The thing I love about eBooks is the low overhead. You don't need a publisher or printing service or warehouse or agent or even a store to stock your book. It is the essence of free speech and American commerce! That's not to say there aren't ANY costs...there are. But you can overcome them in the sheer volume that the internet makes available to you.
For example:
Say you have an idea to publish a book about flowers. You love flowers and you've got some interesting background on your experience that you'd like to sell to others.
You get out your word processor and you complete about 30 pages of material. After you finish it, you compile it and begin to sell it on your website for $10.00.
Here are some average figures for the things you need to make everything happen:
1. You need a word processor or HTML program. Many people use Microsoft's Office programs, which can cost upwards of $200.00...but I'm acting on the assumption that most of you already have a copy that came with your computer when you purchased it. Even if you don't, there's a FREE version of an open-sourced Office-like program available that does everything MS Office does, and then some. It even includes a PDF Export function so you can create PDF files. You can download the free program at OpenOffice.org.
2. You need a website. While there are lots of free options on websites, I suggest you get your own domain registered website for several reasons. Many payment processing services will not allow you to sell products on free websites. Average cost for a nicely featured domain registration and web hosting service varies...but remember, you get what you pay for most of the time. For the most features and best service, I'm estimating you'll spend about $150 dollars a year...or about $13 dollars a month.
3. Hire a payment processor. Clickbank is a good one for re-sellers, but you'll have to pay a one-time fee of $49.95 for establishing a seller account. In addition, check on the other service charges that the people you're working with have...like return fees, charge back fees, and the like. Read and re-read the fine print on all prospective payment handlers. Find answers to all your questions. How much do they charge to handle each payment? How do they handle fraudulent purchases? Returns and complaints?
4. Other software. Get yourself a good eBook compiler to prepare your eBook. I paid about $69.95 for my copy of Ebook Maestro Pro...it's easy to use, full functioned, and has a lot of templates and tutorials to make it even better. It offers you the option of having your books activated through registration keys on-line or any number of ways to protect your product from being copied or "stolen"...
5. Promotion and advertising. Just having a website isn't enough in most cases, so you've got to get the word out. You can establish a Google Adwords account and pay anywhere from $5-50 dollars a day depending how well you know your keywords and much you're willing to spend. Currently, I spend about $7 dollars a day promoting not only my products, but other affiliate websites. I earn about $75 dollars a day on click-throughs and purchases from those affiliate products, so my costs are neglible. But just getting started, you'll find your costs significantly higher...especially if you're only promoting your one website and your own product. Conservatively, we'll estimate it at $150 dollars per year...which sounds like a lot, but considering you'll spend that much on just 1 television commercial on 1 station in 1 town, it ain't bad.
6. Copyrighting. This can be a bit confusing. While there are no costs to copyright a work, there is a fee for "registering" a copyright...and you really only have to do that if you allege copyright infringement should someone try to steal your book. To register a copyright costs $45 dollars with the US Library of Congress Copyright Office. I consider it an optional fee.
So here's where we stand for that $10 dollar eBook you are selling...
$150 dollars for the website per year
$70 for the eBook compiler (one time charge)
$50 for the payment processing (one time fee)
$150 average year 1 Google Adwords cost
optional $45 dollar copyright registration.
$420 in guestimated total pre-sell costs.
Now if your website is perfect, you've got a great book, and you get a lot of traffic...you've hit the gold mine. You'll only need to sell 42-copies of your book to break even. I know of some who sell that many in a day!
But we're being conservative in our estimates, right?
Is 3-copies a day reasonable? That's 1100 copies a year, $10,000 dollars or so
Okay...too much, how about 3-copies a week? That's still 150 in a year, $1,500 dollars
And that's just for a $10 dollar eBook...most good ones are priced at upwards of $30 dollars. No agents, no rejection letters by publishers, no book tours, no book signings, no printing costs, no book stores to solicit that'll even carry your book, none of what ordinary authors have to go through just to get one book published a year.
You can sell your eBooks on your own website, you can sell them on eBay, or any number of places.
Start with a good idea targeted at a unserviced niche; write a good book; market it properly with a good website...and you can cash in on eBook marketing.
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