How To Publish An E-book

How To Catch A Ride On The E-book Bandwaggon

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How to Publish An E-Book
by Phil Wiley

article reprinted from All the Secrets newsletter.
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It seems that everyone wants to publish an e-book.

They're being given away on sites all over the web,
and they're attracting a huge number of downloads.

Imagine the traffic, a popular e-book can bring you, if it's given away free from hundreds of web sites. And not only traffic. Your e-book can contain advertising from businesses and programs you're promoting, and you can even sell ad space
in it.

Given the popularity of ebooks there's surprisingly little information available on how to put one together. So I've reviewed all the available e-book compilers and narrowed them down to a shortlist of five. The one's to make the grade are E-ditor Pro, WebCompiler 32, Neobook, Super Winbook,
and the Windows version of Writer's Dream. The reviews and links to trial versions are all available on my web site at
http://ozemedia.com/ebooks.htm

But before you can sit down and create the content for your electronic book, you should consider why you are developing it, who you intend to read it, and whether you expect payment for it.

Here are a few pointers.

* Rule number one - aim it at your target audience.

* The writing style you use should be similar to that of your emails or web site. Keep it light, short paragraphs and sentences, and lots of white space. Writing is just 'harder to read on a computer screen, so don't let people get bogged down by it.

* Simply creating an electronic book is not enough. Think about how you are going to distribute it. Unless it's widely available you will have wasted your time writing it because you will have few readers.

* The best way to distribute it is to load it to your own web site, then write to ezine publishers and high profile sites inviting them to grab a copy to give away on their own sites.

* Include a link to your e-book in your sig file.

* If you intend selling the book you can still give it away but password protect most of the content, just as you would with a web site. Then sell people access to the rest of the book on request.

* Another way to profit from your e-book is by advertising affiliate programs, and other biz ops in it. If you can guarantee a wide enough readership you can even sell advertising space in it.


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How to Catch a Ride on the E-Book Bandwagon.

Reprinted from Phil Wiley's all the Secrets newsletter
www.ozemedia.com

It used to be ezines, but now everyone wants to jump on the

e-book bandwagon.

They're being given away on marketing sites all over the web,

and they're attracting a huge number of downloads. They're

most often given away as free incentives to get people to sign

up for ezines. But on some sites they're being sold for

between $7 and $69, and some are even being marketed as

affiliate programs.

Unless you can offer a substantial product it's better to give

yours away for free. An e-book of your own can be a great

marketing vehicle for promoting your site.

Imagine the traffic, a popular e-book can bring you, if it's given

away free from hundreds of web sites. And not only traffic.

Your e-book can contain advertising from businesses and

affiliate programs you're promoting, and, if you wish, you can

even sell ad space in it.

But just how do you produce one? There's surprisingly little

online information in how to put one together. This article is

about to change that.

To put this article together I downloaded dozens of e-books,

and put them through their paces. Instead of judging them

on their content I went by their looks and ease of use, then

discarded all the one's that didn't make the grade. I also

asked for opinions from participants in business and

marketing forums.

The e-books I had left were all put together with the same few

software programs. The e-books that topped my list were

those written in the programs E-ditor Pro and Web Compiler, which I liked because they looked just like Microsoft IE4. The other's to make

the shortlist were Neobook, Super Winbook, and the Windows version of Writer's Dream. Evaluation copies of each of them are available for free download. The links ( along with a longer version of this article ) are posted on my web site at

http://www.ozemedia.com/ebooks.htm

If you can put together a web site, E-ditor Pro at $69 and Web

Compiler, which sells for US$149US or 99 pounds sterling, are by far the easiest to use.

This is because they're HTML compilers which allow you to take a collection of HTML, either from a Web Site you already have ormaybe HTML you prepared specially, and turn it into a single self-contained "executable" file, ready for download. Very littletechnical knowledge is required to use these programs.

They can handle almost anything you can do with a website, including: embedded video and audio; built in searching; Javascript, but not Java; and you can even use forms and shopping cart type applications, as long as it's being read while connected to the net.

Another feature is that the underlying HTML can be madeinaccessible, and groups of pages can be protected withpasswords, allowing information to be restricted to authorized users, or maybe even sold.

A downside of both E-ditor Pro and Web Compiler 32 is that theyonly work on computers using Windows 95 or 98. Though an older 16 bit version of Web Compiler available for Windows 3.1 users if there are any still around. There is no Mac or Linux version.

Read more here: http://www.ozemedia.com/ebooks.htm

Neobook came third on my list. It's an impressive authoring

system, and though it's not as easy to use as the two compilers,

it's just as versatile You can use it to create and compile a

standalone multimedia application using pictures, sounds, video,

hypertext, and other elements. Plus you can add custom push

buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, and text entry fields to create

an interactive learning environment. Again it's Windows 95 only.

A shareware download is available from

http://www.ozemedia.com/ebooks.htm, and it's $199.95 if you

decide to keep it.

Super Winbook 98 Compiler is much lower in price, at just

$39.95 for the registered version. It doesn't work with HTML

files, but handles text from just about any word processor, and

it compiles and compresses all of the book files into one file

ready for download from web sites.

If you already have your book in Text (*.txt) or Rich Text (*.rtf)

files, just load them into the Winbook Compiler, make changes,

add sounds, and in a matter of minutes your book is ready for

distribution.

Writer's Dream, is the grandfather of e-book programs, and has

around longer than the Internet. Both the DOS and Windows

versions use plain ASCII text files that you create with any word

processor. Then add sound and graphics, and compile the result

into one stand alone .exe file. The unregistered version works

fully, but doesn't allow you to create files that you can distribute.

Writer's Dream works with Windows 3.1 and is only $39 if you

decide to keep it.

___________________________________________________

Article compliments of Phil Wiley's All the Secrets newsletter.

Phil puts together a unique weekly marketing and free publicity letter, that stands out from the rest of the crowd. He's got a great personal touch, and a lot of insider media knowledge which teachs you how to grab all the free publicity you can handle. You can subscribe for

FREE at http://www.ozemedia.com