When it comes to ebooks, you can certainly sell your novel, memoir, or what have you through online marketplaces like Amazon. That being said, there are some advantages to selling ebooks from your own Shopify-built site. Selling electronic books directly to consumers offers authors/entrepreneurs like you the greatest level of control; not to mention the largest cut of the sales.
In that same vein, it provides a certain level of authority to your personal brand as well as greater engagement with your target audience. Here’s why selling ebooks online is easier than you think.
Picking a Topic for Your eBook
What are you passionate about? Are you a killer cook, an amateur historian of a particularly ambiguous time in antiquity, or an aspiring thought leader? Your passions can guide you to the types of subject matter you want to write about. Obviously, it’s much easier to write something you know and care about than something with which you are totally unfamiliar.
You also need a bit of personality; something original that puts your ebook ahead of other authors in the space. For instance, many authors choose to share their personal stories or experiences with their readers. This isn’t narcissism, of course, it’s a way of making your writing more relatable.
Once you’ve nailed down your topic or genre, you ought to do a little research regarding the ebook market. Consider potential competitors (such as other business thought leaders). Are they especially tapped into their audience? Are they selling ebooks like hotcakes? See if there is anything in their strategy which you can adopt for your own purposes.
Obviously, you shouldn’t outright steal their ideas. But it does help to keep your ear to the ground, so to speak.
Remember Readability
One key to selling ebooks is readability. Make it easy to digest the information you’re putting forward by keeping your formatting consistent and using a sans-serif font like Ariel or Verdana at size 11 or 12.
Less is more here, so don’t go overboard on your formatting. Stick to a simple color scheme. Try to maintain two or three types of headers and use lots of short paragraphs and lists.
Edit Your Work
Before getting another set of eyes on your ebook, check for spelling mistakes and do a round of editing on your own. Remember that fixing minor errors can distract your proofreader from bigger tasks, like checking content.
Reading aloud is a fantastic way to catch things that you might otherwise miss. Keep in mind that your brain automatically fills in gaps, corrects typos, and ignores incorrect words. So, one read-through will not be enough to capture every issue. You’ll also get a better sense of the flow of longer sections by reading the content aloud.
Figure Out Your Formatting
When it comes to ebooks, there are a number of accepted formatting standards. These include Mobi for Amazon Kindle, the universal Epub format, and, of course, the ever-present PDF format. If you are selling ebooks from your own online store, you can obviously have all three formats available for the customer to choose from.
If you choose to do the conversion yourself, check out this good introduction by Kobo books on Converting a Word or OpenOffice Document to Epub format PDF.
Alternately, you can pay someone on Fiverr to do the formatting for you. Now it’s time to create a website and add your ebooks. Using the streamlined tools of the Shopify store builder, upload your ebook with an image of the front cover, add a description, set the price, and then add the product to your new store.
The Benefits of Self-Publishing
Ecommerce sellers love ebooks because there’s no one to stop you from putting them out there into the world. With traditional books, you would have to find a publisher who would publish your books, and then get bookstores to sell them, do book tours and so much more!
With ebooks, you write and publish, completely DIY-style and you can sell it in so many ways online. From your own website to several other platforms – there’s no one getting in the way of getting your book to your audience.
And don’t even think for one minute that self-published authors never make it big? Remember a little old book called “50 Shades of Grey”? Yep, that book. It was self-published before it hit the big time and even turned into a Hollywood movie!
Get in on the eCommerce ebook market and start making money today!