ebooks

They can be, if the Word document is available. Most of my ebooks are from a different publisher than the hardcopy.

 

If you are writing children or young adult, think of how ebooks will isolate your target market. From what I know, kids these days in school are still growing up reading actual books.

 

Agreed for my personal writing.


From a strictly business perspective, E-books make sense. Low-overhead higher profit margin, and readily accessible to anyone who wants it. However, to be considered anything other than a "self-published" author they need to be professionally done and preferably well marketed. The reclusive writer no longer has a chance, you have to be a writer/PR agent/advertising guru/jack-of-all-trades. to be financially successful.

 

deleted not relevent

 

I would have to both agree and disagree here.

No, e-books don't have that tangible appeal that picking up a book gives.

However, I work in a bookstore and just because the book is on the shelf doesn't mean it will be found. We send books back to the publishers all the time because the don't sell.

If you want to make your book, or e-book, a success it takes work. You have to take a certain amount of the promotion upon yourself in today's publishing world. The money for marketing "unknown" authors just isn't there. That's why a lot of publishers ask potential authors for a marketing plan when they submit their work. (It's not something I relish, believe me, but it's the harsh reality these days.)

 

My biggest question is if I publish my novel as an ebook, what will stop it from being lost in the abyss? I have not used a Kindle or other reader yet so am not sure what that audience goes through when searching the electronic library out there. Can any one give me a brief description of how it is displayed? Do they categorize books in a certain way into different fields? Do newer books show up somewhere specifically? In general it seems like the number of ebooks would be especially great due to lack of cost that as a non-recognized name I would be on page 150 000 and be missed by someone scanning through for something to buy. Any info on how books are displayed on these services would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Hi, I don't have much advice for you as I'm new at all this myself and I've been wondering the same things.

From what I understand there's much more onus on the author to market themselves with an ebook though social networking sites, creating your own website/ blog, getting people to review your book, joining chat groups etc You need to build awareness so that people will specifically search for your book through Amazon or can follow links to the site they can buy it from. This is true even if you're not self-publishing because epublishers seem to expect it these days.

I find it all a little daunting and like you I'm a bit scared that my ebook is going to disappear without a trace. I'd rather spend that time working on my next book but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to get your name out there.

I'm really interested to find out what has worked for other ebook authors as I know there are many on this site.
.

 

Don't count on it being visible in the catalogue - it's huge, and people usually search for specific books or authors, and are unlikely to stumble onto your book by chance. You'll most likely need to market your books in other ways. (Word-of-mouth, public performances, ads, having a popular blog, etc).

 

You will need your own professional purpose built website which will have all info on you and your ebooks and print books. Also with this website you can add news on your up and coming, in process of being written projects.

You can sell your books from your own site or direct interested parties to third party websites (ebook stores) which host your books.

But again how do people find your website? Your website has to be search engine optimised or SEO'd, which means it complies with internet rules and has what the search engines (google etc) want when looking for websites which have the information that a searcher has entered in a search.

For example an internet searcher wants and enters a search for "Murder Mystery ebooks" Then your website must have this same written information included in discriptions about the stories of your ebooks or a particular ebook. If it has the google will pick out your website and if all things come together you will be on the 1st page of a search where the interested internet searcher clicks onto your website to find all about your ebook and then if they like the sound of it they may purchase it from your website (if it is set up for this process) or go off to where you redirect them to (another 3rd party ebook store/website).

Internet websites (3rd party) which stock many ebooks or in fact other things for sale can only commit a certain amount of space to display any information about any particular item i.e your ebook. So the more information and updated and accurate information you have about your product somewhere (your own website), then the better it is and the more chance you will have of being found "initially" by a 1st time potential customer. Of course when you have made a sale to a virgin customer, you have them, they will return if they think your work is any good and remember your details so can find your future ebooks anywhere on the internet. It is getting your work found initially that is the problem and this is where the marketing of your product comes in.

The bigger and the more ebook stores there are, the harder it will become for 1st time ebooks to be found and that is why you need something that can portray as much info on your product as possible, which is your very own website.

Hope this makes sense.

 

Hi,

If you publish on Amazon's kindle (the only one I know) there are things you can do to stop your book from being lost in the abyss.

First use the tags,and pick ones that are likely to be used by people as they search out books to read. So for Dragon I used tags like science fiction and space opera and aliens.

Next join some of the kindle community fora. Some of them will be happy to tick the 'like' boxes and tags you picked simply as a mutual back slapping / publishing gimmick. This will hopefully move your book up the list of books in each tag when readers start looking for say books about aliens.

