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 ebooks so
important and so unique. Ebooks have certain abilities
and qualities that other mediums do not possess.

For example, ebooks 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, ebooks 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, ebooks can
change and grow as fast as you can type.

Ebooks 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.

Ebooks are interactive. This is one of the most unique
and specific qualities that ebooks 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 ebook, even direct links to relevant sites
that will expand your ebook outward. The potential is
virtually limitless.

Ebooks 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. Ebooks
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 ebooks 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
ebooks 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 ebook.
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 ebooks for Marketing and Promotion

There are innumerable ways to use ebooks 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 ebook on a disc, and you will have an
innovative brochure. Blow your competition away by
inserting the disc into your sales packages.

The most effective marketing products are those that
are unique. Copyright your ebook, and immediately, you
have a powerful tool that you, and you alone, can
offer to the public. People will have to visit your
site to acquire your ebook, which increases the flow
of quality traffic and the potential of sales and
affiliate contacts.

Make sure that you keep your ebook 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
ebook for years after your original creation.

Another phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you can
test their marketing potential without putting out
hardly any cash at all. You can even produce an ebook
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 saleablity of your
ebook, and make adjustments as necessary until the
orders start pouring in. Ebooks 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 ebook to discover what the specific goals and
problems are in your specific industry. Then figure
out how to solve these problems, and publish an ebook
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 ebook by breaking
the book down into chapters for a serial course, into
special reports available on your website, or into
audio or visual tapes. Ebooks can be broken down into
several different promotional materials by excepting
some of the articles and using them to promote your
product. You can include a catalog in your ebook 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 ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of
individually producing separate promotional materials.
You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and
to sell new products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility and
ability for expansion. Think of your ebook like a
spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web. Now go
and create that web, and see how many customers and
prospects you can catch!

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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.

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.

The next two steps are obvious. Write your book and
then revise it. And then revise it again. And perhaps
again. Of course, writing is extremely hard, and
writing a book can seem like an impossible task. There
are many books out there that give you guidelines to
help you become familiar – and even love – the process
of writing and revision. Find a number of books about
writing. Better yet, find a 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 ebook 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 ebook! 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 ebook into Profits

Ebooks 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 ebook, is that the market is overwhelmed
with ebooks, and many of them are not worth the time
it takes to download them. Just because the ability
exists to easily produce an ebook, doesn’t make it
good writing.

Make sure your book does not simply rehash old
material. You will injure your credibility as an
author by claiming to offer valuable new insights and
disappointing your audience with material they’ve read
a zillion times before. So spend enough time writing
and revising your book to make sure it’s of the
highest quality and presents the most current
information. A good book will eventually sell itself;
false claims about your book will make it extremely
difficult to sell any future books you may write.

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 ebook to sites that specialize in ebook
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 ebook. 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
ebook at the end of the excerpted articles.

Finally, when you set-up your download link, make sure
to simplify the process. It’s a good idea to offer a
few bonuses that make your book even more enticing to
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 ebook. 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.

Make sure your book is a quality product. Make sure it
is relevant and current. Develop an effective
marketing plan that includes excellent sales copy and
excerpted articles. Then offer your book for sale, and
wait for your audience to discover you!

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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 ebook 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 ebook is one of the
most critical parts of the marketing process. The
first rule of pricing ebooks 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 ebook ? before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and
then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because
ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are
digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the
understanding of what digital actually is to the
average layperson. This means that we must look at
ebooks in a different light in order to determine
their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let’s look at the difference between a book in print
and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold
in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down
to the next generation. It is priced on factors such
as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks 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 ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your ebook. 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 ebooks 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 ebook 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.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out
what your audience’s need is for your ebook. For
example, does your book solve a particular problem? If
it does, and solves it in a way that hasn’t been
written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be
able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your
book solves a problem or answers questions in a new
and unique way, you should price your book as high as
you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,
but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the
question or problem that your book solves is one that
is important and relevant to the majority of your
market audience. If your ideas are not common
knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new
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 ebook 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 ebook
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 ebook 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 ebook.

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
ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for
each ebook 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 ebook 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 ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a
number of duplicate sales pages with different prices
on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the
same on every page, and includes your selling-handle
sentence. Then figure out 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!

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There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by step.

Now think of writing your ebook 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
ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook’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. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count
sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans
to whip you into shape.

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.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your
ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis
statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your
book. For example, your thesis statement could read:
We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives,
but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to
give you back a good night’s sleep.

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 ebook.

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
ebook. 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 ebook
to attract affiliates around the world? The more you
know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction,
keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly
consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to
your chapter topic, and then divide it into four
subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five
parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook “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 ebook 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 oasises
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.

Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar
check. You are judged by something as minor as correct
punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book by tossing
out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences
together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a
“comma splice.”)

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography.
That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to
do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download
request from your website visitors.

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The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an ebook. 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. Ebooks 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 ebook. 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
ebook when it’s so impossible to get anything
published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook 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.

Perhaps, in desperation, you’ve checked out
self-publishing and found out just how expensive a
venture it can be. Most “vanity presses” require
minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even
that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some
presses’ minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies.
And that’s just for the printing and binding. Add in
distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and -
well, you do the math. Even if you wanted to go this
route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.

Let’s say you already have an Internet business with a
quality website and a quality product. An ebook 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 ebook is the perfect way to reach the
largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks 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 ebooks. 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 ebook scene. You may want to build a whole
business around writing and publishing ebooks.
Essentially, you want to start an e-business. You are
thinking of setting up a website to promote and market
your ebooks. Maybe you’re even thinking of producing
an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people read ebooks
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 ebooks to
provide them with new ideas and strategies because
writers of ebooks are usually people who understand
the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook writers
are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and the
strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The
cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be successful
so that more and more ebooks will be written.

You may want to create affiliate programs that will
also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people or
businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell
your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a formula
for success here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and then
narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for specificity.
Research what’s out there already, and try to find a
void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a wedding cake business? Or
an ebook 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 writtten your ebook

Getting your ebook 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 ebook,
and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your
name known. Almost every single famous ebook author
has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook
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 ebooks.

That’s why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they
provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of
their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote
your business at the same time.

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