It’s time to make changing the world effective!
Are you an author who can make a difference?
Welcome to OpenBooks.com - the first eBookstore where your message can reach passionate readers that want to end global suffering and have a real impact on the world we live in.
Sounds idealistic? Literature can be a powerful tool. Thanks to authors like you - who can share their experience, knowledge, personal stories, expertize - we’re creating a community of effective advocates with one goal: do the most good we can do! Our readers will support you by Paying What They Want for your books or becoming your patrons as long as they find benefit in your work. We’ll help you with marketing and PR.
Why?
Because the more we know, the more we can give|change|improve|create
Let’s build this place together!
Join usor learn more:
INTRODUCTION
Gain 70% in net revenue, free blogging space and the priceless support of a community that shares your values.
ADD YOUR BOOK
Ready to join us and make changing the world effective? Take a few simple steps.
REQUIREMENTS
How should you prepare your eBook? Find out more about our requirements.
FAQs
The most common questions with our short answers.
We believe in simple rules and we invite you to share them with us:
Pay it FORWARD
Let your work be shared and you can make a real impact
What goes around, COMES AROUND
if you believe that your work is meaningful, brings an important topic to light or is simply beautiful and helpful, people will support you by Paying What They Want.
So what can you gain with OpenBooks.com?
SUPPORT
YOU JOIN A COMMUNITY THAT UNDERSTAND YOUR VALUES
FAIRNESS
YOU GET 70% OF NET REVENUE FROM EACH COPY THAT YOU SELL
PROMOTION
WITH YOUR AUTHOR PROFILE AND FREE BLOG
FREEDOM
YOU KEEP ALL THE RIGHTS TO YOUR WORK
GRATITUDE
FROM THOSE WHO CAN’T AFFORD TO BUY MANY BOOKS
CONNECTION
FREE AMA & WEBINAR SESSIONS WITH READERS
How does it work?
PAY WHAT YOU WANT AFTER READING
Our system is based 100% on reciprocal altruism. This means we trust our readers.Each person can download your whole book after giving us an email address. Payment can be made before, during and after reading because each eBook comes with a payment link embedded in the file. It’s a friendly reminder that encourages readers to support the author by Paying What They Want (we use similar reminders in our newsletters).
ENCOURAGED SHARING
We encourage readers to copy and share your book files freely. This is the best way to reach a wide audience and get more contributions. We want to collect as many payments as possible so that you can keep on writing and publish your work in our open model. It’s the only way meaningful books can be available for those who can’t afford to pay much or can’t pay at all.
70% SHARE FOR YOU
From each sold copy, you get 70% of net revenue. What does this mean?
If the reader decides to pay $10, we need to take away
- PayPal payment cost, which is $0.30 + 2.9% per transaction (in this case $0.59)
- VAT (in the European Union VAT is 23%, meaning $2.30 ;( )
What’s left - $7.11 - we divide between you: $4.98 and OpenBooks.com: $2.13
If the reader lives in a country without VAT for eBooks, your 70% of $10 can easily be $6.59.
WHY DO WE TAKE 30%?
We are constantly coming up with new useful features (we want to add a 'find a patron' feature in August, which will make it possible to collect money from readers monthly), so we need to cover the salaries of a small IT crew (4 members). We also use the funds to market your books (and our 30% covers the salary of a marketing/PR specialist, a project manager who’s luckily also a content specialist, plus the costs of FB ads, AdWords ads, content pieces, organizing AMA sessions and webinars). We’d also like to invest in a CSR project that will reach those in a need of a good education. When OpenBooks.com becomes very profitable, we’d like to decrease our share, to invest more in authors that can make a difference.
MAJOR DECISIONS IN YOUR HANDS
You can upload as many titles as you want. You decide about the publication date, description, and recommended price. You can hide your eBook from the website, delete or replace the file at any given moment. You can also withdraw your money on demand to your PayPal account after one month from your first publication (we need this time to verify the authenticity of your account and work).
Will you join us?
