So the big question is how to market your eBook from a basic eBook to a great eBook.  What do you choose? Pay per click marketing? Giveaways? Free samples?

Let’s look at some statistics from Smashwords.

So first we should think about the source= Smashwords. They did the survey on mobilereads. So we can assume it’s not the complete Smashwords fan base. Only a selected group. We should assume the statistics may not reflect Amazon’s fan base or even all of smashwords, but it is better than anything else we have to go on. So let’s work with it.

Let’s choose out marketing tactics to see if we have a fit. Let’s say giveaways. What benefits do giveaways offer? Reviews, page views, free reads, free samples. So this covers 29% (forum, blog, message board recommendations), 4% (sample and like), 7% (browse randomly and look at reviews) and 5%(free ebooks then buy). That gives us 45% for giveaways. That covers lots of our basis. This assumes if you conduct a successful give away you are creating ways to get books sold (assuming you have more than 1 book online). This can also draw people into friend recommendations as well.

Remember not to judge a book by it’s cover…. But I do. I don’t care what anyone says. I always judge a book by it’s cover if the author is unknown and no one recommended it to me. Make an awesome cover!!! Pay if you need to.