Advantages of Cheap Ebooks

There was a time when the idea of ebooks taking the place of hard copy books seemed far-fetched and impossible. Now, however, with electronic reading becoming more and more popular by the moment, people are beginning to get a glimpse of the future of reading, and it mostly involves electronic books.

There are many reasons why cheap ebooks became widely accepted and are slowly becoming the dominant medium in literature. These reasons may help convince you to invest in an eBook reader and take up an eBook reading habit.

1. Availability. Cheap ebooks are so easy to find, with them being so rampant on the Internet. It is now possible to find copies of any title on the market without even leaving one's home. People can browse through lots of online libraries and download their selected titles for a fee. It certainly beats having to go to a bookstore to look for your desired titles, and since you can easily jump from one online library to another, you don't have to go through the hassle of not finding the book you want after driving all the way to the bookstore.

2. Accessibility. Cheap ebooks are also highly accessible. Once you find the title you want, getting a copy is as easy as making a few clicks. That is, if you are buying from the bookstore that supports your ereader. But even if you seek for ebooks from other online sources, getting access to the digital copies is as easy as connecting your ereader to your computer and transferring the files.

3. Affordability. Electronic book copies are usually offered at lower prices online due to the competition among different online booksellers. With a lack of monopoly, the booksellers have to find way to bring in more customers than their competitors. One strategy to ensure this is by lowering the prices of books. And since online bookstores that sell digital copies do everything electronically, they have very little expenses in maintaining their businesses. This puts them in the position to offer lower prices.

4. Convenience. The biggest reason, however, that convinces people to start reading cheap ebooks rather than their hard copy versions, is the convenience of electronic reading. Since ebooks don't take up any space at all, you can store them in your ereader or on an online storage service. In one ereader or one memory disk, you can store up to thousands of electronic books already. Not only is this logistically convenient, but it also allows you to access your books wherever you may be. This makes it a joy to read while commuting or even when you're traveling.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   

Benefits to Purchasing eBooks Over Paperback or Hardbacks

One of the major questions asked about the latest eBook readers, what with their long-line of impressive features, is whether or not they are worth buying over the physical paper or hardbacks. Electronic book readers are simple to use and operate and are becoming more and more common place as the technology advances. Here are some of the main advantages of purchasing eBooks -

Instantaneous - an eBook is delivered almost instantaneously to your e-reader, laptop, tablet or similar device. It is quite possible to go through the entire process of purchasing and downloading an eBook within a matter of minutes, which eliminates a need to shop in store or wait days for delivery if purchasing a physical book.

Save Money - although there is the initial cost of purchasing the eReader, most of the eBooks available are priced very competitively, and often lower than their physical counterpart. Also, it is quite easy to pick up a nice collection of free eBooks, with a lot of the classics available to download free of charge. Published and indie authors also offer their eBooks as specials or daily deals to help with promoting their work. An avid reader is soon able to fill their eReader with a varied and impressive selection of books at free to minimal cost.

Less Clutter - a typical eReader has the memory to potentially hold 3000+ books in a very compact device, which means you no longer have to be concerned with sizable bookshelves or having space to hold countless physical books. A passionate reader might well create a massive stockpile of books, which is easily eliminated with the latest high-capacity eReaders.

Environment-Friendly - although it might be true that the eBook devices themselves will contribute a small amount to your carbon footprint, it is believed that the long-term use and take-up of these electronic readers will ultimately assist the environment as a lot less paper-based books will be manufactured.

Self Publishing - it is significantly easier for the amateur or part-timer to get published using the e-reader format than going to the expense of publishing in paper format. Due to this, the users of the eReader have a far wider choice of authors and books to read. Also, another great positive to the self-published author is that they often price their books at a low-rate when first starting out.

As you can see, there is a wide-range of great positives to come from purchasing an eBook reader over the more traditional and bulky paper and hardback books available on the market.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Avoid The Biggest Mistake Made By The Overwhelming Majority Of Aspiring E-Book Publishers   Writing an eBook - The 5 Most Important Tips for Newbies   

How to Publish an eBook on Amazon - 12 Simple Steps to Getting Published

Writing your own eBook is an effective and an essential tool for establishing credibility. The truth of the matter is whether you are a speaker, writer, teacher, trainer, coach, professor, internet marketer, or whatever your title is...your choices are: "publish" or "perish".

