Making $1,000 in (almost) passive income

[Merrick1]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Given that traditional publishing is said to be dying and ebooks are a booming industry you might say that the online marketing business model is better.
I wouldn't say that one model is clearly better.

I have heard so many people saying that if you self-publish, no serious publisher will even look at you. I don't understand that but this is what many people say. What about that?

Merrick

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Given that traditional publishing is said to be dying and ebooks are a booming industry you might say that the online marketing business model is better.

The death of traditional publishing has been greatly exaggerated. E-books made up roughly 3% of all publishing revenue in 2009.

[Brutha]

The death of traditional publishing has been greatly exaggerated. E-books made up roughly 3% of all publishing revenue in 2009.

If you are in business profits are more important then revenue. Upsells to audio/video courses are probably not directly included with the ebook revenues.
Ebooks generally don't get brought by the author while paperbooks often are brought for Bestseller list rating which might inflate your revenue numbers.

Still I think you can make a case for both sides.
I however think that it doesn't make sense to try to pursue both at the same time.

What if the material is very short? e.g. A series of non-fiction books, each 15 pages long. It seems to me that $9.99 would be overpricing and $1 to $3 seems about right.

Giving the transaction cost it's generally a bad idea to sell a product for $1.

You are probably better off to make your series of 15 page "books" chapters of one larger book.

I have heard so many people saying that if you self-publish, no serious publisher will even look at you. I don't understand that but this is what many people say. What about that?

A serious publisher usually won't republish a book that already exists as an ebook because it's already out there.
Additionally you will get more authority from having a book published with a mainstream publisher than you will get from an ebook.

If your goal is to get authority to get expensive speaking engagements then a mainstream publisher is more valuable.

[kablooey]

Originally Posted by Brutha

...

Giving the transaction cost it's generally a bad idea to sell a product for $1.

You are probably better off to make your series of 15 page "books" chapters of one larger book.

What do those transaction costs consist of? And what do they sum to for ebooks?

What would your recommend as a minimum price for ebooks, be they PDFs or Kindle books, iPad books, etc.?

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by kablooey

What if the material is very short? e.g. A series of non-fiction books, each 15 pages long. It seems to me that $9.99 would be overpricing and $1 to $3 seems about right.

If it is a series, you could get a loyal following (does that ever happen?) and make money through volume rather than margins... right?

Why not just write an ebook that is valuable and sell it for $97?

With one sale, you will make 10x the profit. And selling an expensive ebook takes the same amount of work as selling a cheap one, so why not?

[kablooey]

Originally Posted by Gene

Asimovs Science Fiction anthologies did well back in the day when print on paper was king. I would pay $9.99 or even more for an eBook of the same quality material.

[x] Lots of people will pay $9.99 for books of Isaac Asimov-quality.
[ ] I can write books of Isaac Asimov-quality.

[kablooey]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Why not just write an ebook that is valuable and sell it for $97?

With one sale, you will make 10x the profit. And selling an expensive ebook takes the same amount of work as selling a cheap one, so why not?

Writing the $97 book takes much longer.

Also, how do you know that selling a $97 book takes the same amount of effort as selling a $3 book? I imagine that if we were to look on Amazon and compare # of books sold to prices, we'd find negative correlation.

I have no evidence whatsoever to back that up, though.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by kablooey

Writing the $97 book takes much longer.

Also, how do you know that selling a $97 book takes the same amount of effort as selling a $3 book? I imagine that if we were to look on Amazon and compare # of books sold to prices, we'd find negative correlation.

I have no evidence whatsoever to back that up, though.

I bet most people wouldn't buy a $3 book. For three dollars, you can buy a large candy bar. You're telling me you can fit life changing information inside a book and sell it for the same price? The higher the price, the higher the perceived value of the information inside.

You really shouldn't be worried about the time it takes, either. Wanting to pump out an e book in minutes and then turn around and sell it online is the wrong approach. Instead, write a book that provides value to people. When you finish, assess how much work went into writing the book, and how much you think it should cost. Then you can begin promoting it where you see fit.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by kablooey

What do those transaction costs consist of? And what do they sum to for ebooks?

What would your recommend as a minimum price for ebooks, be they PDFs or Kindle books, iPad books, etc.?

