One of the biggest innovations of the past 15 years is e-books, and not just because they are so convenient, portable, and affordable. The invention of e-books also broke down many barriers to would-be authors who used to find it impossible to get published. Now, instead of having to convince a publishing company to invest their money to print your book – which is especially difficult if you are not yet an established or famous author – you can write it and have it published without hassles, almost immediately. Here are five tips that can help you if you want to write an e-book and get it published and sold.
#1 E-Books are Easy Books
You don’t have to get permission from any editor or publisher because you call the shots yourself as a self-published author. That also gives you more leeway if you start selling your books to retain more of the revenue…whereas with traditional books the distributors and bookstores typically take a huge chunk of that for themselves. Once you have your e-book produced, you then have access to a worldwide audience of readers, too, which is why even some of the world’s most well-known authors have started writing books for e-book distribution instead of going the traditional route with ink and paper publishers. It’s easier, faster, potentially more profitable, and you can promote to readers everywhere. You can reach those readers more efficiently, and it is extraordinarily cheaper when compared to old-fashioned publishing. #2
#2 Focus on What You Know and Love
Rather than trying to reach beyond your comfort zone, just focus on a topic you love, a skill you know, or an area of expertise that you have mastered. Or just try telling an interesting story in your own voice. There are people who published e-books while working as house cleaners, for instance, and their books taught other people how to professionally clean an office or home and then turn that know-how into a career. You might know how to fix cars, for instance, and just by explaining how to troubleshoot common problems you may have enough valuable content to write an e-book and start selling it around the world. People who have a green thumb have written successful gardening books, and those who know how to cook have written popular cookbooks. Others have succeeded by writing children’s stories, sci-fi novels, erotica, detective stories, or romance novels.
#3 Publish Books Even If You Aren’t a Writer
The sky’s the limit. Pick any genre that suits you and start writing. The key is to tap into whatever your passion or expertise happens to be, and then share that with readers.
If you aren’t a trained writer, that doesn’t have to be an obstacle. Many people hire ghostwriters or editors to help them handle that part of the process. You can find lots of good writers who will use your rough draft and then polish it up and make it sound totally professional. There are even people who can take recordings of you talking and transcribe those audio notes into a book. Many people who publish their memoirs, for instance, use that method. If it is a how-to book, and if you know how to teach that skill to someone else, then chances are you can create a book of those lessons and tips. Just speak to your readers the way you would talk to a friend, and then type it out as your manuscript…or dictate to a writer who can put it down on paper in your words and make it sound totally professional.
#4 Technical Considerations
One of the recommended formats for e-books is PDF files, because they are easy to create, you don’t need expensive software, and they maintain their visual integrity over many different digital platforms. If you write a book and save it in PDF format, for instance, all the features should show up whether you view it on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. It’s also important to remember that old saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” But in this case, keep in mind that people do…so you want your cover to attract them enough that will open the book and explore it. That’s when a professional graphic designer may be useful and worth hiring. They can bring the book to life by giving a beautiful, compelling graphic exterior.
#5 Promoting and Selling Your E-Books
Once your book is ready, it’s just a matter of giving it exposure to potential readers. There has never in history been a better time to do this, easily and inexpensively. You can sell e-books on Amazon.com, which is the largest consumer products platform in history – which was launched as the world’s biggest-ever bookstore. You can also upload your titles to Free-eBooks.net, which is one of the leading global distributors of e-books. More than 20 million people have downloaded books by authors from the site and other operated by its parent company, Paradise Publishers. The distribution network reaches people in major languages in dozens of countries. Each month tens of thousands of readers visit Paradise Publishers sites, and that gives you one of the largest audiences possible. That success and outreach is reflected in the data that shows that Free-eBooks.net and other sites under the Paradise Publishers umbrella such as its Spanish-language site, consistently rank at the top of Google’s search engine results. That could be e-books that you authored, popping up on those popular searches…so if you have creative ideas, don’t hesitate…start writing!
1 Comment
E-books are so much easier to lug around too!