Tag: book

 
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Learn how much money you can make selling ebooks online.

One of the most common questions we get at Ebook Architect is ìhow much money will I make selling ebooks? Well, like most businesses the answer will depend on many different factors. For example the amount of time you put into the promotion of your ebook will have a direct consequence on sales and market interest in your ebook topic is another important factor. People who are good at picking good ebook topics and promoting their ebooks usually stand to make a lot of money with ebooks.

How Much Money You Ask?

Some Ebook entrepreneurs lose money in the course of a year while some make hundreds of thousands of dollars. More realistically however is somewhere in between these two points. Many ebook authors make between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.

How to Maximize Ebook Sales

The best way to ensure optimum sales is to constantly promote your ebook. This may mean staying in on weekends and staying up late during the week. Some of the best ways to promote your ebook include buying advertising from large advertising portals such as Google and Yahoo, partaking in link exchanges, writing articles for websites and Ezines, building an information dense website and writing great ebook sales pages. Accomplishing all of this is no minor feat. You should expect to be in product development for between 1-6 months and then the promotional aspect may take another 4-12 months. Itís not necessarily an easy job but as stated above the payoff could be substantial.

Worst Case Scenario

Even if you decide half way through the process that ebook entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea, you will still have written an ebook and be selling it online. That makes you an author; congratulations. Not only will you be an author but your ebook may give you some extra pocket change on a monthly basis. If nothing else, it will be a good learning experience. You have nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot?

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How To Sell Your Books On Radio

When my book was published I participated in eleven 15-minute live interviews on local radio over a period of just five days.

The results were highly encouraging; the book leapt from nowhere on Amazon.co.uk to position 194 out of 3123 competing titles and eventually grabbed the No.1 spot for its core keyword (retirement) where it remained for nine months.

I am shortly to repeat the broadcast exercise for my newly published tome but before doing so I am already off to a head startÖ

Although this title does not hit the bookstores until Monday 8 May 2006 it already ranks at No.47 out of 3453 competing titles on Amazon.co.uk ñ which means of course that the book is already selling in big numbers online ñ thanks largely to the success of its predecessor and the initial boost it got from radio promotion.

These promotional interviews are arranged by my publisherís media consultancy and I do not require to visit a single studio to take part; they are all conducted over the telephone, sitting at my desk at home.

So what if you self-publish your output and you donít have a publicist to arrange radio interviews?

Does that mean you are excluded?

No way; I have self-published several books in the past and managed my own promotion.

Wherever you live in the world youíll find that the majority of local radio stations are banded together into a single network for cost-effectiveness.

Here is what you do

1. Identify the controlling network;
2. Visit the corporate website containing links to all subsidiaries;
3. Pick out those stations within a 500/1000 mile orbit;
4. Visit each local station website individually;
5. Scan the daily programming schedules;
6. Highlight those programs that might identify with the topic of your book;
7. Note the presenterís name;
8. Email him/her with a well-couched request for a live interview;
9. Follow that up with an identical snail mail request;
10. Follow that up with a telephone call (youíll get to speak to someone in authority).

You know your topic inside out; speak up with confidence and youíll get your interview; maybe not straightaway but, if you sell yourself and your project professionally, youíll be logged into and up-and-coming slot in the station scheduling.

Go for it is free!

I will be reporting in a subsequent article on the outcome of my latest batch of broadcasts.

In truth though there is more to creating bestselling books than spieling about them on radio and if youíd like to learn how I manage to produce bestsellers consistently, visit the website featured in the resource box below.

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More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar

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A Strategy For Coming Up With A Great Book Title

Book publishing companies hire high-priced people to come up with a title or ìheadline,î because book publishing is a big business; therefore a lot of contemplation goes into making their titles as commercially-viable as possible.

Go into a bookstore and browse through the titles in the bestseller section. Book publishing companies hire high-priced people to come up with a title or ìheadline,î because book publishing is a big business; therefore a lot of contemplation goes into making their titles as commercially-viable as possible. Many well-known and highly successful books started out with other titles. According to Dan Poynter, the father of self-publishing:

ï Tomorrow is Another Day became Gone With The Wind.
ï Blossom and the Flower became Peyton Place.
ï The Rainbow Book became Free Stuff For Kids.
ï The Squash Book became the Zucchini Book.
ï John Thomas and Lady Jane became Lady Chatterlyís Lover.
ï Trimalchio in West Egg became Fitzgeraldís The Great Gatsby.
ï Something that Happened became Steinbeckís Of Mice and Men.
ï Catch 18 became Catch 22

While you are at the store, notice how the other browsers pick up a book, scan the front and back cover, and then put it down again before going on to another book. The whole process takes about two seconds each. Thatís all of the time you have to make an impression on a potential reader. In those two seconds, you must appeal literally to three of the five senses that human beings have, sight, speech, and hearing, and figuratively to the last two, touch and smell.

1) Sight: When someone first comes in contact with your bookís title, it is usually by seeing it on the front cover. So your title must be aesthetically appealing.

2) Speech: If a person stumbles over the words, it will add to the difficult in marketing your book. Even if you are writing only for family members and friends, and you are giving away your book for free, there is still an element of marketing.

3) Sound: Business philosopher Jim Rhone says in order to have effective communication, you must ìHave something good to say, say it well and say it often.î Your title will be heard often, but will it be good and will it be said well?

4) Touch: Touch also means to ìrelate toî or ìto have an influence on.î Figuratively, your title must allow itself to touch or be touched by being able to relate to your readers or have some type of influence on them.

5) Smell: Your title should figuratively give off an aroma. In other words it should project ìa distinctive quality or atmosphere.î If the aroma the title gives off suggests that very little thought or concern was given to it, people will assume that the rest of the book is the same way.

On a recent Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller list, out of 20 books, one had a one-word title; five had two-word titles; four had three-word titles; five had four-word titles; three had five-word titles; one had a seven-word title and one had an eight-word title. The point is, most honchos at major publishing companies believe that the simpler/shorter the title, the better. None of the titles were complex.

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— How to Write an Ebook —

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence. When you look at the whole project, it seems like an impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain. You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?
There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You must create it step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should take before you begin. Once you’ve gone through the following list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook’s working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books ? as long as it’s not too cute. For example, Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your book. For example, your thesis statement could read: We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives, but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to give you back a good night’s sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book. Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?

* Will your book positively affect the lives of your readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s attention?

* Does your book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook “user friendly”

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up the density of the page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader’s eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as “negative space.” Reader’s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that’s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they’ve gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a “comma splice.”)

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography. That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download request from your website visitors.

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