Ebooks are transforming book publishing. Many authors are bypassing traditional book publishers, getting to market quicker, retaining greater control and getting their books discovered – often using ebooks.

Taken as a group, self-published authors are equivalent in size to many large, sophisticated publishing operations in terms of ebook sales.

Ebooks are generally less costly to produce than printed versions, and the sale price to readers is usually lower too. With ebooks you generally don’t have to wait as long to get your book to market, but good book editing and proofreading is still essential.

Ebook basics

Regular ebooks are digital versions of paper-based books, usually read on devices such as the Kindle, iPad and Nook.

Ebook reader devices allow the reader a more interactive experience. At a basic level this can mean increasing the font size and clickable contents (jumping to the relevant page). It also means buying a book is very easy – just a few clicks to download and start reading.

Enhanced ebooks

Enhanced ebooks which merge text, video and more can provide a richer experience for the reader. The art of mixing these media types into a book is still in its infancy – but there’s no doubting it offers new opportunities to creative authors.

However, it’s still early days with enhanced ebooks; not all ebook readers support the enhanced formats. For instance, ebooks with video work well on the iPad and some other tablets, but not at all on the Kindle (Amazon do support enhanced ebooks via their Kindle iPad app, plus their own tablet the Kindle Fire – but that won’t help owners of regular Kindle ebook readers).

Enhanced ebooks are still an option worth considering, and they are becoming more sophisticated and popular all the time. If you’re writing an instructional book, cookbook or textbook – it’s a great way to add value for your readers and separate your book from those of your competitors.

How to get started with ebooks

If you’ve written a book, and you’re interested in getting it ‘out there’ as an ebook, we can help you.

As well as our other book publishing services for authors, we can get your book into the correct formats and distribute to all the major ebook readers and marketplaces, plus market and promote your book.

Are you ready to publish your ebook?

Send us an email or call us now on 0191 6031660