just to read ebooks. So there should be some demand for fiction ebooks as well. Good luck.

Especially since a paperback book is about $8, I'd pay the same for an e-book if it was 5 or 6 books worth.

I think you can make electronic books for the Kindle. I'm not sure how but I recently did a website on the Kindle and some of the articles talked about doing that.

Apparently you can make some money that way so you might look into that - seems like Amazon would have a lot of customers waiting to buy electronic fiction books for their Kindle - I know I would be if i was lucky enough to have a Kindle.

Unless people already know you as a good writer or you have ridiculous amount of traffic to push to your site it's going to be very difficult to sell fiction. Most people don't read books, either online or offline. Fiction is going to make things much more difficult: not goal oriented, doesn't satisfy an immediate need... Good luck.

Tyrus

I've always wondered about doing this too. I think there is a market for it, as people are always looking for a good read. Still, there is a lot of competition, so it might take a while to build a name for yourself. If I were to do this, I'd definitely publish for the Kindle.

I agree with Tyrus. Unless people already know you it's going to be hard to get them to shell out money for a fiction ebook. Especially since there are so many places on the internet to read free fiction.

What I would do is publish some of your stories on fictionpress. You can really get a good readership there if you do it right. You want to post chapter by chapter because it gets people involved in your story waiting for the next chapter. It also lets you gauge audience response via the reviews they give you for each chapter. You can also find an author on fictionpress that already has a nice following and ask them to read your stuff and see if they will refer their readers to your stories. Once you get a nice readership, it is then easier to get these people to buy your stuff.

The competition is stiff so you have to be really good. I've followed a few authors on fictionpress and almost all the really good ones end up getting picked up by a publisher or self publishing. This is a very small percentage of all authors on there, I'd say around 0.1% or less, but it does happen.

The key to making a go of your ebook is going to be getting reviews from people who are already respected in that genre (i.e. suspense, sci-fi, fantasy). If they promote your work to their readers it will really help. But I'd say you're going to have to give away some of your work for free to hook them. Most fiction authors don't make any money even if they have a big publisher spending money promoting their book, so that's your competition.

Let us know how it works out!

Check out eBooks.com, loads of fictional eBooks...definatley a market there.

The majority of people that buy e-books are looking for "how to" e-books. Unless your e-book would detail "How to Write a Short Story" or "How to Successfully Develop Characters," I think it would be a dud. In my opinion, your best bet is to go for POD publishing. I think BookLocker.com offers the service for about $800 including cover art.

Hey guys,

This may seem like a good idea,
but it really isn't.

Head over to clickbank
and check the marketplace.
Set it to show the lowest
gravity items first.

If you look hard enough,
you'll find other people's
fiction ebooks right there.

That's where they end up,
no sales, no affiliates, no
profit.

Plenty of people try it, but
it doesn't work.

Sorry to throw a bucket of
water over your idea.

Seriously, don't even attempt
this unless you're a seasoned
marketer and you've created
several successful products
already.

Now on the other hand... a
book teaching people how to
write fiction or how to become
a writer... that may have an
audience.

-David Raybould

I don't know about Clickbank, sounds pretty lame. Amazon kindle, on the other hand may have some potential. Get them on there and have someone do a press release for you. That should work.

TomG.

Can't wait to see the kindle coming to Canada, this little thing looks just great!

Getting them on Amazon might work, though there is a lot of competition, people actually go there looking for fiction. The trick isn't necessarily to find a new way of marketing fiction, but to find a new way of getting your fiction in front of the eyes of the people who are already looking for it.

It may end up being something you have to self market, which can still be pretty profitable.

Good luck.

A friend of mine that i met on twitter is rather experienced in marketing and as she has a english teaching background wrote a few kids novels and it has been a nightmare for her.

The competition at the moment seems to be high and unless you know what your doing you could have problems. There was also a story in the british press today that the book industry isnt doing that well and people are going to the libraries instead as they class it as a luxury.

Thanks, everyone. I've been looking at ebooks on the web (I didn't think about checking clickbank stats for what doesn't sell -- thanks for that tip!). I can see what many of you are saying, about giving away some of the work for free, and regarding the competition factor.

I don't know much about kindle, but will look at that, too.

Right now, time has just become more complicated due to personal issues, and it may be something I'll put on the back burner for a while.

As always, the folks on this forum have been very helpful!
**Maj**

As a newbie I thought about this but then I looked at it from a readers point of view. I love books, but I love taking my book in the bath or to the park or on the bus ot to my bed. I dont particulary like sitting reading for too long in front of a screen and I tend to skim things rather than read thoroughly. Obviously you can print the ebook off (which is what I have been doing with all the information I have been gathering lately, and recycling) but it is not the same as a 'real' book I dont think, so I kind of pushed the idea to the back of my mind for now.
xx

You could probably sell fiction in digital format if you were
to research the type of fiction people want to buy in the
format.

Since you want to sell already written material, it's pretty
hopeless in my opinion.

An already established market you could exploit might be,
for example, Sherlock Holmes. The character is in the
public domain so you can write stories about him and try
to sell them directly to readers. There are plenty of people
who've read every Sherlock Holmes story and may be
interested in seeing new writers working in the style
of Conan Doyle.

Other niches that may be exploitable would be Apocalyptic
adventure fiction written to appeal to the values of
zealous Christians. A series of books called the Left
Behind Saga has sold quite well over the last several years.

It could surely work but I think you would have to primarily focus on getting your name out there, say through a blog first, to acknowledge your presence as a fiction writer. Even distribution with microprinting companies can be a great viable option.

-Safe Travels

Amazon offers Creatspace, Kindle Publishing and ebook publishing. Useful in that order for fiction. All are easy to setup and cost little, if anything to setup.

CreateSpace gives you the means to self-publish print books and sell through Amazon and other retailers. Quite a powerful service!

Fiction DOES sell in eBook format. Check out Fictionwise eBooks: Free eBooks, eBooks for your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android device, Symbian Mobile Phone, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Palm handheld, PC, Mac and more! and for more spicier reads, Jasmine Jade Enterprises

Major publishers (HarperCollins, Harlequin, and more) are even offering eBook formats of their author's novels.

If you're interested in putting your work out there *even if it's fiction* do your research (due diligence) on publishers and just do it.

Fiction DOES sell. We already know this. Some books sell better than others, but hey, that's the same all over, right? In the end it all comes down to marketing, no matter the format you're selling in.

Hope this helps,

Tina