All About eBooks-Why Write an eBook?

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So what exactly is an e-Book?

An e-Book is simply a written document that has been converted to some kind of electronic or digital format (hence, it is an “electronic” book). At this very moment, you are reading an e-Book. They are typically called “books,” but they can just as easily be created in the same manner & called a newsletter, instruction guide, or anything else you want to call it.

There are different ways you can create e-Books (and different reasons why you may want to create one). Most commonly, you will write the e-Book using a word processor (such as Microsoft Word, Open Office, or WordPerfect). Then you convert the e-Book to a file format that is more widely accepted so that it can be viewed by a large audience. PDF’s are the most common format that you will find because almost every computer comes with a free PDF reader installed. Also, you can always download free PDF readers from a reliable website such as Adobe.com. However, I will discuss more about the formats & how to convert your guide in a later chapter.

What is the big deal about e-Books?

E-Books are the future! The e-Book industry is huge, and it is only going to get bigger. Almost every “real” book that is published today is also available for purchase online in e-Book format by either the publisher or an e-Book website. College textbooks usually cost around $100-$200 per “real” book. However, now even college textbook publishers are offering students the opportunity to buy e-Book formats for about half the price.

Why are e-Books so popular? The reason is that information is very valuable, and it sells well. After all, you have probably heard the saying that “knowledge is power.” That is absolutely true. Just right now, I can guarantee that there is a piece of knowledge somewhere in the world, that if you could learn & act upon that knowledge, you could change your life (or the world). For example, the cure for many diseases could be learned-that could save lives. Or there is some amazing business venture, stock tip, or invention idea, that if you knew about it & acted on it today, you could make millions. Crazy thought huh? It is absolutely true.

To demonstrate the value of knowledge, I am often reminded of a story I once heard about an engineer. An engineer named Jim once worked at a company with his partner Chuck. After several years, Jim & his partner had several differences in opinions & Jim decided to leave the company.

Chuck continued to manage the business & everything went well. Until one day an air conditioning unit broke down in large five star hotel. The customers were complaining, & Chuck’s engineering team worked for hours & could not find the problem.

Reluctantly, Chuck decided to call on his old engineering partner, Jim. He told Jim that he really needed his help, regardless of the price. Jim agreed to help his old partner.

When Jim arrived, Chuck had his engineering team follow Jim around to find out how he fixed it. As Jim walked around the hotel, he studied the air conditioning system & asked several questions to the engineer team. After a few hours Jim stopped, took out a piece of chalk, and marked an “X” on a component.

“Replace this,” Jim told the engineers, & Jim left. A few days later, Chuck received Jim’s bill for his service. It was a whopping $50,000. Chuck couldn’t believe it! Infuriated by the outrageous fee, Chuck immediately contacted Jim demanding he send an invoice with each cost itemized. Jim promptly responded with an invoice that read:

Piece of chalk…………………$1.00
Knowing where to put it…..$49,999.00
Total $50,000.00

I always liked that story. I thought it was funny, but at the same time, we all know it has truth in it as well. Knowledge sells. Knowledge is valuable. I think we can all agree on this.

E-Books offer a way to distribute & share any type of information or knowledge in a revolutionary way. Let’s briefly look at all the benefits of using e-Books:

From the author’s perspective: If you make an error or decide to change or alter the book, you do it with a click of the mouse & save it. There is no need to have a huge pile of book inventories to manage or ship. Instead, you have unlimited digital inventory that never needs restocking.

Also, you don’t have to try to “sell” your book idea to publishing companies, meaning you can cut out the middleman. You get paid every time you make a sell a copy, keep more profits, decide how much to charge, where to sell it, and much more. In other words, you have complete control & freedom to share your talents or knowledge with the world.

From the buyer’s perspective: They can download & view e-Books instantly (no waiting for a real book to come in the mail). They can save money by purchasing e-Books, because most e-Books are packed full of inside information that you can’t find in regular books. If the customer had to pay someone a consulting fee for this information (or attend a seminar or class), it would cost hundreds. Instead, e-Books almost always cost less than $50-$100 and they contain rich, important, and relevant information about a topic.

