It’s often difficult to get hard numbers for eBook sales, but this graph from the International Digital Publishing Forum gives us something close.

Check out the sharp curve from 2008 to 2009, which is the year that the Nook and other eReaders were released, including the second-generation Kindle. The second generation of anything is often better than the first, and the people who wait for the second of everything to come out are what form the bulk of the market.

Impressive.

Read this fantastic blog post by Tim Ferriss; book marketing guru, world traveler, and Author of The 4-Hour Workweek. Please pay special attention to the part where he mentions, “First off, writing books is a terrible revenue model for authors.”

His summary of the opportunities in eBook marketing are very clearly pointing to using affiliate marketing as the way to make that huge hit really happen. This is the important component that I see missing from almost every single plan that every Author has put in front of me, like, ever. If you want to make money from eBooks, learn every little thing you can about affiliate marketing, and then do it for a couple of years before you decide to get serious about the details.

I love this guy.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Seth Godin recently wrote a blog post about how subtlety can be a better approach in marketing. His post really got me thinking.

Subtlety is really about the confidence that you have a great product and that your quality will be shown over the long term.

Subtlety is also about letting the reader take ownership of your message (or your book, indeed) because it was not blasted at them in hi-fidelity.

Ownership of discovery of details is what happens when people read a sample chapter.

Ownership is what makes people feel trust for you as a marketer and an Author.

Trust is what lets people give themselves permission to buy.

Smart guy, that Seth.

The adorable Seth Godin announced this week that he has created his last traditionally-published book. Here’s why his plan may or may not work for everyone.

(It’s a great post, by the way, and I strongly suggest you read it.)

Seth is brilliant – that’s not debatable. He’s a rebel, a visionary, and his writing has caused me to seriously question many things about the way I consume, and the way I conduct my own business. He has spent the last 12 years developing great books that (mostly) turned out to be bestsellers. He claims this latest book, Linchpin, is his “life’s work”. (Can’t wait to read it.) And he has decided that none of his future writings will be distributed through traditional publishing channels.

Why this works for Godin;

- He already has years of live market research under his belt, which is by his own admission, really because of his relationship with great publishers.

- He has a massive private following through his blog and social media connections.

- He really does know his stuff, and he practices what he preaches.

- He has plenty of capital, both monetary and intangible, to re-invest in his business.

- He has a staff.

Do you have all of those things? Possibly not. I know I don’t. So here are my suggested alternatives for those of us who don’t, in the same order.

- We can perform a surprising amount of market research on our own. Let’s start with keyword research.

- We can build a following by doing exactly what Seth does, such as using our own blog and social media connections, and building slowly. We don’t need it to be massive to be effective – we just need it to be loyal. Loyalty must be earned.

- Very simply, we need to do and be the same. This does not take money or even much time. Transparency sells.

- Does it really take a ton of money to make things happen? Can we adjust our expectations to take advantage of our existing resources? What is the value of sweat equity?

- Staff can be had easily and quickly using virtual assistants. Knowing what to delegate has been my big project for 2010. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.

Does it work for everyone? Not if they don’t have the drive and imagination. But since all of us are writers, perhaps we have an advantage.

This excellent post from CopyBlogger details four pillars that should be in the body of any sales page for any book or eBook.

Really, that post reads like a fill-in-the-blanks kind of script for a landing page, which is the thing you should have completed before you complete the book, really. Those four pillars might translate into words on the sales page, or as I’m not really fond of long sales pages, translate into the 4×4 Landing page template.

(You will want to click on both above links, and especially read my earlier post on the subject of landing pages for books and eBooks before reading the rest of this here, or it will make far less sense.)

1. Feel the “pain”. In the quadrant landing page rule, the top left quarter should have an emotive image, which is what allows the reader to put themselves in the picture. In other words, you can use a picture of the pain – you don’t have to write it. This might actually be faster.

2. “So far” and “Out there” could be translated as others are already out there doing it right. In other words, endorsements. This translates to the bottom right quadrant, or the Endorsement Quarter.

3. The Dream Situation is the details – how you communicate this is up to you, but it must be explained what the ideal solution is. This directly corresponds to the bottom left quadrant, or the Details Quarter.

4. Close the deal - this clearly corresponds to the Action Quarter, which is the top right quadrant, the Desired Action.

The buy, the signup, the whatever is an easy close when the buyer has been given all that they need to establish trust.

Fear of the variables of the eBook biz make as much sense as monsters under the bed.

Fear of how to actually sell and package an eBook is understandable and common. This recent blog post by Seth Godin made me wonder how many ways people avoid launching their eBook business because they don’t exactly know how the “techy” parts of the business will work.

I frequently encounter people who imagine the following obstacles:

1. I’ll have to email a copy to everyone by hand. I can’t believe people still think this, in this day and age. Of course you won’t: an autoresponder or auto-delivery system does that for you. You should never do this, even one time. Not sustainable. Not profitable.

2. I’ll need to setup a credit card merchant account. Nope, just setup an instant PayPal account and be taking payments the same hour. Or when your volume gets up there, switch to Authorize.net.

3. I can’t figure out how to format it into a PDF. So what? Just type it in MS Word, or even better, Open Office Writer, and then send it to Renee Shupe at RedHeadVA.com who will wave her magic wand (hers is red, mine is purple) and it all happens without a hitch. She can even upload it and do the setup for you – ask her about package pricing.

So, what’s holding you back? Imagined obstacles? Or real ones with easy solutions?

(Reader alert: this post contains affiliate links. I get paid when you click on stuff.)