Why not an e-book?

Published on May 19th, 2010

Posted by Jacob in Personal, Strategy, Work

Lately, I have learned far more about publishing than I ever knew before. I can now fully appreciate the sentiment that publishing is more like an organized hobby for writers than an actual industry. The same holds for musicians and other artists. A lucky few gets heavily promoted and autotuned or the literary equivalent. Thus in the end consumers get what they are willing to pay for which seems to be the price of a club sandwich or a pair of pants. This necessitates scales of mass production which means that all products must be designed for the most common denominator to sell leaving other products uncompetitive and unavailable only being able to survive on a hobby basis. This is a consumer choice with interesting consequences. But I digress …

Now, quite a few people have asked me, why not publish as an e-book?

The primary problem with e-books is that they are easily pirated. Selling them thus becomes a run against time before they become widely available. When it comes to piracy I tend to believe that pirates don’t make their decisions based on price but as a matter or principle (or lack thereof). Why pay a finite amount when you can pay zero?

Hence an e-book would require a systemwide launch trying to get as many people to purchase it before it becomes “freely” available.

This seems to be the only profitable way to do it.

The alternative is to give the content away for free and find other ways of income. Like advertising.

Of course this is an option too, but the most interesting to me is really the demand curve because it attaches an integral exogenous value, literally, to the product. A zero price leaves the value undefined.

Since everything depends on the launch, an ebook is a high risk proposition. I could see this one-shot method being viable for a project that only took a few months to make. However, for a project that took two years to make, it seems more like a shot on the foot.

In summary, like with many other things in this saturated universe of ours is to find the right “fit” for the product. So far I am still favoring Print-on-Demand because it means that the product can be kept in circulation, essentially forever, beating out even major publishers (as far as I understand).

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28 users responded in " Why not an e-book? "

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Adam @ Sit Down Disco said,

I’ve often thought about e-books and whether the effort is really worth it. Most bloggers seem to think it’s a good idea, but I would have similar reservations to you. Is there really enough reward for effort with e-books?

Surio said,

All cold, hard, ‘INTJ’ish economic analyses notwithstanding:

I prefer to hold my book, carry it around, smell it, feel it, throw it around, write my name on it, store odd pieces of grocery list, train tickets, paper scribbles and jokes etc., in it for my children to discover years later (like my father did for me :-D)…. pass it around, annotate it, so I can revisit it and marvel at my own ignorance back then :-D… Oh I could go on.

and that’s why I say…. No to e-books 😉

Best,
Surio.

Wiggers said,

Why not POD?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_on_demand

Tyler WebCPA said,

I have many e-books and that they are excellent for information. I can search them without resorting to the index or a table of content and I can (on some) copy important quotes or information that I would like to keep in a summarized nature. I agree with Surio if it is a novel, but for information I prefer the e-book.
One think you may consider is that your profit margin is many, many times higher on an e-book. A print book needs published, printed, marketed and distributed and all of that before you see a dime. My mother has several on quilting and has sold tens of thousands but only seen a few thousand dollars for her effort.

PH said,

Not much of a e-book buyer myself, but I had an idea.

You could consider selling numbered e-books? Given that the e-book (or the PDF) can be generated when sold, you can embed the book-number both very obvious and somewhat more hidden in the PDF.

Thus, it’s easy for you to identify whoever makes copies of your book, and sue the pants of them.

jacqjolie said,

Jacob, if YOU (thus making it higher quality than the average schmo e-book) put 2 years into it, I would go for a print edition.

E-books don’t give the same credibility to me that a ‘real’ book does. But I’d look for a way to do both – maybe have them own copyright for a shorter period of time or once they stop printing so you can flog it afterwards using self-publishing methods. If e-books were that great, GRS, WB and TSD would have published theirs that way.

It just seems more like WWJD (what would Jacob do)? 😉

theevildrsin said,

I have not purchased a book in quite awhile and never paid for an ebook (just get the old free ones). However I would buy your book in whatever format available. Just for another perspective, I think Leo Babauta from Zen Habits blog has written ebooks and print books. I think he blogged about the experience. For the print book it seems he went a more conventional route of getting an agent.

anyhow, I look forward to purchasing your book.

Colin said,

I’ll be buying your book regardless of which method you choose to distribute, but a word of warning; a print book is no defence against piratism. It’s hardly any time to scan pages into OCR software and convert to PDF – have a look on any torrent site, you’ll be able to find digital copies of almost any print book available.

