This is a great question and the answer is yes, every author with an eBook should consider offering as much as 20% of the content free. This coupled with a low price point makes the content more enticing to readers. The bottom line is you want to sell more eBooks and the best way is a (1) offer a free download for a portion of your book, and (2) set a low price point for novels, a bit higher for non-fiction. 

In addition, marketing is always important. You are an author with a book and yet your audience doesn’t know you exist. How do you reach your audience? That is a question for the ages and there is no set formula. Successful marketing involves a number of components in the right combination based on the genre and distribution for each book. For independent authors it means lots of work via social networking and posting as much content free on the Internet as possible. Marketing is never easy nor quick; my suggestion is to always consult with a professional book marketer before you spend money and time. Let them help you establish a strategy and marketing plan. You save money by following their advice. It would be a wise investment.

All of these success stories have been circulated by Amazon, where the majority has made their mark. However not everyone can depend on one web site for all their sales. The answer is a much wider, global distribution for your content, especially eBook. To improve your chances of success you must cast a wider net and reach a much larger audience, regardless of how much traffic one web site receives. Who can afford to ignore fifty percent of the market? 

Access to the market and reaching readers through global distribution is important to improving your chances of selling more copies and becoming a successful author.

It seems the more that is written about the opportunities with digital publishing the more the competition for conversion from a vast array of people calling themselves publishers’ pops up in our inbox. The real decision for any writer is: who do you trust with your writing? Understand that your publisher is the one who defines you as a writer. Your publisher is someone you need to feel confident in their ability to maximize the potential for your writing. 

Printing is not publishing, creating a Kindle edition and throwing it up on Amazon is not publishing. This is a business of creating content that offers the reader something special. Good publishing involves skills gained from years of experience in the business of making quality content better, more marketable and potentially bestselling. Publishers have experience with all types of genres, authors, marketing plans and distribution.  They understand the nuances of the market for readers and books. 

Today I’m fortunate to work with a group of editors, designers and marketers with unmatched experience and qualifications in New York publishing. The decision for writers is who do you place your trust in to make your writing the best it can be? Who do you want to be associated with as a publisher? Would you prefer working with a company who sends blind emails? Or do you think experience in publishing is a major factor? How successful do you want to be?  

It boils down to choice and certainly who you decide to team up with regarding your writing is very important. If you feel you made a mistake with your print edition then correct that for the eBook and consider someone with experience. Publishing is perception and the logo on your published content sets the stage for much of what will follow.  Publishing is about writing and selling quality content to share with the world.

Having served my entire adult life in publishing it still amazes me to this day how many companies operate under such outright deception and distortion of facts. The sad fact in the “independent or self-publishing” business is that too many people make a living off promoting, marketing and selling products and services that simply do not work or have value in the real world of book publishing, marketing, distributing and selling of books. Writers MUST protect themselves and their writing. 

Here are some key points to keep in mind when trying to determine whether a product or service has real value: (1)  Never commit to a long term agreement with anyone! (2)  Never pay for a product or service without knowing who is behind the product and service, what their background in publishing is and knowing whether they offer testimonials from satisfied customers that you can contact and objectively verify. (3)  Web sites or email blasts that sell and promote without offering a legitimate telephone number that someone can call and ask questions should be avoided. (4)  Companies that take days to respond to emails sent through their web sites are also to be avoided. (5)  If it sounds too good to be true or offers promises and guarantees, consider them companies to be avoided. 

There are never any guarantees in publishing, even for the biggest of the bestselling New York Times authors, there are no guarantees. Anyone making claims that sound too good, too easy, or too quick to possibly be true, run the other way, save your money and send me an email. I’ll be happy to offer you honest advice and feedback on whether or not the offer is legitimate.

Yet this hesitation will not last long because it is well known and understood in publishing that different formats (hardcover, trade paper, mass market paper, audio and eBook) do not take away sales from other formats because the market is different and separate and readers who prefer a specific format seldom stray. 

