How Much Can You Make Selling Ebooks?

Posted by Gary on November 26, 2008 under Ebook Secrets, Ebook Writing, Selling Ebooks |

Some ebook authors make just a few extra dollars per month. Others make hundreds of thousands of dollars with a single ebook launch. The best thing about ebook publishing is that with ebooks the author gets to put more from each sale into their own pocket.

Many traditional book authors only earn a dollar or two for each paperback book they sell.  But with ebooks you will normally pocket 80 to 90% of the sales revenue from each purchase.

Let me give you an example. David Goldsmith’s “25 Ways to Write for Money” sells at WriterIncome.com for $29.95. Whenever someone buys the ebook he pockets around $26.60 after taking out the ClickBank payment processing fee. That’s about 89% and sure beats the $1-2 per copy he would get through a regular book publisher.

Even on the occasions that an affiliate is paid 75% for referring the sale, David still gets a tidy $8.54.

Michael Webb, an author of multiple ebooks for sale at ClickBank, posted this comment on a ClickBank blog:

“I very “successfully” published my first book with a top NY publishing house. It has continued to sell quite well and is in its 8th printing. However, because I only make about $2 per title sold the royalty checks (every six months) don’t get me all that excited. I make more with some of my ClickBank titles in one month than I make with this “best-seller” all year.”