However, not to be offensive, but your book will be so niche that I doubt many would go to the effort of pirating it. Also, those people who will go to the effort of pirating it aren’t the same people that would have bought it in hte first place.

Sam said,

Kindle books are quite resistant to piracy. They can be read on a variety of platforms including Mac, PC, and Kindle. I haven’t researched the details, but I believe it is quite easy to self-publish on Kindle.

I prefer an e-book because it avoids the clutter and environmental cost of a paper book.

chemkrafty said,

I was wondering how having an “e-book” type preview on your website that included chapter exerpts would impact people’s willingness to buy or pay more for a paper book. We all assume its going to be good, but the chance to get a feel for the content through that form may be beneficial. Include the TOC and some pieces to whet the appetite for more!

I personally like paper books because I stare at a computer all day at work and prefer to not stare at it to read a book at home.

The kindle idea poses some merit as well for those who use it. You could always have additional ebooks as expansions to the book like they are doing now for video games with online content that you pay to download. That would drive people to get the book in order to really get the whole picture but bother you less when the piracy piece kicks in.

beth said,

on ebooks: I wouldn’t worry so much about piracy as I believe most would purchase it legitimately as they wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of buying a stolen version.

self publishing: you can do your own print-run but there’s two problems: #1 it is hard (witness some problems smashingmagazine had with their first book not being bound right, etc.) and #2 you may lack credibility for not having a publisher. You’d have to consider #2 carefully since having your own blog may mean that you have enough credibility already or it may not. Read Alan Weiss’s views on self-publishing on his blog or in his books.

w/ a publisher: you make less money but it may sell more copies and you get a copy-editor and someone to assume all risk. Get a lawyer to help you go over the contract if you do get one. You may have to submit to over 20 publishers before someone signs you on. Also, the publisher runs the cost and profit analysis for you.

I went the publisher route myself and I am told that if my book (which is in a tech niche market) sells 2,000 copies my publisher will consider it a best seller.

beth said,

Also, if submitting to a publisher, always remember to send them a proposal, not an entire manuscript. They will not read an entire manuscript. Look up how to write a book proposal.

tuttle said,

If you’re looking at it purely from a net income standpoint, I fail to see how an e-book is not the best option.

The thing about piracy is that many people who pirate something never intended to pay for it in the first place. While this segment derives all the benefits with none of the associated costs, they are not contributing to a decline in revenue.

Anecdotally, the portion of pirates who would have bought something were it not possible to pirate is quite small. A great deal of research I have done into the area reveals that declines in sales attributed to piracy are often exaggerated, or easily explained by other socioeconomic factors.

Furthermore, enlightening or not, your book will only really speak to people of a certain mindset, and among this audience it seems likely there would be less freeloaders.

That said, there does seem to be a certain lack of credibility in an e-book. This is probably due to the presence of a few too many snake oil salesmen, as well as the difficulty of determining value without another gatekeeper to effectively vet the work. Unfortunately, the self-published route doesn’t really remedy this either.

Robert Muir said,

Jacob, my view is that your fears of piracy, while not unfounded, are exaggerated. The vast majority of those who would steal an ebook would never purchase one in the first place. In fact, many pirates are hoarders who never consume most of the media they steal.

Most consumers are quite willing to pay for valued content and cheapskates who ask around the forums for “copies” of materials are usually shouted down or shamed into shutting up. Again, those folks are unlikely to purchase the book regardless of format. They’ll scrounge around on ebay or in the library for the lowest price they can find and would never pay list.

My advice, such as it is, would be to set up an automatic purchase system on your blog with both ebook and print-on-demand options available. I believe Amazon has a print-on-demand service that allows you to provide both Kindle and print versions. If you’re too afraid of epub or PDF ebooks.

Once you have the system set up, unlike traditional publishing, you would have a continuous, relatively passive, (the best kind), income stream from the sale of your book(s).

I would keep the price fairly low, $10-$20 to facilitate ongoing impulse purchases from the thousands of folks who drift in from the Googlesphere. If the price is too high, the fear of wasting money becomes too great. But if the price is low, and the testimonials are there, then a lot of people will buy the book on impulse and possibly not even read it. (Having done this myself with past obsessions, I can attest to the power of the impulse ebook purchasing.)

