E-Books –
Profit-Pulling Powerhouses
E-Books are part
of the new frontier of cyberspace. They are an entirely new medium for sharing
marketing information, ideas, techniques, and expert knowledge. Each day the
number of people accessing the Internet grows, causing the exposure of your
E-Book to increase incrementally. It's obvious why electronic self-publishing
has become so popular so quickly.
The publishing industry, I hope, does not intend
to forever banish the printed word to the dustbin of history. Books in print
have their own special qualities and merits, and the world would be diminished
by their disappearance.
Having said that, let's look at what makes
E-Books so important and so unique.
• E-Books have
certain abilities and qualities that other mediums do not possess. For example,
E-Books are fairly easy to produce, and their production cost is
inexpensive. Just think about it: you don't need a publisher, an agent, a
printing press, offset film, ink, paper, or even a distributor. You just need a
great concept, the ability to write it or to hire a writer, and the right
software.
• Additionally, E-Books
are easily and rapidly distributed online. They are also easily updated;
they do not require a second print run. All you need is to go into your
original creation and modify the text or graphics. Because of this flexibility,
E-Books can change and grow as fast as you can type.
• E-Books are also
immediately obtainable. You don't have to go to a bookstore or search through endless
titles at an online bookstore. All you have to do is download it from a
website, and presto! It's on your computer, ready to be read.
• E-Books are interactive. This is one of the most unique and specific
qualities that E-Books offer. You can add surveys that need to be filled
out, order forms for customers to purchase your products or goods, sound and
video that draw your reader into the virtual world of your E-Book, even direct
links to relevant sites that will expand your E-Book outward. The potential is
virtually limitless.
• E-Books have a
particular kind of permanence that other mediums do not possess. Television shows
and radio shows air once, and then may rerun a few times. E-Books remain
on your computer for as long as your choose, and they can be read and reread
whenever you choose to. They can even be printed out and stored on the shelves
of your traditional home library.
• Another wonderful
quality is that E-Books have no barriers in terms of publishing.
You don't need to go through the endless process of submitting your
manuscript over and over again, and then once you land an agent, having the
agent submit your manuscript over and over again. Nor do you have to shell out
thousands of dollars for printing a self-published book. All E-Books require is
a writer and appropriate software.
Figure out your
market, write your book, post it on your website, and with the right business
savvy, your audience will come to you.
Finally, you have creative control over your
E-Book. You don’t have to compromise with an editor or the publishing trends of
the time. You don't have to haggle with a designer or wait for copyedited
galleys to arrive by snail mail. You are in complete control of the design and
the text.
How to Use
E-books for Marketing and Promotion
There are
innumerable ways to use E-Books to promote your business and drive quality
traffic to your website. Once posted on your site, you can turn them into a
daily course, which brings your customer back to read the next chapter. You can
use them as a free gift for making a purchase or for filling out a survey. Put
your E-Book on a disc, and you will have an innovative brochure. Blow your
competition away by inserting the disc into your sales packages.
Make sure that
you keep your E-Book current. Update it frequently as the market and trends
change. Add new advice and techniques to show your prospects how your goods or
services can enrich their lives. By constantly keeping abreast of new trends
and techniques, you can continue to see profits from your E-Book for years
after your original creation.
Another phenomenal advantage of E-Books is that you
can test their marketing potential without putting out
hardly any cash at all. You can even produce an E-Book one copy at a
time, each time you receive an order, eliminating the need for storage and
inventory. By this method, you can gauge the salability of your E-Book, and
make adjustments as necessary until the orders start pouring in. E-Books allow
you to learn about your market and customer habits and motivation over a period
of time, without risking your precious financial resources. They also provide
you with an invaluable way to gather marketing information, which you can use
in many different facets of your business.
Use your E-Book
to discover what the specific goals and problems are in your specific industry.
Then figure out how to solve these problems, and publish an E-Book with this
invaluable information. This will increase the value of your business, upgrade
your reputation, and get you known as an expert in your field.
You can extend
the value of single E-Book by breaking the book down into chapters for a serial
course, into special reports available on your website, or into audio or visual
tapes. E-Books can be broken down into several different promotional materials
by accepting some of the articles and using them to promote your product. You
can include a catalog in your E-Book to promote all the products or services
you sell. You can include a thank-you note for reading your book and an
invitation to download a trial version of your product. Or you can include a
form for your audience to contact you for further information or with
questions, thereby building your business relationships and your mailing list.
Using E-Books in
this manner helps to cut the cost of individually producing separate
promotional materials. You can use a single E-Book to entice new prospects and
to sell new products to your current customers.
Why Sell E-Books?
It's not true
that everything that has been said has already been written. Since that
unfortunate axiom came into use, the whole universe has changed. Technology has
changed, ideas have changed, and the mindsets of entire nations have changed.
