Tag Archives: Publishing

Writing How to eBooks – The Difference Between Writing Books & Writing eBooks

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In the last few weeks, I’ve run into an issue three times. Now writing isn’t a big subject, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was. You see writing also isn’t a subject that evokes passion in people — especially professionals. Or maybe I should say excessive emotions rather than passion. You see writers tend to put their emotions onto the paper, not into their real lives. Maybe that’s one reason writers are such a laid back bunch — we expend the noisy emotions on paper and keep the quiet ones for real life.

In any case, two of these cases involved people claiming that eBooks weren’t real books. And that only printed books were worthy of serious consideration. I must be honest; one of them admitted that digital books — meaning real printed books copied to a digital format — were still valid.

At the same time, I was predicting the effect of the arrival of traditional publishers on the eBook scene.

This got me to thinking since I write both types of books. What is the difference between writing an eBook and writing a traditional book?

It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to determine what I meant by a book and an eBook. You see eBooks have developed a bad reputation. One that’s deserved. That of being poor quality and being typically a tempest in a teapot. A very tiny teapot.

So I had to put some limits around the terms.

Far too often eBooks are actually just reports with an over-inflated sense of self-importance. They’re really just white papers and extended report length pieces. They’re far too short to be honestly considered as a book or eBook. At most they might fit the definition of monograph. An essay or thesis to be more precise.

And second they are often poorly written and poorly edited. But that’s not a factor of the medium. That’s a factor of the expense and recognition of quality.

But both of these are a vanishing breed. They may last for a short time but the market is going to kill them soon.

On the other hand I also looked at books. And realized that books ran from novelty and executive length all the way up to tomes. So comparing writing different length books was going to be a problem.

The only way to be fair was to compare the same fruit of the writing tree… equal length books of the same type.

So what’s the difference between writing a very long eBook of a hundred pages and an executive length book of a hundred pages?

Does an eBook take less time? Nope.

Does an eBook take less effort? Nope.

Does an eBook take fewer steps? Nope.

Does an eBook take different steps? Not for the writing parts.

So what is the difference?

The publishing step. When writing an eBook you need to format the book in the form it will be sold in. When publishing using a traditional process the publisher does that.

But arguably that’s a publisher’s problem not the writer. And it’s really a function of the use of traditional publishers versus self publishing.

So the answer is… there is no difference. Writing an eBook is exactly the same as writing a traditional book.

Do you want to learn how to write a book in 24 hours? Take my brand new free course here: http://www.learningcreators.com

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

Author: Glen Ford
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Publishing – Self-Published Authors

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When we read a blog, can we safely say that its author is a self-published writer? And the answer is yes: we can safely say that the author of a blog is a self-published writer. That means that anyone could become a writer online and that includes you! All you need is a blog (hosted on a free domain, but preferably on your domain to avoid any data loss) and the will to succeed.

A blog is a space where an author can publish his/her thoughts. It doesn’t matter why people blog. Whether they blog for fun or for financial revenue (generated through AdSense ads, other ads, paid entries etc) all blog authors are self-published authors.

Successful bloggers are powerful bloggers. They are consultants for other bloggers, for businesses that want to achieve similar online recognition and so on. These people prove that blogging could be the path to a successful career. All you need is a brilliant idea, dedication and perseverance.

Some young talented writers start a blog hoping that a publisher will discover their art online and make them an offer for a hard cover chance. Many of these authors blog daily just to collect their entries and turn them into a book or an eBook using a free publishing service such as the ones offered by Lulu. Then they offer their work for free or for a small fee, or they start a slid marketing campaign to sell it both online and offline. Some are really successful. Others still spend their time online trying to make it to the top of the search engines and to become the crème de la crème of the blogosphere.

There are so many wonderful poems and literary works online waiting for you to discover them! All you need to do is start browsing the blogosphere or some high quality article directories like Associated Content or Ezine Articles.

Some bloggers consider their blogs private spaces. Yet they should understand that a blog becomes public if it is cached in a search engine and submitted to some directories, if it’s a part of any blogger community or interlinked with any other blog or website. So even a “private” blogger is a self-published author.

Self-publishing doesn’t refer solely to literary work and words. Publish your artwork and photography online and guess what: you become a self-published author. Any original contribution you sign with your real name or with a pseudonym and publish online wears your copyright and it’s your sole responsibility. Even when you choose to hire a ghostwriter, once the deal is done, if you were not smart enough to check the accuracy and originality of the content you paid for, you become responsible for what you publish.

Practically, self-publishing means that you publish your work alone – without being paid in advance by a traditional publishing house for your work.

The Web is full of surprises. HowStuffWorks started out as a collection of self published articles on how stuff works. Today this is a billion dollars business. I’ll not waste your time with similar examples. Have a brilliant idea and you’ll reach fame in no time, even in such a highly competitive world as the WWW!

