How do I get a self published ebook out there?

[Girard]

Can you sell it? Do you need to create your own website? New to this stuff and have a book ready to go want to turn it into an EBook.
I need direction!!!

[nancymomkids]

I am a published writer of a book. I have about 5 short stories published.

I am presently selling on ebay e-articles I have written. Since I know quite a bit about the subject of African violets and their family, I wrote about 10 articles--about 3,000 words each. I advertise these on ebay in a place where African violet lovers congregate. Prices are kept very low because people just won't spend money on the printed word.

I have sold each of the articles between 3-10 times each so the change does add up even after ebay and paypal fees.

I think that is the only way you will be able to sell an e-book until you have an established name.

Nancy

[akaMaryn]

Man, I'm nothing but bad news at YA today. My advance apologies.

Self-published fiction books do poorly on ebay, amazon, the publisher’s website, and the author’s own website. (Non-fiction can do better, enough for the author to break even if s/he promotes the hell out of it.)

Marketing a pay-to-publish book is damned difficult. Many of the avenues open to traditionally published authors are not available. Chain bookstores won't host signings or carry copies (although they will order them for customers). Newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio don't want your press releases and won't do interviews. The library system won't accept free copies. Writing- or book-related conventions won’t let you set up a sales or autograph table, don’t want you on their author panels, and forbid you giving away promotional material.

The author's blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other electronic self-promotion efforts seem to have little effect in terms of increased sales.

About the only marketing I've seen have any effect for self-published authors is active participation at forums and chats dealing with the subject of your book, whether it's non-fiction about model railroads or fiction about a runaway boy. Find your niche market and determine where online they hang out. Become a regular, and talkative. Take care to antagonize nobody.

Some sites may allow you to discuss your book *if someone asks about it* (but will ban you for bringing it up more than once). Some may allow a link to a point of sale in your profile, or to your blog or web-page which in turn links to a point of sale.

You'll sell a few more copies than you might have, but overall, like most self-published books, regardless of quality, total sales will probably remain well below 100 copies. More often, the number hovers somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of your total number of friends and family members. This compares pretty unfavorably to the thousands of copies a moderately-selling book from a conventional publisher can anticipate.

I’m sorry not to be able to offer much real hope for promotion, but I figured you’d rather hear the truth than sugar-coated lies which might cause you to waste your time or money.