Writing a book has always been one of the most difficult things for creative minds. Today, although eBooks have started to significantly change the way people read, the challenges that an author has to face are really quite similar. The only difference is that today, you, as an eBook author, will have to face challenges that are digital in nature, because human activity is increasingly going online.
While there are many significant advantages to publishing your ebook online when compared to traditional physical retail, this post will be focused more on the mistakes that ebook authors tend to make and issues that they need to overcome in order to find success
Here is our list of the top 4 challenges that you, as a first time author, may have to face when selling your debut eBook:
1. Overwhelming competition
While the web offers the opportunity to sell your eBook to a global audience, enabling you to easily reach millions of potential customers, this opportunity works both ways. While your audience reach does massively improve, you are also exposed to global competition as well. If you’re not already a well-known author, a highly crowded and competitive market can cause your book to get lost in the crowd.
You can overcome this challenge by:
- Doing thorough research on your competitors. This will help you to better understand how you should approach your target market.
- Try to see if there’s something common in those books. By this, you will know what you should avoid and how you can make your own eBook unique.
- Knowing what information is available online. If your book deals with the same ideas that can be found be found easily online (and possibly for free) , there is a lower chance that your eBook will become successful. Your eBook should focus on providing information or insight that is not easily available or well known.
2. Not attracting the right crowd
Or worse, not attracting any buyers at all! While the overwhelming competition that you will face is definitely one of the biggest causes of losing prospective customers, some reasons can stem from your eBook itself.
These are some of the possible issues that hold back your book and keep it from being a bestseller:
- The cover image, caption, title, and other such elements are too simple or unattractive. Consult an expert in these matters to make sure that you have a very attractive cover paired with a catchy title.
- The content is too scattered, shallow, or simply boring. Prospective buyers who read your book’s preview will be quickly put-off if you’re unable to effectively engage them. If you’re not sure how to present your ideas in a very interesting and engaging way, you can consider hiring an expert to do the writing for you.
- Your book doesn’t really focus on attracting a particular group. Unless the theme of your book is a very general one, you need to make sure that your book appeals to your target crowd.
3. Not investing enough resources on marketing
Investing doesn’t simply mean spending money. It also includes time, and most importantly, effort. If you want your eBook to be a success, then you need to have a very clever marketing strategy in place. And a good marketing strategy rarely comes cheap. If you want to see results, you’ll have to take up your marketing very proactively and make sure that you’re leaving no stone unturned in promoting your book and doing everything you can to make it successful.
4. Keeping the eBook alive in the minds of people
An author’s source of income depends on recurring sales. This means that even though you may create a respectable amount of publicity when you launch your eBook, you cannot afford to cast away your marketing efforts completely, even after launch! The following are some of the ways in which authors successfully keep their books alive in the minds of people.
- Responding to fans is very important. Fans often send mails, posts, messages and others to their authors. It’s important that you address as many of these avenues as possible to better engage with your audience.
- Have a social media page/account for your eBook. If you’re unable to handle the account yourself, we can help.
- Give interviews about your book in popular magazines and papers.
Featured image source- Pixabay