May 8, 2010
This week and weekend, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my e-book line…fixing text, redoing covers, and squaring away long-standing issues that have limited accessibility. To that end, I set out today to find out why my six e-books had not made it to several online merchants, including Apple. It turned out I’d made a mistake with some hyperlinks, disrupting the EPUB formatting and preventing the books from making it to the merchants. It took a little work, but I’ve got them all fixed now, and I’m psyched about seeing the results in action. Apple has facilitated a lot of e-book sales between the iPhone and iPad; I’m hoping my books will move well through their system.
As you can see, keeping up with self-published e-books can be kind of a pain sometimes. There’s a lot to learn and a lot to keep track of, but I don’t think any writer can afford not to be part of the e-book revolution. Sales are trending upward; more e-book reading devices are released all the time. It really looks like the industry has turned a corner, and there will only be more e-books sold in days to come. This presents an incredible new source of revenue for authors, if they make an effort. The biggest problem, of course, as always, is time. How much of it do you spend on e-bookery and how much do you dedicate to the heart of your business, which is the actual writing?
Today, at least, I accomplished something on the e-book front, and was rewarded. When I checked my latest sales report tonight, I saw that Kindle copies of two of my e-books had sold. Not much money in my pocket as a result, but still, it leaves me with a good feeling. I’m part of the revolution. See you soon.