Bob

Septimus39 said,

I don’t know much about writing or publishing non-fiction, but I worked with my cousin while he was getting his novel published. Your method should depend primarily on your goal.

If you’re looking to make the highest profit per book, the eBook is a good option, but your sales will likely be limited. There are a lot of eBooks out there, and it’s difficult to get wide attention for any of them. There’s a certain stigma associated with them in the wider market since literally anyone can publish one. You also suffer in that people who don’t read eBooks won’t have an option to get it in hard copy.

The “self-published” book or a one through a vanity press suffer from the same stigma. You won’t find many (if any) of those books on the shelves of your local bookstore. You also don’t get much support from the publisher as far as promotion goes. You will be responsible for setting up book signings at local shops, sending copies out for review, convincing stores to buy and carry copies, etc. It’s a lot of work, and it’s a very different kind of work from writing a book, so many good authors don’t do well at it.

For wide distribution and the greatest total profit, you really need to get on board with a larger publishing house. It’s difficult to do so, since they’re assuming a lot of risk in publishing a book from a new author. With the popularity of your blog and a good cover letter, I think you could probably make it happen. Depending on your publisher, they may then take care of a large part of the marketing, which is definitely helpful. They have relationships with book sellers so they can get your book into more shops than you can on your own.

It may make sense to continue sending a treatment of the book to a lot of different publishing houses, and only fall back on an eBook or self-publishing after you have exhausted that option. I’m sure the book is good, so someone out there will hopefully recognize that and want to share in its success.

Jan said,

@Jacob “A lucky few gets heavily promoted”

Why not make your own luck?

Scott Adams (one of those guys who gets published, big time) has invited readers of his blog to submit short texts and plug themselves or whatever they want. He’ll select one that will be the winner. It’s an easy way to get additional exposure and be noticed by Scott.
You probably have a canned text that you could use, or you could write about your cause and your troubles getting published.

Worth a try?

More:
http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_attention_contest/

Jan said,

Yours would be a relatively late entry, but I bet a number of your readers would gladly vote for you.

Jan said,

Idea:

First publish the book via print on demand. Price can be relatively expensive, maybe autograph them or include an autographed insert (example: autographed pic of smiling Jacob in front of mobile home) Anybody who is in a hurry or very motived buys it.

After a long enough waiting period (six months or a year?) and only if orders slow down to unfunny levels: free ebook for every donation of $10 or more. (which may mean that some will send you more money than the price of the book AND will encourage donations)

Jan said,

The authors of several PF blogs have published a book. Several of them probably like your work. As they already have a foot in the door, maybe they could drop a note to their publisher about your work and endorse it?

The advantage of traditional publishers is that they have access to huge distribution networks.

MoneyEnergy said,

I’ve got some secondhand (through a friend) experience of traditional publishing – and I’d say that for this project, just do it yourself and keep the money. You’ll easily spend a year getting the right publisher (if you even do) and the right contract (once you even get an agent).

PoD would be a nice medium between traditional and e-book. I’d only listen to the advice of those who have actually had books published through agents the institutional way. Don’t romanticize it.

Not all “big” publishers have big distribution networks. It doesn’t work like that. They all do it differently and it depends on your contract. Some even put some of the burden on you for doing your own distribution. The times have changed…

They’ll spend money on distribution if you’re Stephen King or David Bach – that’s how they make money – not with the little book by the unknown author.

Ville said,

Having self-published my own book, I can second your conclusions. For most writers, writing and publishing is a hobby. Via self publishing, it can be a nice second income as you get to keep a chunk of the cover price.

With a good distribution channel (Createspace or Lighning Source), PoD book is not more expensive than an ebook. I recall that Amazon keeps around 30% for each ebook sold. This is not that far from a physical book. For my book, printing is 20%, distribution is 20% (Amazon’s cut) and I get 60% of the cover.

I don’t do ebooks because of piracy. I noticed that many big publishers don’t do ebooks either, especially for more expensive and niche titles.

My recommendation: Buy your own ISBN, publish, and enjoy the (small) earnings. You own the rights so you can still shop for a big name publisher. But if the book sells, why bother giving someone else all the profit? With your website, you are doing better marketing than any publisher will do for you.