Do also use the create your author page, because readers like to know a little something about the people who write the books.

Then try to get some reviews. Perhaps offer some free copies to anyone in the fora on Amazon that will give you a review. Reviews do help readers decide on purchasing decisions.

Cover art and blurbs are vital of course, to attract people to your book in the first place. If you look at my album of covers you'll see first the cover to 'Thief' which was abysmal and sold about a book a month, and then the cover for 'Maverick' which is much better and currently selling four or five a day.

Now don't forget the synergies of book sales. Each book you sell and which people like, helps to promote your other books. So currently I have three novels and a short story out on kindle. When Maverick started selling, people started buying Thief. Then Dragon came out a couple of weeks ago and started selling immediately, many of those purchasers were people that had also bought Maverick. So think of your authoring days as a long slow process rather then a one hit wonder, and the moment you've finished with your first book, you should be thinking of the next.

Hope that helps.

 

You have to understand that an ebook store is not restricted by physical space like a village or city book store, so the ebook store could in theory list every single book that has ever been written. Now any potential buyer of books can not or will not spend all day wondering through an ebook store as they will in a village or city.

So any new book and new author is going to be hard to find. The ebook store could have a "new authors" page, but every new author from around the world could be on that page, so again you competition is going to be hard going.

Your own personalised advert, secretary, library, agent and may be store is your own website listing and promoting you and your products, but as i said it has to be produced and optimised correctly so you can also be found.

 

Hi Dickens,

Didn't know there was an Kindle millions club - I want to join! At present I'm in the Kindle hundreds club, so a little way to go.

As for money, if he's sold a million on the 35% scheme, he's pocketted $350,000 minus tax. Not a bad little piece of dosh.

About having his own website and selling through that, I'd be worried that it would violate the contract terms and conditions each author has to sign up to when they publish on the kindle.

Cheers.

 

Well having your own website can be used as i explained to drum up interest in you and your products, by portraying as much info on yourself, activities and your books. You then direct the interested purchasers to whoever is listing your books for sale.

As you say the author could be in violation of some kind of contract if they sell from their own website. This could be very true, but i dont know how all this is going to hold up because i was looking only last week and a lot of domain name variations for an ebook store have been already taken.

For example ...... ebookstore .... ebookshop ....ebook-shop .... ebooksonline etc in the common domains seem to have been already purchased.

So my point is, are we going to have many many ebook stores up and running on the internet very soon? Aswell as other internet stores that sell all and every kind of merchandise? If we are they could be selling ebooks in many different formats even without having to purchase a specialised ebook reader so it could be read as a standard document on any pc or other. So contracts limiting you to just one ebook store may not work or would they?

Whatever is the answer it is certainly going to be interesting dont you think?

 

That is true but publishers can only use the same mechanisms to achieve this which are open to everybody else.

As i have already said when your book or a publishers book is on a 3rd party website then it will be amongst others (thousands) of the same theme. Publishers will get around this by having there own ebook website and will employ others to get their website at the top of the searches and by using pay per click adverts to get near the number one slot in the searchers view. Any Author can do exactly the same with their own purpose built website.

The reasons are simple............Doesn't matter who you are or how big you are. On the internet google call the shots and you have to play their game.

 

You underestimate the marketing capabilities of publishers, and overestimate the potential of individuals;

This just isn't true - a publisher will be able to apply a marketing budget with marketing skills that an author cannot hope to achieve. You cannot simply create a website, pay for some google ads, and expect your product to sell.

The majority of ebook sales are through sites that are tied to the hardware - for instance the kindle user uses his device to log in Amazon, picks a book & downloads it. The publishers work with Amazon to make sure their books are the 'featured' ones in the same way they try to get their books on the front shelves in book stores.

I've no problems with self-publishing ebooks, but I think it's realistic to see it as just vanity publishing without the overheads.

 

I never said it was easy and I know as marketing and the internet is part of what i do.

But my point or points were......the same options are open to everyone. Yes it is easier if you have money but isnt everything? But a new author or any author from now on will need a website if only as a reference to point people to and explain about his/her products. Success will only come if the product is any good and people know about it, but with no hard copy and basically just a catalogue number hidden away in the depths of a website with thousands or possibly tens of thousands of others, it would simply be a waste of time. So you need something to promote and list and explain your product, then build from there.

 

I came across this topic from skimming the home page, and well, figured I'd offer my two cents.