As an example, I sell an ebook on my acupuncture site for $19.95. The customer pays $19.95, but because I use Paypal to process the transaction, they get a cut of the revenue.

Paypal takes $0.88 out of every sale I make if the buyer lives in the USA, and $1.08 out of every sale if the buyer lives outside the USA. You can see the way Paypal calculates fees here.



As for ebook prices, I would recommend starting no lower than $17.

However, many people sell ebooks for up to $97, $147, so don't feel limited to selling an ebook for the "price of a regular book" so to speak.


Sidenote though: If you are going to be making an information product that is very valuable, consider producing it in video or audio format. Generally people accept the idea of audio and video programs selling for hundreds of dollars, so you might be able to make even higher profits by putting the same information that would be in your ebook, into a video or audio program instead.

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

When you finish, assess how much work went into writing the book, and how much you think it should cost. Then you can begin promoting it where you see fit.

Almost, but not quite.

Do not base your price off of how much work you put into it.

Base your price off of how valuable it is to the customer.


Example: If you sell an ebook that is 10 pages long, but contains an amazing guide on how to save $10,000 on your mortgage payments over the next 10 years, then chances are that your ebook's value is about $10,000 in the mind of the customer, so you could charge $147 for it and it would be a "steal".

And yes, people really do pay that much for information! It is all about how valuable the customer thinks the information is.

[mikethedrummer44]

Well yeah, that was poorly worded.

Obviously, think about selling before yourself. But I always use the amount of work required to determine the cost a bit as well.

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by Brutha

If you are in business profits are more important then revenue.

This is true, but since almost all publishing has low development and production costs, revenue and profit are closely related.

[ellie]

hmm I decided to delete my question

[ssandra]

What if you also want to self-publish your book?

I want to write an ebook which I know will create lots of value for people.

However, if it is over a certain number of pages (which I think it is) I want to also publish it myself and sell it over amazon. Not really for the profit, but because
1. it would be so much FUN to have a "real" book with my name on it and
2. I feel it would lend much more credibility to my site and what I'm doing of there is a real book behind it.

Now, I get that for an ebook you can charge almost anything you want, but that it doesn't work that way for a "normal" book...

So a normal book I'm thinking I could maximum charge 19.95.
An ebook would be cheaper then that, so maximum 14.99 or maybe even 9.99.

Would that change the value that people are expecting from it?

And... if the ebook / book is about that price, does that have effect on how much I can charge for other products? Audio program, coaching etc.?

[kablooey]

Originally Posted by Brutha

...

You are probably better off to make your series of 15 page "books" chapters of one larger book.

...

What about the OP's comment that the brevity of a book can be a selling point?

e.g. The title of the book could be "How to Free Yourself from Email in Ten Pages" as part of a larger series called "In Ten Pages", with each book selling for $0.99-$2.99.

[gingerbaker]

Originally Posted by kablooey

What about the OP's comment that the brevity of a book can be a selling point?

e.g. The title of the book could be "How to Free Yourself from Email in Ten Pages" as part of a larger series called "In Ten Pages", with each book selling for $0.99-$2.99.

I kind of LOVE this! Geez now I am wondering what things I could set up as 10-page books LOL.

[kablooey]

Originally Posted by gingerbaker

I kind of LOVE this! Geez now I am wondering what things I could set up as 10-page books LOL.

lol

Please don't steal my idea!

[Johnny Skosnik]

Originally Posted by kablooey

lol

Please don't steal my idea!

(Has an idea to write a profitable e-book on how to write a profitable e-book.) Dibs!

[kablooey]

Originally Posted by Johnny Skosnik

(Has an idea to write a profitable e-book on how to write a profitable e-book.) Dibs!

lol that's not even close

But nice guess.

[gingerbaker]

Originally Posted by kablooey

lol

Please don't steal my idea!

OK, ok...for now! But be quick about it...the porn is probably being made while we write!!

[rawxstasy]

Originally Posted by gingerbaker

OK, ok...for now! But be quick about it...the porn is probably being made while we write!!

haha.. I heard porn isn't as profitable nowadays - too much "free" porn out there now.

