Pro’s and Con’s of e-Publishing

E-publishing is a form of publication especially attractive to new writers.

Some of the advantages of e-publishing include:

• More and more libraries carry e-books for lending.
• Independent authors receive as much as 70% of the profits in royalties when they self-publish.  Writers get a higher percentage of royalties through e-publishing because the initial financial investments for the publisher is lower than for a paper publisher.
• There are no returns from book stores and no paper books ending on landfills.
• Faster publishing time for accepted manuscripts of they go with an e-publisher. Rather than waiting up to eighteen months for a manuscript to see print – e-publishing generally works within a few weeks after acceptance.
• Writers have the ability to update text often and easily at virtually no cost. This is particularly important for e-books related to travel guides or computer technology.
• Unlimited links which are important to guide books and how-to publications, music, video’s, images – all these can be added to e-books.
• E-books are longer available as they can stay infinitive on digital shelves even with slower sales – not like paper books that will be discontinued after some months, if they did not become a bestseller. This gives new writers lots of time to build a following by having their entire e-book available over extended periods of time.
• Negligible investment for self-publishers.

If this looks all too rosy:

• Some people are not aware of e-publishing and others prefer reading a book from print rather than electronically. Good sales so far amount to 500 copies for a successful manuscript.
• Writers are responsible for providing their own ongoing marketing for e-published work – the same as for paper books that are often not very well marketed. A book might be great, but if nobody knows about it, it won’t sell.
• Authors can’t count on the public seeing their books on shelves or in store windows – they have to find it on the internet.
• Writers usually do not receive an advance.

However, e-publishing can be a great way for a new writer to gain a following. Romance, science fiction, murder mystery and fantasy are all possible genres for e-publishing. It is also ideal for How-To books that need to be updated frequently.

Businesses can also save money on employee manuals and training materials by e-publishing them. An added advantage here is that works can be clickable.

Do you have all your books formatted as e-books?  If not, what keeps you from doing so?

.

.

.
Hyper Smash