13 Reasons You Should Take Off Your Sissy Pants & Self-Publish

eBooks are MAKING A COME 👏 BACK 👏.

So is blogging (mark my stinky little pointy words. 👀)

Which makes all of us very happy, because eBooks are only the best digital product you can ever sell and make.

Want proof?

BEHOLD:

• They’re tiny and cute
• You can sell ‘em 24/7
• People like reading! (I KNOW, RIGHT?)
• You don’t need to record yourself awkwardly on camera 6,000 times in a row
• You can sell ‘em for $25 bucks and it’s an easy ‘YES’
• $25 x 300 sales/month = $7,500/month = $90,000/year
• You can (finally) fulfill your lifelong dreams of smugly putting the words “author” in all your bios
• They make you look like a GIANT, WINNING BADASS (because what kind of loser has a book??? None. Which means the trickle down effect will be “more clients” and “more clout” and “more PR.”)
• No one’s gatekeeping you, you don’t need anyone’s permission, or be signed by anyone, or approved of by anyone
• You can publish allllllllllll the books you want
• Customers can instantly download ‘em for that delicious immediate gratification
• And perhaps the best benefit of all: you make it once, and sell it forever ♾️
• Oh wait, there’s another one! You don’t need to physically send anything in the mail (or be tied to one place, with inventory stock piled in your bathroom): customers buy it online, automatically, 24/7, thanks to that glorious little piehole called technology.

Ahhhhhhh. eBooks really don’t get the credit they deserve.

But, I predict that with the massive shift we’re seeing back to slow living, slow reading, slow making, and slow experiences, eBooks are going to be a hot commodity again—especially as everyone starts to get course + video + podcast + community exhaustion.

Anything exhausting is automatically ON THE DO-NOT-DO LIST.

So, while most technical things you can Google or ask ChatGPT (like what kind of software to use or how to make a cover or how many words or what topics sell best), I thought I’d do a post on one very critical mistake you can *only* learn from experience.

Hopefully this’ll shave years off your learning curve, get you earning money faster, help you have fun with it, and help you not make a goofy dumb amateur error that’ll make you look like a tool. (Optimistic?! I thought so!)

LET US ENTER OUR EBOOK ERA. 📖

So! What’s the one thing that you should never, ever do when making & selling an eBook?!

Are you ready for my biggest, worst eBook-selling faux pas that will cripple your sales? The kind of thing that amateur self-publishers do when they put their eBook online? The kind of thing that new novelists do, who aren’t Emily Henry?!

It’s definitely kind of thing you don’t know you don’t know if you’ve never done it—which is why we’re going to talk about it.

The #1 critical mistake you can make when writing & selling ebooks is this gem of a hairy fairy screw-up right here:

Not giving anyone a damn good reason to buy it…now.

“Now” is the most magical word ever, and you need to memorize it.

As much as we’d love to just set it up and then just pick out wallpaper all day while nibbling on blueberry scone, you can’t just put your eBook up on your website and then sit back and wait for sales. Imagine if the makers of Hellman’s Mayonnaise had done that? “Yupppppp, Bertha, made this fantastic new product the world is gonna LOVE! Now just gonna sit back here and let that jar do its thang on this shelf in my basement.”

Nothing’s gonna sell in your basement.

And, sometimes a website can be a digital basement, lol.

What you need to apply is a sales concept called urgency. It’s an annoying word, to be sure, but it’s the #1 difference between “people who sell their stuff successfully online” and “people who wish they were selling their stuff successfully online.”

Because, here’s the scoop a loop: when given the choice, people will always wait.

(Remember that, it’s a golden rule.)

Humans are weird! We’re all really scared! We hesitate all the time! Even on things we actually want!

So, while it would be really, really cool if someone finally did decide to buy your book in the year 2047, that doesn’t exactly help you now.

The key to making hella healthy eBook sales?

Is to make limited-time special companion offers.

What’s a limited-time companion offer?

A promo you run.
Throughout the year.
So people.
Have a reason.
To buy your book.
Now.
Because otherwise.
They won’t get.
The special.
Deal.

And people really hate missing out on things.