Traditional publishing has changed drastically over the years. Here are the facts:

Traditional publishers are looking for authors who have "already-made platforms", a list, an audience to purchase their books and products; Traditional publishers want evidence of sales and promotion/marketing ability; Traditional publishers take on very few new authors and are only offering large advances to established authors that have demonstrated sales; The old days of writing a manuscript, querying agents and publishers, then waiting for a response and receiving lots of rejection slips are over! The new way of getting a publisher to notice you is to build a large platform online and then they will pay attention to you. Publishing an eBook is very low-cost because there are no printing expenses and the profits are all yours! Online eBook sales are exceeding hardbook cover sales!

So now that we agree, to be successful and to gain worldwide exposure, you MUST publish on Amazon's Kindle (which, by the way is "FREE"), then here are the 12 simple steps to get started:

Set up a free account at Amazon. To get to the right link, simple go to Google and type in" KDP Amazon and then click on the appropriate link (usually the first one that comes up); Login to your account; Go to: Bookshelf and then click on "add new title". From here, Amazon, walks you through the process by asking you to complete certain fields, however, I am going to review the fields because there are a few pointers I want to give you. Book Name and Description should have strategically placed "keywords" in them so that people searching for your topic can find your eBook. So make sure you do your keyword research prior to publishing your eBook on Amazon's Kindle. I suggest using Google's free "keyword tool" to analyze appropriate keywords and use them naturally in your title and description. Book contributor; obviously if you are the author, then you list yourself, if you have a co-author then you list that person as well. You do not need a publication date and I don't recommend putting one in nor do you need an ISBN number to publish. If you are self-publishing this, then under publisher, you can use your own name or what I recommend is putting your website address in this field to help drive traffic to your site; Categories; this is very important that you select the right categories for your eBook. Make sure you do your keyword research and that you aren't in a highly competitive category. There are a lot of sub-categories and you should find the right one for your eBook. Upload your cover; I have a graphics designer do all of my covers and she formats them to the right size, but you can create your own or not put anything at all and Amazon will put a placeholder in the image field if you don't have one; Enable or disable DRM is a field you have to complete; DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and has to do with people sharing your eBook with others; click on the "what's this" link for more information on this. I always "enable" the DRM for me and my clients; There are fields you have to complete like verifying your publishing rights, etc. Those are self-explanatory so I am not going over those. Royalties. I recommend choosing 70% vs. 35% for obvious reasons. Kindle Select is a new program that has to do with Amazon's Premiere membership program. Click on the link to read more about it. I do recommend going with the Kindle Select program if your eBook is exclusive to Amazon.

There you have the 12 steps to getting your eBook published on Amazon, however, I would be doing you a dis-service if I didn't review formatting as this is a critical piece on how your eBook will look to readers. I create my manuscript in Microsoft's Word, however, here are some of the detailed instructions that can be found on Amazon's site:

File Format: Save your content in DOC (or.doc) format, not RTF (.rtf) or DOCX (.docx) as the latter do not translate well to Kindle. Save your work periodically as you make changes to ensure all changes are recorded.

Layout: Use indentations, bold characters, italics and headings, as they will translate into your Kindle book. However, bullet points, special fonts, headers, and footers will not be transferred, so be sure to avoid those.

Page Breaks: Enter a page break at the end of every chapter to prevent the text from running together. To insert a page break in MS Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."

Image Placement: Images should be inserted in JPEG (or.jpeg) format with center alignment (don't copy and paste from another source). Select "Insert" > "Picture" > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, remember that images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for great contrast and clarity.

Spellcheck and Grammar: This tool is always your friend to ensure a professional presentation free of typos. Use this tool, but also manually proofread your file to ensure no errors are missed by the automated checker.

