The eBook Advantage

The

eBook Advantage:

WRITING AND PUBLISHING ELECTRONIC BOOKS BY CEIL HALL, Senior Member, Carolina Chapter hen technical writing jobs became scarce during the current downturn in the U.S. economy, I wrote three books and started my own eBook publishing company to generate some income. This article, the result of a year of intensive research and experience in eBook development, explains how you can do it, too. My books were not on technical subjects, but the ideas in this article can work for books on any subject.

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cover The Self-publishing Option

Before you start your own eBook business, it’s a good idea to do some soulsearching about your ability and desire to start your own company and function as an entrepreneur. Starting and managing your own company can be a complicated, strenuous, and time-consuming endeavor. Particularly during the startup phase, the hours you put in can be crushing, especially if you want to launch your business quickly to bring in some cash. Therefore, it’s important to examine your family situation and other factors, such as your energy level and temperament. Why eBooks?

Writing, producing, and selling eBooks over the Web is a great way for technical writers to earn money because we already know how to write and edit books. We also possess the technical knowledge necessary to convert our manuscripts into eBooks; some of us can even design and code our own Web sites. And the startup, production, and business maintenance expenses are astonishingly low. What Are eBooks?

eBooks are books that are sold and used in electronic format. Usually, the term refers to computer files that people copy onto their personal digital assistants (PDAs), made by companies such as Palm, Handspring, Sony, and Microsoft. Some people also read eBook files on laptop and desktop computers. eBooks can be printed on inkjet or laser computer printers—they are just like hardcopy books, except that the readers pay for the ink, paper, and binding. Choosing a Subject

To start an eBook business, the first thing you need to do is choose the subject of your first book. The most profitable topic is a “how to” that appeals to a wide range of people yet enables you to target a specific group. Also, unless you intend to collaborate with a subject matter expert, it helps to choose a subject with which you are already familiar. For example, my first book, Communication and the Bottom Line: Practical Guidelines for Productivity and Profit, addresses

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managers and human resource professionals of any size or type of company, and it combines my formal training in communication with my experience in the workplace. I’m marketing this book to various management and human resource associations. My second book, College Survival Tips: What Your Mother Might Not Tell You About Making the Grade, imparts the techniques I used to manage a heavy workload in college and graduate school. I’m marketing that book directly to college freshmen, their parents, guidance counselors, and college admissions officials. This book has great potential because of the large number of freshmen entering college each year and the fact that students today are required to use computers at school. Because I previously counseled parents of college freshman, I was able to add a

you get a thorough appraisal of your content. Give your reviewers a deadline (two to three weeks is optimal for thirty- to eighty-page manuscripts) and include instructions about confidentiality. Also remind them that you are looking for feedback on the accuracy of your content and terminology, as well as the manner in which you expressed the information. Let them know you’ll be using a copy editor for grammar, and release them from the obligation to provide that kind of feedback. Then send the manuscript to an experienced copyeditor. (One of my colleagues copyedited my books for free.) Reward your copyeditor by giving him or her a credit on the copyright page and in the Acknowledgments section of your book. Thank each of your reviewers in the Acknowledgments section, and send

Writing, producing, and selling eBooks over the Web is a great way for technical writers to earn money because we already know how to write and edit books. parents’ version of the book to my repertoire: College Survival Tips for Parents: Fostering Growth and Independence in Your Kids. If you are familiar only with technical subjects, no problem! One developer I know, Steve Humphrey, rakes in quite a bit of money with his eBook for Web developers, Learn to Use CGI in Two Hours. You can write about anything at all, but to ensure a decent profit, be sure your subject appeals to a sizeable audience and enables you to target a specific market of readers who already are using computers and PDAs. Sending Your Book Out for Review

After you finish writing your book, edit the manuscript and send it to a group of subject matter experts to review. Choose a broad spectrum of reviewers, so that

each reviewer a free copy of your book as “payment” for his or her feedback. Soliciting Feedback from Your Readers

You can enhance your books and your business by soliciting feedback from your readers. At the end of all my books, I append a “Let Me Hear From You” section, inviting readers to send me a letter or to use the online feedback form on my Web site. To make it easy for them to respond, I include my mailing and Web site address. The feedback form on my Web site is very easy to use. You can view it at www.realtimepublications.com/feedback .htm. When I receive feedback, I put the most complimentary statements on the testimonials page of my Web site, and I keep the suggestions in a file to incorporate into the second edition of the book.

