How well could a philosophy Ebook do in Amazon?

fulstaf Level 1

August 30, 2017, 5:11 pm

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How well could a philosophy Ebook do in Amazon?

My friend wants to write a philosophy book and sell it and as all friends do, I gave him a free advice

First, he should lose the publishing company option because if they do accept to help him, they'll make him at least pay for the printing. The most obvious option after that is the Ebook.
My only concern is, "and his": can a philosophy Ebook sell?

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PedroP

PedroP

Personally, I think it can yes. But the thing is: How will he expose his work? Does he have a certain renown as a writer or is this a starter project? How he intends to promote it? Marketing is everything in this life and sometimes it's more important than the book itself. As long as he has a good plan I think his chances are good.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

He's not known in the field at this point, so, the marketing side of it should be a huge challenge, and it would probably fall on my back.

7 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

He can take good advice with people who are into Literature, that way he can write his book under a good pattern. The other thing to do is to put a lot of ads on social media about his book, like a countdown, or something alike, that makes people to be interested on reading it. Another good hint is to make a little resume, put it in an attractive way, something that will make the people to say... I'm curious about this book! Not everyone is a fan of Philosophy, so making it attractive will help him a lot.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

It's a good thing that you have mentioned social media at this stage, I'll make him work on his social media presence even after the book release. thank you

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Honestly, I think that this book could sell. I would buy it if it was interesting and well written. The trick will be marketing it well, I'd think. Like all eBooks, the competition is fierce, and getting traffic to where he is selling the book would be the key. I wish him all the luck in the world, and he should write the book anyway, for his own benefit, whether he gets paid for it or not. That's just my humble opinion.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

If he ever put down, I will make him read this comment, this made me think of writing one myself.

7 years ago

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pandooh

pandooh

Why not refer it to teachers first? Like asking a review from them and maybe that would help him find clients. If there is a good feedback, that would be a good impression to future clients. You can also use social media like the facebook for promoting an ebook. I find the genre of Philosophy a rare kind of buy for me, though.

7 years ago

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plasmablutte12

plasmablutte12

It will be sold, unless people will feel connected about the book. It will depend on how you market your own books. It will be first thing happens, when your friend advertise it before, and someone in somewhere will feel to buy such book. It should have an deepest impact to the readers, so that they will eager to buy such book.

Most of the writer will just focus on how, the readers will be interested. Every reader has its own taste of book. A reader will just simply interested, when the writer puzzle him/her enough to the point, it will help to him deeply.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

It's like the writer is willing to take the hit for the reader, and that's what makes him special.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

It all depends on a couple of factors. If your friend writes it well and the content in the ebook is good then, of course, it will sell well. However, if the content is just the same as some of the other philosophy books out there then people may be reluctant to buy the book. And the other factor is marketing. If you market the ebook well then you will be able to sell the book well and to a lot of readers.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I doubt that he will be willing to market the book himself, and if he do, he will do a poor job, I think I'll take care of marketing and earn some money off his shoulders.

7 years ago

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Authord

Authord

Well, sounds ridiculous, because any book can sell on Amazon, it's not a matter of the book genre or should i say niche. the sale is not niche dependent, it's dependent on the content. So if he is sure of the quality of the content and it's philosophical exuberance. And there is something that makes it stand out from other books out there on philosophy, then why not, he should go ahead and publish it. I might even buy the book, because i am a big fan of philosophy.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I know the book will stand out, cause my friend is weird, and have no academic reputation to live up to, and if he ever publishes the book I'll send you a free copy.

7 years ago

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gamergurl

gamergurl

Being "weird" is not actually a very good trait outside of elementary school, because it makes you love all objectivity towards the masses. Like it or not, to be successful one needs to follow the minds of the masses, not their own. I'm not saying that the book your friend writes would be a failure, all I'm saying that venturing too far into one's own mind doesn't necessarily work wonders - especially when it comes to philosophy.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

You're right, to succeed, one have to confirm to the masses, what I meant by weird is he going to bring his personal touch to the work, knowing that many authors tend to follow a clear pattern.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I think a lot of that depends on how well you write. And also how good you're writing the content in terms of the people liking your writing. So if you can write a good content. You can pretty much make money off it. You may need to work harder on promotion part. Because you can write better but you may have to think about relying less on the ebook type. On that point amazon and smashwords both are good platform to start with.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

you're right, it would be a lot easier to promote good content, I didn't know about smashwords though.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

I think that it would probably depend on the type of "philosophy" we're looking at here. If we're talking about some serious stuff that is very niche and hard to get a grasp on, I can't imagine that it would do all too well. Fact is a lot of people don't have the time or attention span to dedicate themselves to serious philosophy. On the other hand, if we're talking about philosophy in the sense of say a self-help book that teaches about philosophies and ways of thought that help improve your lifestyle, then I think it has a pretty good chance of succeeding. A lot of people, myself included, are really into self-help stuff as we're constantly trying to improve ourselves, so I'm always open to new content.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I have nothing against self-help books, but I think the moment philosophy start to be practical it start to be science, ideology, or a mere guide line. when Nietzsche wrote Thus spoke Zarathustra, helping somebody was not something in his agenda. I do agree with you though, that self-help books sell millions.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I have published two books on Amazon, one is an ebook and another is an ebook as well as print on demand book. Based on my experience with publishing on Amazon, I can say philosophy book does not have a great market. First of all, people are not reading much on philosophy. You can do cross check by looking at the top 100 selling books on Amazon. You won't see a philosophy book listed. IF a writer already has a name, he might drive few sales, but for a beginner, it will be very difficult.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I think he will go ahead anyway with writing his book, cause I'm the one making a fuzz about the money, cause I would hate to see my friend a poor philosopher.