Creating Front Matter: Front matter is the beginning pages of a book, which may include a Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication, Preface, and Prologue. For a stylish and professional presentation, you should add a Title Page at a minimum.

You can find more instructions on the Amazon/Kindle website as you go through this process.

I encourage you to get your eBook published now and start generating new leads and income for your online business!

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   How to Write an eBook Fast and Not Fail in the Attempt   How an eBook Makes You an Expert in Your Field   

WordPress for Beginners Tutorial

In this WordPress for Beginners Tutorial, you'll learn how to start your very own WordPress blog. It doesn't matter if you want to use WordPress as a blog or a website, basic setup is similar.

This WordPress for Beginners tutorial exists of 5 steps:

Get a domain name and hosting Install WordPress Select your theme Install plugins Promote your blog

Step 1: Get a Domain Name and Hosting

The first step is to search for a domain name and hosting.

There are 2 kinds of hosting that are very interesting, shared hosting and managed hosting. Shared hosting is interesting because it's quite cheap, managed hosting is more expensive but also offers a lot more!

Examples of companies offering shared hosting:

Hostgator Dreamhost Bluehost

Examples of companies offering managed hosting:

Zippykid Page.Ly WPEngine

Which one is best for you? I think managed hosting is great for companies, otherwise it's better to pick shared hosting.

Step 2: Install WordPress

Installation of WordPress is very easy (WordPress is famous for the 5-minute installation!). Most hosts even offer a 1-click installation!

For more details on installing WordPress, check the official WordPress Codes on WordPress.org.

Step 3: Installing your theme

The third step in this WordPress for beginners tutorial is installing your theme.

There is a very great choice of themes: you could create a theme, buy a theme, use a free theme, or use a theme editor.

Creating your theme is the hardest work, but it guarantees the most unique theme.

A great option is to buy a premium theme. There are a lot of websites selling great themes at a low price. Mostly at around $40! For that price you can't design your own theme!

Beginning bloggers probably will start with a free theme. The best place to find free themes is the official WordPress.org website.

Another option is using a theme editor. The theme editor I use the most is Artisteer, because with Artisteer it's possible to create themes very fast without any technical knowledge.

Step 4: Install plugins

One of the greatest things of WordPress is the possibility to extend it the way you need. You can do this with plugins, which will extend the basic functionalities of your WordPress installation.

There are plugins for almost everything:

Better SEO A faster blog Creating a membership site Building a CMS website

Step 5: Promote your blog

In the last step of this "WordPress for Beginners Tutorial" I'll show you how you can promote your blog.

There are several options to promote your blog:

Comment on other blogs Buy ads to promote your site (Google Ads is a good start!) Distribute press releases Distribute an e-book Build an e-mail list Create a video and publish it on Vimeo and Youtube Submit your blog or site to web directories Provide a RSS feed Start a Facebook fan page Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Success Is Subjective When It Comes to EBooking the Author of the Article Explained   Why There Is a Need for Creating Information Products   

Online Article Directories Should Get Into the E-Book Business, Let Me Explain

With the deluge of information, it is getting harder and harder to find the information you need, or the information you seek regardless of the area of human endeavor. If you are in business for yourself you need this information to make good decisions, and you need to stay up on everything and ahead of your competition when any new innovation comes into your field.

This is why most business people like myself have virtual radar for information in their sector, take Google News alerts, and surf the news in their industry almost on a daily basis. Wouldn't it be better if we can get all of this information consolidated and available to us so we can read it all at once? I believe so, therefore I would like to display a new concept I have, but before I do I would like to enlighten you as to how I came about this thought.

You see, there was an interesting article published on October 15, 2012 in The WRAP (covering Hollywood) titled; "Chicago Tribune Launches Ebook Initiative - but L.A. Times Opts Out," by Alexander C. Kaufman which stated;

"Tribune Company has kicked off an ebook initiative in partnership with Agate Publishing, collecting stories and photos from the Chicago Tribune and two other newspapers and selling them as digital long-form features. Tribune, has already released about two dozen e-books since spring, has strung together archived work from its namesake paper and the Orlando Sentinel and sold the e-books for $4.99."