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cover About eBook Covers

While investing in the startup phase of RealTime Publications, I paid for the best book covers money could buy and skimped on everything else to compensate. Moreover, I chose a graphic artist who was particularly skilled at branding a product. Branding your eBooks is extremely important—more important than branding the name of your publishing company. If people know your Web address and what your book covers look like, your business will generate money. eBook covers should be attractive, distinctive, and professional in appearance. If you are offering a “print-it-yourself” version, they should also be “light.” In other words, they should not inconvenience your readers by taking a long time to print or using up a lot of ink. All eBook formats handle cover art differently. My print-it-yourself eBooks use a standard 8.5 by 11 inch cover; the file converter I use to generate Microsoft Reader files requires a cover art image that is exactly 510 by 680 pixels; and my Palm or Palm-compatible files are text-only files that do not include a cover. You’ll also need a variety of book cover files for promotional purposes. Most experienced graphic artists can counsel you about that. Choosing eBook File Formats

The file formats you choose to offer depend on the subject matter. If you are selling a software tutorial, your book will probably work best in Portable Document Format (PDF) alone, because there isn’t enough room on a tiny PDA screen for software screenshots, and most PDAs have disk size and memory limitations. Also, text wraps unpredictably on PDAs; if you have examples of scripting or other text that requires exact placement, it won’t display correctly on a PDA screen. The marketplace is another variable to consider when choosing file formats. Many people still prefer hardcopy books. Therefore, it’s wise to provide a hardcopy print-it-yourself version of your eBook, such as a PDF file. At this time, most of the people who read books on a PDA own Palm or Palm-compatible devices. For this reason, I offer my eBooks in Palm PDB file format. Microsoft has

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recently jumped into the market by creating Microsoft Reader and including it on their Pocket PC 2002. Microsoft Reader files are now available on the Barnes and Noble eCommerce Web site, and the word on the street is that Amazon will be offering Microsoft Reader eBooks as well. Therefore, I included Microsoft Reader LIT files. Price is another consideration. Unless you are an XML expert and can set up the conversion yourself, you need to buy a conversion tool for each type of format you produce or pay a consulting firm to do the conversion. Also, if you publish several books in various formats and assign ISBNs to each, the cost of ISBNs might become a factor. I’ll address the cost of ISBNs later in this article.

The $10 Palm file converter I bought, Word2Doc, is available at www.handango. com and www.palmgear.com. This tool creates PDB files that can be viewed with any standard Palm Doc reader software. Palm Doc is the most common type of document format in the Palm and Palmcompatible PDA marketplace: Almost all Palm and Palm-compatible document readers display documents delivered in Palm Doc format. This universality is essential because the Palm community is extremely diverse, and if you don’t include all users, you risk losing sales. The formatting looks very plain, but people who read books on the Palm are accustomed to that. Palm has developed its own reader and low-cost conversion tools that support rich text. Eventually,

Branding

your eBooks is extremely important— more important than branding the name of your publishing company. eBook File Conversion

I used Adobe Acrobat’s PDF Writer to convert my Microsoft Word files to PDF format. To keep costs low, I used a free Microsoft Reader converter made by Overdrive, which you can find at www.ebook express.com. I was unable to encrypt my books or create a hypertext table of contents with this tool, but that was a fair trade-off considering that I paid nothing. Overdrive also makes a standard and professional version of this converter, which you can read about at www.overdrive.com/ readerworks. You can also download a free utility from Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/ reader) that converts Word files to LIT format, but it works only with Word XP.

Palm will probably corner the market with these tools, but currently most Palm users own only one of many Doc readers in existence today. If you convert your eBooks to rich text Palm Reader format, you are likely to lose those customers because most of them won’t install an additional reader just to read one book. A few consulting firms convert Word files to eBook formats. The two I found were Texterity (www.texterity.com) and Publishing Dimensions (www.pub dimensions.com). These firms charged more money than I wanted to pay, but if you have money to invest, they provide functionality that inexpensive conversion tools do not.

