I’ve been reading a a novel called Dingo by Michael Alan Nelson. I’m a few chapters in and love it so far. The unique part of this novel is that the entire thing is published online. You don’t have to pay one cent to read it.
It is nice to dream of the day when we can read any book online if we want to, but the reality is that very few of the big selling writers are going to do it without a viable business model to bring in some money. Plus, you have to worry about people stealing the story and publishing it on their own site. Tricky issues.
I am going to look into various methods of making money with a book that you publish on your website.
1) Tip jar - Nelson has one of these on his website. It’s way down low on the sidebar where most readers probably never venture. It’s a very polite way to beg for money without actually ever looking like you are really ever begging for money. But, if you are going to beg for money, you might as well hold your cup where people can see it. I would have put the donation button at the top and bottom of each chapter that way people can actually see it. Especially at the bottom. If I had just finished a chapter that I really liked and saw the button right there, I would probably click on it before I started hitting the back button on my browser.
2) Tease them - Publish chapters weekly. Make them drool. Either from the start or about halfway through, announce that you are self-publishing the book and give them a way to buy the paper version. The key to this option is to never put the end of the book online. I’ve actually purchase a book published this way before. I was reading Game Quest by Leopold McGinnis and a few chapters in realized that a paper version was coming out soon. I waited until the order page became available, chased the moths from my wallet and placed my order. Since I had already read a few chapters, I had a good feeling that I would enjoy the book and was not disappointed.
3) Sell some other stuff - People like your book. They like your character. Sell them some other stuff. Dingo has a very cool dog as one of the main characters. Sell t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee cups, and underwear that have pictures of the dog. If you go to the main Dingo page, there’s a really cool, mean looking dog. Who wouldn’t want that dog on a back pack? If a character has a catch phrase, you’re practically set for retirement.
4) Google Adsense - Bad option for fiction, but probably a fairly decent option for non-fiction. If you wrote a book about how to find a divorce lawyer in Miami and published it online, you’d probably be able to collect a paycheck from Google every now and then.
5) Amazon - Good option for any book. If people are willing to read your book, they would probably be willing to read some other books. If they are reading your book online, they probably know how to buy something from Amazon. Help these people find their way there. Give them a pen to write the check.
6) Affiliate Marketing - I know Amazon is technically affiliate marketing, but they are big enough to be their own entity. People like to listen to books these days. Sign up to be an affiliate of an Audio Book club. People like to read books on their Palm. Sign up to be an affiliate of an eBook club.
I do not think that Stephen King should stop printing books to sell at Borders. His career is obviously doing pretty well. The real area where some of these techniques could be beneficial is for the people going the self-publishing route. Putting up the money to print a book that you don’t know if it will sell is tough. That’s why publishers like to stay with certain authors and certain types of books. Instead of spending your few grand on paper weights for the house, you might consider publishing online using the techniques above.If your dream of seeing paper with your name on it gets the better of you, consider publishing a signigicant amount of the story online, use that to build up a fan base before you publish. Since most self-publishers never break even, I would like to see more of them give up on the paper and try using some of the techniques above instead.
If you do, let me know. I can always use a new t-shirt.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
