The eBook Phenomenon

Home > Profit > Other Revenue Streams > eBooks

by Peter Cooper

The eBook is surely the booming piece of technology in 2000. Before this year we rarely heard of any eBooks and those that were available sold in limited numbers and weren't going to pose any major threat to the publishing world any time soon. Suddenly, however, this has changed.

Stephen King has been heralded as the 'king' of eBooks this year, with a turnover of hundreds of thousands of dollars for his large-scale eBook project entitled "The Plant". Typically, however, it's not the big names breaking into this new world of book publishing. Anyone can join in the fun, with a number of companies offering to sell your eBooks for you on their sites. It surely is a booming market.

Before you start to write your first eBook it's important to learn what makes an eBook special, how the distribution and creation processes are different from print, and the general direction you need to take. Let's cover some of these bases now.

The Advantages of eBooks

The benefits of writing your own eBook are numerous. There's also a whole variety of uses for them. You could use it to promote your business and highlight your skills, make money, promote a cause, or even just do it to make a name for yourself in a certain topic area!

Easy to distribute. eBooks are extremely easy to distribute compared with paper books. eBooks don't need to be shipped in trucks and placed on shelves in bookstores. They can go straight from the writer's computer to the reader's computer. In many cases this takes just seconds. Try to beat that for easy distribution!

Cheap to make. Since the distribution is so simple, this drives the cost down. eBooks also don't need to be printed onto paper and bound, which can be an extremely expensive process. All you're distributing is files and these are cheap (or free!) to make.

You are in full control. The eBook revolution has truly put the author in control of their own destiny. You can submit your eBook to be distributed by other companies or even to be published in full by companies. They may want to edit your content but, at the end of the day, all the decisions are yours and you have the option to distribute your eBook yourself. With paper based books, this is far more difficult and very costly.

Pick a subject.. Any subject! Book stores will only stock certain types of books, and if your book is particularly controversial (in a bad way) or taboo then you might not have any luck. On the Internet, however, things are different. All types of subversive materials are available and, if you so wish, you are free to add to them.

How Paper Can Be Better

You're probably not reading this article to find out why paper books are better than electronic ones, but it's important to highlight the differences between the two.

One of the benefits of a paper book is that the reader can take it and read it wherever they wish. I see a lot of people reading books on the train, but I doubt they'd be so enthusiastic to read it on their notebook PC while on the train, or even just a printout! If you want to write romance novels then realize that an eBook isn't the ideal method of distribution, since most people read these books whilst traveling or in their armchair.

Reading speed is also higher with a paper book. This means that eBooks of a similar length to a book will seem more of a 'drag' compared to their paper equivalents, even if they're the same length! Reading off of a computer screen takes more effort and isn't as fluid as paper. One day this may change, especially with 300dpi screens hopefully becoming standard within 10 years, but for now it's still a problem. New display standards such as Microsoft's Cleartype system are trying to combat the poor resolution of text on current displays but there is still a long way to go.

What You Need to Know

The best thing about the eBook industry is that it's easy to join in. You don't need to be a big shot author or a respected household name to get onto the ladder. Of course, you can't just expect to release any old eBook and make $10,000 in your first month, it just doesn't work like that unless you're Stephen King. You need to work on the following:

Your concept. We're going to cover this in our next section which covers the creation of your eBook and choosing a topic.

The construction of your eBook We're going to cover this by explaining how an eBook is 'packaged', how your readers will view and read the book, and the software you might need.

How to get your eBook read by the masses! If you've written a useful document, you don't want it to be left alone for years, do you? We're going to cover the basics of promoting your eBook, how to sell it, and how to get people to read it.

If you want to become a potential best selling eBook author then the future is bright. Sales of eBooks are increasing and the term is becoming more understood and accepted each daily. eBooks are just about to reach a 'critical mass' where their success will be guaranteed by sheer numbers. Get in at the ground floor!