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Publishing [http://publishing-guideto.com/]

Author: Michael Russell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Brilliant Strategy For Self-Publishers to Become an Amazon Best Seller

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With over 400,000 books being published every year its not likely that your book will make the New York Times Best Seller List. Now that’s not to say that you doesn’t deserve it, its just a numbers game as well as the fact that self-published books aren’t even eligible.

According to Edwin Diamond in his book Behind the Times, over 3,000 bookstores are surveyed as well as “representative wholesalers with more than 28,000 other retail outlets, including variety stores and supermarkets” to determine the Best Sellers.

So if you can’t make the grade for the New York Times how can you ever earn the title of being a Best Seller (BS)?

Go to Amazon, they are an equal opportunity seller, that’s how.

To begin with the Title of being a (BS) is an honor that no one can take from you however it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have sold tens of thousands of copies of your book. There are those who have earned this title by selling no more then 50 copies within a given time period.

Begin by crafting an email asking everyone on your list to buy a book at the same time, which will curve book sales during that peak time. The author usually creates Joint Ventures with complimentary companies to offer incentives – eBooks, downloadable audios etc. to the buyers for contributing to the (BS) campaign.

The Joint Venture partners will usually share the email list created from the (BS) campaign. The whole purpose is to have enough book sales to boost the Amazon rank to somewhere in the top 10 books, and preferably to #1, even if only for a very short period of time.

If you’re ready to go to learn more about how to write your own book and scale it into a Highly Profitable Teaching, Training, Coaching, or Speaking business than go to;  http://www.adaptonadime.com for your FREE “Fast Start Guide”

Paul Godines helps Authors with the Publishing Process, building the Authors Marketing Platforms (social media, products, coaching programs) Book Promotions (virtual book tours, amazon best seller campaigns, book award competitions) and receiving Publicity for your Book (Radio/TV and in Print.)

Author: Paul Godines
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Self-Publishing – What Does ISBN Mean?

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You have seen ISBN barcodes on book covers, but what do the numbers in an ISBN mean? Although it may appear to just be a random sequence of numbers, each portion of the ISBN provides information about the book to which it is assigned.

An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique 13-digit number assigned to each title, edition and format of a book, ebook, audio book or similar product. The ISBN is used to identify a specific book product, in much the same way a Universal Product Code (UPC) identifies other products.

There are five parts to an ISBN:

  • Prefix
  • Group or country identifier
  • Publisher identifier
  • Title identifier
  • Check digit

The prefix is a three digit number that identifies the product type or industry. For books, the prefix will be 978 or 979.

The group or country identifier indicates the country or language in which the book was published. English-speaking countries will be indicated with a 0 or 1, the identifier for French speaking countries is 2, the group identifier for German-speaking countries is 3, 4 for Japan, 5 for Russian speaking countries, and 7 for China. The group or country identifier may have as many as five digits.

The publisher identifier specifies the publisher of record for that title.

The title identifier is assigned by the publisher to a specific title, edition and format of the book. For example, the first edition of a hardcover book would receive an ISBN. If the book is also issued in paperback, audio book and ebook formats, each format would receive its own unique ISBN. When a second edition is published, each format of the second edition would receive a unique ISBN. New ISBNs are not required when a book is merely reprinted.

The last digit of the ISBN is a check digit. The check digit is a single-digit number from 0 to 10 (with X used to represent 10) that is computed from the other 12 digits in the ISBN. The purpose of the check digit is to catch errors in the entry of an ISBN.

Let’s take a look at a real-life example of how this works. The ISBN for my book, The Mystery Shopper’s Manual, is 978-1-888983-30-2.

  • 978 tells us that this number identifies a book.
  • 1 identifies the book as originating in an English-speaking country, in this case the United States.
  • 888983 is the code assigned to my publishing company, Special Interests Publishing.
  • 30 is the title identifier the publishing company assigned to this book: the trade paperback 6th edition of The Mystery Shopper’s Manual.
  • 2 is the check digit calculated from the other digits in the ISBN, using a formula established by the ISBN agencies.

The product identifier is always three digits, and the group identifier and check digit are always one digit each. The length of the publisher and title identifiers may vary. Together, they will contain eight digits, but large publishers will have shorter publisher identifiers than small publishers. That is because the large publishers will have more title identifiers in their block of ISBNs. Here is how that works:

ISBNs are assigned to publishers in blocks of 10, 100 and 1000. The ISBN for my book comes from a block of 100 numbers. That means that two digits are assigned to the title identifier and six to the publisher identifier. If the block of ISBNs contains 10 numbers, there would be one digit to identify the title and seven for the publisher. If the block contains 1000 ISBNs, there would be three digits in the title identifier and five in the publisher identifier.

