How to sell eBooks and make money: Tips and examples

Once you’ve wrapped up your research and writing for the eBook, it’s time to start reaping the rewards and making money by selling your masterpiece.

eBooks are one most profitable digital products to sell online! But to make it a successful business, you need to have the right business strategy.

In this guide, we will show you how to sell eBooks online the right way. Or you could watch this one-minute video to get some quick tips to get more eBook downloads:

Is it profitable to sell eBooks online?

If you’re an expert in your niche, writing and selling eBooks is a great way to monetize your expertise. You can put your expert views into paper, design it into a downloadable format, and put it up for sale. It’s the best product you can create out of your skills.

If you’re wondering if people would bother spending money on eBooks when lots of free content are available on the internet — yes, people still buy eBooks.

For one reason, most learners look for fluff-free, genuine content that is valuable to them. So, if you’re able to convince them of your expertise, you can successfully sell eBooks online.

Another benefit of selling eBooks online is that it’s cost-effective and is a product that has high-profit margins. It also requires minimal effort and you can manage the entire production of an eBook by yourself.

Related read: High-profit margin products to sell online (2023)

5 steps to follow to sell your eBooks online

Here are the 5 most basic steps to start selling your eBook and making money:

1. Know your target buyer
2. Get your eBook ready for sale
3. Choose a platform to sell your eBook
4. Set the right price
5. Promote your eBook on social media

Know your target buyer

It is important to conduct proper market research before deciding to sell your eBook. For example, the advertisement of an eBook dealing with children’s nutrition would gain zero traction on a business or banking website.

Keep your target buyer in mind when you market your eBook. Understand your buyer persona, and then write the content of the eBook keeping them in mind.

How Instamojo does it:

When our content team writes eBooks, we take a few steps back to keep in mind WHO WE WRITE FOR! Instamojo caters to small businesses, solo entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to set up a store online!

Our audience usually gets their first sale from social media. These are impulse buyers who see a product, like it and then buy it! But what about retaining these buyers for the long term?

So, it would make sense to write our eBooks keeping this audience in mind, right? Take a look at our most recent eBook for proof.

See how we have also uploaded the content page so that the reader knows EXACTLY what they are signing up for!

Want to sell eBooks online with your own eCommerce store? Sign up on Instamojo for free and start selling easily.

Get your eBook ready for sale

Once you’ve put together the content of your eBook, you’ll need to prepare it for business. Here are some additional steps you should follow before getting it out for sale.

1. Formatting

Make sure your content is presented in a pleasing and easily-digestible manner. The ideal font size for eBooks is font sizes 11 or larger.

Use reasonable fonts like Verdana or Arial. Indent paragraphs appropriately and keep a decent line-paragraph spacing. Also, keep the content scannable and skimmable so that readers can get the gist easily.

These are the basic formatting techniques to follow for your eBook.

2. Branding and cover design

Write about yourself or your brand and make put up logos in strategic positions.

An attractive cover design is also important for better eBook sales. You can design one yourself by using tools like Canva or get it done by a freelance graphic designer.

Here’s a cover design of an eBook from the Instamojo store:

3. Promote the eBook with a teaser

How would you attract and convince your buyer to buy your eBook?

This task would be simple if you let the prospective buyer read the preface or the first few pages of the book. You could even have the buyer sneak a peek into interesting sections of the book.

How Instamojo does it:

Our idea of a preview is to work really hard on the design of the eBook! If our reader is looking for the best lead-generation techniques for their marketing strategy, we make sure our design speaks volumes about the content that follows.

See how we used quirky wordplay to get more attention?

Set the right price 

The price of your eBook can be one of the major factors that affect its sale. It is necessary to price it right.

How you price your eBook also depends on how established or well-known you are as an eBook writer. This is determined by the sale and popularity of your previous eBooks.

Simply put, it all boils down to how much time, money and resources you invested into the eBook. to price it right, you need to know how much your audience is willing to pay! 