I cannot agree more with the poster whom I quoted above me. Ebooks and their carrying devices are easily going to become the way of the future. Some people want to cling onto the notion of hardbacks and paperbacks, but like the argument earlier boasted of how we all moved from Vinyl to CDs, I believe this argument follows the same.

People like to say, "But an eReader alone is $100 or more, how is that economical?" Honest direct answer; it's not. I have a Nookcolor, and love it to death, but there would have been no way in hell I would have paid $250 for it. I was fortunate to have one gifted to me for Christmas. However, that's not the only place you can read ebooks. iPads, iTouch, apps for Android, PC and more are all ways you can read an ebook without the purchase of an eReader.

But then the next complaint I hear all the time is, "Okay, I have an eReader. But there's no way I'm paying $14.99 for an ebook! I can get it cheaper in store!" And you know what? You're absolutely right. Laurel K. Hamilton's newest Anita Blake book came out on the Nook market for $14.99 ebook price. Uhm, hello? The paperback is probably 7.99-8.99 in stores. But you can't blame them, blame publishing houses. They mandate the prices. The idea that they will be overturned by a digital market scares the crap out of them. When people like you and me can publish solo a new book at .99-1.99 and make 70% profit off of it, sans agent or publishing house, they get a little twitchy. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these higher market authors and books put these crazy prices up just to keep people away from the ebook market and stick to the comfort of their paperbacks.

So to the OP, yes, you can technically profit off of your ebook as long as you don't get shoveled into the pile of newbie writers who think their book is worth 9.99 on a digital network, and if you market it properly, aaaaand if you have a well written book. If you want inspiration, just check out Amanda Hocking.

 

That's rude, it could also be that the author in question is very shy or has very little self-esteme. I have a friend who is a wonderful writer, but is terrified that I would say her writing is utter crap, me, her bestist friend ever, who has told her on multipul occasions that she's a great writer, with marvolous talent and that I was super excited to keep reading what she let me read. On that same hand, I'm really, really shy, I mean, when I'm at the grocery store I use self-check out because I don't want to talk to the cashire. I always stand a step behind my mom or dad when I meet new people, when we pair up for class assignments I sit and wait for someone to come to me because I'm scared of aproaching people. At the new student social at my collage I was lucky to get sucked into a great group. I don't go to resturaunts by myself because I don't want to talk to the waiter or the cashier (in the case of fast food restraunts). I've only recently worked up the courage to enter a bank and cash my own pay checks. The only cashiers I enjoy talking to (even flirting with the guys, not sure if it's been changed yet, I am a girl) is in Hot Topic or a book store...and online, but that's because we're not face to face.

It is a dibilitating problem my mom, dad and I really have to consciencely work on. That being said, I'm terrified of publishers and agents, not because my work is bad (though it'd have to be exceptional for me to even consider loosing it on the world), but because I cannot talk to the people. It's also my biggest problem with my acting dreams, I couldn't sing confidently for the chorus director at my high school until this past year, after 8 auditions.

It always amuses my classmates when I say how shy I am, because until we got to high school I was really open, but we were a class of 30 and for the most part we'd been together since kindergarden. Junior year in H English we had to say three things about ourselves, one of mine was that I was shy, my best guy friend called out from across the room "That's not true!" and I countered with "That's cause I know you really well". Which is true, I'm a chatterbox with my friends because I know them really well.

~Phantom

 

I'm currently looking into E-Books due to the genre I am writing...L-Romance mostly which doesn't have a big market with traditional publishers.

There are a lot of E-Book publishers who look at novels and short-stories so I am very interested in it and my friends are calling around for me also.

 

I am looking into publishing my novel as an ebook. Can anyone(preferably someone who has done it) describe how this is done? What common errors to look to avoid, and maybe which option I should use to do it? Thank you for any useful info or tips.

 

But an ebook from a known publisher has the advantage that it's _from a known publisher_. Yes, this sounds circular, and it is, but that doesn't change the fact that people will assume that a book from a known publisher with a known track record is likely to have a reasonable level of quality, while a book from a random person is far less likely to have that level of quality. A book from a publisher has been through a selection process and an editor. A self-published book has not.

Money can buy marketing, but money cannot buy instant reputation. Publishers will have an advantage in selling ebooks, and I don't see that advantage going away in the foreseeable future.

ChickenFreak

 

Hi Cain,

First yes professional publishers will always be able to get advantages even in selling e-books. But speaking for the kindle users, there are ways to eat into their advantages.

