“A book in the hand of a reader is more likely to lead to another book sold.”

~Seth Godin

If you are an online writer, this is the best time to become a digital publisher. A digital publisher is anyone who publishes electronic products that can distributed over the internet. Digital products include blogs, articles, email newsletters, audio clips, videos, software, and, above all, e-books.

Here are five reasons why you should consider publishing e-books and make it an integral part of your online business:

1. Opportunity and Growing Market

Consider this: According to a recent Digital Publishing Industry Report, 86% of online entrepreneurs plan to publish a digital book in the next 6 months. The reason why so many online entrepreneurs plan to publish their own e-books is because of sky-rocketing e-book sales, especially in the U.S.

Because of its relatively low cost, free or low-cost distribution and ease of buying, readers are more likely to purchase e-books as compared to print books. It is estimated that about 70 million readers buy ten or more books each year.

Another encouraging trend for digital publishers is the increasing use of tablets and smartphones. According to Forrester Research, there will be 760 million tablets in useglobally in 2016. At present, an Online Publishers Association survey states that tablet users spend an average of 14 hours per week browsing content on their tablets because of its convenience.

2. Low Cost

The main digital publishing platforms such as Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords and Apple allow writers to publish their e-books free of cost. In return, these publishers receive a percentage of the book royalty, which can vary from 30 to 70 percent.

(However, some digital publishing platforms such as Clickbank and E-junkie charge fees for publishing your e-books.)

3. Ease and Speed of Publication

Publication of your e-book on any of the popular publishing platforms is quite simple. One of the biggest differences between conventional print publication and digital publication is the time it takes for your book to be available to your readers. While conventional take a few months, Amazon and other publishers have your e-book ready for sale within 12 to 24 hours. Other benefits include 24×7 global distribution and the option to publish in multiple languages.

4. Control and Flexibility

Unlike conventional publishers, you have total control over all aspects of your e-book such as cover, formatting, and pricing of your e-book. Moreover, you can make changes in your e-book and republish it whenever you want and as many times as necessary. You can even split-test different covers and blurbs to see which are more effective.

5. Effective Content marketing

Publication of e-books is probably the best way to market your content. You can offer a free PDF report to your e-book readers in exchange for subscribing to your email newsletter. This is an extremely cost-effective way to attract traffic and subscribers to your website.

If you are a new writer, you can take advantage of the massive traffic and marketing expertise of Amazon and gain access to thousands of potential customers simply by publishing your e-books on Amazon.

Examples of Digital Publishers
Three online writers who have become digital publishers:

Aneeta Sundararaj has published her e-books on both Amazon and Smashwords.

On the other hand, Raspal Seni has chosen to publish his e-book, 50 Big Blog Blunders and How to Avoid Them, on E-junkie.

I have chosen to publish my e-books on Amazon but plan to publish on all the other platforms soon, and on my website as well.

If you haven’t become a digital publisher yet, it’s time you did. The quickest way to publish your first e-book is by repurposing and repackaging your existing content. You can easily compile, organize, and update articles and blog posts that you have already written and format it to create your first e-book.

You can use these free resources to help you publish your first e-book:

The Dummy-Proof Way to Publish Your First E-Book
How to Publish and Market Your First Kindle Book – Review
Simple Blueprint for Quick and Easy Publication of Your First Ebook

Over to you:
Have you published any e-books as yet?
If yes, please share your experiences below.
If no, when do you plan to publish your first e-book?
What are the biggest obstacles that you face?

Let us know in the comments below.

(2 July 2014)


Rohi Shetty is a freelance writer who riffs about the importance of humor, mindful mojo, and creative entrepreneurship at http://rohishetty.com/. He has recently turned digital publisher and published five e-books on Amazon. You can connect with him on Twitter at @rohishetty.

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  1. Raspal Seni says:

    BTW, what is your experience with SmashWords? Is it better than Amazon Kindle Program? How much sale can I expect if I join and publish through SmashWords?

    I think there’s also an option to publish through SmashWords on Kindle. How is it different from publishing via KDP?

    Please enlighten on these points.

  2. Raspal Seni says:

    Hi Rohi,

    Nice article on e-book publishing.

    However, the link above to e-junkie points to my 2Checkout cart page. Can you please change it to the correct link to my page linked in my website info above?

    I plan to publish one e-book each month or so. So, my next e-book should be published by end of July.

    I’m also working on making some more freebies/bonuses to give with my e-book – a blunders’ worksheet and a chapter on good WordPress plugins.

    Thanks.

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