E-books and Wedding Bells

The big day has finally arrived for Wills and Kate. Today’s Royal Wedding promises to be the biggest event in the British Social Calendar this year.

Thousands of people will line the streets in the nation’s capital to witness the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton, and two billion more will watch the ceremony on TV or the Internet. If other Royal Weddings are anything to go by, there will be plenty of partying today. I certainly wish I could be in the UK to join in the celebrations. There is nothing like a good wedding to lift the spirits.

One of the things I like about this particular Royal Wedding is the fact that everyone can participate in the celebrations thanks to the online publication of the Order of Service. The Order of Service is free to download and comes in a page turning PDF format. What a nice little touch for those of us who can’t get to London to witness the nuptials firsthand.

Having downloaded a copy of the Order of Service, I have to say that it is beautifully put together and includes such details as the couple’s family Coat of Arms and their wedding vows. Anyone who is a fan of the Royal Family will enjoy the publication. I certainly enjoyed reading it.

Whilst I was thumbing through the pages, electronically that is, a thought crossed my mind. Why don’t more young couples make use of the e-book format to publish their Order of Service? After all, what is good for Royalty is certainly good for the people.

Creating a page turning PDF copy of your wedding ceremony is not that difficult. You can include photographs, a brief history of the families involved and the vows you plan to make. You can even thank those who have helped plan and organize your wedding, much in the same way Kate and Wills have done.

If you don’t feel confident in putting together your own Order of Service, then you can always ask an e-book writer/creator to compose one for you.

You can contact an e-book writer/creator at: info@mapconsult101.com

Seeing is believing: the importance of referencing photos in your e-book

We’ve all heard or used the cliché ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’. This is because of all the five senses we use, sight plays the biggest role in how we make sense of the world around us. What we see, we tend to believe.

The interesting point about sight is the fact that no two people see and read a given image in the same way. For example, two people might see a red London bus but each of the individuals concerned will describe it differently. The reason for this apparent anomaly has a lot to do with the way our cognitive abilities have been shaped by our immediate environment and the surroundings in which we were brought up in.

If I saw a red London bus, I would quickly recognize it as an iconic symbol of the city in which I’ve lived and worked. I would therefore describe the image of a red London bus in those terms. However, if a native of Papua New Guinea saw the same image, they might describe it in quite a different way. They might describe what they saw as: ‘a noisy beast that carries people inside its belly’. This is because their description is dictated by the language of the forest and not by that of an urban setting.

So what does all this have to do with the power of imagery and your e-book? Well, a lot when it comes to using photos and images as part of your e-book’s content.

Imagine for a moment, if you will, you are browsing an e-book about the City of London. The author of the e-book has used un-referenced photos and images taken from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in Wakehurst to highlight the parks and walk ways of London city centre. But, because there is no reference the Royal Botanical Gardens, you, as the browser of the e-book, might be forgiven for thinking that the City of London is a tropical paradise, especially if you had never been there.

Though the above example is a slight exaggeration, the point I’m trying to make here is this: Using un-referenced photos or images in your e-book can leave your readers with the wrong impression. You need to give your readers some direction when it comes to photos and images so that they can interpret them in a way that aligns with how they perceive the world. Don’t assume that all your readers will follow the same cognitive process when it comes to understanding what they see and read, because they won’t.

Any images you use in your e-book must be clearly referenced and underpinned by text so that your readers do not misinterpret what you are trying to tell them.

Remember, although a picture may convey a thousand words, those words still need to make sense in order to have any value.

Stop the planet! I want to get off!

Well, that’s how I feel every time I listen to the news or read some Internet article about the problems facing people today.

Only this week, while researching material for a new e-book, I came across 137,000,000 publications or articles related to problems facing humanity. These problems ranged from economic crisis to the implosion of the universe.

No matter where I turned, according to the overwhelming torrent of negativity pouring out of each and every one of these articles or publications, I was screwed.

Accordingly, given the overwhelming data pointing to my imminent destruction, is it small wonder that I was ready to give up the ghost? I know I certainly felt like that when I started to read some of the 137,000,000 web pages heralding the arrival of Armageddon.

After reading about thirty of these doom and gloom web pages, I couldn’t read any more for fear of swinging from the rafters, I began to notice a common thread that ran through each of the narratives on my impending demise. The thread goes something like this:

This is your problem, and this is the solution to fix it. Now buy the solution, and with it, your problems will evaporate. Oh! And the solution comes with a money back guarantee.

