The 7 Step eBook
How to Publish and Sell eBooks
Sadiq Somjee
“I read the first copy of The 7 Step eBook and found it to be a comprehensive source of practical information to create, market and publish eBooks.”
Alan Yong, CEO, Times Telecom Inc.
“I had the opportunity to be the first author to test 'The 7 Step eBook' to publish my book “Stories from Things.” After my experience with traditional publishers, I am excited as I now have the ability to publish my books, keep my rights and a bigger portion of the sales income.”
Sultan Somjee, PhD, Author
“I am a freelance editor, but that didn't prepare me to assist in the publishing end of an eBook. Trying to maneuver my way through all the instructions for preparing, publishing and marketing, was a real challenge. I really do wish I had a copy of this book when I was first getting my husband's book online. It would have saved me a lot of grief.”
Frankie Sutton, Editor
The 7 Step eBook
How to Publish and Sell eBooks
SADIQ SOMJEE
Published by GeoEdge Consulting Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada.
The 7 Step eBook
By Sadiq Somjee
Published by Sadiq Somjee at Smashwords
Copyright © 2011 by Sadiq Somjee
Smashwords First Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the author.
All rights reserved worldwide.
EBook ISBN: 978-0-9869273-2-4
This book is available in print at most online retailers.
Warning and Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The author and the publisher shall have no responsibility to any person or entity with respect to loss or damages arising from information contained in this book.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return toSmashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of this author.
DEDICATION
To authors, artists, poets and retailers for
democratizing the new online publishing industry.
I wish you success.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STEP 1: CONCEPTS & ORGANIZATION
STEP 4: PUBLISH YOUR EBOOK & PRINT BOOK
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With thanks to
My wife Farida
My son Zia for the cover design
Author Sultan Somjee for testing the 7 Steps
http://storiesfromthings.blogspot.com
Frankie Sutton for editorial assistance
Artist Nadia Fay
Introduction
The eBook market has exploded and eBook sales have surpassed both hard and soft cover book sales according to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon (Amazon news release, May 19, 2011.) Yet the eBook market is still in its infancy. It’s now the time to ride the online publishing wave as an author. The confluence of tablet computers, eReaders, mobile phones, the internet, electronic miniaturization, storage technology, and wireless technology is further fueling this growth. Social networking and online tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, WordPress, Blogger, Amazon and Apple iBooks have become the new platforms to sell your work. The internet has opened a broad landscape of tools and technologies to publish and market your work. All these technologies can work in harmony for you and are yours to orchestrate.
The technology is surprisingly simple to apply once you see how it is done. This book will show you how to publish an eBook, use a blog and social networking to stand out in this noisy internet space. It will leave you with a working framework and a strategy that you can grow with and customize for your niche market.
New disruptive technologies are challenging the publishing industry. The good news is that all the online publishers want to publish your work because it is the author’s content that sells eReader devices (such as the Kindle, iPad, Nook, Kobo and Sony.)
These eReader devices connect directly to online bookstores, which in turn sell eBooks. Online bookstores on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google, Sony and Chapters work hard to attract buyers and sell books. Self-publishers in turn can use online bookstores to promote and sell their eBooks. By publishing your books to online bookstores, your book gains visibility on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Phenomenal eBook growth
There has been phenomenal growth in eReaders. The Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Sony, Chapters Kobo, Blackberry PlayBook, and the Barnes & Noble Nook have become common consumer items. The Samsung Galaxy and Motorola XOOM run on Google’s Android platform and others such as Dell and HTC devices run on Microsoft’s mobile platform. The proliferation of these devices has opened up a huge market for eBooks. The dropping cost and mainstream use is great news for the author, as these devices are additional platforms to sell eBooks.
Not including the global population, USA and Canada have a combined population of 344 million people. As of this writing there were over a 100 million iPhones, 25 million iPads, millions of Kindles, Nooks, Sony’s and other devices. In addition, eBook reading applications are available on a number of other mobile devices, which further expand the eBook market. For example, Amazon also publishes Kindle reader applications for the iPad, PC, Mac and Android devices. If you do the math on selling a $2.99 eBook with a 70% return to 0.1% (or 344,000) of the North American population, it works out to be over $700,000 back to the author. This is not easy to achieve, however, a few indie authors have indeed sold over million eBooks. This book will explore some of the strategies these indie authors used.
Malcolm Gladwell writes about this kind of viral growth phenomenon in his book “The Tipping Point.” Gladwell talks about this contagious consumer behavior. Like cell phones, eReader devices have reached a tipping point where everybody wants an eReader device like a Kindle or an iPad. It is contagious and growing virally across all age groups. In turn, the sales of these gadgets increase the demand for eBooks and vice versa.
Online storefronts, such as the Amazon Kindle bookstore, Apple iBooks and others, are creating service portals for buyers known as cloud services. They make money by attracting buyers to their online portals. Companies such as Sony, Blackberry, Apple, Nokia, Microsoft, Samsung and many others are jumping into the consumer gadget and platform wars because they see the long-term demand. These devices feed the demand, the service portals cater to the demand and the authors create content for this viral eBook trend. This is good news for the independent authors and publishers.
Evidence of eBook publishing success
Self-publishing is now mainstream and a respectable way to publish. Many successful authors got their start this way. For example, Amanda Hocking gave up on her attempts to find a traditional publisher and self-published. She sold at least a million eBooks priced from 99 cents and up. By self-publishing, Hocking built a name, a readership, and got the attention of the publishers. It gave her the leverage to attract and negotiate a better deal with a traditional publisher. Indie authors such as J.A Konrath and John Locke have also occupied spots on the Amazon top 100.
