The Benefits of Electronic Publishing for Self-Publishers
E-books have become an increasingly popular option for self-publishing authors. Thanks to a rapidly growing worldwide market for e-books, and a large number of online venues for selling and buying e-books, your books are only a couple of clicks away from over one billion potential readers with their tablets, laptops, e-readers, and smart phones. Even E.L. James’ wildly popular Fifty Shades of Grey was first made available as an e-book.
There are many advantages to e-books, but these four are a big part of why self-publishers may choose to produce an e-book instead of a printed book.
1. Less Expensive
Since most self-publishing authors are covering expenses themselves, e-books represent an opportunity to make their book available to readers with less overhead cost. There are dramatically lower production costs when self-publishing an e-book as compared with a print book. The cost of printing is high because of materials like paper and ink, and is more expensive in small quantities. If you publish your next book as an e-book, you completely eliminate the cost of printing, and the hassle of storing and selling a hard copy.
2. Faster
E-books can be produced more quickly than print books because they don’t, well, need to be printed. While an e-book still needs editing, graphic design, and formatting, it requires less production time than a hard copy. And an e-book can be made available for purchase online in the amount of time it takes to upload a file to an online vender’s website. This means that e-books will get to your readers faster as well, since they can purchase, download and start reading within minutes.
3. Bigger Market
The popularity of digital reading devices has increased the distribution options for e-books, meaning that e-books can reach a large variety and number of readers all over the world in minutes. Platforms including Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Apple’s iBook, are just a few examples of the devices that have expanded the digital marketplace for books. Two years ago, 25 million people in the U.S. owned an e-reader and an astounding eight million homes had at least two tablets. Any of these people are potential readers for your e-book.
4. Unlimited Shelf Life
Once your e-book has been released into the digital world, it can stay there indefinitely. Printed versions of your book may only remain on the shelves of a brick-and-mortar bookstore for a month or two, but the shelf life of an e-book is unlimited. This gives your book the time needed to be discovered, accrue reviews, get recognized, and earn money.
NWA Publishing offers useful services for self-publishing authors who are interested self-publishing their books, whether as a printed book, an e-book, or both. To learn more, visit us online at http://www.nwapublishing.com/.
