Everyone knows that writers make somewhere between 7.5% and 15% of the cover price of a book. Most people think that publishers hand over big advances to writers, and then promote their books all over the country – or world – to sell as many copies as possible. This could not be further from the truth.
Most authors fall into the “midlist” category where they receive ever-diminishing advances, little or no promotion, and their books – the few copies that make it into real bookstores – have less time on display on the shelves than potatoes in the vegetable section of the supermarket.
Profit for Publishers Doesn't Mean Profit for Writers
The truth is that publishers are content as long as they make a little money on their initial investment. They make a lot of money from a few writers and make small amounts of money from very many more writers. The bottom line is, they are happy to be in profit. But for the average writer who isn’t a huge best seller, that profit doesn’t amount to much.
Writers can find themselves having spent a year or more writing a book, but receiving as little as a couple of thousand dollars advance. Worse still, their book could be declared “out of print” by the publisher a year after publication. So no-one will get the chance to buy it and the remaindered copies will change hands on E-bay with the writer receiving nothing.
Freelance Writers Are Taking Matters Into their Own Hands
Writers often spend large amounts of their own money and time promoting their books, now many of them are deciding to cut out the middle man and sell direct to their reading public.
Using “Print On Demand” technology, and selling to a worldwide audience via the internet, has now become an alternative for fiction writers who want to self-publish.
However, an even cheaper alternative, for any writer who wants to dip a toe in the self-publishing water, is the E-book. It is an effective method for the non-fiction writer with expert advice to reach their readership direct. The International Digital Publishing Forum statistics reveal that from less than 8 million dollars in 2003, sales in the USA of E-books rose to more than 40 million dollars in 2008.
Costs are Minimal
A PDF file is the format most easily accessed by the greatest number of people. All that is required to produce an E-book is a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Pages, which enables anyone to save a document as a “pdf”.
Selling E-books Online
There are sites which help authors to create, market and sell their E-books (but who can take up to a hefty 40% of the selling price for their services).
Alternatively, any author can sell their E-books direct through their own website or through a website dedicated specifically to the promotion of the book. Services such as Paypal.com allow anyone to accept credit card payments, and delivery of the book can be made by E-mail or as a download from the website.
Marketing E-books
Blogs or networking sites offer the easiest way to get a message across at no cost. And of course, when freelance writers are writing online articles, every opportunity should be taken to point people to their website.
Recycle Existing Material
Writers are often sitting on a goldmine of articles or research material which they can bring together to make a book. E-books are especially suitable for non-fiction books, such as
- self help
- how-to books
- recipe books
- books providing information for niche markets
E-books can be much shorter that hard-copy books – they can have as few as 50 pages.
A Pircture Paints a Thousand Words…
… but an effective title can bring the search engines right to you. Make sure that your title shouts a message to the readers who might be looking for your book.
It’s also essential to create a graphic for your E-book cover. It’s possible to hire someone to create a design, but it’s relatively simple and very satisfying to create your own design with a basic photo or graphics program.
The most important factor in convincing people to buy your E-book will be establishing your credibility as an authority in the subject area. A website - an essential for every freelance writer - is ideal for self-promotion.
And remember, giving away an E-book free, can be a useful marketing tool for creating interest in you. Authors of fiction might think about offering a free or very low-cost E-book of their short stories or a novella in order to promote sales of their conventionally published novels.
More information about how to structure and format an e-book can be found here.
Sources:
statistics on E-book sales from The International Digital Publishing Forum
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Janice Hally - Janice Hally has written more than 300 broadcast hours of prime-time TV drama in the UK, as well as fiction and non-fiction books.