An Amazon news release (SEATTLE, Jan 12, 2011) stated that the first author to surpass the one million mark on the Kindle was Stieg Larsson, of the Millennium Trilogy. James Patterson who writes a number of genres was the second author to pass the one million Kindle sales mark. More recently, Nora Roberts passed the one million Kindle sales mark. All these established authors had access to the online market as you do today. In fact, according to a recent Amazon press release, John Locke became the first Indie author to join the “Kindle Million Club.” Soon after the press release, John Locke signed on with publisher Simon & Schuster. One can only speculate on the deal he negotiated after selling over a million books as an indie. These indie authors have published multiple books and have used eBooks to build their readership using online promotional tools and pricing strategies.
Traditional publishers caught off guard
Traditional publishers (Figure 1) continue to hold onto their classic model. Initially, the new author makes a pitch and then submits a proposal for review. If successful, a manuscript is submitted and a contract may be signed. The new author may get a royalty of 10% for printed book to 25% for an eBook, of which the agent typically takes 15%. Publishers may take months to review the book, and often take 18 to 24 months before the book is published. Next, distributers are engaged to ship print books to brick-and-mortar bookstores, where the book is required to prove itself through sales within a few weeks, or else is removed from the valuable inventory space. Publishers may hold back the author’s commission to cover the cost of returns.
In the new model (Figure 2), eBooks are published online by authors and may be purchased from a number of easy to access online bookstores such as the Amazon Kindle store, Apple iBooks store and the Barnes & Noble Nook store. The new publishers also distribute, sell and deliver the books to the readers online. This model cuts out the traditional publisher, the agent, the distributor, and the bookstore, which reduces the overall cost to the reader. In addition, eBooks do not require printing, packaging, shipping and distribution thus eliminating these costs. Amazon which has the largest eBook market share offers a 70% royalty option for books priced from $2.99 to $9.99. Best of all, the indie author can set the retail price and retain all digital, print and movie rights.
Print books can be set up with print on demand (POD) companies such as Lighting Source and CreateSpace. There is no book inventory required and no significant cost. The author sets the book price and the POD house fulfills the order by printing and shipping the book to the customer. POD companies also provide services such as adding your book to their distribution channels.
With wireless technology, online stores, eReaders and the internet, the distribution of eBooks is instant. According to Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, some indie authors are outselling print books a 1,000 to 1 (source: Bay Area Independent Publishers Association – May 14, 2011.)
Amazon has changed the game with the low cost Kindle and online eBook sales. Apple iPad with iBooks is also a major player as are Sony, Chapters, Google and Barnes & Noble. With the new web-publishing model, authors are steadily moving to self-publishing.
Authors now have the tools to not only convert their books into eBooks but also access global markets by leveraging online bookstores, search engines and social networking.
Authors left unprepared
Although authors have produced great material, they find the online world of publishing, branding, marketing and selling complex, if not intimidating. This is not surprising as the internet has a lot of disjointed, confusing and often contradictory information.
My purpose in writing this book is to present online publishing information in a simple, concise and comprehensive way to non-technical authors. Having researched eBook publishing for six months, I began writing and simultaneously testing the readability of each chapter with an author.
The confluence of technology has leveled the playing field between the traditional publishers and independent authors. This technology is available, easy and accessible to any author who wants to self-publish.
Empowering the author
This book will show you how to create an effective marketing and publishing framework for your book in 7 simple steps. You will learn how to publish your book to an eBook and a print book, connect on social media, and create a blog free. It will also describe how these technologies work together to help you customize your online brand and attract the right customers. You will learn how to improve your visibility and execute strategies to turn online book browsers into buyers.
The online tools will open up a huge market for your eBook. It is a win-win proposal because everyone gets a cut of the sale of your book. Online distributers like Amazon and Apple iBooks provide a service by allowing buyers to download a sample and buy your eBook. They share the revenue and the author gets access to a massive market and distribution channel. The cut the author makes is much higher (35% to 70%) than the traditional publisher model (10% to 25%). In the new online sales model, the author’s marketing efforts translate into direct revenue. The selling, pricing, distribution and money collection is in your control. All you need to do is publish and promote effectively using existing online communities, tools, partners and affiliates.
Book approach
I was fortunate to find an author who was not technical and wanted to have his work published and sold online. This prototyping approach tested the publishing framework presented in this book. In the process of testing, the technical language was simplified for the non-technical author.
How will this book benefit you?
On completion, you will have the knowledge to build a working framework to market, sell and publish your books. The eBook market has clearly exploded and it is on the rise with the confluence of eReaders, mobile devices and online services. Knowing how to exploit this new online publishing model is essential for today’s author.
The Fundamentals
This chapter is designed to provide readers of all levels enough knowledge to proceed with the rest of this book.
Many authors have heard of popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Some already use these tools, though not all use them effectively. Some do not know where to start or how to make these tools work for them. We will start with the basics and then build on how to make these online tools work for you.
What is an eBook?
An eBook is short for “electronic book”; eBooks can be read on eBook reading devices known as eReaders. eBooks are basically digital books. When publishers ask for your book’s digital rights, you are essentially giving them your eBook rights. The most popular eReader is the Amazon’s Kindle. Other popular eReaders include the iPad, Sony, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and devices running the Google Android operating system.