Any eBook Success Stories From Fellow Forum Members?

[EasyBlue]

Hi everyone ,

I understand the title of this thread may be a bit arbitrary; what does "success" really mean? By success, I suppose I mean, sold more than 1-3 copies (hehe, I have humble expectations).

I, like many other forum members I suppose, am on the fence of writing an eBook. I am a web developer for a living, and I thought it would be fun and possibly profitable to write a book targeting graphic/print designers that teaches them the basics of HTML and complex CSS layouts. The book would use simple, non technical language, include screenshots and diagrams and really be suited well for someone with a graphic design background but who lacks any coding knowledge what-so-ever.

Right now I've told myself the only way I should write the book is if I can adopt a "I don't care if it sells zero copies, I should do it for my own enjoyment" mindset. I suppose if I could hear a few success stories (even if they are very humble success stories) it would push me over the tipping point.

Oh well, enough about my situation... share your eBook (success) stories people . Oh, and any topic or genre of eBook is welcome .

[The Big D]

I did what amounted to a big book's worth of content on a blog on the topic of playing poker at a professional level (which is largely unrelated to what you see on TV etc.). I did it for my own enjoyment. It easily could have been a real book or ebook instead of a blog (I even was offered 9/10ths of a book deal) but I didn't want to go down that road.

My readership would probably be the equivalent of selling a few thousand copies. The ads cover the cost of the hosting, but otherwise I made no money.

I enjoyed it reasonable well, and the thankful mail back from people probably made it worth it. I might go back and do the sequel some day.

Maybe that doesn't help you since it's not really an "e-book", but the question of why an e-book is the most apropriate media is a valid one.

[Oddity]

I've never written an e-book myself, but my mom has. She wrote the stories of people from her church - with their permission, without mentioning full names. The book was provided for free - and at least two people outside of the church got themselves copies. I'm not sure exactly how many within it did, but a good handful of them downloaded a copy.

She probably would have gotten the same results had the book cost anything.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by EasyBlue

Oh well, enough about my situation... share your eBook (success) stories people . Oh, and any topic or genre of eBook is welcome .

From what I understand, Rebecca's Lucid Dreaming Website sells her own ebook, as well as makes affiliate sales of a related ebook. You can ask her what she earns but from what I recollect it's definitely enough to move out of the house with.

Originally Posted by The Big D

I enjoyed it reasonable well, and the thankful mail back from people probably made it worth it. I might go back and do the sequel some day.

Have you considered compiling the blog posts into an ebook and selling it anyways? You could just tell your readers that they can download and print it in an easy-to-read ebook for only $9 or $17 or whatever. With thousands of visitors, you might make some $$$.

[The Big D]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Have you considered compiling the blog posts into an ebook and selling it anyways? You could just tell your readers that they can download and print it in an easy-to-read ebook for only $9 or $17 or whatever. With thousands of visitors, you might make some $$$.

It would need some editing for cohesion and errors to sell as a book - at least I have higher standards for putting my name on a book vs. a blog. If I did that, I would take the book deal assuming I could get it back, which is probably the case. Some of the gambling publishers will print damn near anything there's already a manuscript for.

[Rebecca800]

Hey EasyBlue

I have written an e-book on lucid dreaming. I wouldn't call it a success yet - by my own personal definition I'd need to sell at least 500 copies to call it that! But in terms of production and customer feedback, I am delighted with the results.

My e-book is called Lucid Fiction, and it's actually a collection of short stories (about lucid dreaming, altered states of awareness, and paranormal themes). I wrote 5 of the stories myself, and the other 7 were written by authors I found networking online. This added the complication of agreeing and calculating author royalties, and while I'm glad this fictional book was a collaboration, my future books will be factual, and so I'll write them all myself and collect 100% of the profits.

The process of writing and designing the e-book was a lot of fun. I guess this has to do with enjoying your subject matter. In the back of my mind I knew it would make money because as Curtis says, I already have the marketing platform which is a proven income generator (my website). Setting up payment and affiliate plans through PayPal, ClickBank and e-Junkie were all very easy and I still get email notifications every time I make a sale. It is very rewarding.

