With Ebook publishing becoming more and more popular, check
out this list of 11 things, you should know before hitting publish!
Writing for Ebook Publishing
1. Writing a series make it easier to sell more books, but
writing with a cliffhanger often angers readers. Marketing a novella as a book
can also frustrate readers and prevent follow through. Don't follow the current
trend of dividing what should be a single book into parts so you can have more
books in the series. For long term reader loyalty, write longer books
(60,000-100,000 words) in the series where each book has closure but still has
enough of a hook that readers want to read more.
2. Publishing an ebook should be your first priority (over
publishing a print book). Not only is ebook publishing cheaper, but you can also
sell it at a lower price, sell more copies, and reach more readers.
Uploading an Ebook
3. Amazon is the biggest seller of ebooks in the world. Make
sure to publish your ebook with Amazon. If you aren’t in KDP Select, also
publish your book on the other big retailers: iTunes, Barnes & Noble,
and Kobo. (Google Play is not accepting new signups, but if you already have a
publishing account with them, upload your books there too.)
4. There are a lot of distributors and aggregators that
you can use for ebook publishing.
5. Amazon charges a delivery fee based on the size of the
ebook. To make your book a smaller size, try resizing your images. Unlike
in print books, ebook images do not need to be very large.
6. Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google do
not require ISBN numbers, but obtaining an ISBN allows your book to be eligible
for bestseller lists like those sponsored by the New York Times and USA Today.
Books will also show up in Bowker’s Books in Print database, and that may help
you show up higher in a Google search. Aggregators who distribute your ebook to
various retailers often do require an ISBN, but usually, they will provide one
for you if you don't have one. (Note: you may NOT use the same ISBN number for
your print and ebook versions.)
7. You can change/fix and re-upload your ebook any time you
want. Some aggregator services do charge a fee, and others may make your book
unavailable for purchase for a short time while the new file is being
processed. If you upload directly to retailers, your book will normally
continue to be available for sale without an interruption.
Pricing and Promoting Ebooks
8. You cannot charge the same price for an ebook as you can
for a print book. Ebooks should be priced lower ($0.99 to $9.99 is typical).
9. Keeping one of your ebooks permanently at $0.00 is a great
way to allow readers to discover you as an author, with little risk.
10. Promoting your ebook is never a one-time thing. Promotion
needs to be done over and over again for your own book to succeed (it does
get easier over time, though, as your fan base grows). The more books you have,
the more you can promote, and the more you will be seen.
11. Even if you are with a publisher, you should be promoting
your ebook yourself. Many publishers do little to no promotion.
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