eBooks are now hugely popular. If that’s the case, why are there still printed books?

eBooks are the best and worst thing to happen to the publishing industry in the last 200 years. They are the best thing because in a sense, they level the playing field for many Authors who wish to self-publish. However, they’re also the worst thing to happen, because they are so grossly misunderstood.

eBooks are not a replacement for printed books. They simply serve a different market. I still buy paper books all the time – but I buy them for totally different reasons than I buy eBooks.

What makes a book a good candidate for an eBook are three main things, what I call “The Three M’s of Publishing”.

The first M is Modularization. Think of chunking your content out in smaller pieces. If it’s non-fiction, this is often easier than for fiction, although some fiction might be able to be serialized. But readers of non-fiction are often trying to solve a problem or get specific information, and being able to give them just what they need, right when they need it, is very powerful. This ability to modularize content and offer it as an immediate download to their electronic device is critical to many readers.

The other two M’s are Mobility and Multimedia. Everyone who’s bought a cell phone in the last couple of years has the ability to read a book on a mobile device, and the iPad is synonymous with mobile reading of rich, multimedia-enabled content. Think of all the ways a video or an audio can show you something that words can’t describe. We need to expand our definition of a book to include non-textual material – whatever best serves the needs of the reader is the best ‘book’ to create.

Paper books are not going away. The marketing guru Seth Godin said, ‘The book is a souvenir.’ This means that we’ll pay for things other than content, such as status (such as limited edition hardcovers), beautiful and exceptional design, and collectability. How many of us have every book from our favourite Author on our shelf? When the next one comes out, we’re buying another paper book to complete the collection. That’s why I just bought the latest from my favourite fiction Author last week, in a large hardcover edition. I had a spot reserved for it on my shelf before it was even released.

eBooks create new and continually expanding opportunities for self-published Authors. But, there are things all eBook creators should know before they get into the game.

Number one, you still need to hire an Editor. Number two, you need to become familiar with the technology that will facilitate and sell your eBook. And third, you need to think of the eBook as a business. Authors need to get serious about marketing, publicity, and understanding technology. Many first-time eBook Authors make huge mistakes in the area of design, market strategy, and simply writing well. A bad eBook is still a bad book!

We romanticize much of the art of Writing, and the image of the Author with pen in hand, sitting in a peaceful setting and worrying about nothing other than perfecting their craft. That myth has just got to be busted, and fast. This is why I really feel that we need to eliminate the term ‘self-publishing’. The word ‘self’ means just that – they are writing for themselves. That’s fine if you don’t expect to sell thousands of copies. Instead, I think we need to use the term ‘entrepreneurial publishing’. That means that Authors are objective, and they don’t work in isolation. They network. They get out there. That’s what makes a really great book of any sort.