Basically, I was being sold a bill of goods by these harbingers of doom. The authors of the articles and publications that I read weren’t addressing my problem. They were trying to sell me their product. This got me thinking about how I write my articles and e-books.

While it true that most e-books follow the pattern of identifying a problem then offering a solution, not all authors seek to magnify the problem his or her e-book is trying to address.

The key to becoming a successful e-book author is not to dwell on the problems facing your readers. People don’t need to have their problems reinforced. There are enough doom peddlers around to do that for them. What your readers need is a compassionate ear and voice that understands the complexities of their issues. A sympathetic ear and soft voice is one that empowers people to overcome their problems, not push them further into despair.

So next time you come to write an article or e-book about a specific issue, try to write to empowering your reader, not from the standpoint of selling them a bill of sale.

Writing E-books: The Hottest Marketing Tool on the Web

With so many e-books available on the Web, the need for a dynamic marketing tool to make your e-book offering stand out from the rest of the crowd is a must. However, selecting the appropriate marketing tool for your e-book is not easy given the array of competing marketing tools available to you on the Web. Your choice of marketing tools range from pay for click advertising, blogging, article marketing, forums, social networks and online video, to name but a few.

Of all the online marketing tools available on the Web, online video represents the most versatile, most cost-effective and most value-added asset you can choose. If you are not using online video to promote your e-book, then you could very well be missing out on a lot of potential sales.

Here are six reasons why you should be using online video to promote your e-book:

· Online video has the power to engage your audience faster than any other medium

· More and more people are tuning into online video: In the UK alone, the number of people watching online video went from 6 million in 2006 to over 17 million in 2010

· There are over 50 free to upload video sharing sites on the Web

· Youtube, alone, has more than 490 million unique visitors every month

· Youtube and Google Video are not just video sharing sites – they are search engines

· Youtube is the second largest social networking site after Facebook, with over 15% of the social networking market

Creating online video need not be difficult, as most PC’s and laptops come bundled with video making software. Software such as Movie Maker or I-Movie is not complicated to use, and you can create a short video clip within the space of a few hours. You don’t even need a video camera as you can use screencast technology to capture images from your computer screen. For those of us bereft of video editing skills, I’ve discovered that a PowerPoint presentation set to music is an effective way of creating online video.

The point is: you don’t need to be a Spielberg to create online video, nor do you need to create an Oscar-winning blockbuster. All you need is a short video clip, of no more than 1 minute, to announce the publication of your new e-book.

Online video, if entertaining and informative, has the potential to go viral. For example, Pepsi Cola created a funny video clip that attracted over 26 million viewers over a very short time span. The clip lasted no more than a few minutes. Now that is what I call viral marketing at its best.

Creating an online video and uploading it to any one of the free video sharing sites will increase your e-book’s exposure to a broader audience.

Online video will also help you to create a brand image for your e-publishing business, a must if you want to become a bestselling e-book author. But, more importantly, online video will empower you towards a better rapport with your readers. Furthermore, the growing popularity of online video amongst Internet users translates into a better opportunity to build a more dynamic online presence for your e-book, which in turn equates to more sales.

Why not give your e-book the online video promotion treatment? The results might just surprise you.

Writing E-books: Living Memory as a Source of Information

In previous articles I have discussed the importance of utilizing one’s own knowledge as a means of choosing a topic for your e-book. However, personal knowledge of a particular subject, while it might be extensive, should always be supplemented by additional research.

Additional research not only enhances the quality of our work, it also adds another dimension to our writing. For example, about twenty years ago I was researching material for a book that I was planning to write. The title of the book was called ‘Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman’. The book was based on the true story of Charlotte Bryant, a woman convicted of murdering her husband Fredrick. Charlotte was eventually hanged after a trial marked by controversial and misleading evidence presented by the crown prosecution.

The idea behind the book was to highlight the real possibility that Charlotte was not only a victim of a miscarriage of justice but also a victim of extreme social prejudice. This meant that I would have to do extensive research into the murder and into the evidence presented by the prosecution and defence counsels at Charlotte’s trial.

At the time I began my research the Internet was barely in its infancy and access was not as easy as it is today. I was therefore dependent on my local library and various newspaper cuttings for sources of information. Although the information gleaned from these sources was useful, it was also very limited in scope because of its sterile and seemingly detached nature. In essences, these sources didn’t give me Charlotte’s full story from a humanitarian perspective.

