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Why Publish eBooks?Home > Profit > Other Revenue Streams > eBooks There are over 130 million Internet users in North America alone, and approx. 70,000 new users come online every day. Personal computers and other Internet ready gizmos, are now everywhere, and users range from elementary school children to grandma & grandpa. The Internet has grown from a few techies sending notes to each other over the wires, to a huge and rapidly growing population of consumers. Yes, still sending notes to each other over the wires. The Internet is quickly becoming the 8th wonder of the world and a mega commerce platform. Much to the dismay of some who wanted to keep the Internet all to themselves, the Internet has sprung to life with new blood with all sorts of fresh ideas for the new millennium. One new idea that is beginning to gain a foothold is ebook publishing. Is it just a fad or is it here to stay? First let's take a look at some traditional publishing methods. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many first time authors attempt to get published by sending off their manuscripts to big publishing houses for review and hopefully a contract to publish their book. Meanwhile, they sit around waiting months for the dreaded rejection notice, and sometimes no notice shows up at all. They are under the impression that getting published by a big gun publisher carries with it a certain amount of prestige. The truth is, nobody cares who publishes your book. Most first timers believe that the publisher will promote their book. The truth is, the publisher puts up the money to manufacture the book and has rep's get the book into the stores, but that's it. You'll be responsible for promoting your book at your own expense if you can't negotiate a favorable promotion budget in the contract. As a first time author, you may not be able to negotiate much of a promotion budget into your first contract. So, you'll have to be ready with the money for this yourself and your publisher may want to know how much you have budgeted and a copy of your marketing plan. Another problem with traditional publishing is the time factor. It can take as long as 3 years to get your book published. Most publishers operate within an 18 month production cycle. This means your publish date won't even begin until after a publisher accepts it. What ever time you have invested shipping your manuscript around will be that much longer before your book gets to press. Once you agree to turn your book over to a publisher, you will lose most or even all control of your book. Most publishing contracts, especially with new authors, give the publisher a free hand in any changes to your book they see fit. Traditional publishers have 3 selling seasons. This means your book will be on the shelves for 4 months, after that, they pull it off the shelves to be replaced by other books for that season. Your left over books will have to be "remaindered" meaning they will be sent to warehouse and generally sold in bulk at a fraction of the original manufactured price. Some new authors opt to hire literary agents to go to bat for them thinking that with an agent their bound to get published. This has some truth to it but here to there are problems. You really have to shop around for a good one and even then, depending on the material, agents will reject well over 90% of submitted book manuscripts, plus if they do accept it they take a healthy percentage of sales for their efforts. This is generally a 15% commission. Getting published can really become a daunting task to first time authors, even with the ferocious tenacity of a wolverine it won't happen overnight. On top of all this, as a first time author you really have no bargaining muscle. You might end up signing a contract your not going to be to happy with and the lions share of the books revenue will go to all the middlemen. Unless your Steven King, there are better alternatives. Most first time authors don't really know all the pitfalls to getting published, and after many attempts to breech the defenses of the publishing houses a writer may either give up or try to self publish on their own. This presents a whole new set of problems, but they can be overcome. Even though self publishing is a good choice, you'll still need to gather the information needed to do it yourself, and approx. $13,000 to $15,000 minimum needed to get started? $13,000 to $15,000 will probably cover printing, promotion, and some other expenses for about 4000 copies of a 100 to 250 page book. But, it's still $13,000 and not readily available to most struggling authors. Some first time authors will opt for the vanity publisher. The vanity publisher will be more than happy to look at your manuscript and even give you glowing reviews, but this I'm afraid is false praise. The only thing the vanity publisher want's to do for you is manufacture your book. An author using a vanity press will pay a lot more than printing cost's and will only receive around 40 percent of the retail price of the book. This service will cost you around $10,000 to $30,000 or more, depending on the book. This doesn't include things like editing, promotion, or distribution. Copies sent to columnists for book reviews are generally trashed as soon as they see a subsidy publishers name on your book, and here's why. Review columnists are well aware of the problems associated with vanity publishing. They know there was little attention paid to editing and that little if any promotional effort will take place. So the book will probably not be available in book stores. Of all the choices before you, the best so far would be to self publish your book. The only problem would be gathering the know how and of course the $13,000 to get started. So what if you don't have $13,000? What's next? How in the world are you going to get published? Good questions, let's find out now. Just a few short years ago the idea of distributing books in a digital format seemed a ridiculous notion to many. "It will never fly!", "Nonsense!", they bellowed. The large publishers in their shining glass towers ruled. They scoffed at the very idea of such a scenario. They sat upon their thrones like they always have, decade after decade deciding on what you and I will read next. They would hurl the hard work of many would be authors to the circular file like flicking a piece of lint from a $900 dollar suit. The dream of being published once again dashed upon the jagged rocks of this "Impenetrable Conglomerated Fortress". OK, I got a little carried away. We will never know how many great books have been dispatched to the dumpster, but one thing is for sure, a lot less will be from now on. ============================ The world is changing at a very rapid clip. So rapid in fact, that it's really not possible to predict anything at this point. We can speculate all we want, but the bottom