Ebooks are powerful marketing and sales tools. You have taken your knowledge and skills and put in writing a training or inspiration for your audience. Some ebooks are leads for sales and other times they are the sale. Either way, since they live on the internet, there needs to be a process to upload and distribute them to your prospects or customers.

Here are four ways to showcase and market your ebook:

1. Lead Magnet. When you request people to subscribe to your email program, it often helps to encourage sign-ups with a freebie, bribe, or gift, whatever you want to call it. Your ebook is something of value that you want to give away for free that teaches on a specific topic and creates credibility for yourself. You can create your ebook in word and save it as a PDF.  Your PDF needs to have a place to live, so we suggest you use your email platform ( if it can host PDFs), Google Docs, or Amazon Web Service (AWS). While AWS is the most secure, it is a cost based service. Whatever email platform you use, a link to your PDF can be attached to the thank you email. As soon as someone subscribes to your email list or newsletter, they will immediately be able to download your ebook.
2. Gift Give-away. When you are a speaker at a conference, workshop, webinar, wouldn’t it be awesome to offer your eBook as your Call to Action (parting gift). If they would like your eBook, all they have to do is give you their email address. That’s one way to capture their contact information. If you are selling your eBook on your website or Amazon, you can provide a special coupon with a limited time offer. More on this later.
3. Website Sales. You can create a website landing page where you can host the eBook(s) and a link to pay for it.  This requires a little work to create and you will have to do your own advertising to get people to your website.
4. Sell on a third-party platform. Amazon or iBook’s are the most common place to sell your ebook. The added advantage is this method of distributin your ebook prevents other people from sharing your content. When deciding between iBooks and Amazon, take the time to research which one will pay you the best royalties. The biggests limitation of iBook is that you are knocking out all Windows, Android, & Kindle device users. Amazon tends to be the most popular way to distribute ebooks because of it’s popularity and ability to market globally.

Here are a few hints on creating your eBook for Amazon that you may have overlooked that are worth considering:

Font choices – Using one font is best. Standards are Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier.

Hyperlinks – Make sure they are preserved in your ebook prior to saving and uploading.

Page Numbering – Don’t number your pages as they will be automatically numbered depending on the device read on.

Graphics – Use your own or royalty free. Don’t get sued for using someone else’s graphics.

Cover – Make it dazzle. People really do judge a book by its cover. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words. Use as few words as possible with title and author name. You also want to make sure your cover will still look good when its reduced to a thumbnail.

Last thoughts:

 If you decide to use Amazon, using Kindle Direct Publishing is the best choice. KDP helps you create and design your eBook Amazon’s software. You can also upload your own PDF. Kindle can still help you create a cover even if you have created your ebook prior.

If you are selling or giving away your ebook, you will want to blast the word out. You can have links to where to find your ebook. Post details on your website, social media, or include links in your emails. Offer discounts or free for limited time frames. Lastly, you can bundle the purchase with a course.

Whether you want to make money with your ebook or use it to help sell your other products or services, it will help build your credibility. Hopefully you have now learned some new ideas to make your ebook an even greater success.

While I am currently on vacation, traipsing around the Highlands of Scotland, I am still learning.  Just like I love podcasts, I sure hope you enjoyed reading my previous post on that topic, I also love e-books.  For this three-week adventure, I decided to leave my computer at home and just take my iPad.  To make it a little bit easier on myself, I also brought along an Apple wireless keyboard, to type my blog posts.

At the Seattle/Tacoma airport, where I boarded my flight to Glasgow, I saw a sign that attracted my attention. To be honest with you, since I am a huge book nerd, it doesn’t take much to get me to notice anything advertising free books!

 

So there I was, with the ability to download a free e-book to take with me.  Better yet, I didn’t even need a library card to take advantage of the free offer.  Instead, I was given the option to sign up for a free two-day pass.  I was allowed to download 3 books and for 14 days. Sweet!

So I quickly browsed their catalog and found 3 books I’d been wanting to read and made my choice. The only extra thing I had to do was download the Overdrive app onto my iPad to read the e-books.  Seeing as how the app is free, and the Seattle airport has free WI-Fi, this wasn’t a hardship in the least.  Once I boarded the plane, I was able to spend 9 hours of down-time catching up on my reading, instead of watching movies or just sleeping.  How awesome is that?

Now of course, being an avid reader, I already have a slew of great books in the Kindle app of my iPad.  Which means that I am never without a great book at my fingertips. While Kindle books are relatively in-expensive, they are not free.  Because I am a “Bootstrap Entrepreneur” I don’t have access to all the business books I’d like.  However, recently, I found out that there’s a way to borrow other people’s Kindle books.  Wow, I think this must be the best kept secret ever.

So how does Kindle book borrowing work?  Here’s the process:

Step 1

• To borrow an e-book from a Kindle owner, they first have to lend it to you.
• This means the Kindle book owner has to go to: “amazon.com/mycd” and go to the e-book they are willing to lend you.
• From there, they can access the “Manage Your Content and Devices” section of their account.

Step 2

• Next, they lender clicks on the “Action” box right next to the title of the e-book, which is denoted by an ellipsis.
• From there, they click on “Loan this title.”
• If the option is not available, this means that the book is not eligible for lending.

Step 3

• If the book is eligible for lending, they will type in some information (ex. required fields are the recipient’s email address and the name of the lender).
• The e-mail address should be the recipient’s personal one and NOT their Kindle address.
• Once the lender has filled out the fields, they click the “Send now” tab.

Step 4

• Once the book has been sent, check your email and open the message. In the email body, click on the tab that says “Get your loaned book now.”
• You will be prompted to sign into your Kindle Account and pick a device to send the borrowed book to, then click on the “Accept Loaned Book” button.

Step 5

• To later return the e-book to the lender, go to “Manage Your Content and Devices” via the “amazon.com/mycd” address.
• Next, to the title of the book you’re returning under the “Your Content” tab, check the box under “Select” then click on the “Action” box.  From the pop-up menu, select “Return this book.” Confirm the return by clicking “Yes.”

Note, just a few things you need to know:

• Books only can be borrowed once via the same account.  You can’t just return the lent book and then borrow it again over and over.
• The owner of the book won’t be able to read a book while it is being borrowed by another user.

So, whether you want to take advantage of free e-books from a public library, or borrow a Kindle book from a friend, it’s nice to know you can still be learning on the go.  E-books are a great way to carry a ton of good books with you and yet still travel light.  For the trip I am currently on, I am away for 3 weeks and limited to nothing more than one carry-on sized suitcase and a day-pack.  So there really wasn’t really room for more than one hard copy book.  Which is why I am glad I have the Overdrive app and Kindle app on my iPad.  If I run out of reading material before my vacation ends… I might just ask my business partner, Janet, to lend me one of her Kindle books.