EBooks have a number of benefits over the traditional book. These include the following:

• Cheaper to create

• Quicker to create

• Easier to target a wide market

• High profit potential

• More versatile than traditional books

Lets look at each of these points in turn:

Cheaper to create:

The eBook can be created on a shoestring budget since it is possible for its publishing and marketing costs to be minimal. On the other hand the traditional book has a higher cost structure. This means the author will have to overcome a tough sales target before they even consider making a profit on the book.

The costs the author will incur if he follows a traditional book format include:

• Publishing costs

• The profit margin that the bookstores will want to sell the book

• Distribution costs

• Marketing costs including advertising costs

Quicker to create

The eBook could be written and published in as little as 7 days. For other potential authors who work at a slower pace, the whole process of writing and publishing a book could be done within a month.

On the other hand for a traditional book the time span between starting a book and writing it could take around 18 months. By that time the information contained in the book could be out of date especially if the book is technology or research related.

Easier to target a wide market

With eBooks the sky the limit! The eBook may be sold on the Internet to anyone who has a credit card and an Internet connection in any place in the world. Since an author can control the topics of their book, they can decide whom to market to.

However with a traditional book it may be difficult to expand to new markets since it will involve further significant costs on distribution and marketing.

High profit potential

EBooks can be produced on a shoestring budget but since customers may believe they offer value for money, the author may charge more for them than expected. It is not impossible for almost everything grossed from an eBook being profit.

On the other hand traditional books have high production and marketing costs and this means the author (unless they are very popular) will have great difficulty in recovering these costs and making a profit.

More versatile than traditional books

EBooks could be used for a number of purposes. The most common method is for the sale of the eBook. However an eBook could be used as a free gift to customers to entice them to buy a product from you. It can also be transformed into audiocassettes or digital products.

To conclude eBooks are a very valuable tool that could be used as a profit centre, as a publishing tool or as a marketing tool. It has many advantages over the traditional book.

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COPYRIGHT: 2004 by Andy George. All rights reserved

Publishing Guidelines: This article may be freely published so long as the author's resource box, bylines, and copyright are included.