How To Make an eBook

Ever wonder how your words would look on an eReader? Want your books to never go out of print (so-to-speak)? Not sure how to get started?

I got loads of great responses from everyone earlier in the week regarding what topics they’d like to hear about from my foray into the San Francisco Writer’s Conference. A bunch of you wanted to hear more about eBooks, so let me start there, but I will get to each of your points of interest in subsequent posts as well.

First off, eBooks are gradually going to overtake paper books in a matter of years. Yep, you heard me right. Already 30% of all books sold today are eBooks and more than half the households in the nation now own one or more eReaders. I listened to a great talk given by Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords (seen below), and he accurately described the eReader Revolution as a Gold Rush where some debut writers are striking it rich and other established authors are leaving their publishing houses to strike out on their own and reap bigger profits.

Checkout Smashwords to see how you can upload your book on Smashwords in order to generate an eBook. Best of all, it’s free! What I particularly liked about Mark’s talk was his honesty and sincerity towards writers and their craft. He takes issue with publishers, believing that they take advantage of writers and that’s why he doesn’t charge writers to use Smashwords. You may or may not agree with him, but he genuinely cares about helping authors out.

Do you want to learn more about eBooks? Just let me know. Or perhaps you’d like to hear more about agent speed-dating or book cover design? Or maybe whether a series or stand alone books are easier to market?