Yep, sign me upOf all the possible ways to make a difference, there’s one you - an author - can do:
sharing your work with others to create a meaningful impact on a massive scale.
If you’re ready to join us, follow a few simple steps:
CREATE YOUR AUTHOR PROFILE
UPLOAD YOUR BOOK (EPUB, DOC, MOBI OR PDF FORMAT).
FILL IN ALL MANDATORY FIELDS AND SET THE RECOMMENDED PRICE.
Each eBook goes through a moderation process and if everything goes smoothly, your book should appear in the service within 72 hours.
NEATLY PREPARE AN EPUB VERSION OF YOUR BOOK
We accept ePUB, DOCX, MOBI and PDF files. For a standard eBook we don’t recommend PDF format because it’s impossible to convert it to other, good quality formats. However, if you have your book only in PDF, no problem, we’ll sell it as PDF only (which is still a very popular format).
DESIGN, ORDER OR FIND A BEAUTIFUL COVER THAT WILL PERFECTLY CONNECT WITH YOUR MESSAGE
We don’t accept eBooks with poorly prepared cover images. Not only does a bad cover make selling books harder, but it really hurts the content. If you put hours, weeks, months or even years to create your masterpiece, make sure that cover matches the quality of what you have created.
ADD YOUR PHOTOGRAPH AND SHORT AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
In an open model, which we use in OpenBooks.com, it’s very important to create a personal connection with readers. If you want to stay anonymous you can always create a pen name and avatar, but it’s very important to introduce yourself to the public. It’s easier to make decision to pay for the book and to come back for more if you know that you are supporting a real person.
STAY REASONABLE
We are not going to add to the service any books that are promoting racism, homophobia, chauvinism, speciesism or any kind of discrimination.
DESCRIBE YOUR BOOK IN A FEW BUT JUST THE RIGHT WORDS
Try not to reveal too much but give readers something to whet their appetite. Focus on the strongest points of the book and try to introduce them in few short sentences that can be easily read.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
Simply register at OpenBooks.com and create your personal Author Profile. Upload your eBooks and enjoy our groundbreaking publishing model. If you meet any difficulties just send us an email at: ula@openbooks.com and we will get back to you.
DO YOU REQUIRE EXCLUSIVITY?
No. We believe that books are for everyone and should be shared. We’re more than happy for you to have your books on any other distribution platform. Just keep in mind that our PWYW model is a bit different because it’s based on global sharing. Once your book has gone viral we can’t stop readers from sharing it.
HOW WILL MY BOOK BE FEATURED?
Your book can be featured in our articles, newsletters, Twitter buzz and Facebook posts. We can promote it with AdWords, FB films, a hot spot on our website or we can organize an Ask Me Anything session with you. In the near future we’d like to start Pay What You Want webinars, where you could share your expertize with engaged readers and promote your work. You can also run your own blog on our platform and we’ll gladly promote top content pieces you create.
WHY DO YOU LET PEOPLE DOWNLOAD MY BOOK FOR FREE?
Remember, our downloads are open but we require an email address from a reader before we allow the book to be downloaded. Each eBook comes with a payment link that can be used at any given moment. We also never advertise your books as free content.The Pay What You Want pricing system works only when the author and readers share an understanding of mutual benefits.The flexible pricing system shows you care about them and they can’t forget that money is a really simple and important validation of your work. You also recommend a price that you think your book is worth, so there’s constant connection between your needs and the person in front of the screen.
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO DEAL WITH AMAZON PRICE MATCH PROCEDURE?
We don’t have a fixed price, instead the reader decides what they feel the book is worth. This is why there’s no exact value which could be a benchmark for the price match procedure. We don’t foresee this as an issue that would encroach on Amazon’s pricing. This is, however, Amazon’s decision and we can’t predict it. Please contact them if in doubt.
Contact Us
If you want to help with our project or have any questions,
don't hesitate to contact us at: ula@openbooks.com
We're happy to be part of the wonderful adventure of getting your book out there and building an audience.
Also note: if you need a little bit of important assurance, check our Publishing Agreement and End-User License Agreement.