Publishing E-Books For Dummies

Making Your E-Book a Bestseller

Some e-books sell extraordinarily well. Others sink without a trace. Many fall somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum. If you want to nudge your e-book toward bestsellerdom, think carefully about the type of book you’re writing and how you can increase its chances of doing well.

Rather than try to hit a particular sales number, think about what the term bestseller means in relation to your book. If you’re writing genre fiction, for example, it might well mean selling 10,000 copies or more of your e-book. If you’re writing specialist nonfiction with a high price tag, however, selling as few as 200 copies can mean a handsome reward for your time spent writing.

Successful e-books fall into two broad categories:

Mass market: Genre fiction and popular nonfiction

Specialist: Nonfiction that appeals to a niche audience

Notice that these categories omit plenty of possible forms, such as memoir, literary fiction, and academic works. It isn’t impossible to succeed with these types of books — but if your focus is on sales and money, you should either aim squarely at the mass market or build a specialist audience that’s willing to spend a significant amount of money on a highly targeted e-book.

Choosing genre fiction or popular nonfiction for a wider ...