The Shocking Truth About E-Books
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by Joe Vitale Last August the New York Times announced that e-books were not selling. A reporter wrote, "The main advantage of electronic books appears to be that they gather no dust. Almost no one is buying. Publishers and online bookstores say only the very few best-selling electronic editions have sold more than a thousand copies, and most sell far fewer." Is that true? I've learned to weigh everything the media tells us with more than a grain of salt. As the author of numerous traditionally published books, as well as the author of several popular e-books, I'm here to tell you that e-books are selling and selling far better, in many cases, than most traditional books. Here's just a little proof:
My own "Hypnotic" series of e-books, all published by Aesop Marketing, have broken sales records and left my printed books in the dust: "Hypnotic Writing" has sold in the tens of thousands---at $29.95 each---for more than two years now; My follow-up book "Advanced Hypnotic Writing," has sold well into the thousands; and the recent work by myself and Larry Dotson, "The Hypnotic Writing Swipe File," came out of the gate with a bang---selling at the whopping price of $197 a copy. And keep in mind that these e-books have no printing or shipping costs associated with them. They are "invisible" books. You don't have to warehouse them, either. When they sell for $29.95 or $197, that's virtually all profit. (A very nice feeling.) I don't blame you if you are skeptical. I was, too, at first. Mark Joyner, CEO of Aesop Marketing, begged me for two years---years!---to give him a work of mine that he could release as an e-book. I'm a book lover and never thought anyone would EVER buy an ebook. (So much for me being a futurist.) But apparently there is an entire world out there---or ON line---that don't care for printed books or big bookstores, but instead love instant information delivered with a click. My "Hypnotic Writing" sold hundreds of copies within 24 hours. I'm now a believer in e-books. They've enabled me to live in the Texas Hill Country, drive a BMW Z3 hot-rod, own a pool, and travel as a I please. My friend David Garfinkel grew up in the traditional publishing world and in fact worked for McGraw-Hill, the world's largest publisher of business information. He didn't give e-books much thought either until he published a couple of them himself. His most recent one is titled, "Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich." David told me, "I'm astonished by the results. I can honestly say my life has undergone quantum changes for the better in many ways since my first e-book hit the Internet a year and a half ago." So what's with the New York Times? My hunch is that they are asking traditional publishers about their e-books sales. Well, traditional publishers don't know beans about marketing. Never have. They can't sell their printed books, so how can you expect them to sell their e-books? To give you an example, one of my recent books is "There's A Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum's Secrets to Business Success." AMACOM, a division of the American Management Association, published it. I got national radio, print and TV coverage for that book. A&E Biography created a new special on the life of Barnum and at the end of it the host held up one book---and only one book---and basically urged people to get it to understand Barnum as a businessman. That was MY book. Sales skyrocketed. My book became an overnight bestseller at amazon. Yet what did my publisher do? They let the book go out of print. I bought their leftover inventory. The books are in my garage. I never received one single royalty check. You can now only get the printed book through me---though, ironically, the e-book version of it remains for sale online. There's more. My most recent book is titled "Spiritual Marketing." I released it as an e-book through www.1stbooks.com, as well as in paperback and hardcover formats through www.amazon.com. Which sells the best? The e-book version! (Paper is second and hardcover last.) Again, what is the media trying to tell us when they forecast gloom for ebooks? Remember that the media focuses on the negative. Good news isn't generally considered news-worthy, to them. Finally, here's the moral of this story: Don't let the media talk you out of releasing your own e-book. As long as you have solid information that a specific group of people would enjoy, you can write an ebook and let that target group know about it. Even if you only sold a few hundred copies, you would receive PURE PASSIVE INCOME---which no traditional publisher---including the New York Times---can promise or deliver. Joe Vitale is the co-author of the new e-book, "How to Write Your Own Outrageously Successful E-Book---in just 7 days!" For complete details, see http://www.7dayebook.com
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