Here’s the difference:

1. Buy my book, $14.95.
   
2. Buy my book today, before 11:59pm on Friday, December 24th—and get a 100% free extra book to send to your best friend! (Handy for those late minute Christmas gifts. 😉 Just fill out their email during checkout and we’ll send it over automatically with a gift note attached. 🎁 📝)

The first one tells you.

The second one sells you.

In the first example, we might think to ourselves that we’ll buy the book one we’ve finished the other 20 we haven’t gotten to yet, that we’re trying to be more disciplined, that the book isn’t going anywhere, that we shouldn’t be so slapdash with our money, that you “don’t need another book”—and the million and one things we tell ourselves to guilt ourselves about the things we want.

But, in the second example, I’m giving you a logical reason to buy it now. Logic is important. They already want the book (that’s the job of the cover and description), but wanting something doesn’t always get you over the finish line. Wanting something is not the same as buying something.

Wanting something is emotional, but buying something happens when we can also rationalize the sale.

Yup, we’re emotional creatures—but we also try really hard to be smart.

Give your customers a reason to feel smart. 🖤

Other (mostly free & scalable) things you could offer as a limited-time thing (if they buy a book within X time frame!):

• A free online workshop happening on X date
• An invite to a private AMA (ask me anything) Zoom call
• A backstage behind-the-scenes pass
• A chance to win something awesome with you (like a free service)
• A chance to win something superb (like be entered to win 2 plane tickets to Europe this fall—that has a cost, but think of it as a marketing cost)
• A mini companion e-course that goes beyond the book (and teaches some more advanced ideas)
• Another ebook you have for sale, free
• A companion workbook (but you really gotta make this awesomely useful or else…boring)
• A month free of your community / membership
• A free audio version of the book
• A personal thank-you note from you (only works if you have clout)
• A sticker, patch, or even tee-shirt with a kick-ass slogan (works if your book has a big mission / theme / catchy slogan—one of my favorites is Florence Given’s “Stop Raising Him, He’s Not Your Son.”)
• Tickets to something (even an online event)
• Something you’ve had donated to your cause from OTHER organizations / companies / anyone who would benefit from you promoting the hell out of them all month (this is a great strategy). The more aligned with the book, the better.
• Digital products you’ve had donated to your cause from other creators (who usually would be happy to donate an online course, one of their books, or another digital product, given that the cost to distribute is next to zero).
• A personal shout-out in your newsletter
• Their name printed on your website
• Their name printed as a thank-you right on the sales page (or Amazon page)
• Their name printed in your next book (the name thing works well because people love feeling important…plus, it IS cool!)
• The chance to have one of your *characters* in your next book named after them (obvs for fiction) (and yup, you’d do a live drawing, that would be fun!)
• The chance to have a chapter dedicated to them in your next book, answering one of their “burning questions” (I hate this phrase, and yet, IT’S THE PHRASE.)
• A video of yourself answering a question they submitted with their purchase (and send directly to them)
• A video of yourself doing something TOTALLY WACKY that they can request you do when they purchase (like, for example, “quack like a duck” or “give a shout out to my sister while pretending to be Yoda” or “tell me your most embarrassing moment” - fun, quirky stuff like that. (The quirkier the better, you could even use this as a social series to further promote your book.)
• A free ad slot in your newsletter / on your socials (if they buy X number of books!)
• An imaginary plant named after them on your website (or whatever you sell!)
• The chance to have a (real!) product named after them (like imagine if you had a bakery and sold cookie?! This would be the cutest thing ever.)
• An invite to a private, in-real-life book event / party
• Branded peel and stick tattoos with HILARIOUS slogans (Tattly is so good for this!!!)

Those are just some ideas to get the wheels turning. 🛞 ✅

Things I’d avoid ❌:

• Anything that relies on someone liking you for it to work (because if the stranger buying your book isn’t a fan of yours yet, then why do they care)
• Anything that costs too much to send (pls be mindful of math)
• Anything that will be in a pain in your ass to manually send (be mindful of SANITY)
• Things that aren’t really good enough reasons to buy now (like chintzy digital desktop wallpapers or phone wallpapers promoting your brand…they aren’t compelling enough)

What are some things YOU’D add to the idea list?! (That you should totally save for all of your future promotions.)

What would you *love* to get, as a customer?

Have you done anything like this that worked well in the past?

Have you seen anyone ELSE do anything like this that you loved?

Let me know in the comments! ⬇️