I Got 400 Ebook Downloads in 15 Days. No, I'm Not Super Famous.
Did you know the average self-published ebook sells 250 copies in its lifetime?
On September 11, 2021, one day before getting admitted to the hospital, I launched my ebook. I underwent an ACL reconstruction surgery on both my knees and had to be in bed for a few weeks. But before getting there I wanted to launch my book, and that’s what I did.
I expected 15 downloads in a week; 30 would be mind-blowing, and 50 would be over the top — totally unexpected.
You’ve got 74 subscribers, my website designer told me within 15 hours of launch.
This was unbelievable. I didn’t even post about this on LinkedIn where I have 8000+ followers. I only told my newsletter subscribers about it. I hadn’t even tweeted about it yet, because I promised my newsletter subscribers they’d be the first ones to know.
A week post my launch, I had over 300 downloads and 15 days post-launch, my ebook was downloaded over 400 times.
According to Scribe Media, a publishing company that has 18 NY Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers under their belt, research from 250+ books they publish each year states that,
“average” self-published, digital-only book sells about 250 copies in its lifetime.
I’m not an expert marketer, but there’s one thing that I did. Let me lead you through my process.
I’m Lazy and Looked for the Easy Way
I wanted to create something, just didn’t know what it was. I thought of a guide, ebook, or a course, but so many options make it more difficult to figure out what to start with.
And then I had a moment of epiphany.
I had over 35 articles around side hustles that I never shared on social media. The reason being that I was in a full-time job until two months ago, and sharing something about side hustles and making money outside of my company could’ve backfired big time.
So the content was already there, but did people want to know about it?
I then took two LinkedIn polls one month apart. Together, they got 58,841 views and 925 upvotes.
Here’s what the stats show:
- 58,841 views
- 925 votes
- 374 people wanted to learn about a side hustle
So yes, there was a market for people who wanted to know more about what I have expertise in.
“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” — Seth Godin
The Writing Process
Here’s the exact process I followed to get my ebook together.
- Shortlist articles
- Select an ebook template from ‘pages’ in my mac
- Copy-paste these articles
- Format headings, quotes, body
- Edit it
- Wait for a week, edit it again
- Send it to 3 people who are your target audience
- Get feedback, edit accordingly
- Create a free cover on Canva
- Decide the title in under 5 minutes to avoid overthinking for a ‘perfect’ title
It was simple but not easy. Formatting was long and tedious. Now, let’s come to how it reached people.
I Reached Out to My Family
And that’s my newsletter subscribers. This family has increased from around 500 people in July to over 1100 people at the end of September. Why do I call them my family? Because they’re here voluntarily.
I add a one-line CTA under my articles and as a comment under my LinkedIn posts. No hard sell, join in if you feel like it.
I told them about my idea, and that they’ll be the first ones to know. I got numerous replies telling me how excited they are and how some are inspired from my journey of quitting my 9–5 this year and can’t wait to get their hands on it.
On average, 800 people open my newsletter emails. I thought even if 5% download it, I’ll be happy. And it wasn’t as much effort, right? The content was already laid out, just a lot of editing was required.
Bare(ly) Marketing
Remember, the ebook subscribers had to know it first, followed by 4 days in the hospital. So I released an email about it, and let it be. The next day was a big day for me, getting my first ever surgery.
I didn’t touch my LinkedIn for another week where I had 7x more followers than my newsletter.
The truth is, I don’t quite get marketing. I help leaders across the globe create an online presence by ghostwriting LinkedIn posts and help businesses with their content, all of which is marketing.
But I’m just a writer. All I know is how to write interesting stuff, and that’s all I focus on.
Here’s how I spread the word:
- September 11: Email Newsletter subscribers
- September 12: Tweeted about it
- September 18: Posted on LinkedIn
I then reached out to two people with massive influence and email lists. The message was simple,
This book is free and is there to help people build a side hustle and make money online. I think your followers will resonate.
Tom Kuegler was one of them and sent it out and the other writer agreed to send it out soon. Yes, people selflessly help you because they want to positively impact other people.
My Last Advice to You
A confession: my ebook is far from perfect.
“Think progress, not perfection.”― Ryan Holiday
A reader emailed me over 30 errors I made in my ebook, and they were embarrassing errors. Missing bullet points, quotes, punctuation marks, etc. Even after three rounds of editing, I felt like an idiot to miss out on these tiny details.
But you know what matters? Value.
It may not be perfect but is useful. It may not level up my readers from level 3 to 10 but may be from 3 to 7, and thats still an improvement.
I didn’t try too hard to sell it. I didn’t reach out to people to read it or even market it with constant emails and tweets. Yet people spoke about it, and in my opinion, thats the best kind of ‘marketing’.
Whatever idea you have inside your head, don’t sweat it regarding strategies and how will it perform. My product is far from perfect, but this is only the beginning.
Take action because perfection will take too long. And build your credibility with a community, and the initial downloads or sales will fall in place.
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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PS — Here’s the ebook I spoke about in this article.