How Bright Is the Future of Ebooks?
- Jan 21st, 2015
- by Admin
At eBookhounds, our mission is to bring you bestselling free and discounted ebooks everyday. But, are we taking something too much for granted? Are books another area where technology will progress to the detriment of the printed word? Put another way, are print books the next Discman?
Our answer--probably not. That begs the question, why not?
Prestige
"Oh, your book is not available in print?" That is the response you will get from potential purchasers of your ebook if you don't also have a print copy. We have seen sales in print books slow down due to the proliferation of ebooks, but that does not mean we have seen the reputational impact of having your book in print too. You can consider it this way. Readers who have not gone through the arduous process of writing their own ebook often think it's easy to do. It's digital, it's a file, you can basically just write a Word document and then upload that to Amazon and start selling ebooks. For better or worse, as humans we see a finished product and our first thought is, "Yeah, that looks finished and well done, must have been pretty easy." How many times have you seen a professional do something and thought it looked easy to do, until you did it yourself?
On the other hand, ebook readers still assume that it is much more difficult to get your book published in print. That takes a publisher, an editor, and some sort of blessing from the writing gods to have let you get that far (i.e. print) in the first place. They can hold your book in their hands, if they so wish. And, the ability to hold something tangible, even if a reader does not take you up on it, is a powerful part of your reputation and prestige.
Shouldn't We Be Saying Ebooks Will Rule the World--Soon?
As our name implies, we are obviously focused on bringing you ebook deals, not deals on printed books. (Who knows, maybe that will change in the future, but we are remaining singular in our focus at this point). However, when an author promotes their free or discounted ebook on our website, a potential reader that travels through our website to the retailer of their choice is still presented with two options at that retailer--ebook or print. This means that even if you think you are simply promoting your ebook through our website, that's not right. You're promoting the printed version of your book, as well as your own reputation.
The advice, in a nutshell? Have a printed version of your book. It may sell less. Heck, it may not sell at all. But, it gives you a cache that is well worth the effort of putting your story into print.
And...That's a Wrap
The demand for ebooks has obviously grown tremendously, particulary in the last five to seven years. However, we don't believe that a printed book will ever be removed from the psyche of humans. Have a print version of your ebook available for sale to make sure that you engender credibility amongst your potential purchasers.
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