A native of Colorado, Mrs. Yolanda M. Johnson-Bryant, currently resides in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, with her husband. Mrs. Bryant is a published author, freelance writer, novelist, editor, ghostwriter and a literary and entrepreneurial advocate. She is the founder and owner of YolandaMJohnson, Literary Wonders! and Bryant Consulting. She is a columnist for Examiner.com, RAW Sistaz Literary Services and other literary venues. Mrs. Johnson-Bryant is a member of The Nussbaum Entrepreneurial Center, Women of Leadership and Learning (WELL Women) and Toastmasters. She also conducts workshops and classes on writing and entrepreneurship and is also a member of several reading and writing groups. |
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Cornering the E-Book Market |
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E-readers sales took off in 2010, and now they are all the craze. From the iPad to the Kindle to the Sony Reader to the Nook, many readers are choosing these devices as their main source for reading their favorite books. So with this awesome news, why haven’t you cornered the e-book market? Perhaps you think it takes a lot of work to produce an e-book. Or maybe you assume it costs a lot of money. Let me squash these myths for you right now. Now, it is easier than ever to convert your book, short stories, or blog entries into e-book formats. That being said, don’t give up on hardcover and paperback books just yet. Although e-books have taken the e-reader plunge, many people still enjoy the look and feel of the real thing. After all, this industry is about options right? Below I’ve listed a few options to turning your book into an e-book. PDF: This is probably the easiest way to turn your book into an e-book. Simplyconvert the Word document version of your manuscript into a PDF format. You can link the PDF to your Web page or blog and set up an e-commerce option such as PayPal. Once a reader pays for the e-book, depending on how you set it up, they can instantly receive a PDF format of your e-book, which can be viewed on most e-readers. You can also set this up on your Website so that when the readers complete the payment process, you can either send them a copy of the PDF to their e-mail addresses or straight to their e-readers. With this option, there is really no need to associate your PDF document with an ISBN (International Standard Book Number)—unless, of course, you really want to. The bottom line with this option, besides being the easiest, is that all proceeds go straight to you. There is no royalty split whatsoever. Kindle: Kindle makes it easy to upload your book to Amazon and publish it with the Kindle Digital Text Platform. Kindle has two royalty options; a 35 percent royalty option and a 75 percent royalty option. To qualify for the 35 percent
royalty, a title must meet the following list price conditions: 1.
The book list price must be between $0.99 and $200. 2. A title with
a file size greater than 3 megabytes and up to 10 megabytes must also
have a list price of at least $1.99, and digital books with a file size
of 10 megabytes or greater must have a list price of at least $2.99.
3. The book list price must match the lowest suggested retail price or equivalent price for any digital or physical edition of the digital book. 4. The book list price must match the lowest price at which you list or offer any digital or physical edition of the digital book on any Website or other sales channel. 5. The book list price must match any maximum list price Amazon provides from time to time in the Program Policies. To qualify for the 70 percent royalty option, titles must meet the following list price conditions: 1.
The book list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99. |
After following instructions, the process is actually pretty painless. Amazon and Kindle have also published a free e-book titled Publish on Amazon Kindle with the Digital Text Platform. This book can be downloaded from the Amazon Website onto your Kindle, Smart phone, or computer using Kindle for PC. This free book will tell you all you need to know to e-publish your book through the Kindle. Find the download link at the end of this article. Smashwords: Smashwords offers an 85 percent net and 60 percent of list price from major e-book retailers. Sign-up is easy and free. Books published via Smashwords are distributed to major online book retailers such as the Apple iPad iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and the DieseleBook Store. The site is currently working to include Amazon to this list. The site offers free tools to help you publish and market your books. See the link at the end of this article. The International Digital Publishing Forum, in conjunction with the Association of American Publishers, collects quarterly U.S. trade retail e-book sales. In the third quarter of 2010, e-book sales rose to nearly $120 million dollars, compared to just $40 million dollars for the same quarter the previous year. Goldman Sachs forecasts that by the year 2015, e-books sales will increase to $3.19 billion, while print books will fall 4.9 percent. Many forecasters see the sales of e-books tapering off afterward and the sales of print books rising once again. While you have the opportunity, why not take advantage of the e-book interest and increase your already rising book sales? 2011 is a new year for new opportunities and a year for options. I’d like to remind you that this is the month of love and Valentine’s Day is on February 14. Why not run a Valentine’s Day promotion for your books? Make it a sweet deal for readers and buyers, and profit for you! Resources: Publish on Amazon Kindle with the Digital Text Platform The International Digital Publishing Forum http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/industrystats.htm Adobe PDF Converters 
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