It has been almost two years since I received my first ebook card to sell. I remember how eager I was then to have the cards and get out to conventions to sell them.
A lot has changed since then. Mostly, my eyes have been opened to how ebook cards are viewed by the purchasing public.
Unfortunately, my early optimism has not panned out as I expected. That isn’t for lack of effort on my part, however.
The problem is, most people who own an eReader of one kind or another are not terribly technical. They like going onto Kobobooks.com or Amazon Kindle and pushing a button to have the book ordered, paid for and automatically delivered to their device.
Add in the complexity of going to a special URL, typing in a code, downloading the format of choice and then loading it onto the device? It just isn’t happening.
It takes a while to explain so people get it and, even once a card sells (yes, I have sold a few), rarely is it ever activated. I think only those people who are already using services like Smashwords have the level of comfort needed to use them effectively.
It has been a worthy experiment so far. One I haven’t yet given up on. Perhaps when I have a few more on my display will people start paying more attention.
