Ebooks Turn Bullish In Q2 Jumping 46 Percent

Sept. 4, 2009 - PRLog -- Remember the tortoise and hare?  A few years back no one was betting on digital magazines, newspapers and the like, let alone eBooks.  Then out of nowhere in early 2009, this digital-tortoise became a heavyweight and began to run faster.  The print-hare didn’t notice until its subscriptions started dropping, some of its major newspapers folded, ad revenues took a $2.8 billion hit in Q2,  libraries upped their digital buying, IDPF.org   announced a 46 percent Q2 uptick in eBook sales, and then the slingshot—Oprah fell in love with Kindle!

If you’re an author, writer or publisher and have been following along this change is great news if you’re not familiar with these marketplace shifts, read on.  Need more convincing?  A few weeks ago the preeminent NYT  found it newsworthy to report “people now reach for laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices” or check email before their first cup of coffee.  And last year it took just 10 days for George Soros’ new book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets to go through the publisher’s copy editing, design, proofreading, and release where it became immediately available to online bookseller worldwide.  By nightfall it hit number 12 on Kindle!

Soros’ book was an eBook, as you might have guessed and here’s another headline grabber:  This new world of publishing is creating a demand for more eBooks and their digital counterparts.  Demand equals opportunity and opportunity equals jobs; new emerging disciplines together with the type of jobs many of us recognize.  Curious as to what jobs are in demand?  Check out SEOmoz for many up to date job disciplines and a spanking new keyword survey report.  Of course, eBooks have certainly not made their debut in the public privy yet, but wait.  They will.  So, if you think there is an eBook in your future, here are a few of the basics to get started.  

MAJOR eBOOKSELLERS & WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS
It’s free to sign up at any of the following websites and if you write, you qualify.  There are a few other requirements which we’ll discuss momentarily.  In the meantime, a detailed description was just posted in the Florida Publishers Association September 2009 newsletter.  A free-no-sign-up copy is available to anyone interested.  

Check out the following (in alphabetical order):
Adobe PDF
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble
Lightning Source
MobiPocket
Microsoft eBooks
Sony Reader  

BOOKS SUITED TO eBOOK CONVERSION
Since nearly all eBooks are read on small mobile devices, text only works best, the simpler the better.  Use common fonts not larger than 14 point.  Strip out the chapter pages in the Table of Contents.  Page numbers are irrelevant because the pages double during the eBook conversion process.
   
Graphics, tables, charts, graphs and photos do not convert easily nor flow properly in an eBook format.  Once converted, your eBook is designed to flow continuously versus paging as it would in a printed book.  Smart Site® is one of the only eBook conversion houses worldwide that not only accepts one title at a time from authors but is recommended by Mobipocket, an Amazon company.

ISBN, EDITING, COVER DESIGN, DESCRIPTION, RAVE REVIEWS
Don’t skip any of the above if you want your eBook to sell.  To get an ISBN, contact Bowker where all publishers go even if you’re self-published.  For editing and cover design contract locally if possible and make sure the results are top-notch.  Keep the description brief, compelling and catchy.  The names of those writing rave reviews need to be recognizable in your field.

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Smart Site® is an eBook conversion house and management training company “working worldwide in a virtual environment” using American born contractors for all of its outsourced work. Bullish on eBooks from the onset, Smart Site® founder, Lynn Manning Ross, wrote Lame Brain 2009: A Dictionary for the Technically Challenged. It’s FREE and ready for download www.smartsite.com/lamebrain.html.