Self-Publishing ClickBank-Style
Posted by: Dush Ramachandran, VP of Sales and Business Development
I recently attended and presented at gatherings of non-fiction writers, here in Colorado and in New York City and I have come away amazed at the incredible breadth of topics these authors cover. Ranging from travel and adventure to faith and religion, and everything in between, these talented writers illuminate little known corners of the world and shine the light of expertise on obscure or arcane skills. And these authors are perfect for ClickBank and dare I say, ClickBank is perfect for them.
Traditional publishers in the physical book publishing world are constrained by having to pick a few authors and topics that are most likely to become best-sellers, since book stores have limited shelf space. Even on-line stores like Amazon have limited warehouse shelf space, and stocking a particular title is at the expense of stocking another. This gives rise to the unfortunate “only best-sellers” mentality. That’s fine if you happen to be Stephen Covey or Barack Obama, who will have no trouble finding shelf space. It’s somewhat different if you’ve just written “The Definitive Guide to the Migratory Patterns of the Galapagos Turtles.”
ClickBank is a true ‘long tail’ company, where we have no constraints on physical space. To us, carrying a million titles costs little more than carrying one hundred. The reach of our affiliate network is truly global, and so even if the particular title sells a modest number of copies, we have no problems with carrying it. ClickBank therefore represents the ideal way for the author of a niche special interest book to get to market.
In the physical book publishing world, even if you have managed to get the book into print, and secured shelf-space at the retail bookstore, the challenge of how to attract buyers to the book still remains. The more than 110,000 active ClickBank affiliates who specialize in every conceivable area of interest, assume the task of driving targeted traffic to the particular book resulting in higher sales.
Non-fiction authors in the physical book publishing world resort to self-publishing to get their books into print, and knowledgeable estimates place the cost of self-publishing a book at about $6,000. When the author makes approximately $2.00 per copy sold, and the average sales figure of a self-published non-fiction book is in the hundreds of copies, it’s not hard to figure out that this is indeed a labor of love. Companies that support self-publishing usually require a minimum print run of 1,000 copies and all these costs are typically borne by the author.
With only a $49.95 fee to have the e-book listed on the ClickBank marketplace, the author who chooses to publish through ClickBank has negligible up-front costs, and no unsold copies of his book cluttering up the basement. Since the book stays in digital form, there are no printing costs. Subsequent editions of the book don’t need expensive print runs. Just update the original file once, and it is available for download infinitely after that.
Many publishers and self-publishing houses ask first-time authors to assign the intellectual property rights to their work to the publisher. This means that if the author later wishes to publish the work through some other medium such as an audio-book, they need to seek the permission of the publisher who now owns the rights. ClickBank makes no such requirement. All rights to the work of the author belong to the author – forever.
So ClickBank truly represents the brave new world of self-publishing. If you have written a non-fiction book or know someone who has, ClickBank could be the publishing vehicle you have been looking for.
Michael Webb said,
May 8, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
Excellent posting. 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.
I did one book the “old fashioned way” but my last 12 have been as ebooks sold through the ClickBank system. Far more rewarding in many ways.
Michael Webb
Author of 12 ClickBank titles
JANI SEWLANI said,
May 14, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
This my new expiriance in this web buss i never seen any web buss site like click bank this is very exiting expirince & lets see how it will work
Jeremy Likness said,
May 18, 2008 @ 9:39 am
One aspect of publishing through ClickBank that wasn’t mentioned in the post was the international reach. I’ve published books the “traditional” self-published way, and also the ClickBank way. With self-published books, even eBooks that are sold through sites like Amazon.com, the reach is limited to the markets. When I published my eBook on ClickBank, in only a few months I had sold copies in 12 different countries. That type of international reach would have been nearly impossible to achieve in such a short time with traditional publishing.
marlene keller said,
May 19, 2008 @ 5:22 am
I am in the process of writing a non-fiction book on a subject that universally affects everyone at some time in their lives, and while I know there is best seller potential for my book if conventionally published I am inclined to assign higher priority to skipping untold numbers of rejection letters and receiving meaningful royalty checks. I figure when Internet sales reach the point equivalent to best seller numbers the book could still be published conventionally at that time anyway.
I have researched this subject for awhile and can see far more pluses for ebooks than minuses, but I can’t say the same for the traditional publishing process at all. The answer to the question is fast becoming a no brainer; the question itself is being rendered moot by incoming evidence as more ebooks are published all the time. It sure has leveled out the playing field, too, encouraging everyone who wants to write a book instead of discouraging, intimidating, and overwhelming so many would be authors into blowing it off before they even get a book started.
Paul | Uppermoney.com said,
May 26, 2008 @ 9:35 am
I agree that electronic self-publishing (through Clickbank, of course!) is the way to go.
I just wrote a blog article about how information publishing is the (almost) perfect business, and it can be done by just about anyone! - I intend to introduce more people to the wonders of publishing through Clickbank.
I think Clickbank are well-positioned to take advantage of the increasing surge in digital and information products.
Keep up the good work!
Paul Hancox
Jim Cockrum said,
May 28, 2008 @ 5:23 pm
I have one ebook that has sold tens of thousands of copies on clickbank. I’ve updated it multiple times, gotten tons of exposure, grown a mailing list of nearly 100,000 and done it all without the help of any professional publisher.
I’m a clickbank fan for life.
Brandon Doyle said,
May 29, 2008 @ 3:08 pm
Thanks Jim! Very inspiring indeed. Congratulations. Around 2004, I paid the $49.95 sign-up fee and had a few sales in software and my ebook since then.
I only sell one product at the moment, but I am looking to expand to several. I have about 8 to 10 products on the burners; so to speak.