 Publishing Electronic Books
This chapter contains some useful information
about publishing electronic books. We assume that you have some competency with the World
Wide Web, and have developed web pages before.
If you have never developed pages using HTML,
then you should purchase a good tutorial book and begin. The basics you need are a text
editor, plus the viewer package you are using to read this.
Before You Begin
Before you can sit down and create the content
for your electronic book, you should consider why you are developing it, who you intend to
read it, and whether you expect payment for it.
Many of the preliminary considerations for
electronic books also apply to the printed versions.
Why are you publishing?
If you are publishing just for the fun of it, or
for the challenge, then you might as well ignore any rules, and just experiment. You
should probably browse through this chapter for some pointers and guidelines though.
However, if you intend to make money out of it,
or are publishing as a serious information source, then you need to consider the design of
your work, its writing style, and organization.
Who is your Target
Audience?
The content of your electronic book should
appeal to your reader. If you are creating a technical manual, you should consider
carefully exactly how people will find information. You should probably include a detailed
index, just like printed technical books do.
Are you already familiar with printed books
covering your topic?
If you are publishing collections of poetry, or
short stories, or a novel, you probably won't need a detailed index, but you will need a
table of contents.
The style you use for writing should be similar
to that used in printed publications that also target your chosen audience. Experiment
with different styles if you like, but do consider whether the style you choose will cause
people to read on, or make them pass onto something else.
There are good books on the market that teach
people how to write for specific target audiences. If you are not an established writer in
the field you are covering with your ebook, you should consider reading them first.
Distribution of Ebooks
Simply creating an electronic book is not
enough. Unless you distribute it you have probably wasted your time, because no one will
read it.
You will need to load it onto a web site, and
then arrange for other sites to link to your ebook. You will need to ensure that people
know that they need the viewer program to read it, and from where to obtain it.
The more links to your book, the more people
will read it. You might like to consider including a link to your work in your email
signature file, and then posting responses in newsgroups your target audience is likely to
frequent. We should point out that with newsgroups, you do not post messages that
advertise your ebook, but you post replies to other messages with a reference to your own
web site.
Payment
If you want payment for your work, then there
are more considerations.
Is the content sufficiently valuable to your
target audience that they will pay to read the entire electronic book?
Will you distribute only part of your work, and
send the full version on disk in return for payment?
With the Publisher suite, you can distribute the
entire book, but password protect important chapters. You tell readers that if they wish
to read these chapters, then they must pay you for a key that unlocks the book. Then all
you need do on receipt of payment is email the purchaser his or her key.
Organizing Your Work
Once you have settled these preliminaries, then
you can consider how to organize your work.
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