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cover About Encryption

Most eBook publishers encrypt their books to prevent pirating. eBooks can be encrypted in a variety of ways (by restricting the number of devices onto which an eBook can be copied, the ability to copy text to the Windows Clipboard, the span of pages that readers can print, and so forth). Microsoft has created a new technology called DRM, or Digital Rights Management, to accommodate publishers who want to protect their products. After speaking to various eBook readers, I decided not to encrypt my books, although I do protect them by distributing them as read-only files. Many readers told me they feel angry when they purchase a book that they can’t place on multiple devices or back up for safekeep-

sell, whether or not they are associated with the same book title. I am currently selling three books in three different file formats for a total of nine ISBNs. ISBNs cost $229 for a minimum purchase of ten numbers, so you might want to pass on this option, especially if you intend to sell only one eBook in PDF format alone. If you decide to spring for ISBNs, visit www.isbn.org to order them. Although there are companies that sell ISBN kits, it’s a cinch to purchase ISBNs and register your eBooks directly with the ISBN agency, R.R. Bowker. If you need help, their customer service team is easy to reach, very responsive, and extremely helpful. Copyrighting Your eBooks

When your final draft is finished, you should register your book with the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. At $30 per title, this is the cheapest copyright insurance you’ll ever find. Go to www.loc.gov/copyright, select “Literary Works,” download the Form TX or Short Form TX, fill it out, and send it with your check and a hardcopy of your manuscript to the address indicated on the form. The Form TX is simple and includes a user-friendly instruction sheet. Pricing Your eBooks

ing. Also, DRM and other encryption technologies cause complications for users, and encrypting my books would most likely result in a flood of tech support calls. To sidestep these negative effects, I chose to risk “the pirating factor” and tried to protect my books by keeping their cost low and by asking my readers in a special chapter at the end of one of my books not to engage in piracy. ISBNs

You are not required to assign International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) to your eBooks, but I assigned them to my books to legitimize them. Keep in mind that you must assign a separate ISBN to each of the file formats you

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There is no silver bullet for pricing an eBook. An article on the Publisher’s Marketing Association Web site (www.pma online.org) indicates that the optimal price is $8. To attract customers, I set that price for both of my college survival books. My management and human resource book costs $10.95 because it is longer and more sophisticated than the other two. When in doubt, visit some Web sites that sell eBooks, such as Barnes and Noble, Amazon, www.ebooks.com, and www.palmdigital media.com, and view the prices of books similar to yours. Technical books command higher prices than nontechnical ones: Steve Humphrey charges $27 for his CGI scripting eBook, and his business is doing very well. If you want to learn CGI in two hours, his book is well worth the price. eCommerce Solutions

When you’re ready to sell your book, it’s time to shop around for an eCommerce

solution, so that people can buy and download your eBook online. This is a confusing venture because there are so many choices. Shareware eCommerce vendors such as RegSoft and Digital River offer end-toend solutions, making your job extremely simple. However, those vendors take a large percentage of your eBook sales. That might work for software sales because software costs more, but if you’re selling an $8 book, the price is too dear. Many merchant vendors (companies that accept credit cards and checks on your behalf and transfer the funds to your checking account) offer free eCommerce software. My merchant vendor, www. 2checkout.com, offers a free Perl-based shopping cart that works perfectly for eBook sales. Better yet, it charges a onetime set up fee of $49, requires no contracts or binding agreements, charges no monthly fees, and takes only 5.5 percent plus 45 cents per transaction. It also accommodates recurring sales, such as monthly newsletter sales, at no extra cost. I wanted to design and code my own Web site and fit the eCommerce pages neatly into it. Therefore, I paid a local eCommerce company to develop my eCommerce pages and “tag-teamed” with the developer to integrate his ASP (Active Server Pages) files with my HTML files. There are literally dozens of different eCommerce options; you just have to do the research and pick the best solution for your business. Be sure to investigate each vendor thoroughly. I was very excited about one particular merchant account vendor until I learned that it is involved in a class action suit brought by sellers who have not received their sales revenues in months. You also need to find a Web host for your site and secure a domain name. Most Web hosting services help you register your domain name and provide business e-mail accounts. Doteasy.com is a free Web hosting vendor that places no ads on your site and provides free business e-mail accounts. If your Web site utilizes scripting (and all eCommerce pages do), you’ll have to pay a fee for their service, but it’s very low. OnlineInstitute.com also offers low-cost Web hosting, and it sells ten domain-name e-mail addresses for only $60 per year.

