Selling your book on Amazon

11 years ago

Well, pricing is comparative. You don't want to be an outlier. If you are, make sure you hit the ball out of the park when it comes to quality and value...

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Chris Ballone

Banned 11 years ago

I have never tried selling books on Amazon but I believe it is a lucrative online marketing model.

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Martin Luxton

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Snow_Predator

Maybe I should change the cover and the name of the products and sell 'em for cheap on Amazon, and for a higher price on my website???

Or maybe choose one of the chapters of your book, rewrite/expqand it and sell it as a standalone book with a link to your website where people can buy your other ebooks?

Or sell each chapter of your books as standalones for 99cents - 25 chapters = $25?

Amazon like and cross promote books in a related series.

Martin

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Snow_Predator 11 years ago

An interesting idea Martin, thanks.

But even for 99 cents on Amazon, people expect quite a bit of content. So it still stands that for the same amount and quality of content, you'd have to charge less on Amazon.

I'd just like to know if people generally have put up their product on amazon for a reduced priced, and been well compensated for by the increased volume of sales.
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keyon

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Snow_Predator

Will the increased volume of sales make up for the lower price?

It's easy to assume that listing something on Amazon will automatically get your product seen by gazillions of people. Unfortunately this just isn't true. Their catalog is far too big for a new book to ever appear in a site search or on a category page at Amazon. (this would happen only if your book is wildly successful). Most people who make money from their books on Amazon already have an established customer base (from their own websites and their own marketing and promotion campaigns), and are simply directing that traffic to Amazon for the sale.

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travlinguy

11 years ago

Originally Posted by keyon

It's easy to assume that listing something on Amazon will automatically get your product seen by gazillions of people. Unfortunately this just isn't true. Their catalog is far too big for a new book to ever appear in a site search or on a category page at Amazon. (this would happen only if your book is wildly successful). Most people who make money from their books on Amazon already have an established customer base (from their own websites and their own marketing and promotion campaigns), and are simply directing that traffic to Amazon for the sale.

Interesting comments and for the most part not accurate.

"Their catalog is far too big for a new book to ever appear in a site search or on a category page at Amazon."

I'm literally unknown in the Amazon marketplace and have had a brand new title take of in a major category with no marketing efforts at all. It bounced into the #10 spot last week and stayed there for a day and then fell back some. It has two reviews, one five-star and a one-star. Go figure, huh? I know why it's selling, by the way. It's because it's a hot topic and the selection you'll see in the "Look Inside" feature Amazon offers grabs the reader by the throat and then leaves them wanting more when they finish.

"Most people who make money from their books on Amazon already have an established customer base (from their own websites and their own marketing and promotion campaigns), and are simply directing that traffic to Amazon for the sale."

Not true. Amanda Hocking for one had no established customer base to speak of and neither did John Locke, both million selling authors. John Locke actually struggled to get noticed. There are hundreds more, some of them pretty weak in the writing department too.

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keyon

11 years ago

Originally Posted by travlinguy

I know why it's selling, by the way. It's because it's a hot topic and the selection you'll see in the "Look Inside" feature Amazon offers grabs the reader by the throat...

I would think that having a title that is a "hot topic" -- especially for a newcomer to Amazon -- would make the odds of success even more horrifically small. For example, a search on Amazon books using the keywords "internet marketing" shows more than 25k results. I find it very hard to believe that a new title can move to the top ten in this category simply because it has a nice look-inside feature.

Granted, there are always exceptions to the rule -- like the one-in-a-million-chance where an author's book unexplainably goes viral (and perhaps Hocking and Locke are good examples of this). But for the other 99.9 percent of us, I still hold to my claim that we can hardly expect shoppers to stumble upon our titles on Amazon just because they're there.

I wish I could be convinced otherwise.

