Where to Sell Ebooks? Not Everywhere

Frequently writers ask me about a certain new e-publishing company for selling ebooks online. Without naming names, there are dozens of new start-up companies every month, popping up worldwide with all the needed services for authors to sell ebooks. Packages include converting file types, formatting, optional editing, cover design, setting up a webpage in their e-bookstore and also uploading to the major retailers. The fees vary from a flat subscription to a small percentage of the sales. Either way, they do make money from your ebook and in most cases, using them really doesn't make much sense (in my opinion).

You might ask, "Why not? Isn't it smart to sell ebooks everywhere possible?" To some degree that's true, but the energies needed to market ebooks online can easily be gobbled up with more proven methods like blogging, participating in forums, writing articles and more. Trust me, this other stuff is mandatory for Indie authors just starting out and will take up plenty of time in cyberspace. There's no need to spread yourself too thin.

Here's the fact of the matter and a better reason not to worry about submitting ebooks to all these new companies. They don't make e-reading devices. These days, millions of people buy and read ebooks. Take a rough guess (estimating here) which devices 98% of those book customers read on? The answer is a combination of Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, Kobo Readers, iPads, iPods, other tablets and then further on down the line things like cell phones and computers. The fact is this; Kindle owners buy from Amazon. Nook owners buy from Barnes&Noble. iPad and iPod owners buy from Apple. Kobo and Sony Readers buy from… you guessed it, Kobo and Sony. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule, but the vast majority of ebook purchases are from the exact same companies that supply the devices.

And it makes sense for the customer. The likelihood of having a perfectly formatted ebook for their device is much higher this way. If there's any problem, returns shouldn't be an issue. Customer service with those major players is typically far superior to start-ups, especially from foreign countries.

Want more proof? Over 99% of my ebooks are sold from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Apple, Kobo, Sony, Smashwords and my own websites. As for the half-dozen of these other ebook retailers, my ebooks basically don't sell at all, or hardly ever (occasionally at Scribd). My advice is just to upload to the biggies: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Apple, Google, Smashwords and such along with selling pdf and epub copies from your own website and blog. Besides, all of that can be done for FREE.

However, one way to maximize potential from these smaller ebook retailers is to allow a sample, like 30%, of your ebook to be read for free. Then at the end of the sample, you can include links to the major retailers where it can be purchased. This is my method at Scribd, and it seems to be working as there are thousands of documented reads for 6 titles and even a rare sale happens. See my documents here at Scribd. This approach will save you time to focus on the more important things for selling ebooks online, like regular blogging.

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