The fact is that
this is the perfect time to write an E-Book. What the publishing industry needs
are people who can tap into the world as it is today – innovative thinkers who
can make the leap into the new millennium and figure out how to solve old
problems in a new way. E-Books are a new and powerful tool for original
thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information to the millions of people
who are struggling to figure out how to do a plethora of different things.
Let's say you
already have a brilliant idea, and the knowledge to back it up that will enable
you to write an exceptional E-Book. You may be sitting at your computer staring
at a blank screen wondering, "Why? Why should I go through all
the trouble of writing my E-Book when it's so impossible to get anything
published these days?”
Well, let me assure you that publishing an E-Book
is entirely different than publishing a book in print. Let's look at the
specifics of how the print and cyber publishing industry differ, and the many
reasons why you should take the plunge and get your fingers tapping across
those keyboards!
Submitting a print book to conventional
publishing houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt 24/7.
No matter how good your book actually is, or how many critique services and
mentor writers have told you that "you've got what it takes,"
your submitted manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a boomerang
instead of a valuable mine of information.
Let's say you
already have an Internet business with a quality website and a quality product.
An E-Book is one of the most powerful ways to promote your business while
educating people with the knowledge you already possess as a business owner of
a specific product or service.
For example,
let's say that you've spent the last twenty-five years growing and training
bonsai trees, and now you're ready to share your knowledge and experience. An
E-Book is the perfect way to reach the largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.
E-Books will not only promote your business -
they will help you make a name for yourself and your company, and establish you
as an expert in your field. You may even find that you have enough to say to
warrant a series of E-Books. Specific businesses are complicated and often
require the different aspects to be divided in order for the reader to get the
full story.
Perhaps your
goals are more finely tuned in terms of the E-Book scene. You may want to build
a whole business around writing and publishing E-Books. Essentially, you want
to start an e-business. You are thinking of setting up a website to promote and
market your E-Books. Maybe you're even thinking of producing an E-zine.
One of the most
prevalent reasons people read E-Books is to find information about how to turn
their Internet businesses into a profit-making machine. And these people are
looking to the writers of E-Books to provide them with new ideas and strategies
because writers of E-Books are usually people who understand the new cyberspace
world we now live in. E-Book writers are experts in Internet marketing
campaigns and the strategies of promoting and distributing E-Books. The
cyberspace community needs its E-Books to be successful so that more and more
E-Books will be written.
You may want to
create affiliate programs that will also market your E-Book. Affiliates can be
people or businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell your E-Books.
Think about this. Do you see a formula for success here?
What about an
E-Book about a wedding cake business? Or an E-Book about caring for elderly
pets? How about the fine points of collecting ancient pottery?
You don't have to
have three masters degrees to write about your subject. People need advice that
is easy to read and easily understood. Parents need advice for dealing with
their teenagers. College students need to learn good study skills - quickly.
The possibilities are endless.
After you've
written your E-book…
Getting your E-Book out is going to be your focus once you've finished
writing it, just as it is with print books. People will hesitate to buy any
book from an author they've never heard of. Wouldn't you?
The answer is
simple: give it away! You will see profits in the form of promoting your
own business and getting your name out. You will find affiliates who will ask
you to place their links within your E-Book, and these affiliates will in turn
go out and make your name known. Almost every single famous E-Book author has started out this way.
This doesn’t mean
you should stop here. Eventually, you will move into where most of the wealth
mountains are – selling them, and then maybe their
Resell
Rights and Private Label licenses!
Another powerful tool to attract people to your
E-Book is to make it interactive. Invent something for them to do within
the book rather than just producing pages that contain static text. Let your
readers fill out questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared to
testing their knowledge on a particular subject. Have your readers hit a link
that will allow them to recommend your book to their friends and associates. Or
include an actual order form so at the end of their reading journey, they can
eagerly buy your product.
When people
interact with books, they become a part of the world of that book. The fact is
just as true for books in print as it is for E-Books.
How to Write an
E-Book
The hardest part
of writing is the first sentence. When you look at the whole project, it seems
like an impossible task. That's why you have to break it down into manageable
tasks. Think of climbing a mountain. You are standing at the foot of it and
looking up at its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you possibly scale
such an immense and dangerous mountain?
There is only one
way to climb a mountain: step by step.
Now think of writing your E-Book in the same light. You must create it
step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself
standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.
The first thing you have to do, as if you
actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing
gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should
take before you begin. Once you've gone through the following list, you will be
ready to actually begin writing your E-Book.
Beginning Steps
to Writing an E-Book
First, figure out
your E-Book's working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually,
you'll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your
writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your
reader's queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity
in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books as long as it's not
too cute.