7 years ago

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PedroCarvalho

PedroCarvalho

As most things in term of selling: it will if the marketing is well done. That beign said, it would be good for him (and for you, in case you are parterns) to do a niche research. Does philosophy books have a high rating sell at amazon? Wouldn't be better to publish under a market focused at philosophy? He could get in contact with some writer that has already published at amazon too.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

This is amazing, on each post I get a new perspective, so, what I gathered is, to do a niche research and get in touch with writer. Thank you

7 years ago

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jaymish

jaymish

Personally i don't think it would sell well. I don't mean to discourage you or rain on your parade. Most books on Amazon are for entertainment or instruction. If you really want to write a book on philosophy, i would make it a text- book,which means it would have to be endorsed by lecturers and teachers. This also is a process as you would have to prove to a good number of them that it would be useful to their teaching and students. One question i would ask is what new body of knowledge am i adding to the existing schools of philosophy.

7 years ago

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diels1001

diels1001

There's a possibility that you can sell it well but its very low. Just from common sense, there are only few who are interested in philosophy and each of them only buys a book of their interest. Most of the modern philosopher have their own idol in their field and they only buy a book written by their respective philosophers. Maybe you can sell yours if your book is really good enough to amaze modern philosophers but it is really difficult. Having a good philosophy book is a long journey in life taking in all the knowledge in the world that you can gather and discover. But you can still try and find it out for yourself.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I agree that it's a hard sell, I'll try it out any way, as you say.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

the e-book market on Amazon is very saturated. I am not sure how well it would do without some serious, heavy promotion. Or some big well known name endorsing it. Also in order to sell anything on amazon book or e-book related, you have to have a large or sizable following prior to the books release. Your following will help aid in creating a groundswell of build up and hype for the book. Then when the book is released your audience can help greatly in spreading the word. But to just go in and release an e-book as a relative unknown won't make your friend much coin.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I thank you for your insightful input, I'll try to get him to build an audience base, and get the attention of some well known figures in this area.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

A plug or a tweet or a blurb from a well-known author or publisher would go a long way in making the book a success. He should pass it around after it's done and hopefully someone major reads it and is willing to back the book via their channels. That's what happens with a lot of Hollywood scripts. They don't get any attention until someone major gets their hands on it. Then the script goes from screenplay to feature film in production. It happens "that" fast. All your friend needs is to get his book into the hands of a big time writer for promotional purposes. Which would put enough weight behind it to garner interest from a major publishing company.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

I'm starting to have some solid ideas based on your instructions, ideas which I'll turn soon into resolutions, then into actions.
Thank you again for these valuable knowledge.

7 years ago

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Joteque

Joteque

This is valuable information for me as well because I published a book of poetry, paperback version and someday I would like to publish the ebook version as well. The marketing aspect would be most important particularly because the digital world is susceptible to leaks and interferences which can render the ebook being distributed without credit or profit being redirected to the owner. I will do some research myself and perhaps we could share info so as to ensure that the best avenues are established which will promote returns worth the risk.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

Congratulation on publishing your book, now making the digital version should be a mere technical task for you, and I think sometime having one's work stolen is a good sign of it being successful.

7 years ago

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augusta

augusta

Anything can sell with the right content and promotion.If you're providing a product,service or a brand the content must be of value and beneficial to the buyers.So with an e-book it can be sold anywhere online from blogs,forums and on social media.A review could be written about the book and the link posted along side the book.

7 years ago

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diels1001

diels1001

There's only a little part of the populace of the whole world that is into philosophy since it's a complicated subject. Your book will only do good if ever you proved that it is worth the time, effort and money of the buyer. You can probably sell it to students taking the subject or luckily to some philosophers that will be interested in your work. Even if there's no guarantee of it, you can still try doing it in amazon or in any online trading site since you will lose nothing.

7 years ago

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diels1001

diels1001

I think your only chance to have a good business with your philosophy book is to try sell them to students and not just posting it to any online shopping site. Only few people needs philosophy books, and they must be your target. In that small amount of people who needs philosophy book, majority are students taking philosophy subject/s, who are an easy target they really need that stuff.

7 years ago

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fulstaf

fulstaf

Targeting students is a good idea, and I'll take it into account. Thank you.

7 years ago

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tophew

tophew

It is good to publish philosophy book on amazon many students will want to buy your content because they will need it in there class and I strongly advice that try to make your philosophy book user friendly so that students who is using reading your book can easily understand the contents and it will help your sales grow more.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

Any book that is well written can be sold and profit. Provided that the philosophy book has a solid reputable writer, then it is good to sell. However, the keys behind a successful book is not only dependent on its content but how it is advertised. How it is previewed to all buyers and how it is properly categorized on Amazon. I believe this are part of a successful ebook selling. I hope that your future plans on the ebook will give you good harvests in the future and I also hope that you'll be able to educate the readers. Because right now, I think the world needs more enhancing of the minds.

7 years ago

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Heatman6190

Heatman6190

I definitely think that philosophy ebook is going to sell well, looking at the diversity of human lives and existence, there is always a higher tendency of philosophy ebook getting lots of people out there that would be really interested in it.

Personally, I would actually patronize in it, as long as the contents of the write ups are very detailed and quite informative.

7 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

I think that he must go forward with his book. He can create a Facebook page and also advertise the book on different social networks. Advertising is what will actually drive up the sales of his book. Moreover, if the book is interesting then people will be buying it and recommend others to buy it too.

7 years ago

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