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This Simple Publishing Mistake Could Be Losing You Half Your Back End Sales!

Posted by admin on June 19, 2008 in Books to Read

Many of the Internets biggest ebook sellers are making this simple mistake, and it’s almost certainly costing them a ton of money in lost back end sales. You must not make the same mistake!

I was having a bit of a tidy up on my PC the other day. It really is amazing how many files you accumulate, even in a short space of time.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I was particularly interested in getting all my ebooks in some sort of organized filing system. I wanted to put them into files relating to particular categories. Then, when I wanted to go over a certain topic again, I would easily be able to find an ebook that covered the subject I was looking for.

Then I ran into a problem. The thing is, when I looked at this folder full of ebooks, at first glance, I didn’t have a clue what a load of them were about. I mean, I had read every single one of these ebooks, but from just looking at the file names, I didn’t have a clue what they were, or who wrote them!

The reason was; the ebook publishers had deliberately chosen not to give their ebooks a descriptive filename. Instead of using the actual title of the ebook as the file name, the author used some kind of shortened abbreviation.

Ebook authors must spend ages dreaming up a great name for their ebook that will reflect the topic of their publication. Then they go and ruin all that hard work; by giving the ebook file a 3 letter abbreviated name that doesn’t tell anyone what’s inside.

Why do ebook publishers do this?

There have been a lot of people giving out advice on Internet security over the last few years. One bit of advice that has been going round, is that you should always give your ebooks a weird, un-guessable file name so that Internet thieves, can’t find them on your website. I don’t want to go into exactly how these Internet thieves work because that is not what this article is all about.

Even if you don’t have a website, you may still get influenced by this advice, which is why I want to enlighten you.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Lets say an author has written an ebook called ‘Gold Swing Secrets’. Instead of giving the ebook a descriptive file name like ‘golf_swing_secrets.pdf’, they may name it something like gss-01.pdf or glfsgss.pdf.

Now, the author of the ebook had spent however long writing and compiling his ebook. The file name to him is instantly familiar; after all, he was the one that named the damn thing.

However, little old me ‘the customer’, who may be very keen to read his ebook again, didn’t have a clue what the ebook was about, without opening it to find out. Now you might think that’s ok. I mean, how long does it take to open an ebook to see what it is. My point is, most people’s eyes will be drawn to the ebooks with a descriptive file name that tells the reader instantly what the ebook is about.

What’s the big deal?

I found a number of ebooks on my PC that I had forgotten I had even bought. Some of them I had quickly speed read, with the full intention on reading them properly when I had time. 6 months, a year went by and I kept overlooking them. I just forgot what they were, and just assumed they were some free ebook or something.

The end result being:

I wonder how many ebook buyers have done the same as me? My very conservative guess is that at least 50% of people overlook the ebooks on their PC with filenames they don’t recognize. If I am right, you could be losing half your back end sales, if you choose not to give your ebook a descriptive filename.

If you have a website and you’re worried about Internet thieves, store your ebooks in a separate folder and give THAT a weird abbreviated name that no one would guess, not your ebooks!

If you have worked hard to write an ebook, do yourself a favor and finish the job off with a nice descriptive filename. Trust me, your readers, AND your bottom line will really appreciate it.

© Copyright Jason Lewis

About The Author

Jason Lewis is Author of the new ebook ‘Website Not Required’ - 9 Sure Fire Ways to Make Money Online WITHOUT a Website! Click here now ==> http://www.websitenotrequired.com


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So You Wanna Write an eBook?

Posted by admin on May 19, 2008 in Books to Read

The buzz in writing circles these days is all about self-publishing eBooks. They hear that eBooks are giving authors that added income in between getting their print books published, but they have lots of questions before making that step.

“How do I make one?”

“What do I write about?”

“Does anyone even buy eBooks?”

Actually, putting together an eBook is simple. You write about something you are familiar, put it in a .pdf or .exe file and voila, instant eBook that you can sell off your website and make a few dollars, or even thousands of dollars depending on your promotional efforts, and you’re all set.

Authors and entrepreneurs are doing this all the time and there’s no reason why you can’t either.

The first step is determining what you want to write about, of course, and what your goal is for writing your eBook.

In 2004, I became published in print format for the first time. It was for an anthology of soul mate stories. The main reason I wanted to put this book together was because I had a goal in mind. I wanted to show people who have given up on soul mates that they did indeed exist.

After it was published, I started a marketing campaign. I had heard that eBooks were all the rage and that you could make some pretty decent money off of them, so I gave it a try.

I started on another book on relationships, but while waiting on this book to be finished (which was taking an incredible amount of time due to research), I decided to try my hand at writing an eBook and selling it off of my website for added income while I waited on my print book projects to be finished.

This eBook was also centered on the soul mate relationship, which I felt would add to my expertise and would help sell my print books.

It worked.

Even though I only had the eBook up on my website and just a few online storefronts, the orders were coming in. However, I became disillusioned because I didn’t just want to sell a few copies; I wanted to sell hundreds or perhaps more.

I developed a plan.

Not only did I list it with any website that would announce my book, write up press releases and send them to every free press release service out there, and a myriad of other places, but I decided I’d write another eBook and give it away free to all those who bought my paying eBook.

This eBook was shorter, but to the point.

After I became successful using this promotional device to sell my paying eBook, I found this experience very rewarding and learned quite a few things in the process:

1.) You do not need an epublisher to publish your book.

2.) Self-published eBooks DO sell and create that added income while you’re waiting for your print books to sell.

3.) Writing eBooks help give you expert status.

4.) Your eBooks are 100% profit.

5.) The more you promote and make you and your eBook visible, the more income you will make.

Writing eBooks and selling them yourself without the middleman - the epublisher - is a great way to make money. Turn that “starving writer” moniker into “successful writer” and start cranking out those eBooks. Once you start, you’ll wonder why you never thought of this great way of bringing added income into your household before!

Dorothy Thompson is the editor and founder of The Writer’s Life (http://www.thewriterslife.net), one of Writer’s Digest Magazine’s Top 101 Website for Writers in 2003 & 2006. She is also the editor of ROMANCING THE SOUL and the author of three self-published eBooks: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO PROMOTING AND SELLING YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED EBOOK FOR FREE, HOW TO FIND AND KEEP YOUR SOUL MATE and 101 FACTS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT SOUL MATES. You can visit her website at http://www.dorothythompson.net.

Dorothy Thompson - EzineArticles Expert Author

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