Next, write out a
thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem
you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters
spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you've got your thesis statement
fine-tuned, you've built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will
grow, chapter by chapter.
Once you have
your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to
write your book. Ask yourself some questions:
╚ Does your book present useful information and is that information
currently relevant?
╚ Will you book positively affect the lives
of your readers?
╚ Is your book dynamic and will it keep the
reader's attention?
╚ Does you book answer questions that are
meaningful and significant?
If you can answer
yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your
E-Book.
Another important
step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people
you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book,
such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your
readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the
socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion
magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours
every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it
will be to write your book for them.
Next, make a
list of the reasons you are writing your E-Book. Do
you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your
website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?
Then write down
your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on
your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a
survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an
e-course, or use your E-Book to attract affiliates around the world? The more
you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.
How to make your
E-Book "user friendly"
You must figure
out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little
stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the
pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up
the density of the page.
Write with a
casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction.
Reader's respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them.
Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don’t hypnotize your
readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend
to be a good aid for insomnia!
Good writing
takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at
least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and
jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process;
the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better
your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.
In an E-Book that is read on the screen, be aware
that you must give your reader's eye a break. You can do this by utilizing
white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as
"negative space." Reader's eyes need to rest in the cool white oasis
you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out
of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.
Make use of
lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb,
and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after
the other.
Finally, decide
on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that's easy on the eyes, and stick to
that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before
they've gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line
spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small
enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have
to experiment with this to find the right combination.
Last of all: create an index and a bibliography. That's it!
You've written a book! Now all you have to do is compile and publish your
E-Book online, and wait for download request from your website visitors!
How to Price Your
E-Book
You've written and compiled an E-Book. Now you
have to decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right price is essential
to the success of your product. If you charge too little, people will think
it's of little value, and they won't purchase it, or even it they do buy your
book, you will have to sell thousands of copies to get to the point where you
can begin to see a profit. If you price it too high when compared with your
competition, you will find yourself steadily lowering the price, which will
cause you all kinds of new problems in the future. For example, if you sell
your E-Book at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to $24.95, don't you think
the people who bought it for $39.99 are going to be PISSED?
Choosing the
right price for your E-Book is one of the most critical parts of the marketing
process. The first rule of pricing E-Books is to never underprice. Determine
the highest price your audience can afford, and then if you find your book
isn’t selling, you can always reduce the price. Before you take that step, make
sure you are promoting your book like crazy on the Internet and on websites.
The price should be aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never forget
that price is one of the factors that people use in judging the value of your
E-Book ? before they buy it. So always start with the highest price, and then
launch a mega-marketing campaign.
Pricing an E-Book
is particularly difficult because E-Books are a fairly new commodity. Since
they are digital, the value of an E-Book is as confusing as the understanding
of what digital actually is to the average layperson. This means that we must
look at E-Books in a different light in order to determine their actual worth
in this brave, new cyber world.
But the fact that unites E-Books and print books is that they are
composed of ideas. It is the ideas in these books that have the ability to
change, or possibly transform, people's lives.
What do you think
an idea is worth when evaluated against the cost of paper and ink?
It is the IDEAS
that are valuable! That is how you determine the cost of your E-Book.
What should I
charge for my ideas?
There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your E-Book. Let's begin with honing in on
your ultimate goals.
Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution
and maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing customers to your
business or service, or to establishing the credibility of your reputation. If
this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your price on the low side. Some
authors have even priced their E-Books at a profit loss to draw a high number
of new customers. The key is to find a price that maximizes your profits and
the number of books you sell.
This is an
excellent pricing strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers.
Long-term customers are extremely likely to buy from you again and again as
long as the first E-Book they buy is of exceptional quality and beneficial to
the customer.
However, if your
book contains valuable and more importantly NEW information, references, or
techniques then you should aim to price it on the high end.
technique, you
will be able to sell books at a high price. Just be prepared for your
competition to undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your book.
Keep in mind that
the above pricing strategy is temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell
books at this high price. So figure out in advance how long you plan to offer
your E-Book at this high price, and when that time is up, change your pricing
strategy.
If you want to see large profits over customer
draw, aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions to their problems
at a low price. If your book is aimed at solving one particular problem rather
than general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the highest price the
market will bear to bring in the largest profits, and plan to discount the book
a number of times throughout the year.
Marketing
Strategies
The key that
unlocks the sales potential of your E-Book is to find a single sentence that
becomes your selling handle. This sentence states what question or problem your
book answers and the benefits your E-Book can provide. Then be sure to use that
sentence in every piece of sales and promotional material, and every time
anyone asks you about your E-Book.
Besides promoting
your books assiduously online, there are several other strategies that can help
you sell more books.
One is to give
something away for free with your book, such as a valuable bonus item. Or
bundle several E-Books under one price, which lowers the price for each E-Book
if they were sold separately.
