How to Publish a Successful eBook

The eBook industry is seeing explosive growth, and with good reason. Devices such as smartphones, tablets, and e-readers are becoming much more affordable and enjoyable to use. Also, eBooks allow readers to instantly purchase, download, and begin reading books that are often priced lower than their paper book counterparts. If you are interested in sharing any type of information with the world, whether it is through a novel, a guide, or a manual, it is time to embrace the eBook.

If you are new to the world of eBooks, you are probably wondering how you can write and publish an eBook that is actually going to be successful and sell. There are a few basic steps that you can follow to ensure that you create an eBook that is going to reach a multitude of readers.

Quality Information

Just like when writing a paper book, your eBook must offer some type of value to the reader. This can be either through entertainment, or you could provide quality and useful information. This might seem like common sense, but in order to have a successful eBook; you must have material that is going to be worth of readers. One possible way to ensure that you have a good eBook idea is to revise as much as possible, and to seek critics from your colleagues before publishing. Open your work to criticism and be open to making constructive changes before you commit to publishing. Top quality material generally finds its way to the forefront.

Finding a Distributor 

There are many different routes for distribution when publishing an eBook. One of the most popular publishing platforms is Amazon. Amazon generally offers a 70 percent royalty rate for authors. Amazon also frequently offers monetary incentives for authors to make their work exclusive only to Amazon customers.

Smashwords is another eBook publish option. They are one of the leaders in the industry. Smashwords gives you much of the control over the presentation and publishing of your work, as it is largely a “do it yourself” type of publishing system. Smashwords does not charge you for creating your eBook; they only charge a small cut of your royalty fee when the book is sold. Through Smashwords, you can then sell and distribute your book to other major eBook sellers and libraries.

Bookbaby, brought to you by the creaters of CD Baby, take another approach to eBook Publishing. This is a site that gives you a bit more help in terms of creating and formatting the book. This publisher also differs from the competition because instead of taking a percentage fee, Bookbaby charges an upfront fee to publish the book, and then a small yearly fee of 19 dollars per title.

There are pros and cons associated with using any one of these eBook publishers. The key is deciding what is important to you as the author.

Setting a Price

One of the advantages of publishing an eBook is that you can afford to keep the price of the book low, therefore reaching a larger audience. By keeping the price of your book in the 2.99 to 5.99 range, more readers will be willing to purchase the book, and you can bring in high revenue. If you simply want to bring about more awareness to your name or your company, you have the option of sharing an eBook for free or only charging 99 cents per download. Once you have gained a large following, you can charge slightly more for future eBooks.

Bringing Awareness to Your eBook 

It is your responsibility to get the word out. The best way is to use online marketing to your advantage. Make excerpts of the book available on blogs, and promote the book through social media. The book should also have a cover photo that catches the eye even when it is only a small thumbnail image on the screen. If you are sharing quality material at a low reasonable price, people will be happy to spread the word about your eBook.

Valerie Mellema is the owner of Words You Want, a ghostwriting service offering SEO packages, eBook writing and more.