As Fredrick’s murder and Charlotte’s subsequent conviction was an event that took place in the small community in which I lived, I decided to ask members of the local population who were old enough to recall what had happened to Charlotte and her family. Many of the people I questioned about Charlotte were getting on in age, but thankfully they were able to recall the scandal that brought so much attention to our small community all those years ago.

One of the people I asked about Charlotte was an aging gentleman who was well into his late seventies. He remembered Charlotte and her family very clearly and had even kept paper clippings from her trial. The information imparted by this old gentleman proved invaluable, as it allowed me to pursue alternative avenues of research which I hadn’t previously thought about. One such avenue of research was related to Fredrick Bryant’s employment.

Fredrick died of severe arsenic poisoning, which the prosecution claimed had been administered to him by his wife, Charlotte. However, what was not mentioned at Charlotte’s trial was the fact that Fredrick was a farm worker and as such was regularly exposed to various pesticides containing arsenic.

Thanks to the aging old gentleman’s recollections of Charlotte and her family, I was able follow a line of research which uncovered evidence which suggested that Fredrick may have inadvertently poisoned himself.

Resorting to living memory as a starting point for my research into Charlotte’s conviction uncovered a wealth of information that was not readily available through other channels when I first started Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman. Although the book has yet to be published, I am convinced that living memory will play an important role in how Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman will be received by its readers. It is my sincere hope that the end product will raise questions about the soundness of Charlotte’s conviction, which in turn might lead to a judicial review of her case, albeit posthumously.

If you are into writing about recent historical events, then living memory may prove to be a useful tool to you in your search for information. You might be surprised at how much firsthand knowledge is stored in the minds of those who have actually lived through the events that you plan to write about.

Note: ‘Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman’ will be available in e-book form in March 2011.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Writing E-books for Profit

There is a multitude of online opportunities open to the wannabe e-entrepreneur. From building membership websites, selling products on e-bay, blogging, publishing your own e-books and affiliate marketing, it is all a question of choosing the right opportunity that matches your demeanor and interest.

Perhaps the most open of all the opportunities available to wannabe e-entrepreneurs is the world of e-book writing and publishing. If you are passionate about a particular topic and you can write about it with some authority, then writing and publishing e-books might just be for you.

Writing and publishing your own e-books has several advantages over other areas of Internet marketing. The most notable of these advantages is the control that you have over the revenues you receive on the sale of your e-book product. In most cases you will be able to keep 100% of the profit.

E-books also have a sense of immediacy about them, which makes them the ideal e-commerce product for Internet marketing. Buyers of e-books can download their chosen e-book within seconds of paying for it, thus satisfying their need for instant gratification.

The other advantage of e-book authorship is the relatively low cost of production and distribution. Once written, you can reproduce and sell unlimited copies of your e-book at no further cost to yourself or your business.

Moreover, unlike affiliate marketing, you do not need a blog or a website to host or promote youre-book product. You can simply upload your e-book to an e-book publishing platform/host.

E-book publishing platforms are the Internet’s equivalent of a book store. Visitors can browse e-books much in the same way visitors browse books at the local bookstore.

E-book publishing platforms handle the payment transactions related to the sale of your e-book. When your total sales reach a certain threshold, say $100, you get paid. E-book publishing platforms normally charge a 20% handling fee for the use of their facilities.

Reliable statistics on how much e-book authors actually make from writing and publishing e-books are relatively hard to come by. But if you write your own e-book and sell one hundred copies of your work for $10 each, you do not need to be Einstein to know that $1000 is a sizable chunk of pocket change. Considering your e-book might have only taken you a day or perhaps even a week to write, $1000 is not a bad return on your effort.

The downside to writing e-books is the fact that the Internet is awash with e-book publications. These publications vary in size and quality but they are all, nonetheless, vying for the same dollars as your e-book. Your problem as an e-book author is one of differentiation. You need to differentiate your e-book offering from the rest of the market.

The key to differentiating your e-book from the rest of the market rests on your ability to identify a niche that is not saturated by competitors. So be prepared to do market research before you dive into your e-book writing project. Market research will save you time and energy and will help you to produce a better e-book product.

In the final analysis, whatever your e-book niche, you should always bear in mind that it is the quality of your product that will deliver on going sales. There is no point in having good sales copy if your e-book does not live up to the hype. E-book buyers can be extremely fickle. If they feel short changed by your initial e-book offering, then they are unlikely to buy your next publication.

If you want to learn more about how to succeed as an e-book author, then click on the following link: http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=63918