It is important to know that the ISBN tells the book industry who the publisher is. That is why you only want to get ISBNs from the official agency and not borrow or buy an ISBN from another publisher. If you use their ISBN, it will appear that they, not you, are the publisher.

Although all of this may seem confusing, ISBNs help to keep book distribution orderly by making sure that each edition of each book has a unique identifier.

Cathy Stucker is the founder of http://SellingBooks.com/ where you can learn all about writing, publishing and marketing books. Learn how to get an ISBN and more at SellingBooks.com.

Author: Cathy Stucker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Why Your First Stab at Writing a Self-Help Book Isn’t Publishable

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If this is your first stab at writing a self-help book, it’s unlikely that you will have the skill set to produce a manuscript that will be able to compete with books already on the market. This is not meant to offend or discourage you. I strongly encourage you to write your book! But I also want you to be realistic about the fact that writing a book requires skills that needs to be learned.

It makes sense if you step back from your situation for a moment. Was the first cake you ever cooked so great that you were ready to have your own cooking show? Was the first picture you drew so fabulous that you hoped to see it in a national art museum? Think about the first time you tried to dance. Were you ready for Dancing with the Stars?

So what are the skills you need to learn to write a competitive self-help book?

1. How to assess the market to tell if your book idea will sell

Just because you want to write a particular book doesn’t mean that anyone else wants to read it. A savvy author knows how to scope out the book market to see what the buying public wants to read next. Notice I said “next”.

Readers all ready have access to the current books on the market. If yours says pretty much the same thing, with minor differences, your book will unlikely be a bestseller. Your job as an author is to look beyond the current moment and write a book that, once it’s written and published, will be fresh, new and innovative.

2. How to clearly identify your readers

If you’ve read any other articles on writing, I’m sure you’ve heard over and over that defining your audience is of utmost importance. That’s what I’m going to tell you, too. First-time writers (myself included) are notorious for wanting to reach a broad audience. Picture a bookstore in your mind for a moment. Can you picture a bookshelf that is labeled “Broad Audience”? No, because it doesn’t exist.

Picture your book on one, and only one, of the shelves in the store. The person who would go to that shelf is your audience. Focus in on that person and no one else.

3. How to structure your book to best communicate your message

A well-written self-help book is not a flow of consciousness. You’ll find a lot of poor advice online these days telling people to write ebooks quickly, without editing or proper structure. I’ve recently seen a service that tells customer to download their blogs so they can be turned into books. If you have a large number of subscribers who already know who you are and are ready to buy from you, perhaps your book will sell.

But your book will not be able to compete in the traditional book market. You might think that there are a lot of poorly written self-help books on the market today. And your may be right. But it’s important to realize that books published through publishers have had the input of numerous publishing professionals such as structural editors, copy editors and proof readers and had numerous revisions before going to press. The cover design and copy were discussed by marketing, sales and promotional professionals. A lot of effort and know-how goes into every book. These books are your competition.

4. How to illustrate your message with compelling stories

One of the major differences between a manual and a self-help book are the stories used to make the message come alive to your readers. Simply saying, “First, do this. Next, do that.” is insufficient for a bestselling self-help book. In fact, the way I am writing this article is not a good example of how to write a self-help book. I’m talking to you, but I’m not illustrating my points with stories. If you’re writing like I am now, you’re not writing a high-quality book. You’re writing a short article in a particular online style. Learning how to tell a great story that emotionally engages your reader is an integral skill of self-help book writing.

Self-help books are selling by the millions, and you can become a bestselling author-if you learn the craft of writing self-help books. It’s something you can definitely learn how to do. The first step for you to become the writer you can be is by recognizing that writing is indeed a set of skills that you need to learn. Don’t become one of the disappointed masses of writers who try to publish their first draft. I want you to succeed-so learn from my mistakes. I’ve made all of the above so I speak from experience. You can do it! I know because you have a message no one else can deliver-and it’s your job to deliver it!

For a FREE copy of my newest workboook, Make Your Hook Sizzle and Sell, a $17 value go to http://www.carmenberry.com/Carmen-Berry-Free-Download.html

Are you having trouble finishing your book? Carmen Berry, MSW can help! She is a New York Times bestselling author who authored, co-authored and ghost written over 20 books with top publishers including Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin. She has taught aspiring authors how to get published for 10 years.

Her coaching draws, not only from her successes, but also from the many mistakes she has made during her 25-year writing career. As a result, her clients can avoid making common-sense blunders that many first-time authors make. It’s okay to be a first-time author as long as you don’t act like an amateur. She works with aspiring writers who love helping people such as mental health professionals, educators, medical professionals, pastors, fitness experts and craft enthusiasts.

What could this same kind of success mean to your career?

Author: Carmen Berry
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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