News

How Bright Is the Future of Ebooks?

  • Jan 21st, 2015
  • by Patrick

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.

 

Read more Tweet Share on Facebook

Why Going Free With Your Ebook Still Works

  • Jan 2nd, 2015
  • by Patrick

There was a time, a long time ago (and yes, I’m using an old grandpa voice here) when giving away free ebooks resulted in a spectacular spike in your sales.  Correspondingly, one made a whole bunch of money.  In the grand scheme of things, this time lasted about as long as a butterfly’s sneeze.  Amazon closed the “loophole,” dropped the value of a free ebook download, and ended the binge.  Thus, began the bemoaning of authors--to no avail.

 

All is not lost, however.  No, you cannot make a three month’s salary in a few days of a free ebook promotion.   But, one of the things that we continually research is what our subscribers (who we call “pack members”) and more importantly, what our prospective pack members search for when they want a new ebook.  Far and away, some of the most searched terms are for “free ebooks,” “free Kindle ebooks,” and variations of those with some of the most significant categories such as Contemporary Romance, Mysteries, and Thrillers.  

 

Now, you may say that what people may be searching on the web is not necessarily relevant to you as an author.  After all, you aren’t as focused on driving traffic to your website as we at eBookHounds are.  You would be correct, in part.  It may not be directly relevant, but it absolutely underscores where demand is in the market.  Free still (and always will) draw people in.  

 

That is a nice segue to another topic for this blog post.  You aren’t using your free ebook promotion to have that ebook come out of the promotion and rocket up the sales charts at Amazon.  That doesn’t happen anymore, even when you have tens of thousands of downloads.  What you need to contemplate using that promotion for is getting your ebooks in front of thousands of readers.  Thousands of readers that otherwise would never had heard of your work.  It should also drive home the point that you need multiple ebooks, in multiple series, if you really want to start making money.  The one hit wonder with a bestselling ebook that then prompts them to write more is almost like a black swan event.  Don’t even consider something like that happening to you.  Instead, focus your efforts on getting 3, 4, and 5 ebooks in a series.  Then, you can capitalize on the number of products on your shelves with a free ebook promotion.

 

We’re always here to discuss what we find on the “backend” of our own research and promotions for free ebooks.  Contact us anytime at admin@ebookhounds.com and we’ll be happy to share what we discover on a daily basis!

 
Read more Tweet Share on Facebook

Judge An Ebook By Its Cover...Wait, What?

  • Dec 12th, 2014
  • by Patrick

We're Saying It--Go Ahead, Judge Ebooks By Their Covers

 

The saying, "Never judge a book by its cover," is old and fanciful, but it is certainly not applicable from a practical standpoint anymore.  Let's just consider the plethora of ebooks that exist on Amazon alone at this point.  Over 500,000!  Or, let's consider what have become microcosms for how people consume these days.  The front page of most news websites have 25+ links to stories on them.  Facebook is an endless stream of short consumption videos and posts.  Social apps like Tinder literally rely only on pictures.  You may not like it (we may not like it), but it's largely about snap judgments based upon visual asthetics.  

 

In that environment, are you really going to skimp on your ebook cover?

 

All That Work, And You're Skimping On Your Cover?

 

You've just taken months if not years of your life to get a story down, to edit it exhaustively, to have an editor review it, to get beta readers to review it, to perform more edits, and finally to try to get it published or publish it yourself.  And, it doesn't stop there, by any means.  You have to market now, develop a presence on social media, and build your brand.  Are you really (really, really) going to skimp on the ebook's cover?  

 

We certainly don't mean to be insensitive to people that may not have the means to pay $300-$500 to have a top notch cover done, but consider these options.  (1) Start putting $10 per paycheck away for your ebook cover as soon as you start writing.  In twelve months, you'd have $240 saved, which is half if not most of what you would need.  (2) Start a Kickstarter fundraising campaign.  Your friends and family would be glad to donate $5 each to the campaign, and get something fun in return.  (If you really need help with a fundraising campaign for an ebook cover, contact us and we will try to help by posting your campaign to social media).

 

Make Your Cover Stand Out

 

Your cover is the ONLY visual representation of the quality of your story that a reader will have.  Based upon how webpages are laid out on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo, the book cover is also the first thing your potential readers will see.  Put it this way, if you were trying to secure a date or a relationship on a website like Match.com, would you put a bad profile picture up?  

 

Make Sure Your Cover Artist Enjoys Your Genre

 

If you're a professional contemporary romance author, could you write a horror novel if someone paid you to do it?  Probably.  But, do you think you'd really use your skills and passion to create the best horror novel possible?  Probably not.  Even if you wanted to, it's outside of the scope of your interests and knowledge.

 

Same thing with a cover artist.  Some have done hundreds of thriller or action and adventure covers.  They know what details work.  They know what fonts stand out to readers of that genre.  Most importantly, they love working in that particular genre.  That love translates to a stand out cover for you.  So, make sure to ask a potential cover artist if they have experience working in your genre, and if it's something they really enjoy doing!

 

Wrapping It Up

 

The entire reason we started eBookHounds was because we want authors to succeed.  And, not just a select group of authors--the widest swath of authors possible.  To compete with any other author toe-to-toe for sales, however, means getting the best ebook cover possible.  Good luck!

Read more Tweet Share on Facebook
X

NEVER MISS AN EBOOK DEAL

eBookHounds Connects you With Free and Discounted
eBooks in Genres You Love

Sign up