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travlinguy

11 years ago

Originally Posted by keyon

I would think that having a title that is a "hot topic" -- especially for a newcomer to Amazon -- would make the odds of success even more horrifically small. For example, a search on Amazon books using the keywords "internet marketing" shows more than 25k results. I find it very hard to believe that a new title can move to the top ten in this category simply because it has a nice look-inside feature.

Granted, there are always exceptions to the rule -- like the one-in-a-million-chance where an author's book unexplainably goes viral (and perhaps Hocking and Locke are good examples of this). But for the other 99.9 percent of us, I still hold to my claim that we can hardly expect shoppers to stumble upon our titles on Amazon just because they're there.

I wish I could be convinced otherwise.

I wouldn't think of trying to convince you otherwise.

You're your own worst enemy. Look at the stuff I've highlighted. If you spent more time actually working at a plan than affirming every possible doubt to the ultimate extreme you might actually have some success. Horrifically small? How utterly melodramatic. You can't get a hit unless you step up to bat.

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Snow_Predator

11 years ago

keyon and travlinguy. I've heard mixed reports. Some people mention they never got noticed on Amazon until they had published a good number of books on there, while others report getting amazing success from the outset.

I suppose it must depend on the niche and the title of the book. I'll never know until I put it up there I suppose.

I was thinking maybe sell it on Amazon for $14.99, and continue selling it on my site for $37.99. Maybe they'll never find out :p. Plus the one on my site can come with an audiobook and some workout videos, which can justify the price difference.

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JohnMcCabe

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Snow_Predator

keyon and travlinguy. I've heard mixed reports. Some people mention they never got noticed on Amazon until they had published a good number of books on there, while others report getting amazing success from the outset.

I suppose it must depend on the niche and the title of the book. I'll never know until I put it up there I suppose.

The niche, the title AND cover of the book, the description and what shows for the "look inside" feature. In other words, the things that influence buying decisions in physical bookstores, too.

Originally Posted by Snow_Predator

I was thinking maybe sell it on Amazon for $14.99, and continue selling it on my site for $37.99. Maybe they'll never find out :p. Plus the one on my site can come with an audiobook and some workout videos, which can justify the price difference.

As long as you don't put your book in the KDP Select program, you're free to sell it elsewhere. The only consequence would be if you were selling ti cheaper elsewhere (or giving it away). On discovery of the lower price, Amazon will price match.

In other words, if you sold it on Amazon for $14.99 and offered it on another site for $4.99, Amazon would drop their price to $4.99.

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BillyPilgrim 11 years ago

You're always going to be priced out at your prices. As was said, $37 for a hard cover is prohibitively expensive for most. I sell Kindle fiction and make money. But I just released my four stories ($2.99 ea, 10000 words each) as a bundle for $7.99 and it's selling better than the stories themselves.
I think the key for selling for the Kindle (fiction anyway) is to produce a lot of product. Amazon will love you and promote you more.
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GobBluthJD

11 years ago

$37 for an eBook is absurd. Hell, $37 for a print book is absurd.

If you're selling books for those prices on another platform, by all means, stick with it.

But people are a lot more savvy these days, and selling an eBook at those prices is a dying business-model.

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travlinguy

11 years ago

Originally Posted by GobBluthJD

$37 for an eBook is absurd. Hell, $37 for a print book is absurd.

If you're selling books for those prices on another platform, by all means, stick with it.

But people are a lot more savvy these days, and selling an eBook at those prices is a dying business-model.

$37 for highly specific information is actually cheap. Interesting that the book I described a couple of posts up was selling well at just that price. Now I've got it at $4.99. I'm making it up in volume. Here's the nugget to all of this. Amazon is a massive book marketplace, probably the largest in the world. That's why I'm there.

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girlinthe

11 years ago

i am selling my ebook on kindle and made 2000$ + in like a week, people were downloading it like crazy loool
have a look here
I made 2362$ in 5 days with the Kindle | Jenna Jones | Internet Marketing Secrets, affiliate marketing blog

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