How to sell an ebook?

MrT68 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 09:20 AM

My educational websites(for now just a blog and squidoo lenses-this summer a more extensive website) are already getting pretty good search engine traffic. Of those I am getting 6-8 searchers a day looking for math worksheets(I expect this number to go up as I cover more topics). Anyway, my main goal is to provide the best free secondary math websites on the internet and thus I am looking for other ways to monetize my sites. I was thinking of putting together books of worksheets and selling them to teachers. I only want the site to be free for students so I don't mind selling things to teachers. Creating the content won't be a problem, but I was wondering what is the best way to handle the publishing and transactional part of selling an ebook?

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 10:56 AM

For publishing, I would recommend Adobe Acrobat Professional. I just converted two of my ebooks from eBookEditPro to Adobe and the process was super easy. There are cheaper options available I'm sure but there are so many customization/security options with Adobe is the complete package and gives you complete control over the look and editing your book.

I think PDF format is the best way to go. It works on both Mac and PC and everyone has Adobe Acrobat these days. As I said there are some services that allow you to convert a PDF for free (just Google it) but often times the free/cheap software options are very limited.

I've always used PayPal for my online selling and haven't had any problems but many people here have had issues with them. (I haven't) If anyone has other payment option that you've had personal experiences with, please chime in.

MrT68 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 12:05 PM

1) When it comes to publishing...I am already publishing worksheets as a .pdf using word. (I just save as a .pdf) Here is an example:

http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/33f012e3df.pdf

Would I be able to publish an entire book in the same way?

2) So lets say I have published an ebook and want to offer it for sale on my squidoo website. How would this work? Do they send me an email and after I have confirmed their payment I send them the file they bought? Or is their a way to easily make it automated?

Thanks for the help.

lisa · #4 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 01:54 PM

Yes, and what's cool is with Adobe you can create your book in HTML format so it's structured like a web page. For example when you have a hyperlink that says "Next Page" that goes to the next page of your e-book (which is really another HTML file) then Adobe will automatically pick that up and make the hyperlink go to the next PDF page. So it makes turning HTML pages into a book very easy.

So what I did was created my book in HTML first and stored all the images and HTML files in one folder. I linked the pages together using basic hyperlinks. Then when I told Adobe to create the book it linked everything together, added the images, etc.

As far as PayPal goes...

I don't know how to do set it up (you'll have to read the PayPal FAQ's) but I know there's a way to automate it because I've bought items with PayPal from other sites and when my payment went through the download link was on the confirmation page. That way you don't have to manually send it.

guzie · #5 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 08:03 PM

I created my first ebook using a PDF program called ewriterpro. The cost for this program was zero.

Actually I am the process of publishing several ebooks right now. It works great for me. Where can u get it? Just type in your favorite search engine " ewriterpro". It works just as good or better than any PDF publishing software free or paid!

Paul Guzman

MrT68 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 09:24 PM

Did you sell it or are you giving it away for free?

guzie · #7 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrT68

Did you sell it or are you giving it away for free?

Actually I am working on an ebook about southwestern gardening, which is where my real knowledge is at. Should be done hopefully in 2-4 weeks. I will be able to market it online and to my subscriber list.

I also have a FREE PDF ebook on how I made my website successful and how I made a large subscriber list that I can now market too.

[Text removed. Not allowed to direct people to visit specific pages on your site.]

Hopefully I did not break any rules here...Please strike out anything that needs to be stricken out moderators.

redstone · #8 (**permalink**) 02-14-2008, 12:38 AM

that was some good info thank's

Lajocar · #9 (**permalink**) 04-07-2008, 12:17 AM

Good info guys.

I agree that PDF is the way to go. Very simple to convert a MS Word Document to PDF.

So you type e-book in MS Word and then convert it to PDF

WB Sponsors