It’s better to know why to sell an eBook before knowing how to sell. As everything is getting online then why not selling and buying of an item? Yes, you got that right. We are now in next-gen where selling an item is not as difficult as compared to the old time wherein everything was sold out manually by approaching a person or a company or distributing it offline through different showrooms or shops.
Writing a Book is a hectic job and must be paid out accordingly. Authors and publishers used to spend a lot on getting their content printed, published as well as marketed. Sending books to different bookshelves and popular libraries so that their writings could be sold out and they get the monetary return at the earliest possible however it was not that easy as marketing and selling a book that nobody was aware of through offline sellers was a tedious and time-consuming job.
Time passed by and then something came into existence that changed the whole cycle of selling and buying process. Online marketing and selling was the technique that got adopted by a lot of authors and publishers wherein they found selling their electronic Books online on different platforms and getting paid for the same, directly through online transactions.
There is a lot to know about “how to sell an eBook on different platforms” however we would be talking about the most popular platform right now and that is Amazon.
There is a series of steps that need to be taken to get the desired output and they are as follows:
Create an Amazon KDP Account:
The starter here is creating a Kindle Direct Publishing account on Amazon. The link that can be used to sign up:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
No worries if an EBook is not in Mobi/Kindle format as after uploading the book it would eventually get converted into the compatible Kindle format.
Add Books to the Bookshelf:
The next step that needs to be performed is adding an EBook to the bookshelf. On the Left-hand side of the dashboard after you are signed in, you will see an option of “Add New Title”. Clicking on this option will take you to the page where you need to add the Book details.
The fields are quite self-explanatory however there are options to help you filling each field in case needed.
Enter your Book details and leave the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) field blank in case you do not have that info. Mention your name as well in case you are self-publishing the EBook.
Next, you need to choose the category you feel your book should reside in and the keywords as well that may help the readers find the desired content.
After all the above mentioned steps are done, you need to upload the cover image for your EBook which is as important as the EBook itself because this is the image that will be shown on Amazon Sale Page and would be a reflection of your content.
Uploading the EBook on the platform:
You can either upload a Kindle formatted eBook or a PDF/word format and let Amazon do the conversion for your EBook. If you are letting Amazon do the conversion thing then make sure you recheck the file for the pictures or graphics as converting online may disturb the formatting.
Confirm Your Pricing & Royalty Options:
You need to decide on the royalty option that you want to go for because the rest will be taken by Amazon.
There are 2 royalty options that you can select from:
35%
70%
If you want to keep 70% then you need to sell your book between $2.99 and $9.99. If the price is out of this range then you will only be getting 35% of the total selling price so beware and make sure you target the right pricing so that the return to your pocket is more.
You are done. Be a spectator, wait and watch. Let Amazon review your content and approve it. Once it’s approved, the EBook will be published and the direct link will be shared with you.