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So what would you do?

by jame58rown
3 replies
I am based in the UK. I have self published a book in a niche market. It was initially well received and had good magazine reviews. It retails for £29.99 ($52) I sell it from my own web page at a rate of about two or three a week at a net profit of £25 ($42) per book.

I have a deal with a distributor who supplies the book to shops and to Amazon (UK only) The distributor sells around 50 a month but for these copies my profit is only £10 ($17) The distributors only pay about half the RRP and of course I need to pay to ship to them.

This is a large book, it weighs over 2.5lbs has 450 pages, 150 illustrations etc, to post a copy to the US costs the customer an additional $22, just to post it inside the UK costs £5. I will need to reprint soon as my initial print run will run out mid 2009, so I have been thinking about an E book. With an ebook my storage and shipping pains would disappear over night. But would other pains replace them? So I have some questions for you guys..

If I digitise this work is it inevitable that would I find it stolen and then resold? How can you keep control, can you lock a book to a particular computer?

Is a book of this size suitable to be sold as an E book? Do specialist books sell as a digital product?

Is a large book like this best sold as a course, delivered over time, or just the one off?

Any advice here will be much appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Clayson
    It is possible to lock an ebook and for only the owner to have the unlock code. But I am not sure that is the best idea.

    Your book sounds massive and the type of thing people will want to HOLD and share. Is that right? You then need to think about the potential loss of sales from making it into a user unfriendly ebook.

    Now, how about thinking laterally? Sure, you have costs involved in the physical product. But you also have great connections and processes already. So, why not use that book to funnel people to a webpage where you upsell something else or capture their names and addresses?

    For example you could have a page in your book that says "free ebook on ......" and then your web address. This will also appeal to some that are just reading, as opposed to buying, the book.

    Look for ways to leverage what you already have.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaggyjay
    Hey Jame,

    If I digitise this work is it inevitable that would I find it stolen and then resold? How can you keep control, can you lock a book to a particular computer?

    - Perhaps. Sadly, it's one of the downsides of marketing digital products online. However, don't overly concern yourself with this as you'll wind up obsessing over how to protect your product instead of growing sales. If you really want to "lock" your ebook, I think the IMC (martetingtips dot com) has a product that may do just what you want.

    - Also, you may want to add a little note to the 1st page on your ebook informing your readers that the book isn't free and giving them the option to purchase. I use something like this for my ebooks:

    "This eBook is NOT free. If you obtained this publication without paying for it, we ask that you please tell us where you got it by emailing us at: YourEmail@EmailProvider.com. We also ask that you visit our site at YourSite.com where you can pay the low price for the ebook as well as get any added bonuses and join our mailing list. We thank you for your honesty."

    Is a book of this size suitable to be sold as an E book? Do specialist books sell as a digital product?

    - I don't really know, but this is the digital age - so it just may sell very well. Try this: Run some tests by selling only the hardcopy or only the digital download. See which one sells better. Then do this: Offer your book as a digital download AND also offer a HARDCOPY for a few bucks more. See how that goes.

    - After completing your tests you'll know which sells more. Notwithstanding, I suggest you offer them both for sale (digital copy and more expensive hardcopy) at the same time and let the customers decide. You'll find that some customers will buy both no matter what.

    Is a large book like this best sold as a course, delivered over time, or just the one off?

    - Don't know. This is something that you'll have to test in the Court of Last Resorts (ie: Test, Test, Test and Test again. Results don't lie.)

    Hope this helps.

    - Jay
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    • Profile picture of the author jame58rown
      Thanks Mark, I do mention a website in the book, so I could be selling some other stuff to others who read the book and then visit the site.

      Testing Jaggy, that's a good idea, I will certainly give it some thought.

      Thanks for your time
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