E-books

lea123e

Sorry if I'm going over old ground with this one.....but has anyone got any personal experience of creating and selling an ebook/s? And any tips or advice that they could share with a complete beginner?!

Lea

teeb

I wrote a novel in 2009, managed to get it on Amazon as an e-book within a month of having finished it, and to date, after 2 years of sales, have made about 8 pounds or so.

It's entirely down to marketing - getting the word out there. If you just hope that you will make millions based on a catchy title or a photo of a cat on the cover, then forget it. However, if you're able to get an audience's attention (through social media or an attractive pricing point or an USP or whatever) then you could do okay.

Please don't assume it'll be easy though!

thegirlintheattic

I'm an e-book reviewer and also offer advice to new writers about the industry.

As teeb said, it's hard and most authors do not earn very much at all, so not a great way of creating a new income. The publishing bit is very easy. Marketing is key, get a good website going, hang around in e-book forums joining in on topics (as well as promoting), do author interviews on blogs, ask for reviews etc. At the end of the day, a lot of it depends on how good the book is and it's genre.

If you want to PM me for more detailed advice feel free.

lincroft1710

teeb wrote: »

It's entirely down to marketing - getting the word out there. If you just hope that you will make millions based on a catchy title or a photo of a cat on the cover, then forget it.

Although not making millions, the author Derek Tangye wrote quite a few successful books from the 1960s to 1990s which had cats on the cover.

However it was probably the book's content and his reputation which sold the books rather than the cover.

Gazing_On_Sunsets

I do some freelance work for a niche ebook publisher (!!!!!!, if you want to know, so can people *not* PM me with loads of submissions!) and I can tell you the two formats people buy are pdfs when direct from websites, and Amazon. Try and do a quality job with your formatting, but ultimately it's down to marketing.

This article is in depth but worth studying: http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/

thegirlintheattic

To add to Grazing's advice. If you submit to places like Smashword's they will make it available in many formats. I would also add that epub is preferred by those who do not have Amazon's Kindle as many ereaders do not handle pdfs well. PDFs are usually only preferred by those reading on computers or with image heavy books.

Forums like mobileread have many published authors who will give you advice on formatting and what sells.

lea123e

Many thanks for all of the information and advise, much appreciated!