[StevenHandel]

Some of you may be interested to know that Amazon says e-books are outselling hardcovers now. I think this is a good indicator that the ol' brick-and-mortar publishing system may be heading downward.

It is way more convenient to carry around a kindle with 100 books uploaded then to carry 2 hardcovers.

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by StevenHandel

Some of you may be interested to know that Amazon says e-books are outselling hardcovers now. I think this is a good indicator that the ol' brick-and-mortar publishing system may be heading downward.

It is way more convenient to carry around a kindle with 100 books uploaded then to carry 2 hardcovers.

Yes, but
1. Hardcover books are still selling very well-better than the previous year, actually
2. Amazon Kindle books are more concentrated amongst the top sellers, meaning that for many authors hardcover sales outpace kindle sales and
3. Author Tim Ferriss has reported that he makes substantially more profit from hardcovers than Kindle sales. I haven't seen any other analyses. But given that Tim Ferriss is an extremely popular author, it's likely that most individuals make more from hardcover sales than Kindle sales.

[Andrew Gubb]

Inspiring stuff. Thanks a lot for this thread.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by StevenHandel

Some of you may be interested to know that Amazon says e-books are outselling hardcovers now. I think this is a good indicator that the ol' brick-and-mortar publishing system may be heading downward.

It is way more convenient to carry around a kindle with 100 books uploaded then to carry 2 hardcovers.

But this is about hardcovers. There must be more people like me who normally refuse to buy hardcovers and wait until the paperback is out....?

[James81]

Originally Posted by ssandra

But this is about hardcovers. There must be more people like me who normally refuse to buy hardcovers and wait until the paperback is out....?

*raises hand*

It's not about price for me either. I just hate reading hardcovers because they are so clunky to hold.

Actually, I haven't read a physical book ever since I got an iTouch. I've been reading all my books on the kindle app. I'm not entirely sure I even miss the book itself too much. I do have a small urge to read a physical book again, but it certainly won't be a hardcover.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by James81

*raises hand*

It's not about price for me either. I just hate reading hardcovers because they are so clunky to hold.

Actually, I haven't read a physical book ever since I got an iTouch. I've been reading all my books on the kindle app. I'm not entirely sure I even miss the book itself too much. I do have a small urge to read a physical book again, but it certainly won't be a hardcover.

I have an ebook reader as well, but books that I really really like I'd still buy double to have them in paper as well... I just LOVE having the shells in my book closets filled with books that carry good memories...

[Andrew Gubb]

Sandra, I just saw your site, is it new? It looks great!!

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by Andrew Gubb

Sandra, I just saw your site, is it new? It looks great!!

It is new! Thank you!!

[Curtis2011]

There seems to be a lot of argument in here of ebooks vs. physical books. I would say they both have their own advantages.

Ebook avantages:

1. Easier to create (in my opinion).
2. Incredibly easy to self-publish. All you need is a website.
3. No need for a publishing deal from anyone.
4. Lower cost of production. If you sell it on your own website, you really only pay for hosting.
5. Easier to distribute. You don't have to mail anything, just allow a download or email it to the customer.
6. Lower risk. If you write a "real" book and it flops, you'll never get a book deal again. If you write an ebook and it flops, nobody will ever know about it.

Physical book advantages:

1. Having a published book gives you more authority. This can get you speaking gigs or more book deals.
2. The means of production and distribution is already set up. All you need is a book deal and the publisher will do the rest of the work for you.
3. You don't have to market your own book. Just get it published and it is instantly in front of thousands of people.

I would say the biggest advantage of ebooks is that you can create and sell them all yourself. You don't even need to sell them on Amazon, you can just make your own website and sell one if you know how. No book deal or publisher deadlines or rules to deal with.

As for physical books, I would say the only real advantage is the authority aspect. Sometimes authors end up really big like Robert Kiyosaki, Tim Ferris, Rick Warren, et al., and they get huge publicity and authority from it and earn millions of dollars. While an ebook seller may make a lot of money, they typically only get authority in the internet marketing world and not in any traditional media.

[mikethedrummer44]

I love buying new hardcover books. A little difficult to read, but they look amazing.

I'm sure I'd love e-books a lot more if I had an e-book reader, because I can't stand reading books from my computer screen.