line is, ever since the Internet explosion a few years ago the pace has been just a blur. To suggest any kind of logical destination for the Net, at this point, would be a wild guess at best. However, people will always have wants and needs. As the population continues to warm up to the Internet, it will become second nature for them to actively seek out the things they want and purchase them over the Internet. At no time in our recent history have book authors been in a better position to compete heads up with the Big Boys. The number 1 & 2 selling items on the Net in the United States are "Software and Books", in that order. So if your going to write books and sell them on the Internet, you'll have a very large and responsive market. The only difference will be that your books will be in a digital format. But, before you do anything else you should determine whether or not you want to make a living as a book author. This is extremely important for a couple of reasons. Some authors just like to write, while others want to write books for a living. Deciding which one you are is very important because it may determine what kinds of books you begin to write. Will you write fiction or nonfiction? ========= It can be artful, emotional, imaginative, thought provoking, and entertaining. However, fiction is purchased mainly for its entertainment value and has to compete for entertainment dollars. You will be competing with movies, fishing, golfing, hiking and anything else that entertains the population and of course other works of similar fiction. ============= In general, nonfiction falls into the category of informational types of books where artful, emotional, imaginative, thought provoking language and how to use it is not necessary. You won't need a literary arts degree to write nonfiction and nonfiction doesn't compete for entertainment dollars like fiction. The reason people buy informational types of books is to save time and money, or enhance their lives in some way. This is what most people are interested in anyway and a perfect marriage for information book writers. Rarely are two books exactly alike. With your unique perspective and personality, your competition is just about zero. So lets assume we want to make a living writing non-fiction books. =================== Lets examine an abbreviated process of publishing eBooks and explore some advantages. All of the following will be done using email and websites. It's also abbreviated to save space, but you'll get the idea. (1) Assuming you have a subject or subjects you want to write about, you'll have to research the market and determine if your book has some merit. "Don't Try To Hit A Home run" Some newbee authors will grab an idea and start writing an 800 page manual without first examining the market for it. Approach your book subject with logic and see if there is a market for your books first. (2) Next, you will begin researching the book and gather information. (3) Next, instead of writing a full blown book or manual, you could write a small 30 page report, a booklet, or just a chapter or two. Then send it off to some experts in the field of your books subject for review. You'll be amazed how helpful they can be. They will often times give suggestions and even correct errors for you, all for free if you do this right. Remember to inject yourself into your books, this is where the rubber really meets the road. By doing this, your unique slant and personality will shine through and your book will really stand out. (4) Next, once you've got your report or booklet cleaned up, you could offer it free for a limited time on your website or even someone else's. You could make this offer conditional by asking for opinions and feedback for the free offer. (5) Next, after you have tested this report or booklet in the open market and got some raving reviews and testimonials, you would have a green light to proceed with your project. Create several eBooks in series or one masterpiece Manual. You already know it will sell by your tests. All of this done digitally, with email and websites. It's my opinion that nonfiction is hands down the best category for eBook publishing and making Internet sales. Information is king on the net, so what better way to make your publishing pay off then to supply people with what they want and need right now. Why wait 3 years to get your book on the shelves? As soon as your eBook is completed it can immediately hit the virtual streets. (6) Another advantage is that it's far easier to change and update a digital book than to change 3000 copies of a book all ready in print sitting in a warehouse somewhere. Updating your eBooks wont involve more printing costs and can extend the life of your eBook indefinately. Now obviously there is a little more to it than what I've just shown you here, but this is the general idea. And it can all be done with email and websites. You could even set yourself up right and sell your eBooks on autopilot! (7) Finally you'll have full control over your book and when it gets published. You won't have publishers and agents to deal with. You'll keep all the profits from your books. Why settle for 6% to 10%, when you can get a 100%? You won't have to wait three years to get published. You won't have remaindered books. You won't need $13,000 to $15,000 to start. Nonfiction eBooks sell very well on the net and it's heating up. Here are a few more good reasons to publish eBooks. ================ With eBook publishing, the use of our resources such as Tree's, diesel fuel, electricity, etc. is greatly diminished. ============ With no printing, storing, or shipping costs, publishers can sell the same quality at reduced prices to consumers, while at the same time earning more profits. It's a classic win-win situation. ================ Just download your book, and start reading. FedEx is a giant snail compared to this. In the time it takes you to start your car to go get a book, you could be reading it with no "Shipping and Handling" charges. ============ With the new electronic reading devices hitting the market, you can carry 20 or 30 maybe more, large books in a single device. A great way to travel. Manufacturers of reading devices are making them water proof so you can read your books in the tub, no more wet pages. ======================= No out of print books ever again and all up to date. This is perfect for: Students, Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists, Engineers, Biologists, the list is endless. ============ Search a document, insert bookmarks, and add cross-referenced hyperlinks, it's easy within eBook formats like (PDF) for example. You can include sound, video, and animation, something that paper books will never have. In conclusion, I would like to say that Electronic Publishing is obviously here to stay. The only question is, will you take advantage of it? |
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