An effective technique for figuring out a price
is to send out a survey to your current customers. If these customers have
already bought an E-Book from you, ask for their opinion in terms of price. Do
this by creating a sales page for the new book, but don't include a price on
that page. Instead, add a number of links to survey questions that ask pointed
questions to aid you in assigning a price to your E-Book.
for each page the
conversion ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your book. This
will tell you what your optimum price is.
Ultimately, if
you've written a book that solves a problem or presents a new technique, your
book will bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write that
selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem your book solves and what the
benefits of your book will be to the customers who purchase it. And then watch
your market come to you!
Steps to
Publishing Success
Even if your best
friend owns a top publishing company, giving you an immediate "in,"
this does not guarantee publishing success.
First, you have
to write a quality book that has a clear target audience. And your book must
answer a common problem or need that audience shares. Then you have to develop
a marketing plan, and stick to it for at least two years.
Let's begin with
the process that should commence before you write your first word. Begin by
reading A LOT. Read both books you passionately love and books you can't
seem to make it past page five. Then figure out what the author did in the book
you loved, and what was wrong with in the book you couldn't finish. Write down
these points so they are crystal clear to you. Read other people's books for
inspiration and to discover what you should avoid as a writer.
The next step is to plan out your book. Narrow down
your subject, and then divide it into chapters. Each chapter should
address a specific aspect of the problem your book is going to solve. In each
chapter, break the specific aspect down into several parts. This will help your
readers take in your information a bit at a time instead of overwhelming them
with every bit of information clogging up the pages until they feel like
they're about to go blind. It's not quite spoon-feeding the information to your
readers, but it's close.
number of books
about writing the specific type of book you aspire to write. These can serve as
roadmaps on your writing journey.
Once you've
written your E-Book and revised it at least twice, show it to someone
else whose opinion you respect. If you're lucky enough to know a good
editor, see if you have something to barter for him or her to go through your
manuscript. Or join a writing group and let the other members critique your
work.
Then take all
these ideas from other people, and revise your manuscript one last time. And
then stop! Put down that pen! Get your hands off the keyboard!
One of the most
important steps to actually producing a book is to know when to stop writing
and tinkering with it.
You've finally
written your E-Book! Pop open the bubbly! Give yourself a night out on the
town!
Okay, now that
this necessary celebration is out of your system, what do you do next?
How to turn your
E-Book into Profits
E-Books are a
revolutionary way to publish your book without incurring the costs of print
production. All you need is a relevant and targeted subject and some
inexpensive software, and you can transform your manuscript into a book.
The problem, in terms of actually seeing any
profits from your E-Book, is that the market is overwhelmed with E-Books, and
many of them are not worth the time it takes to download them. Just because the
ability exists to easily produce an E-Book, doesn't make it good writing.
Assuming you have determined that you do indeed have a quality product
that answers some question or need of your target audience with NEW
information, how do you know how much to charge for it? Rule number 1: Set a
price for your book equal to its value. An under-priced book will only give the
impression that your book isn't worth very much.
To figure out a
fair price, estimate how much time you put into creating it and how difficult
it was to transform the necessary information into understandable and engaging
writing. Figure out how much your time and effort is worth, and then price it
accordingly. The goal is for you to be adequately compensated for your talent,
your time, and your effort.
Once you've
figured out a price that is high enough to convey the value of the book, but
not so high as to be out of the reach of your target audience's mean budget,
then it's time to offer it for sale on your website. To attract sales, you will
need to develop a promotional campaign, particularly if you are an unknown
author.
There are
multitudes of books about self-promotion that will guide you in your efforts.
Choose a plan that is both creative and professional. Learn how to write a
catchy yet informative press release, and send copies of your E-Book to sites
that specialize in E-Book reviews.
Learn how to write powerful sales copy, or hire someone to write it
for you. This is an essential. You absolutely need excellent sales copy to sell
your book. Make sure the copy includes all the reasons your target audience needs
your book, and the benefits they will derive from buying it.
Use graphics in your promotional materials.
Beautiful graphics have the power to instantly convey the quality and value of
your E-Book. Graphics can also convey the amount of valuable information the
book contains, and your careful attention to detail. Professional graphics sell
professional books. They reassure the customer that the product is what it
claims to be.
Consider excerpting chapters for articles. You can offer these tidbits
for free on your website as a sort of demo of your book. Include an order form
for your E-Book at the end of the excerpted articles.
purchase, but make sure the bonuses are valuable
and high quality. Too many bonuses that are basically a load of useless stuff
will compromise the impression your audience has of your E-Book. The goal is to
convey to your audience that they are getting a quality product for a good
deal. That means applying restraint, especially when it comes to adding bonus
items. Too much free stuff offered diminishes your credibility.
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