James said,

this makes sense. there are obviously advantages and disadvantages to everything. an ebook is a quick way to get people to see your information but with a real hard back you (in my opinion) enjoy the read that much more.

chris said,

I agree with Jan….write to some successful authors and ask them for their advice. A well placed compliment on their book helps too.

Mo said,

I’ll be a contrarian and say that I won’t buy an ebook. Years ago I bought a few ebooks– I found it to be somewhat like participating in Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes: a lot of marketing and a lot of letdown.

Most people will devalue your knowledge. I can’t really say I’m any different. The truth is you’ve probably saved me thousands of dollars by exposing me to your point of view. Yet, I wouldn’t pay more than $20 for your book. It’s honest but true.

The knowledge you have given me for free was taken as just that– free. Perhaps it’s analogous to sitting down next to someone at a coffee shop and striking up a conversation. Even if I really enjoyed the conversation, if they asked me to pay them to talk to them, I’d figure I’ll just drink my coffee by myself– even if they might be able to tell me amazing things (perhaps this makes me stupid…)… I don’t exactly know how to eloquently rationalize all of it beyond that, but I will think about it for a while to try to assimilate everything.

I too am writing a financial self-help book. I am self-publishing the book, and will sell it for $20, even if I lose money per copy. If no one wants to buy, that’s fine, I’ll see them when they’re 67, and I’ve been retired for 30 years. I doubt I’ll sell more than 100 copies. Essentially no one reads my blog, so it follows that no one will read my book… I’m not looking for pity or advertising here, just saying you don’t have to be overly concerned with commercializing your book. You’re retired after all…

Surio said,

My more serious tuppence on e-books:
Jacob, I think you are very clued up on piracy even though others feels it isn’t such a big deal. It is quite a gray area actually, and I think you are right about erring on the side of caution on this matter.

And since money is an exchange for your life energy (2 years’ worth, isn’t it?), it is better to maximise the exchange potential in your favour for as long as you can.

Felix Dennis’s well-written book, “How to get Rich” also takes a critical, clear-eyed view on the publishing industry and makes for excellent reading for wannabe publishers. 🙂

Some posters have alluded to Dominguez’s book as an example. I too am in favour of that. Looking at it more, it would be a right strategy to make… Leave a workbook/excerpt available as online material and print/POD the complete book only as a paper copy.

Hope it all goes OK with you. God Speed, Good Luck and keep that torch burning!

Best,
Surio.

Teeny P.S: My previous remarks on annotating holds for information category books as well (Ctrl-F “da-da-ya-da-da” is so easy… yet makes you so lazy. Far better to exercise the cranium and indexcross-ref it with our li’l gray cells)

Best,
Surio.

JohnnyH said,

Why not do both? A paper books for ISBN, credibility and dispersion. And ebook for additional profit and to meet the desires of potential customers.

I see a lot of bias against ebooks in here. I strongly disagree, ebooks (and my ebook reader PRS-505) have changed my life.

1.ebooks require no physical space, do not decay or deteriorate
2.ebooks require no resources to create, ship, store
3.I can search my entire technical library of 168 books for a certain term or keywords with relative ease
4.I can carry as many books as I could read in a lifetime on something the size of a notepad.

Many here are assuming ebooks and paper books are mutually exclusive. 98% of my ebook library has ISBN #s and corresponding paper books… ebooks are NOT synonymous with crappy 56 page impulse buy pseudo manuals.

@Robert Muir, Tuttle: excellent and interesting analysis on piracy… The pirates I know most certainly are hoarders that don’t seem to value what they have, ie: they don’t even read/watch/listen to 15% of it. What about smashwords and all the other ebook publishing sites; do none of them have an effective, yet unalienating, digital copy protection?

Still any ebook protection can be broken, any book can be scanned… To be perfectly honest, to get books I bought onto my ereader (where I prefer them) I have downloaded torrents of them and even gone as far as scanning them myself.

Barb Friedberg said,

Lots to think about! I’m working on a free ebook 1st, and looking to write one for profit next. I’ve bought several ebooks. I like the concept! Barb

Frankerson P said,

I don’t buy the piracy argument as a reason to avoid e-books. You could argue they are only an outlier, but I’d take a look at 37Signals for a great example of selling an e-book (Getting Real). They had a huge blog already, but obviously they dealt with piracy and still made lots of money. I’d expect you to be able to do the same at a smaller scale.

Would the people shopping for your book really look for a pirated copy first?

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