If you're a writer, first time or seasoned, then you've most likely thought about publishing an Ebook at some point or another. Compared to the hassle of print publishing, publishing Ebooks is simple, quick and easily transmittable. What's more - anyone can do it.
The following three steps will help you successfully publish your Ebook. The two steps following are designed to help you actually market the Ebook so that it sells.
- Write the Ebook. Ebooks can be as long or short as you have the attention span to produce. Generally, Ebooks are a minimum of 20,000 words and can be as long as 200,000. Choose a subject that interests you, if you're a non-fictions writer. The more obscure the subject, the more chances it will gain recognition online (see marketing tips for reasons why.)
- Choose a market for your Ebook. Within that market, you will find many publishers, from magazine Web sites to informative and practical Web sites. Once you have your market, then approach the appropriate Web publishers for more information. Sometimes it's helpful to approach the publishers prior to actually completing the book by submitting a proposal. The proposal helps to ensure that your work will actually be useful to a particular Web site and thus increases the chance that your manuscript will gain attention.
- Once you have completed the manuscript for your Ebook, then you are free to publish it. Because it is going online, regardless of whether or not an independent Web site it publishing it or you are publishing your Ebook yourself, it's important that you copyright your work. Download a copyright application and send it to the national copyright office with your check for $30. If anyone tries to take your work without paying, you may press charges.
And now for the fun part - money making
One thing all first time authors discover, to their surprise and chagrin, is that many publishers do not go out of their way to market the work. Therefore, most authors have to go the legwork in terms of marketing so that they can then make the sale. Here are some tips for marketing your Ebook.
- Most authors get Web sites to market their work. You can build your own Web site or you can hire a company to do it for you. Your Web site will not only act as a sales and e commerce tool to help you automate your business processes, but, if built correctly, it will help to you market your book. Here's how: when composing the text to your Web site, use keywords in order to optimize the text for search engines. If you have written an Ebook about dolls, for example, you will want to include the word “dolls” throughout the site to help you market it. When someone types in “dolls” to a search engine, the better your search-engine rank, the closer to the front page you will be, so spend a long time on optimizing your Web site; it can make the difference between making $100,000 and $10. It's also a great idea to use excerpts from the book along with related articles.
- Market your Web site using click-through advertising. Google offers click-through advertising for $20 a click. The more links you can get to your Web site, the more chances someone will buy your Ebook. You can also market your Ebook on Blogs and forums, adding a link to help drive traffic to your site.
Now that you have a few basic steps to help you write, market and sell your Ebook, get out there and finish it!
