Guides 4 min read
How to sell an ebook or PDF online
How to sell an ebook, guide or workbook as a file, on any platform: choosing between PDF and EPUB, making a file that reads well on a phone, the cover and the sample that sell it, what protects it and what does not, and how to price and launch it.
- Most ebooks are read on a phone. A5 or 6 by 9 inch pages, 11 to 12 point text and a single column read far better than a Letter-size document.
- PDF keeps your layout and is right for guides, workbooks and anything designed; EPUB reflows and is kinder for long prose.
- The first pages are the sample. Make them the title and the real start of the content, and move the copyright notice to the back.
- Nothing prevents copying entirely. A stamp with the buyer's email, a clear licence and a fair price are what you actually have.
Short is fine
An ebook does not have to be a book. A 12-page guide that answers one question properly is a real product, and often a better first one than the 200-page version: quicker to finish, easier to describe, easier to buy. Workbooks, checklists with explanations, recipe collections, course notes and short fiction all sell as files. What the good ones have in common is that they are complete: the reader gets the whole answer, not a teaser for something else.
PDF or EPUB
Keeps your layout exactly: fonts, columns, pictures where you put them. Right for guides, workbooks, anything with diagrams or forms, comics, and anything meant to be printed. Its weakness is that a page designed for A4 is painful on a phone.
Reflows to fit the screen, so the reader chooses the text size. Kinder for long prose, a novel or a memoir. Its weakness is that you lose control of the layout, and fewer places sell it.
For most first products, a PDF designed for a phone screen is the right answer.
Make a file that reads well
Most buyers open the file on a phone first, whatever they bought it for. Design for that:
A5 or 6 by 9 inches reads far better on a phone than A4 or Letter, which forces pinching and scrolling. If the content is a worksheet meant to be printed, Letter or A4 is right; say so in the description.
11 to 12 point body text, generous margins, one column. Two-column layouts are unreadable on a phone.
Embed them when you export, or the file looks different on the buyer's screen. Check that the font licence allows embedding in a product you sell; most do, some do not.
Export at screen resolution, around 150 dpi. If the file is still large, compress the images, not the text.
For anything over 20 pages, add a contents page and PDF bookmarks.
Wherever you sell, the first pages are the sample; on a site like troimarket buyers read the first two before they pay. Make them the title and the real start of the content. Move the copyright notice to the back.
Say where to find you and what else you make. It is the one page every reader reaches.
Then open the exported file on a phone and read three pages. Proofread once more there; mistakes show differently on a small screen.
The cover and the description
The cover is seen at thumbnail size next to other covers. One strong image or a clean title block, a title readable when small, and the same style across a series. A portrait cover reads as a book.
The description answers what the buyer gets and who it is for: the page count, the format, the contents in a few lines, who it is written for and who it is not. "24 pages. For people starting sourdough with no equipment. Not a general bread book." Buyers forgive a short book; they do not forgive a surprise.
What protects it, and what does not
Be clear-eyed about this. Nothing stops a determined person copying a file, on any platform, and copy protection that gets in the way of honest readers costs you more sales than it saves. What you actually have:
Buyers see the cover and the first pages before they pay; the rest unlocks after purchase.
Some platforms, troimarket among them, mark each copy with the buyer's email. It is a deterrent, not a lock, but it makes passing a copy around a lot less attractive.
The buyer gets a personal licence to read and use the book, not to resell or share the file, and a takedown process exists for copies that appear where they should not.
The practical defence is the same as for every ebook sold anywhere: price it so that buying is easier than hunting for a copy, keep making things so that readers come back to you rather than to a file, and do not let the fear of copying stop you publishing.
Price it
A short guide sits in the low band, where the title and cover do the work. A thorough one that saves real time or teaches something hard can carry more, and at that price the sample pages and a specific contents list are what persuade. The pricing guide covers the bands, free samples, discounts and what fees take.
Share it everywhere
The natural free sample for an ebook is the first chapter as a separate free listing. Then share the book in every place you can be found, more than once. Post a page, not a link: a spread that shows the design, a paragraph that shows the voice, a quote on a plain background. Say who it is for before anything else. Pin it, put the link in every bio, email the people who asked, answer questions on the topic in forums with the link at the end, pin a page to Pinterest, and say it again a week later with a different page. A book shared once is a book nobody saw. The first-sale guide has the full list of places and a schedule.
On troimarket
troimarket was built by creators, for creators. For an ebook:
No monthly plan. On a $12 ebook you keep $11.26.
Or page images for a comic. Up to 50 MB per file.
Buyers see the first two pages before they pay.
With the buyer's email.
Within the 14-day window.
Next guide
How to price a digital productMore guides
If you are not on troimarket yet, What is troimarket? explains how it works and what it costs, and Sell on troimarket is where a store starts.