Category: Author Platform

Have you heard? Ebooks are taking over the world! Print books will cease to exist in only a matter of a few short years!

The electronic book has changed the landscape for publishing and consuming books. But is the print book really going to go extinct?

Not in my lifetime.

And here’s why.

Imagine a horizontal line. The line represents value – the left side is lowest value and the right side is highest value to the reader.

Now, the next thing I want you to do is to start picturing different types of content and where they fall along this line that represents value to the reader.

On the far left I would put articles and blog posts. Not that these are totally invaluable, but they just have the least value to the reader. They are designed to be short(er). I would also put newspapers nearby on the line.

Now a little further to the right – toward the middle of this imaginary line – go magazines. Now, a magazine is just a collection of articles, right? True. But they tend to be a collection of articles around a subject. So you can learn more about a subject from a magazine than from an article. Again, I know there are exceptions to this, but just bear with me.

Without moving any further to the right, I would slot the ebook. Ebooks may be extremely informative. You may know of ebooks that have 1,000 or more pages. They are truly comprehensive.

But on my value line, they are no more valuable than magazines. More on why later.

Now move over to the right – almost to the end of the line – and put paperback and hardback books. You could group audio and video files here too. Again, there are exceptions.

Now, why are ebooks slotted in the middle on our imaginary value line?

Here’s why: I put ebooks with magazines because most magazines tend to be read once and then thrown out. The same goes for ebooks. How many books do you have on your “bookshelf” on your Kindle / Ipad? A lot if you’re like me.

But they are collecting virtual dust. I don’t go back to them.

And generally, if I find an ebook I really like, then I go buy the print version so that I can have it for reference.

So the value to me has a lot to do with the content of course. But it also has to do with how I can use the book later. Where I can find it. The fact that I can use a print book and not be sitting in front of my computer or on my iPad is important to me.

At night, I like to read, but I don’t like to read from a computer screen. They’re too bright for right before bed. I want to read a print book.

Now, if you’re with me so far, you can also start to make sense out of how these various pieces of content are priced. As an author, how much you make from your content goes across the very same value line. You can’t expect to make much, if anything, from an article or blog post. But you can expect to make a great deal from a hardcover book sale.

And pricing is the same. Articles / blog posts are generally free to read. Magazines and ebooks cost something, but it is relatively trivial. And then print books cost the most. They have the most value.

Finally, what about the authors of all this content?

The perceived “value” – or maybe expert status is a better way to describe it – works along the very same value line, doesn’t it? An article writer probably has less notoriety than a print book author. So your perceived value works along the same value line. Which means it is a good idea to publish your books in print.

So is the print book going away?

Absolutely not. Smart publishers and authors see the value in print books. The ebook is clearly a ground-breaking invention that will continue to shape the book world. But the ebook will struggle to every have a higher value than the print book to readers. It’s as much a psychological value as it is a practical value.

As an author, you should absolutely continue publishing print books.  Not only because you make more money per book but also because you gain a higher perceived value as an author.

Photo credit: elmorsa on Flickr

Wishing you sold a few more books each month?

Let me share a little secret with you – if you put your book up for sale in more places, you will sell more books! Okay, this is not meant to be arrogant or anything like that.

As obvious as it sounds, most authors never publish their books in more than one place. They miss out on a lot of additional sales becuase of it.

Sure, Kindle may control 70+ percent of the ebook market. But hey, that is not 100%. And there are plenty of people who don’t like Amazon or Kindle. So they do their shopping elsewhere.

Why should you miss out on those potential sales? All you have to do is get your book published on those other platforms and you will be good to go!

What’s that? You want to know what the best other platforms are? Well, let me tell you.

Kindle

At the risk of being obvious, let’s start with Kindle. Kindle is the biggest platform and just in case you’re just starting out in publishing, it is the first place you want to publish your ebook.

Since Kindle controls the biggest piece of the market you will get the most exposure from them. That does not mean you will get the most sales! But for sure the most exposure.

Also, it is important to note, that before you publish your ebook on another platform, make sure you have un-enrolled yourself from Amazon / Kindle’s KDP Select program. KDP let’s you put your book on free promotion  – but the fine print is that they require that they are the exclusive seller of the book.

All that means is you can’t have your ebook for sale on Apple and Kindle at the same time if your book is enrolled in the KDP Select program.

Smashwords

I put Smashwords next this list not because it is the second biggest platform. However, for most authors, the technical hurdles to publishing are real. And Smashwords helps you overcome this by allowing you to upload your book and they then publish it for you to the Apple and Barnes & Noble ebook platforms.

Of course, you will have to share a bit of your royalty with Smashwords, but other than the royalty share, there are no other expenses involved. They will even provide an ISBN for you free (which is required for putting your book on Apple’s iBooks store).

Smashwords has a book selling platform of their own. So by loading your book on Smashwords, you get your book on at least three of the big ebook selling platforms all at one time!

Kobo

Kobo is an up and coming e-book platform. Compared to Kindle and Smashwords Kobo has the easiest to use interface. Setting up your book on Kobo is really easy.

Kobo does not require an ISBN number however, they do recommend that you have one.

Apple

For most authors publishing through Smashwords is the easiest way to get your book on Apple. However, you could increase your overall royalty by publishing directly on the Apple platform.

The important thing to understand about publishing on Apple, is that you need to set up a publishing account and you need special software to publish your book.

If you already use an Apple computer, you can download the special software, called iBooks author, for free. And setting up a publishing account on Apple will only take you a couple of weeks to get approved.

Your website

Finally, you should plan to publish a PDF version of your book on your own website. Throughout this publishing process, you will be building your own brand and your own website presence. You can easily set up a PayPal account and start charging people to buy your book from your own webpage.

You can also do promotions from your website like giving away a chapter for free. And if your book links back to your website, you can also give readers access to special insights about your book they won’t otherwise be able to get from the book selling platforms.

Why Should You Go To All This Trouble?

Why should you go to all this trouble? By selling your book on multiple platforms you will be increasing your exposure as an author and at the same time making more money each month from book sales.

Plus, by going through this effort once you will have set up all the accounts you need on the book platforms and so it will be easy to publish everywhere with your second book.

Summary

If you would like to sell more books each month consider putting your book for sale on more e-book publishing platforms. The more places people can buy your book the better.

Photo by Stephh922 on Flickr