E-books are dumb!

...And funny, too! :)

Just underscores the "hidden Internet economy" which is quietly running rampant behind the scenes and making lots of people very rich, doing that which others claim "doesn't work."

My hat is off to you, Mike, for being a DOER, and listening to the voice of your market, rather than the "gurus." The key, in fact, is to be your OWN guru!

Great job, and thanks for posting!

Best,

Jesse

> I thought I'd share this since I worked so
> hard on it. On another board somebody told
> me that E-books are dumb, so I replied:

> So you're telling me that no matter what the
> information, you will never buy it in E-book
> format?

> That's a shame.

> I'll admit that when I was first introduced
> to E-books I did not like the concept, and I
> didn't think they had any future. I was
> wrong.

> I don't like buying E-books, and will avoid
> it anyway I can. But if the information I
> want only comes scribbled on the back side
> of a chicken coop door, then I'm going to
> buy myself that door.

> When I converted my products to E-book
> format I was afraid they wouldn't sell. Boy
> was I wrong!

> I have a book that I printed in hard copy
> format. It was my first "real"
> publication. Cost me $3,400. to get that
> baby printed, (3,000 copies) and I'll let
> you in on a little secret. Printing that
> book was a stupid thing to do. Sure it paid
> off, but I sell ten times as many e-books at
> 4 times the price.

> I even had a it placed in two of the largest
> book store chains in the country. I'll let
> you in on another little secret. Book stores
> don't have any idea how to sell books. The
> local feed mill sold more copies of my book
> than two of the largest bookstore chains in
> the country. That's the truth.

> Here's what they did. They ordered 100
> copies and sent them out to the stores. 120
> days later they paid me a lousy 35% of the
> cover price, that's the standard. Then the
> books didn't sell because the dumb asses put
> a gardening book in the stores in the dead
> of summer, and anybody who knows anything at
> all about gardening knows that people are
> not interested during the summer. Gardening
> books sell Jan. - April.

> Of course these book marketing wizzards
> tracked the sales, and since the books
> weren't selling because it was 100 degrees
> outside, the sent them back to the
> distributor. So the distributor sent them
> back to me, and asked me to refund what they
> had paid me.

> Then a newspaper published an article about
> my book, and a few people walked into the
> bookstores looking for a copy. "Hey!
> This must be a good seller! Let's stock a
> few copies." So the distributor ordered
> some more books from me, even though they
> had just sent a bunch back to me. Then they
> sent me a check for the books they ordered.

> A few months later they shipped the books
> back to me, and once again asked me to
> refund what they had paid me.

> This went of for three years.

> If nothing else, these buttheads are fun to
> watch!

> At least UPS made a few bucks hauling the
> books back and forth.

> All in all they did manage to sell about 25
> copies of my book, (not bad for the two
> biggest chains in the country) and I did
> make about $100. Of course I had to give it
> back a couple of times before I finally got
> to keep it.

> Meanwhile, while they were showing me how
> the pro's do it, I sold 2,000 copies of the
> book one at a time, at $16.10 each including
> shipping.

> I've still got a few hundred copies of this
> book left, but I've taken it off the market.
> I give it away as a bonus to those who buy
> my $120. video collection.

> That's why I agree that E-books are dumb.

> You can never have that kind of fun with an
> E-book, and what about UPS? With E-books UPS
> doesn't have anything to haul! Maybe when
> the big guys sell E-books they have UPS haul
> some empty boxes back and forth across the
> country just to keep the economy moving. Ya
> think?

> By the way, I just got done printing out 5
> E-mails from ClickBank. Seems that while I
> was at work today 5 people ordered my dumb
> E-books at $39.99 each. This really is a
> dumb business. I think I'll get a paper
> route and sell a real product!

> Mike McGroarty
> The Dumb ole Dirt Farmer