You Can’t Give a Specific eBook as a Gift from the iBookstore? Really?

I’ve had more than one learning curve on this ebook adventure so far. Recently, I’ve had a few people ask how they can give Short Vowel Shorts as gifts to their friends’ kids or to their grandchildren. I figured that it was as simple as going on to the iBookstore and gifting the titles.  It’s possible to gift specific music and apps … but, it’s not possible to gift specific books.

What? I must be clicking the wrong give a gift button. After few internet searches and switching my iPad from Spanish to English, the way that I’ve figured that it’s quasi-possible to give ebooks as gifts via the iBookstore is … ta-da! … to send someone an iTunes egift card and suggest that the recipient then use it to purchase specific titles.

As an author/publisher, with what little I know about conversion rates and loss per click, I can only imagine the loss between an iTunes egiftcard given and a parent with 4 and 5 year olds purchasing the suggested title.

So, it’s not possible to give a specific ebook from the iBookstore. There must be a reason, but it is beyond me.

So, how can people give Short Vowel Shorts or any ebooks as gifts? Enter Gumroad.

I ran across the excellent Forbes article Self Publishing An E-book? Here Are 4 Ways To Leave Amazons 30% Tax Behind, which suggested Gumroad as a possible solution for avoiding the cut of sales that Amazon takes.  I honestly don’t mind Apple or Amazon taking a 30% cut considering the massive infrastructure, customer base and platforms, but I was hooked by the article’s title (blog and book authors take note of the importance and power of a killer title). One of the options he suggests for selling more directly is called Gumroad.

After browsing around the Gumroad site and features, I was intrigued, but still on the fence. One final search led me to ThinkTraffic’s post The PayPal Killer? Sell Anything Online In Seconds with Gumroad (PayPal isn’t an option on Gumroad, and, by the way, another killer title) which allowed me to test it out by downloading a Business Plan Template. Painless. End-user heaven.

Then, finally, ThinkTraffic’s guest post Generosity Pays: Results from Launching a “Pay What You Want” eBook by Tom Morkes, got me off the fence. I signed up for Gumroad this morning, uploaded a pdf and an epub, made them both Pay What You Want and wrote this blog.

So without further ado, I’m giving Gumroad a shot, with indie author hopes that it will help people give my ebooks and the gift of reading.

How does Gumroad enable ebook gift giving?

Since these files are Digital Rights Management (DRM) free, you can download them and email them to your kids so they can open them on their iPads with their kids and grow little grandchildren readers in their laps OR in this case, since this ebook is Pay What You Want, you can buy it and then send the link to your soon-to-be-readers and tell their parents to download it for free because you’ve already bought it for the grandkiddos.

Yay! A way to give the gift of reading!

Click here to try out Gumroad at https://gum.co/FCBBe   Just follow the “Instructions for Parents” in Step 2 Below. Seriously, just grab a copy for free.

Give Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat: A Fun Phonics Story Starring Short Vowel A as a Gift

STEP 1:

Click here to “Buy the Gift” Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat epub (for iPad, iPhone)

STEP 2:

To “Send the Gift,” copy, paste, and email this link: http://gum.co/FCBBe

You might write a little gift note (including the step by step instructions) along the lines of:

Dear soon-to-be reader,

I bought a little ebook for you. It’s super short and super cute. I think that you’ll love learning to read it.  Just have mom or dad follow the instructions below. They can download Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat for free because I already bought it for you as a gift!

Love,

Gramalama

Instructions for Parents: 5 Short Steps to Receiving your Gift

Step 1: from your iPad or iPhone, copy and paste this link http://gum.co/FCvBBepub into your browser

Step 2: click the “I Want This” button

Step 3: enter 0 (zero) in the Name a Fair Price field (which makes the credit card fields disappear)

Step 4: enter your email address and click the “Get” button

Step 5: once the file is downloaded, tap on it and select “Open in iBooks.”

Happy Gifting! & Happy Reading!

For pdf version:

Step 1:

Click here to “buy the gift” Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat (pdf version)

Step 2:

Send the gift (pdf version): Copy, paste and email this: https://gum.co/FCvBBp

You might write a little gift note (including the step by step instructions) along the lines of:

Dear soon-to-be reader,

I bought a little ebook for you. It’s super short and super cute. I think that you’ll love learning to read it.  Just have mom or dad follow the instructions below. They can download Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat for free because I already bought it for you as a gift!

Love,

Gramalama

Instructions for Parents: 5 Short Steps to Receiving your Gift

Step 1: copy and paste this link https://gum.co/FCvBBp into your browser

Step 2: click the “I Want This” button

Step 3: enter 0 (zero) in the Name a Fair Price field (which makes the credit card fields disappear)

Step 4: enter your email address and click the “Get” button

Step 5: once the file is downloaded, open and read