There are two important reasons why for some publishers direct-to-reader sales are the only viable means of selling their eBook information products.
- To maintain control over pricing (and therefore margin).
- To retain access to customer information.
Most of today’s major online eBook stores require publishers to price their books below $10 to receive the highest royalty rate—generally 65% or 70% of selling price. Above $10 the royalty drops significantly, as low as 35%. The margins at this level are economically untenable for publishers used to selling their information products for more than $10.
Using a retailer to sell your eBooks also means you won’t receive any information about the purchaser. This too is unacceptable for businesses used to upselling or cross-marketing their other products and services.
Opportunity and the New Reality
The reality is that online information marketing platforms like Amazon’s are just too large for publishers to ignore. It is also important to note that consumers are becoming increasing used to reading non-PDF eBooks—the Kindle, Nook and iBooks variety that are as readable on a Smartphone screen as they are on a 24″ monitor.
SellBox works with publishers to help them adapt to and leverage these new realities. Some of the ways we can help you include:
- Designing and adapting PDF-formatted eBooks as Kindle and EPUB formatted eBooks.
- Creating new information products to sell in the major online bookstores that do not cannibalize existing high-value information products sold from your website.
- Implementing new direct-to-reader eBooks sales platforms.
- Developing new marketing strategies that help cross-promote information products and/or the publisher.
- Leveraging the online bookstores as a discovery or marketing platform.
- Navigating the waters of digital piracy and DRM-digital rights management.
SellBox expertise combines our in-dept knowledge of consumer eBook technology with online information product marketing best practices to help professional and business-to-business publishers succeed.
Call us today for a free consultation about your publishing objectives.
