Expert Advice on How to Publish an Ebook

After 25 years in business with the last ten as a branch manager for a major corporation, Jill is planning ahead for her own retiree business. She wants to be her own boss and to do something that she finds fulfilling with her expertise. With no reputation outside her company to build her coaching and consulting business, Jill wants to write a book, but she doesn’t know how to publish an ebook

She did decide to get a byline on Examiner.com to start developing public awareness of her knowledge and skills, yet she now wants her own book as well to refer to prospects and to promote on her website. She can use it also to get interviews and give as a bonus for speaking opportunities. 

While eventually Jill intends to turn her ebook into a printed book, the ebook seemed the easiest way to start. It’s also simpler to become a bestselling author on Kindle than on many other routes to publishing. The advantage Jill sees to that is that by becoming a bestselling author she boosts her credibility as an expert.

In looking for advice, Jill found expert advice on self-publishing an ebook and the reasons to do so in Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) The following is the book review I wrote on it:

My book review on Amazon for the original version of Let’s Get Digital on July 9, 2012 began with the title “Let’s Get Digital Lights Up the Dark Corners Related to Self-Publishing.” Since I posted this article on the Aberle Enterprises blog I learned that I can’t use my reviews that I posted to Amazon, so the following covers the essence of what I wrote seven years ago.

When I first read this book, I was still fascinated with the idea of getting published the `respectable,’ traditional route. Then I read David Gaughran’s excellent coverage of the current state of the publishing world.

He included interviews with 33 self-published authors, some of whom I’ve read on Kindle. These interviews were with mostly up-and-coming authors, writers beginning to make the amount of money to replace their full-time jobs so as to write full-time., and even an author who’s already having serious success to the tune of 100,000 Kindle ebooks in less than a year.

Besides giving us insights into these authors who are living the dream of many, maybe most authors, Gaughran also gave us background on the publishing industry, like how advances really work, how small advances normally are, and why the average author will never see royalties. What I hadn’t understood before reading Let’s Get Digital is how the traditional publishers must live with the `returns policy’ and the obvious cost of it.

Further, David Gaughran gave invaluable tips and advice on the practical side of self-publishing. For instance, he stressed the need to hire an editor to ensure your book reads professionally. The other major point that he made was to obtain a professionally designed book cover.

One of the issues I personally have no expertise about is how to price my self-published book. Gaughran provided strategy and advice on that too, such as where to publish. Finally, he recommended participating in forums. Most of the writers he interviewed for this book or whom he described got their audiences through forums and online book reviewers.

I found this book to be exactly what I need to further my knowledge of self-publishing. There are numerous points I can recall over six years later, and ones I’ve already applied to my own Kindle e-book, How Relationship Selling Rewards Small Businesses, such as getting a professionally designed cover.

 

If like Jill, you are beginning to plan ahead for your retiree business, one you find fulfilling, grab your copy of Let’s Get Digital now and get started establishing your reputation as an expert: Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (Let’s Get Publishing). Its expert advice will show you how to publish an ebook. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Finding Fulfillment through Your Retiree Business,

          John

John R. Aberle, Founder of Your Retiree Business

• (A division of Aberle Enterprises)

P.S. The links in this blog post for Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (Let’s Get Publishing) are are Amazon affiliate links. This means that Amazon.com may pay Aberle Enterprises fees on purchases made. I know you’ll love Let’s Get Digital. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

P.P.S. You might even want to reread it to get all of the resources David Gaughran gave throughout the book.