Reasons to Write and Publish an e-Book

As you can see, e-Books are going to be used even more & more commonly in the future. If you have not yet thrown yourself into the “e-Book” game, you need to get started! Money is one very obvious reason to write an e-Book, but there are several other reasons to write one. I’ll briefly cover some clever reasons on why you should write an e-Book, starting with the most obvious reason–money!

You can make money- and sometimes a lot of it! Everyone has some knowledge on how to do something that is not commonly known. Or, you can write your own life’s story, a collection of poems, a novel, etc. You can then sell this information to people who are interested in your product. Many entrepreneurs & authors make a very comfortable living doing this. Always remember that you have the option of converting your e-Book into a real book at any time you wish! And not every e-Book you write has to be expensive. I have written simple 5-10 page e-Book guides on how to do something very simple & basic that I have successfully sold for as little as $2.99. You can sell it for any price you want. Most e-Books sell from $1.00-$100 depending on the quantity & quality of the information.
You can build your reputation as an expert in a given field. For example, lets say you are a savvy computer programmer. You can write a book on programming or some simple tips on computer coding. I once read a story about a guy named Marshall Brain who wrote a “real” book about a certain type of computer programming. This programming language was relatively new, and became very popular in a short amount of time. As a result, he started getting calls from people who purchased his book asking for additional consulting advice. Marshall & his friend started a consulting business, and as a result became millionaires in only a few years. Establishing yourself as an expert or sharing knowledge can pay off nicely.
Building website traffic–If you have a website or blog that offers general content or products for sale, then you probably will want drive traffic and/or monetize it with a pay-per-click company such as Google Adsense. If you want to drive more traffic to your site ( more traffic= more money), then you can write a simple “how-to” e-Book & distribute it for free (or extremely cheap). You can place links to your website throughout the guide, and tell the reader that they should refer to your website archive/articles for more information. You can sell it on eBay, and even offer resell rights if you really want to spread the e-Book & generate a lot of traffic. However, if you use this strategy, I would not offer too much information. Most e-Books that sell for less than $10 are either really short, really outdated, or really worthless (you get what you pay for). Anyway, this can really build a steady stream of traffic & increase your earnings.
You can build your affiliate income. Another strategy of making money with e-Books is to place affiliate links inside the e-Book that relate to the material. In case you didn’t know, most major companies on the web will have what is called an affiliate program. An affiliate program is simply a program that a company (such as Amazon.com, eBay, Google, etc.) will use to help build their business. Usually, they give you money based on an action. EBay pays if you get people to sign up for an account, or if they bid on an item & you referred them. Amazon pays a percentage of purchases that were referred by you, etc. To join these accounts, you simply go to the company, fill out a basic application, and you are usually accepted instantly. You then earn money every time a person completes a certain action through your referral link (such as making a purchase or signing up with the company). Let me give you an example. Let’s say you have been successful with the Google Adsense program. You decide you want to write a guide on how to make money with Google Adsense. What you can do is log into your Adsense account & generate a referral link like this: Make money with Adsense & include the link several times in your guide. If a person clicks the link & signs up, you will make money from it. Sounds simple enough, right! As you can imagine the possibilities are endless with what you can do.
Use an e-Book as an instruction guide. Let’s say you have a product that you want to sell that doesn’t have anything to do with e-Books. For this example, let’s say you made a website template & you are selling it. What you can do is offer a downloadable e-Book that contains the instructions on how to use or install the template. Or you sell a phone battery kit. Give a free instructional e-Book on how to install the new battery. This can increase customer satisfaction & ensure they know how to install or use your product.
Use an e-Book as a promotion or bonus! Another great use for an e-Book is to increase your sales by using it as a promotion tool. If you sell an item, offer a free e-Book with it & it may increase your profits. Or, throw an e-Book in as a special bonus or free gift. Everyone loves free right? Even if you are selling e-Books, offer complimentary e-Books to go with it as a free gift. This gives the buyer an incentive to buy the product.

As you can see, the possibilities are almost endless. Not only can you use e-Books to generate a steady passive income in a variety of ways, but you can also use them to help sell other products, establish yourself as an expert, or to increase the customer satisfaction/assistance process.

Basically, if you are involved with the internet in any way, you should know how to leverage the power of e-Books to help you achieve whatever you want to achieve. Even if you do not want to sell your e-Book online, you can write your first “real” book in e-Book format. That will make it simple to revise your work & distribute it to publishing companies.