CaptnKrunch
Level 1 (5 points)

Q: How many books are you selling?

I am trying to gauge sales figures for a few iBooks in their final stages of production. I know the figures can vary greatly, depending on what kind of book you are selling, but I am hoping I can get some rough idea on sales from people.

iBooks author

Posted on Apr 11, 2012 10:10 PM

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CaptnKrunch

Q: How many books are you selling?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by UtrechtDom,Helpful

    UtrechtDom UtrechtDom Apr 12, 2012 10:49 AM in response to CaptnKrunch
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 10:49 AM in response to CaptnKrunch

    CaptnKrunch, developers are traditionally very stingy sharing information on how many apps or ibooks they are selling. I can tell you however, if you think you are going to get rich from selling books you made on iBookstore, you might want to add a second career . It is very difficult to find a book in the iBookstore as people can only search on titles or subtitles, name of the author, and ISBN number. There is no keyword search, which makes it very difficult to find anything in the store. You will have to do a lot of marketing with links to the iBookstore, in order to get the word out that you have these books for sale.

  • by K T,Helpful

    K T K T Apr 12, 2012 11:24 AM in response to CaptnKrunch
    Level 7 (23,844 points)
    Publishing
    Apr 12, 2012 11:24 AM in response to CaptnKrunch

    Apple discourages talking about specific revenue.

     

    You may have better luck w/the google machine and searching for app store analytics, sales data, etc.

  • by CaptnKrunch,

    CaptnKrunch CaptnKrunch Apr 12, 2012 11:34 AM in response to K T
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 11:34 AM in response to K T

    Good idea. I am lining up financing for a few projects (not just iBook, but they are a big part of it), and need to get some gague on how the iBook will sell. Good thing is we have a great team of social marketers, now hoping the book gets quick approval on bookstore ....

  • by JoeScrivens,

    JoeScrivens JoeScrivens Apr 12, 2012 11:37 AM in response to CaptnKrunch
    Level 1 (60 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 11:37 AM in response to CaptnKrunch

    i'll happily give you my specific numbers. When my book was free it was getting 100 hits a day

     

    i made it $1.99 and i get 1 download a day :-)

     

    Natural Portraits - check it out :-)

     

    p.s. it took me 3 months to write my book. I made a balloon popping app in 2 hours. When it was free it got 2000 downloads a day, it's $0.99 and it gets 20 downloads a day.

     

    My book is 100 times better than my app - but them's the figures :-)

  • by Gregg Mojica,

    Gregg Mojica Gregg Mojica Apr 13, 2012 7:37 AM in response to JoeScrivens
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2012 7:37 AM in response to JoeScrivens

    I have had odd sales- one day 250 books sold, the next day 4 books sold.  Is this normal?

  • by janinefromleek,

    janinefromleek janinefromleek Apr 13, 2012 7:54 AM in response to Gregg Mojica
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 13, 2012 7:54 AM in response to Gregg Mojica

    No, I think that is quite strange

  • by Apaulio001,

    Apaulio001 Apaulio001 Apr 14, 2012 3:27 AM in response to CaptnKrunch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 3:27 AM in response to CaptnKrunch

    The 'now hoping for quick approval' but made me smile :)

  • by Gregg Mojica,

    Gregg Mojica Gregg Mojica Apr 14, 2012 6:45 AM in response to Apaulio001
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 6:45 AM in response to Apaulio001

    Does anyone have ideas how to get the word out about etextbooks?  Thanks!

  • by CaptnKrunch,

    CaptnKrunch CaptnKrunch Apr 14, 2012 11:18 PM in response to Gregg Mojica
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 11:18 PM in response to Gregg Mojica

    We are workngn on a massive social media blast. Depends on what your subject is, we have people posting in forums related to our first two books subjected, soccer and baseball, building relationships etc. get other people to promote your work for you.

  • by Gregg Mojica,

    Gregg Mojica Gregg Mojica Apr 15, 2012 6:27 AM in response to CaptnKrunch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 15, 2012 6:27 AM in response to CaptnKrunch

    Thanks.  Are there any sites that you use?

  • by CaptnKrunch,

    CaptnKrunch CaptnKrunch Apr 15, 2012 8:46 PM in response to Gregg Mojica
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 15, 2012 8:46 PM in response to Gregg Mojica

    Mostly blogs related to our subjects, sports etc. trying to be pretty specific gettign interest in our subject, gathering twitter followers.

    Between myself and my business partner we spend half the time promoting the books and half the time working on them. You could have the greatest book in the world but if no one can find it....

    Now it only Apple would make the process to get books onto the bookstore a little less Kafka-esqu I would be a very happy person.

  • by jamesfrombuellton,

    jamesfrombuellton jamesfrombuellton Apr 16, 2012 7:30 AM in response to JoeScrivens
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 16, 2012 7:30 AM in response to JoeScrivens

    To: JoeScrivens (and anyone else who cares to answer)

     

    I had the concept of my iBook (waiting 5 weeks now) when the iPad first appeared, and wanted to do the book as an app. I soon found that (a) I did not have the skills to build iOS apps from scratch and (b) it would cost many thousands of dollars to hire someone to build it for me. So I gave up on the app idea. When iBA appeared in January, I got to work, wrote the iBook, submitted, and waited.

     

    I am still intrigued with the app idea, especially after reading what Joe wrote. I have been concerned since day one about how anyone is ever going to find our books, for the reasons that UtrechtDom describes above.

     

    What are the options for producing ibooks as apps now? Is there a simpler way so you don't have become an expert in iOS? Are the people and/or companies that will do it for you for a reasonable fee, especially if you already have it done as an iBook?

     

    Thanks.

     

    Jim.