E-book or electronic book simply refers to a book presented in a digital form. E-book publishing thus refers to printing or publishing a book in digital form. In some cases, e-books represent the electronic version or a soft copy of a printed book even though some e-books lack printed versions or equivalents. The publication can be a book or book-length and contain either texts or images or even both. The publication should be in such a way that it can be read on computers or other electronic gadgets and devices that have viewing screen and e-book reader.
When having a digital publication, the manuscript is edited, a cover designed before it is converted into a format that can be read by the digital readers. So far, there is still no single format that is able to work across all the devices and digital readers.
Ebook publishing is diverse and rapidly changing. This is because of new services, terms, trends and formats being seen coming up frequently. Despite these rapid changes, there are some aspects that remain fairly constant. These include:
Cover Design
For an e-book to be successful, it must have an excellent and well designed cover. This makes it more appealing for viewing and reproduction by the users and readers.
Fair Prices
This plays a key role to the success of e-book as most people will prefer those with low prices.
Social Currency
This includes things like reviews and testimonials given by other people who have read the work.
However, before an author decides to publish his or her work in digital form, it is important for the author to consider various factors. These include:
The Target Reader
If they prefer to read the content in digital form or in print form.
How to reach readers online; if the author is able to reach more readers online then e-book is the best form of publication.
The book content and illustrations; highly illustrated book may not be effective since currently, most e-book services and readers does not support highly illustrated and full-color work.
Before getting involved in digital publication, it is also important to know how e-book publishing service operates or works. E-publishing services act as retailers and distributors and not the publisher. It is thus upon the publisher to ensure that the material is of good quality.
Various Aspects that are also Important to Note Include:
• Cost of Distribution
This service should be at low cost or free. Most services charge a onetime low fee.
• Upload Rate
A good service should allow the publisher to upload the work at any time and also take it down whenever necessary. It should also enable changes such as uploading of new versions, changing of prices, changing of cover or description and selling through multiple sites.
• Technical Expertise
Most services require little or no technical expertise as they have tools that automatically convert and upload files and list work for sale.
Even though these services provide publishing and distribution services, they take no right to the work. Distribution channels can be either single device or multiple devices. Currently, there are a wide range of services that publishers can freely choose from depending on their needs.