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E-zines and association newsletters are touted as the best way to market eBooks directly to targeted audiences. Legal Stuff

It’s important to include a disclaimer on the copyright page of your book, as well as on your Web site. I didn’t want to pay a lawyer to write a disclaimer, so I wrote it myself, being careful to retain certain key legal terms that appeared in the disclaimers of several “how to” books and on eBook Web sites. If you sell your books on your own eCommerce site, you also need to include your privacy policy on the site, as well as a link to the privacy policy on your merchant vendor’s site. If you mention specific people or companies in your book, be sure to send the chapter or sub-chapter to the appropriate parties for permission. Make whatever modifications they request, and be sure to keep a copy of their permission letter for future reference. Marketing from the Trenches

Once you write your books, convert them to eBook format, purchase and assign ISBNs, copyright protect them, and integrate them with an eCommerce solution, it’s time to actually sell them. This is the scary part! Unfortunately, there is no perfect strategy for marketing eBooks. The Publisher’s Marketing Association and the Direct Marketing Association (www.thedma.org) provide good sources of information for approaching a target audience as inexpensively and painlessly as possible. There are also a variety of eCommerce marketing associations you can investigate via search engines on the Web. Reference books such as The Writer’s Market are great sources of information, as are nonreference books published by Writer’s Digest and a variety of other publishers that cater to authors. Go to the library and talk to your librarian. Library scientists are trained research technicians, and they can help you.

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E-zines and association newsletters are touted as the best way to market eBooks directly to targeted audiences. However, as Lisa Rogak points out in her book How to Make Money Publishing from Home, it is important to balance your marketing efforts between target marketing and general marketing activities. If you are on a shoestring budget, forget about advertising for a while and focus instead on publicity. Public relations activities, such as sending out press kits and submitting articles to targeted publications, are free. Rogak’s book is an excellent resource for learning how to create press kits. It takes longer to penetrate your market with publicity than with advertising, direct mail, and so forth, but the financial risks are low. Conversely, advertising is expensive, and the results are unpredictable. Finally, follow the advice and instructions of STC’s own Theresa LeonardWilkinson from the Central Ohio chapter: Capitalize on search engine optimization (SEO). Theresa’s articles on SEO in Intercom light the way toward the best free advertising that exists in eCommerce. For more information, visit Theresa’s Web site, www.W-edge.com.

income—today and well into my retirement years. eBook development and selfpublishing does involve a lot of hard work, but it is the gift that keeps on giving, especially if you write about a timeless subject. If I can do it, you can do it. Go for it! And best of luck!

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Rogak, Lisa. How to Make Money Publishing From Home: Everything You Need to Know to Successfully Publish. Rocklin, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 1997.

It cost me only $1,700 to start up RealTime Publications. That figure includes everything: my business license, company checks, book covers, office supplies, ISBNs, Copyright Office submissions, merchant vendor, Web site, Web hosting and e-mail accounts, additional office furniture and equipment, and so forth. If I had graphic art skills and knew how to code ASP, it would have cost me $700. As I continue to write books and become proficient in marketing them, this business will generate a handsome residual

RESOURCES The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress Web site: www.loc.gov/copy right. The Direct Marketing Association: www.the-dma.org. Humphrey, Steve. Learn to Use CGI in Two Hours. www.merrymonk.com. Information about Palm devices and converters: www.handango.com, www. palmgear.com, www.palmdigitalmedia. com, and www.palm.com. Microsoft Reader home page: www. microsoft.com/reader. The Publisher’s Marketing Association: www.pma-online.org.

R.R. Bowker’s ISBN Web site: www. isbn.org. W-edge Design: www.W-edge.com. Ceil Hall is a technical writer with more than ten years’ experience. She recently founded RealTime Publications (www.real timepublications.com).

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