Here are the stats:
In 2010, Apple sold 15 million IPads,
Amazon sold eight million Kindle books,
and Borders is closing 224 stores.
Soon digital books will become the norm
and paper books will be a niche market.
The future for writers is in self-publishing
digital eBooks.
A bandwagon I'm jumping on with both feet.
The digital eBook market players are Amazon's Kindle,
Amazon being the heavy hitter.
Look at the prices!
Books for free, books for $1.99, books for $2.99,
and some of these new indie writers are damn good!
A popular pricing strategy is to price books
at $.99 or to give them away until you gain a following.
Sooner or later the John Grishams and James Pattesons
will have to join up.
It's a new world and the coolest thing is that I am in charge.
I write the book, I hire or design the cover, I hire or format
the book, I download it to one of the above 3—or all three—
I set the price and I get to keep most of the money!
Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Book Bloggers. . .
these are my marketing tools.
Gone are agents, publishers, query letters, book proposals,
rejections, 16% royalties, and traveling book signings.
It used to be I couldn't get a book to a reader without
the blessing of a publisher.
All that has changed.
I attend Joe Konrath University.
I have two books looking for a formatter,
one nearly completed that will also be looking for a formatter,
and two more that need to be written.
I am currently in the process of getting estimates from formatters:
and
Here is the advice I've received for eBook success
from Joe:
1. Write a damn good book.
2. Make sure it has professional cover art.
3. Keep price under $4.
4. Have flawless formatting.
5. Write a good product description.
6. Upload to Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.
7. Repeat. Over and over, until the world can no longer ignore your work.
What have I got to lose?
It's fascinating how technology is changing our world in so many ways. And this is one of those ways. I wish you well.
ReplyDelete-- Felipe
I had a passing thought of doing just that, but then snapped back into reality. It seems like too much work.....
ReplyDeleteBut then again if you can make a few shekels, why not?
Look forward to downloading one or two!
Looking forward to your "EMERGENCY MEDICAL SPANISH" - cutting edge stuff - cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! Appreciate your support.
ReplyDeleteThere is a glitch. . .seems the little EMSpanish books have an expensive style to convert to Kindle or any other digital platform. Two languages, accents, lots of lists, bolding, numbered lines and so on. Because they are not in novel form, they will require being formatted page by page by hand. They may not be cost effective to convert. Vamos a ver.
The 2 books that have not been written yet will be easy to convert however, and may have to be put on the front burner.
Stay tuned. ;)