Is this a viable concept? Sure, and I believe they should be taking this to a whole new level. You see, I myself clip articles out of magazines, newspapers, and save electronic news articles to my "favorites" or "plus them" on Google for instance. Now then, for my e-reader wouldn't it be nice to pick all the articles with certain key words and then have them compiled for me into an eBook format on my topics? It's a natural.

What if the top online article directories which had over 1 million articles on a multitude of different subjects allowed an e-reader customer to specify certain authors, in certain categories of subject matter, along with certain dates to search through their directory and collect all the articles which fit into that criteria, and then make them into an e-book. What if each title of each article became a chapter on the table of contents, and each article was listed in the e-book, perhaps 100 to 150 articles in each e-book?

What if they sold those e-books for $2.99 in formats which might be available on Kindles, Nooks, tablets, or iPads? Wouldn't that be a good idea, and solve the problem which I discussed in the first paragraph? Wouldn't that be an excellent business model to pursue? How hard would it be? The whole thing could be automated. People could order an e-book on demand with the information that they wanted, leaving all the other debris behind. Please consider all this and think on it.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Learning Some Lesser Known Facts About EBook Conversion   Write and Cash in on Short Ebooks Now   

E-Books - Have They Changed Anything in Modern Day Life?

This article has been written to describe some of the key benefits of e-books and their impacts in our daily life.

Historically books have played a very important role in development of human civilizations and are also a key tool for enhancing human knowledge over the centuries. With the world wide web and internet peaking its boom in late 90s and trending to have electronic versions of many day life functions, it would have been quite unrealistic to see paper books not being overshadowed by e-books. However, it was not only the internet that played its part on promoting e-books, rather there have been a tremendous variety of gadgets ranging from good resolution smart phones to isolate and sophisticated e-readers that have enabled the modern day people to carry almost their own library of the size bigger than many national libraries in the world in their pockets or hand and should bags. If you were able to tell this to a person, of an era about 100 years ago, he would perhaps imagine that all these forms of e-readers might prove among a few great inventions of the modern day world.

E-books not only make you save a great deal of your shelve-space or in some cases an entire room in your house but they prove to be more useful when it comes to portability, imagine if you are a resident in America and visiting Australia for a business trip for about 3 months, would you carry a set of 10-12 paper books with you to serve your appetite for book reading? With all the hectic issues of carrying increased weight of your luggage and in many cases your suitcase space, not many people would answer in a 'big yes'. With the great rate of e-books availability of your choice, the answer shall be a 'yes I'll keep even more than that and that because I have all those in my e-books reader'.

It is not just the space and portability that makes the case of e-books very strong; availability factors make it even more suitable and popular choice. Imagine, all the major books sellers in your country or continent, or even of entire world sitting outside the door of your house for anxiously waiting for your order for a book to be bought and available today. It's even more than that cause you can find the book you are interested in, over the internet, simply pay for it and read it in your e-book reader, be it a smart phone, your PC, office laptop, a personal net-books or a sophisticated e-book reader.

Amazingly, e-books have not only increased the availability factor of books for buyers in different parts of the world, as the benefits are not just unidirectional; it has been quite helpful for writers, publishers and sellers to make their book products, researches and piece of art available for appreciation from all over the world. Economy of scales have played its part too as now the publishers will not be limited to gain financial benefits from a limited stock, it opens up a giant market just by publishing e-version of the book while publishing a paper book.

Wrapping up the discussion, it would be quite true to claim that e-books are proven beneficial for not only the readers, writers, sellers or intermediate parties; but are also a very useful tool of protecting our environment too. The argument for this statement is not a new one, we all know that from ancient times human have produced papers using plants and trees as a source and with increasing use of papers in modern day life there have been several campaigns every year to protect environment by reducing the tree cutting activities. E-books have allowed to keep sharing knowledge, ideas and researches without the cost of cutting trees or and hence played their part in saving environment.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Avoid The Biggest Mistake Made By The Overwhelming Majority Of Aspiring E-Book Publishers   Writing an eBook - The 5 Most Important Tips for Newbies