{"id":1862,"date":"2011-02-09T08:12:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T13:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2020-01-05T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T19:21:13","slug":"the-coming-nonfiction-e-tsunami-watch-out-for-floating-babe-ruth-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/the-coming-nonfiction-e-tsunami-watch-out-for-floating-babe-ruth-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"The coming nonfiction e-tsunami. Watch out for floating &#8220;Babe Ruth bars.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Website Magazine<\/em> cites a research report from Yankee Group [UPDATE: link no longer good, sorry!] that estimates ebook sales will reach $2.7 billion in sales in 2013. That&#8217;s compared to $313 million two years ago, in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>Quite the leap.<\/p>\n<p>Average prices, meanwhile are expected to drop to $7.<\/p>\n<p>The article suggests that the downward price trend is one reason for the explosion in sales. Makes sense &#8212; it&#8217;s basic economic principle, after all.<\/p>\n<p>Given that <em>Website Magazine<\/em>&#8216;s audience is web developers and small business owners, it&#8217;s no surprise that the article veers to the topic of self-publishing white papers, how-to&#8217;s, and re-packaged blog posts. It also suggests business owners jump on the trend by publishing ebooks themselves:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Expertise in any industry can be used to create an e-book in short order, then sell that material or use it as a promotional or cross-sell incentive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>True. But I hope business owners realize that self-publishing a badly written, poorly organized ebook will be a liability, not a smart business decision. And I think it&#8217;s a stretch to suggest that the average small business owner can expect to &#8220;add revenue along the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Business owners who self-publish should expect nothing more than pocket change. They should focus instead on the value of the ebook as a promotional tool.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there will be exceptions, but only if the venture meets at least one or two of the following criteria:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It already has an audience &#8212; i.e. it&#8217;s an established business vs. a start-up nobody&#8217;s ever heard of;<\/li>\n<li>The topic is both catchy and compelling;<\/li>\n<li>The business does a great job at PR and marketing the ebook;<\/li>\n<li>The ebook offers information of genuine value;<\/li>\n<li>The ebook is well-written enough that readers can understand and apply whatever it&#8217;s trying to teach them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What percentage of ebooks in the coming nonfiction tsunami will meet at least two of those conditions, do you think?<\/p>\n<p>And what percentage will more resemble floating Babe Ruth bars?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Website Magazine cites a research report from Yankee Group [UPDATE: link no longer good, sorry!] that estimates ebook sales will reach $2.7 billion in sales in 2013. That&#8217;s compared to $313 million two years ago, in 2009. Quite the leap. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/the-coming-nonfiction-e-tsunami-watch-out-for-floating-babe-ruth-bars\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,243,3],"tags":[398,254,241],"class_list":["post-1862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-publishing","category-publishing","category-writing","tag-ebooks","tag-nonfiction","tag-writing-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6403,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/6403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}