This month I want to talk about 2 trends that are
taking the internet by storm - and one of them is fast becoming a mainstream publishing alternative. Now I am not talking about self publishing places such as www.lulu.com where you can produce your own book, your way, and keep all of the profits versus a royalty publishing option - I am going to introduce you to Amazon Kindle and ebooks. 

I'll start with an ebook - which simply is an electronic version or digital version of your book. It is a matter of creating the book as usual in a word processor, and saving it as a PDF, and selling that version.

For some who cherish the feel of a book and its pages you will think this is ridiculous, but I have made 10 x more on ebook sales, than made of book sale profits. The best part is there is no overhead, no inventory, no shipping, they get the book instantly, they enjoy your work and you make 100% profit.

I sell my bestseller 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles on Amazon, and make about $1.20 profit per book. I sell my ebook and make a $47 profit. In fact, I offer a workbook with my ebook, and 80% of the purchasers upgrade to the ebook/workbook combination and with this I make a $97 profit.

Here is that website if you want to look at the format 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles

Now some of you might be thinking – well that’s not publishing. 

I would have to disagree, as does the world’s largest bookstore and distributor of books, who not only sells ebooks now, but even better – sells your book on a Kindle device – which is an electronic device that can hold hundreds of books.

Check out this article in Newsweek called
"The Future of Reading" 

This device which has taken the publishing industry by storm, and has the largest publishers in the world scrambling to create and modify their line up of books into this format.

And technically – it is an ebook, that appears on a device you carry – the size of a typical book for those who like to hold something as they read – you can take hundreds of books with you everywhere and always have access to your favourite stories – at the push of a button.

As a world traveler, I see them on planes all the time. You can read them at the beach. Anywhere -but what is really great for you as a poet and writer – is it’s free to create a kindle version, you can list it on the Amazon.com site like a normal book, and people can take you with them – anytime.

AND … it’s an accepted form of publishing, otherwise  authors such as Stephen King, Donald Trump, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje wouldn't be there - and they are!

AND… you don’t need a fancy publisher to participate.

Isn't the point of getting published to get your work out there, to share your story, get well known, and making money along the way would totally rock right?  Take a person like Julie Powell who did a blog about Julia Child's cooking - and now it's in a movie called Julie and Julia. Think she might make some money from that, have some influence, get a major book deal - so embrace some of the new technologies because you never know what the future will bring. Take publishing out of the box and just do it.

A great resource:

How to Prepare your Book for the Kindle Device