I am Eric Z of zbooks.co
and now proudly a gumroader: https://gumroad.com/ericzed
I started self publishing this year, you may know me from other threads, especially this one:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/a-b-testing-ebook-marketing-methods.58358/
After making a few books for my son I quickly got "pushed" into the role of book-maker and publisher for other people and this is my fastlane now : www.zbooks.co , I seem to be good at the actual making,formatting etc.
When it comes to marketing - I am well... um.. ... LEARNING!
So I want to invite you to my lessons learned and my new strategy + progress thread with Book publishing:
Brief history:
My best month was 60$ with my USAF books for kids, in Amazon.
I violated RULE #1, -Choose a profitable Niche- ! (NOT a profitable niche in Amazon)
Made even less sales in the other platforms - Kobo, Nook, iTunes, Smashwords, etc.
The 60$ month was also where I hit the streets and went to recruiters and gave them a complimentary physical copy of the book. It worked, later I sold my first physical book online (Lulu)!
Then:
** AMAZON blocked my Navy Seals book! (freakin' A***HOLES, not blocked anywhere else, B&N etc!)
I have been averaging a little over 25$ /month now, with minimal marketing.
(remember rule #1? Your ROI will be directly proportional to your marketing BEFORE you write/launch the book)
Then I discovered Nick Stephenson's "Reader Magnets" which is all about growing your email list so you are not platform dependent - remember(?) CENTS , C!
Once I made Email my number one focus, things started changing...hence Zbooks.co took off and no looking back now...
And now this brings me finally to the point:
When someone buys a book from you on the gumroad- you automatically have their email!
2 birds with one stone!
AND, people generally can charge and get more for their books on the gumroad.
AND when it comes to flexibility, Gumroad is THE winner, way over amazon,
AND you can make inline payments on your website with a simple overlay from Gumroad, they never leave your website!
Q. So what is it that AMazon gives us? Why are we there at all?
A: TRAFFIC
The traffic is the only reason to be on amazon,
But when you have traffic to your website, guess what!? You don't need ANY other platform anymore!
(This will be an experiment with paid ads, stay tuned)
So my idea is this now:
Put ONLY free stuff on Amazon, lead magnets, cheatsheets, etc. to get people to your website and collect their email.
Then publish your "real" books on Gumroad and gumroad only.
(Or maybe offer them for much more on amazon? --marketing tactic.)
So before I put anything else on gumroad, I want to invite you to ground zero,
I just put 3 books up there today, Zero sales, Zero views, so fresh start.
They are pdf.'s and I am going to add Epubs and Mobis soon, and of course my websites are all going to be remodelled...
So join me on this exodus! It's gonna be fun!
and now proudly a gumroader: https://gumroad.com/ericzed
I started self publishing this year, you may know me from other threads, especially this one:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/a-b-testing-ebook-marketing-methods.58358/
After making a few books for my son I quickly got "pushed" into the role of book-maker and publisher for other people and this is my fastlane now : www.zbooks.co , I seem to be good at the actual making,formatting etc.
When it comes to marketing - I am well... um.. ... LEARNING!
So I want to invite you to my lessons learned and my new strategy + progress thread with Book publishing:
Brief history:
My best month was 60$ with my USAF books for kids, in Amazon.
I violated RULE #1, -Choose a profitable Niche- ! (NOT a profitable niche in Amazon)
Made even less sales in the other platforms - Kobo, Nook, iTunes, Smashwords, etc.
The 60$ month was also where I hit the streets and went to recruiters and gave them a complimentary physical copy of the book. It worked, later I sold my first physical book online (Lulu)!
Then:
** AMAZON blocked my Navy Seals book! (freakin' A***HOLES, not blocked anywhere else, B&N etc!)
I have been averaging a little over 25$ /month now, with minimal marketing.
(remember rule #1? Your ROI will be directly proportional to your marketing BEFORE you write/launch the book)
Then I discovered Nick Stephenson's "Reader Magnets" which is all about growing your email list so you are not platform dependent - remember(?) CENTS , C!
Once I made Email my number one focus, things started changing...hence Zbooks.co took off and no looking back now...
And now this brings me finally to the point:
When someone buys a book from you on the gumroad- you automatically have their email!
2 birds with one stone!
AND, people generally can charge and get more for their books on the gumroad.
AND when it comes to flexibility, Gumroad is THE winner, way over amazon,
AND you can make inline payments on your website with a simple overlay from Gumroad, they never leave your website!
Q. So what is it that AMazon gives us? Why are we there at all?
A: TRAFFIC
The traffic is the only reason to be on amazon,
But when you have traffic to your website, guess what!? You don't need ANY other platform anymore!
(This will be an experiment with paid ads, stay tuned)
So my idea is this now:
Put ONLY free stuff on Amazon, lead magnets, cheatsheets, etc. to get people to your website and collect their email.
Then publish your "real" books on Gumroad and gumroad only.
(Or maybe offer them for much more on amazon? --marketing tactic.)
So before I put anything else on gumroad, I want to invite you to ground zero,
I just put 3 books up there today, Zero sales, Zero views, so fresh start.
They are pdf.'s and I am going to add Epubs and Mobis soon, and of course my websites are all going to be remodelled...
So join me on this exodus! It's gonna be fun!
SUMMARY
Gumroad:- You get a landing page - https://gumroad.com/ericzed
- You can bundle and price your products anyway you want
- Royalty is MUCH bigger
- Pay what you want, or FREE is an option
- They are not watched by big-brother (at least not yet), and can pay-out by paypal.
- Inline payment processing on your own website! Simple overlays that even I can install.
- AUTOMATIC EMAIL Collection of all buyers of your products. --This is the main advantage--Connect to your audiences and---
- --- Gumroad even has an Email service! Autoresponders etc. --of course this is not as good as MailCheat(Chimp) , aweber, getresponse etc., but it is damned sleek and excellent for beginners who don't want all the bells and whistles.
- NEVER publish a "F*ck me" free book again! (just to gain momentum on amazon)
- Has massive Traffic, get your book on the first page (top 20) of a profitable category and you are set...
- You get an author page: http://www.amazon.com/Eric-Z/e/B00TYK8DMY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1437039753&sr=8-1
- ???
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Last edited by a moderator:
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?