We suggest pricing your eBooks competitively if you are new in this industry. If you are a popular writer, chances are people would be willing to pay a higher price to read your eBook.

Got a doubt? Ask GC Mouli:

GC Mouli is an engineer by day and a blogger by night! He is on a mission to retell the story of Ponniyin Selvan (English: Son of Cauvery) and is selling the eBook on Instamojo for Rs. 100. GC Mouli has finished refurbishing and translating the first volume of the 5 volume series of Ponniyin Selvan and has uploaded the eBook for readers on Instamojo.

Find out how he sells his eBooks here 

Spread the word using social media and email

It is an absolute must for every business to have an online presence these days.  Social media and email are two great options for advertising your eBook.

Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook

Use the power of the social media channels above to promote and spread the word about your eBook, even when you are in the writing process. It generates a buzz and you can gather interesting content from your readers too.

For example: Here’s how you can promote your eBook via twitter.

And it is live on @instamojo as well (for Indian readers)https://t.co/d6VMSTDLib

PDF is formatted for A5 size – for ease of reading on kindle/tablets. #PonniyinSelvan #SonofCauvery #Ebook #PDF

(Appreciate the RTs 🙏 and for supporting this amateur author). https://t.co/bZlM40t8bD

— g_c_mouli (@gcmouli) July 1, 2020

Blogging 

Mention your eBook via a blog. A blog can not exceed a certain number of words (2000 words is the limit!), but if your readers are keen to know more, simply link them to the eBook!

Related read: How to use a blog to increase your sales

Email

Send your readers an email using Mailchimp, SendInBlue or GSuite with a link to the eBook. If you need to get your reader’s emails, here are a few lead-generation tips and tricks that will help you.

6. Choose a platform to sell eBooks online 

Convincing the buyer to make an online payment could be the trickiest part of selling online, especially if it isn’t a physical product. Having your own online store can help build trust with your customers and get you more sales.

Ahem, like us.

With Instamojo, you can not just offer the buyer a safe shopping experience but also allow them to use any mode of payment they choose to use. And you can get started in less than minutes.

Which platform is best to sell eBooks online? 

There are platforms that allow creators to sell digital products online, such as Instamojo, Gumroad and Sellfy. You can sign up on these platforms, create a profile, and upload your eBook.

Sell eBooks on Instamojo 

In 2 steps:

1. Sign up on Instamojo
2. Head to your Dashboard, click on ‘Add Product’ and select ‘Digital Products’. Fill in all the details of your eBook and upload the file.

Super simple, right? Over 1000s’s of sellers found out how to sell eBooks using Instamojo.

You can easily collect orders and payments. With marketing tools, you can host campaigns and manage them easily under one roof. You can also get analytics of sales and store visits, which you can use to understand how well your business is doing and make informed decisions.

FAQS 

How much money can you make selling eBooks online? 

The amount of money you can make selling eBooks online depends on various factors such as the quality of your content, the price you choose to set for your eBook, and the number of active customers you have. To maximize profits, it is important to create a well-crafted eBook that appeals to potential customers, find the right pricing structure that encourages sales without undervaluing

What type of eBook sells the most? 

Some popular types of eBooks include self-help books, educational guides, and fiction books that capitalize on a current trend or subject matter. Additionally, nonfiction eBooks related to business and finance tend to be popular among readers.

How do I start an eBook? 

To start an eBook, it is important to have a clear idea of what type of content you want to create. Once you have decided on the topic and title for your book, begin researching the subject and gathering relevant information that will be useful in your writing. You should also consider the formatting of your eBook, including font size, page margins, and images or graphics used to enhance the text. Finally, create an outline that will guide you through the writing process and help you stay organized. Once your eBook is complete, you can upload it to e-commerce sites or Amazon Kindle for sale.

How do I get people to buy my ebook?

Sell ebooks online