The only thing I wasn't prepared for was marketing it! For every hour I spent writing my e-book, I spent another hour marketing it afterwards. This included:

- writing my sales page
- writing a press release
- getting reviews from industry experts
- getting customer testimonials
- getting other sites to review it
- creating buzz around the internet through forums, blogs, etc

All in all, it was definitely worth it and now the sales slowly tick up every week without me doing any additional work. Even at $7 per sale (minus author royalties and PayPal fees) the number of sales soon adds up to make a meaningful difference, and this will grow as my website grows.

Incidentally, Curtis also mentioned converting blog posts into an e-book and selling that. This is exactly what I did with The Art of Lucid Dreaming, which is a collection of all my favorite articles from my website. It's a 173-page guide to lucid dreaming, tightly focused and ideal for beginners to take away and read at their leisure. I give this e-book away in return for a $5 donation. This is incredibly useful and just as impressive as Lucid Fiction as a standalone product. The only thing holding me back from marketing it properly is that it's not original content, being available in a broken down form on my website. I wonder how other people feel about this? Would you rather keep returning to my site for free or pay $5 for an e-book?

I hope that helps. In my opinion, if you are thinking about it -- go for it!

[JustinPopovic]

I have also written an ebook, well, its more of an ecourse but its all the same idea.

My program is called the Quit Your Job Manual

It has been selling well through some private affiliates and I have recently started selling it under its own domain name.

Some comments for you based on my experience:

1. You can NEVER go wrong by producing content like an ebook. Even if it does sell zero copies, as long as you are writing about a topic you enjoy and can attach some kind of business to, you are making progress. If it doesn't sell, you can use it as give-away material to promote yourself.

2. You may want to consider writing the book in phases. For example, write version 1 and take the initial version to a select group of people within your audience demographic and ask them to do reviews. Let your audience tell you how to refine and improve your product. You may want to do 2,3,4 revision rounds and make it "killer"

3. If you personally do not have a lot of marketing skills, you may want to offer a very lucrative commission to some really talented marketers. For example, you may charge $20 for your book but pay your affiliate $15. You still pocket $5 per book that you would not have had otherwise. Its "found" money at that point.

4. What's there to lose? If you have the desire to do it, I say just go for it. It will be a great personal growth experience and just the act of finishing the product will do wonders for your self confidence. I remember when I finished revision round 3 of my ebook, I felt SO happy that it almost didn't matter if it sold. The fact that I did make 50+ sales in the first 2 weeks was an amazing bonus.

I hope this *tips* you in the direction of going for it!!

I would be happy to review your product for you and provide feedback/testimonials

[HAGITLOVE]

That is a very helpful thread, since I myself have created to ebooks- the first is called "love, happy, living", and the other is "Healthy and tasty". and about to market them along with my new upcoming website lovehappyliving.com
Justin you are right - writing these books brought me a lot of joy, I have really enjoyed the process, and so many other great ideas have just popped up while doing it, so enjoy the process.
Thanks for the great tips.
And good luck to you all

[rocksupreme]

Writing an ebook is one thing, but marketing one is a totally different matter. One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of marketing happens before you even have a product. By this, I mean research - you must be sure there are people willing to spend money on your content.

I've had some success in this arena, but I was initially limited by my sales skills. As I've learned and applied better marketing techniques, I've sold more ebooks.

[WillieLongIII]

Ebooks can definitely be successful with the correct landing page, good content, and plenty of marketing.

Any intellectual property that you can sell at a huge profit on autopilot in your sleep is a win-win scenario.

Software is another high profit item you can sell online. If you can't create your own book or software, find people who can and buy the rights. If you have a good idea for software, you can always find freelance software developers who can make it for a good price.

[Gene]

A few years ago I had success in selling at a very low price and even giving away ebooks as a way to promote my custom audio products.