Enter The World Of Ebooks And Ereaders For Profit or Non Profit
Posted: Wednesday, September 21, 2011
by elle kynzer
When I was about thirteen, I started writing poetry, and putting it in a box. The poems traveled with me for years, to many new destinations, for I was a wanderer. Living in many states, absorbing several cultures, and basically, just living on the edge. The box of poetry kept getting bigger, until it screamed," just publish me, Please" So this year I did.
This article, came out of a question someone asked me, when posting a comment on my last article. "Do you self-publish?"
People buy paper books out of their expendable income, and some people have very little of that kind of money, in their budgets. The recession has caused many bookstores to close, in Malls everywhere, and even independents on their own. That fact has created a huge market for ereaders, and ebooks.
The last statistic I saw was that ebooks were selling 1-10 against paper books. However, the other statistic I read was that Kindles, and Nooks were owned by people who made over $50,000. a year, for the majority purchased. Avid readers will find the money somewhere.
Now, that being said, remember that you can get a Kindle for a little over a hundred dollars, but a starving writer can't even afford that. All writers own computers, so there is a free solution, since all good writers are good readers.
There is a free ereader download called "Kindle for PC", and many of you may have this on your computer, IF YOU HAVE 95 MB OF MEMORY AVAILABLE. Here is the link for a free download, if you would like to read Kindle ebooks without buying the Kindle ereader: See the link at the bottom of the article.
There are hundreds of free ebooks out there, although I can't vouch for the quality. There are lots of 99 cent ebooks, as well. The cost of an ebook is only a fraction of a paperback book. Novels can sell from $.99 to $9.99, and can be really good, most are self-published at the ebook stores. Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu, and many others sell ebooks, as you already know.
The problem with ebooks is that almost a million (932,000+), were published on Amazon.com alone. Most of those writers never sell a single copy, except to loyal friends and family. The reason is that writing an ebook is easy, but promoting it costs money, since you now are the publisher. The paper book industry is closing many of its' doors, and only former successful authors, who have made them money are finding new publishing houses to work for.
So sending out manuscript after manuscript is a waste of paper. The best thing to do is self publish an ebook, and then promote it yourself. Do you have the time? Do you have the money? One post on an advertising forum can cost, depending on the promotion you choose, from $150-500 or lots more. And there is no guarantee that enough people will respond by buying the ebook to cover your advertising. Ads you pay by the click can cost $.50-1.00 per click, and no one end up buying. Some have broken even, and others have hit record sales.
So what do you do? You pick the best forum for your ebook content, and you give it your best shot, and you pay for the advertising. No one is going to get to your ebook, unless they know it is out there in cyberspace libraries for sale. You have to believe in yourself, even if no one else does. Don't count on friends and family, and don't expect everyone will be happy, if you succeed. Life is full of disappointments, but there are also times of great joys. Take a leap of faith!
There is nothing better on a rainy afternoon, than a great cup of coffee, and a great book, or ebook. So if you like reading off of your computer, then get your free ereader, and find an ebook that interests you, and enjoy. There are other elibraries with different formats than Kindle, and many cell phones are actually ereader apped, so you aren't limited to Kindle. Some PCs come with ereaders installed, that use html, etc.
And remember Paper Publishers read ebooks too, on a rainy afternoon.
My advice is avoid the "plain text" version of ebooks,when purchasing, it removes all formatting, until you only have words. Paragraphs are gone, and it's hard to be interested in one continuous wording. However, some of the old ereaders use them, and some of the PCs, evidently, because some ebook publishers want you to allow that version to exist. Maybe this article will help someone, who would like to be reading ebooks, without the cost. Or, maybe you will decide to self-publish!
http://download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Great article with helpful content. We have several readers including the Nook, Tablet and something my son just got too. I'm not sure I know what they are loading on them. I am an avid reader and have tons of novels and other books on my shelves. I keep only the hard covers. Haven't had the need to get an electronic reader. What interests me most about your article is the information about publishing - self publishing that is. I have several horse books on my website that were self-published and this author has received an array of awards. I think self publishing starts with heaps of tied up money though. Great article!Please log in to respond to this comment.Actually the ebook publishing is free, just time consuming, however to be found the advertising is as expensive; as you choose. Kindle Nation has several types of promotions, with varying costs, for ebooks on Amazon.com/Kindle. The other advertising is time consuming, and choices have no guarantees on monies spent.
Note, that free ereaders are abundant, but require certain amounts of MB space, it varies. Lots of free and $.99 ebooks. Like you, I only keep hard back reference books, but some reference materials I have are paperback, too.Please log in to respond to this comment.
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