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I also publish physical books myself. Margins are 4-5x higher than with publisher. For example: I make a €12 profit on a €20 physical book when self-publishing and €3 with a publisher.
I use a publisher for a book about houseplants because I thought this would sell for years and I'm not interested in doing marketing for all these years. Also, this specific publisher uses a 50/50 deal on profits (which still makes only €3,50 for a book with selling price of €17).
In the Netherlands there still is a very large number of people buying physical books. For example my book on airfare sold 6000 now, of which 4000 physical books and 2000 e-books.
Why e-books?
- increase your margin on books (can be almost 100%)
- no returns or storage / fulfilment agency needed
- easy to publish
Why physical books?
- people are owning something physical
- increases credibility ('this guy made a book')
- paper books are way cooler
Why self-publishing?
- increase margins
- autonomy
- if you have an audience, you MUST self-publish, otherwise you're only helping the publisher make money
Why use publisher?
- to get your books in book stores
- to do marketing (they don't, really, it sucks)
- to get help designing, editing, selling, promoting, pr
Sorry for the incoherent answer. This is all from the top of my head. Maybe I should write a self-published e-book on how to write and publish a book.
1) My first e-book I made without posting anything, then announced, published and sold. For my most popular book (about finding cheap airfare) I just told the world 'hey, I'm writing this book, please pre-order to support me'. 900 people pre-ordered.
2) Asked on Twitter what people would want to pay. Then ignored it and asked a higher price (for the airfare book). Other prices depending on my popularity and popularity of subject.
3) My first e-books I sold with woocommerce. Current ones through Shopify, linked to my websites (such as thuisblijvenisduurder.com). The ones I made with a publisher, are selling on all places where one can buy books.
4) For the airfare book, I asked a professional cover designer to design the cover. The actual book I designed myself in Indesign. My first e-books (in 2012) I designed myself. The ones I made with a publisher were designed by a designer.
5) Depends on the topic, I guess. These are the book titles of my books:
- Billen (translated: 'buttocks') --> A book about how to train your ass (yes, published in 2012)
- 10 reasons you don't lose weight (this was only 40 pages and sold for €7)
- Eat cake have a sixpack (went with a publisher, sold for €12)
- Staying home is more expensive (self-published, e-book was €20, lower price after two years)
- Handbook for people who always kill their house plants (with publisher, sold for €12)
- Can we fly again? (self-published, €9)
6) Nothing helpful comes to mind.
Great insights, thanks! Another question, since you've gone through it:
Self-published ebook vs. real publisher doing physical books? E.g. when to go for what, what's ultimately better in your opinion, how much people still want physical books?
I also publish physical books myself. Margins are 4-5x higher than with publisher. For example: I make a €12 profit on a €20 physical book when self-publishing and €3 with a publisher.
I use a publisher for a book about houseplants because I thought this would sell for years and I'm not interested in doing marketing for all these years. Also, this specific publisher uses a 50/50 deal on profits (which still makes only €3,50 for a book with selling price of €17).
In the Netherlands there still is a very large number of people buying physical books. For example my book on airfare sold 6000 now, of which 4000 physical books and 2000 e-books.
Why e-books?
- increase your margin on books (can be almost 100%)
- no returns or storage / fulfilment agency needed
- easy to publish
Why physical books?
- people are owning something physical
- increases credibility ('this guy made a book')
- paper books are way cooler
Why self-publishing?
- increase margins
- autonomy
- if you have an audience, you MUST self-publish, otherwise you're only helping the publisher make money
Why use publisher?
- to get your books in book stores
- to do marketing (they don't, really, it sucks)
- to get help designing, editing, selling, promoting, pr
Sorry for the incoherent answer. This is all from the top of my head. Maybe I should write a self-published e-book on how to write and publish a book.
Hi! I have been selling e-books for ten years now. Not that I can make a living out of it (although some books sold 5000+ copies). Ask me anything and I will try to help you as best as possible.
I know this might be too simple, but I prefer to do the bare minimum of legal texts and just offer service like a real human because I absolutely hate to call / email services and jump through hoops and talk to robots to get stuff done.
I just wrote simple text on a Google Doc for people who use my site www.yelmair.com as well as people who buy my books (e-books and physical products):
Terms and Conditions
Product names and trade names
Jelmer de Boer
[address]
Chamber of Commerce number: XXXXXX
Trading under the names
Jelmer de Boer
Thuisblijven is duurder
Yelmair
Returns
If you have bought something that did not meet your expectations, you can return it within a reasonable period (let's agree on a month) to:
[address]
stating your name and order number.
If you also email me at [email address] stating that you have returned, you will get your money back.
Digital goods
E-books cannot be returned and neither can memberships, but you can always email to [email address] and you will usually get your money back if you have a good reason.
I know this might be too simple, but I prefer to do the bare minimum of legal texts and just offer service like a real human because I absolutely hate to call / email services and jump through hoops and talk to robots to get stuff done.
Hi Buck! You have great name, header image and job!
I've created a bunch of landing pages with carrd.co also. Great, cheap and easy tool. E.g. thuisblijvenisduurder.com, plantenboek.nl and peenuien.nl
Hi Helen, I'd like to help. My daughter is 3 months old and I am still building stuff.
Sounds cool and very logical. Maybe users can be able to change project into product once it's (an instance, item or membership) sold?
Marc: please no feature requests
Me: ok
Haha. No I like the idea of having different "types" of projects.
For example a project could be "business" or "hobby". And that would let you filter WIP so that you can see everybody's hobbies haha. Might be kinda fun.