Writing & Selling E-books - Part I

I'd like to welcome guest blogger, MaAnna Stephenson, who has written a fantastic series of ebooks. This 7-part series on "What You need to Know to Write and Sell an Ebook is a sneak peek preview of upcoming articles from Just the FAQs. Finally, books for non-geeks! Helping you create sites that work right the first time.

Print or Digital Format: Which is Better for My Book?

In this first series we’ll have a look at what types of books are best suited for either print or digital format and what types of books are good candidates for both. Your book’s content and target audience are the main factors in this decision. Today we’ll cover a few content considerations.

The top contenders for e-books that will be delivered in PDF only format include:

- Short, how-to books that deal with computer related topics
- Books that contain a lot of color graphics
- Books that contain multiple URLs
- One-time use books

E-book readers, such as the Kindle, require the content to be formatted in HTML and it doesn’t deal well with graphics or color. Books that are good candidates to cross over from print to digital format include:

- Novels
- Self-help
- Inspirational / Motivational
- Some children’s books

There are still a few categories of books that will likely remain as print-only versions. These include several types of step-by-step instruction manuals that are non-computer related, such as a cookbook. Art and picture books are also better viewed in print than on a screen.