Using well chosen tags, having eye catching covers and interesting blurbs, and of course a good author's page will be a huge advantage. Then as far as sales go, the key thing seems to be to get people to 'like' your book - thats a tag at the top of the book page, then to tick your 'tags' so that's basically agreeing with your labels as to what the books about which helps promote your book up the list of all books with those same tags. After that you want some reviews, and a few sales. So pricing low, many use 99 cents, I'm sticking to $2.99 so I can get the 70% royalty option, and giving away a few evaluation copies will help.

Then join a kindle community forum or three so as to get other people's ideas, connect up to other blogs, there are a lot out there who don't write but have blogs promoting indie authors, join up with groups like Goodreads to get your books listed etc.

Currently Maverick is sitting somewhere in the seven thousands in sales ranks of e-books, Dragon in the mid twenty thousands, and since that's out of over three quarters of a million e-books available on the kindle I have to believe that means they're outselling many professionally published e-books.

E-publishing does help to level the playing field, but no amount of computer savy and web brilliance will make up for the fact that a book is not well written or a poor story. So before anything else, make sure the book is up to par, and get critiques before you publish, and edit, edit, edit. As an example my first novel Thief was not ready for publishing when I first put it on the kindle a bit over a year ago, and its sales rank even having received a boost from the sales of Maverick and Dragon is somewhere in the hundred plus thousands.

Jefferson, you can go to my album page on this forum and that'll lead to you to my novels (Dark Elves isn't published yet as I'm editing still), on the kindle, and maybe it'll give you some ideas of what to do and what not to do. But in the meantime my first advice is before anything else, make sure your book is ready to be published. Even though I am as excited as hell about getting the next one up and published, I won't rush the editing process. Because just as one good book will hopefully lift sales of my other books, one bad book may well drag them down to.

Oh and consider this writing thing as a marathon not a sprint. Almost no one makes it as an overnight one hit wonder. But if your stories are good and well written then you can forge a reputation over time and slowly grow into a succesful author (I hope).

Ashrynn, if I read your post correctly L is for lesbian romance? Hope I'm not making a mistake. However if I am right and you want to e-publish and sell, you're in a very specialty market. Tags, getting the right ones that people who want to read these books will search, will be absolutely critical to your success. And so too will be joining a kindle forum (if you go kindle and there are other options), that deals with this particular category of fiction.

Lastly, for both of you I'd recommend, if you haven't already, trying to get an agent and going the traditional route first. I went e-book because I couldn't get an agent, and I am still open to getting one in the future for later books. I'm a novice in this industry and I think an agent could open up whole doors for me that I couldn't kick down by myself. I think the same will hold true for most aspiring writers.

Cheers and best of luck, Greg.

 

Despite my dissing of self-published ebooks, I do find the idea of succeeding due to merit appealing. Have you seen Julie Orton's story of how she got the first of her trilogy to be priced for free, which led to excellent sales of the other two books? (I won't post a link, seems a sure way to get your post deleted. Easily googleable though). Do you think that's a good way to go? I've got some reservations that it's just extending the 99c devaluation of the market (ie where next? Free ebookmark with every ebook?)

I'm just not keen on being author, publisher, marketeer all in one though. It's hard enough just being the author...

 

Well, publishers today usually insist that authors promote their books themselves, so the individual author's effort can't be negligible compared to the publisher's marketing budget.

 

Greg although you are correct in all you say, the problem is that the more books that are loaded to a website and the more in each section (horror, thriller. sci-fi, etc) the less effective tags become and the more lost in the "needle in a haystack" each book becomes. This is simply because everybody uses the same mechanisms to get their book found by potential purchasers.

"Tags" used to be an essential part of finding a website amongst the millions out there, but because the same thing happened, Tags are no longer important or even have much if any relevence in finding websites.

I think there is going to be an explosion in ebook websites as i have mentioned earlier and i think mobile ebook readers will become dirt cheap, very simple to operate with less features and accept simple formats from all the differing ebook website downloads which can be uploaded via PC and memory card to ebook reader.

As regards publishers, yes people will stick to those who they know but they simply have no control over what is happening and could even become forgotton as far as ebooks are concerned as this develops, as the young will only know the electronic devices and not the old paper.

Also on this point any website that hosts ebooks will not be short of willing authors to upload their books and divide their percentage (70%-30%?) off the sales. When a publisher comes along, somebody is going to lose out because the publisher being the middleman is going to want a percentage from the sales........should be interesting? But i should imagine any publisher will have their own website listing their own books, which is what i keep suggesting authors should do also.