The primary reason for the reluctance on the part of the New York publishers to fully embrace the eBook is because digital is new and confusing to them and they are always slow to embrace change. At this time there is a massive desire for digital content in the form of eBooks and yet the biggest companies are not supplying what the market demands. Strange but this is exactly why print publishing has been in decline for years. 

This is exactly why the time for the independent author to get into the digital market is now, today! The longer you wait the less likely you are to find a fan base and grow your audience. This market is not going away and it will only get bigger and better especially as the price for eReaders decline, the demand for product will grow. Do not hesitate!

Price Waterhouse Coopers a consultancy reckons that eBooks will represent about 6% of consumer books sales in North America by 2013, up from 1.5% in 2009. Carolyn Reidy, the boss of Simon & Schuster, a major New York publisher, thinks they could account for 25% of the industry’s sales in America within three to five years. She may well be right if the prices of dedicated eReaders such as the iPad and Kindle keep falling and more consumers start reading on Smart Phones. The number of Apps for books on the iPhone recently surpassed that for games, previously the largest category.

Could it be any simplier? The time to publish your eBook is today!

If a book looks self-published, the immediate reaction and perception is bad and that will not set the tone for what you hope to achieve as an author. On the other hand, if you produce your book to fit your category and look similar to other titles in a bookstore, you will have made the right production decisions. Readers and book buyers do judge a book by its cover, price, back cover blurb, book reviews and production quality. Mistakes will haunt you, utilize the skills of a professional publisher and you will not have to worry about making publishing mistakes.

The most curious thing about her new book was the fact that selling a little more than 10,000 copies could make it all the way to the #11 spot on The New York Times bestseller list, #103 on the USA Today list and ranked #862 on Amazon. Just goes to show how much publishing is based on “perception.” The book was sold based on previous sales, there were tons of copies stacked high in stores and even though it had very poor sales the first two weeks, the bestselling “perception” was created before anyone knew the truth. 

This simple principle holds for any book: IF you are successful at creating buzz around the launch of your new book, get enough copies stacked into stores, create a false impression that the book will be a bestseller, anything is possible. In the end it may come back to bite you and cost lots of money, but perception in publishing is still a very strong strategy for success.

Her latest book isn’t exactly flying off the shelves. Since its release, “I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith, and Family” has sold just over 10,000 copies, according to national book sales tracker Bookscan. The non-fiction title debuted at #11 on the New York Times’ non-fiction bestseller list, and at #103 on USA Today’s bestsellers chart. Its Amazon.com rank was #862. This is in spite of Gosselin’s relentless promotion on TV and radio. 

Jim Milliot, business and news director of book-industry magazine Publishers Weekly, tells UsMagazine.com that the numbers “nowhere near a blockbuster” and “not that impressive.”  Could “I Just Want You to Know” end up selling 500,000 copies in the long run? Not likely, Milliot tells UsMagazine.com, explaining that the lion’s share of book sales typically occur “in the first month or two of publication.” He adds that Gosselin will have “a very tough time getting to 50,000, let alone 100,000…I think it will be a disappointment in the end.” 

The real question for authors and book lovers alike is: how does a book that sold only “a little more than 10,000 copies,” end up on national bestseller lists? For information on how a book becomes a bestselling title, read my article explaining how the system works. Click here.

Every author with a print title should not hesitate getting into the eBook market—AS LONG AS—they do it the right way with the correct brand and global distribution. The major publishers will eventually attempt to influence the market as they do with print titles and will do everything they can to dominate and eliminate competition. Small category publishers who have been around for fifty years are still holding space on shelves due to their longevity and ability to hang on. If they were new publishers today trying to gain a foothold in the market with print books their chances of survival would be slim at best. 

Don’t make a digital mistake that you may have made in print, select your publisher wisely, be concerned about the level of production, become part of a quality group of authors and not just another name on a list. Digital publishing will eventually focus on the “perception” of the product and the independent author will improve their chances at success by making wise decisions today. If you have questions about digital product or the market for eBooks, please send an email Jerry@WritersReaders.com and let me help you navigate the process.