Publish a Book or an E-book?

I was reading several books, mostly about writing and publishing, and one in particular struck me as being very wise. Most of you should read Aiming At Amazon when you get the chance.  For me, there was one point in it that make me really think.

Should you publish a book or an e-book?  The book suggests no… but others, suggest the opposite.  Hmm.

I my mind,  it is best to publish a non-fiction book because they tend to do better sales-wise over time, and when you begin you would admittedly like those sales.  I’ve written a non-fiction book, and published it, and I am writing another non-fiction book with my co-author, Jane, I think I’ll stick to non-fiction for now.

At the time of this writing, my paperback edition is not doing terribly, but it is not doing great according to most places I’ve looked. It is not bad, though.  It has sold intermittently well on Amazon.com, and the “spikes” are getting a bit less volatile.  That is very nice, particularly since the lowest ranking for the book was past 1,000,000. (this is an Amazon sales rank, but it’s not as bad as you might think — there are  about 8,000,000 books out there!)  The sales for other formats are also at a decent level as well.  Of course as I’ve reminded myself long ago — this is a non-fiction book.

So what about e-books?

Think about this as a way to expand your audience.  When you write a blog, some people will choose to read a post, and others won’t even bother — not because the post isn’t good, but it’s just not a subject that they would read.  In this case when you publish a book, you might have a person who only buys hardcover, and another who prefers paperback, and another who is a rabid e-book reader.

I believe that the most important thing is getting your books published, and having a great editor to work with your manuscript before you publish a book in any format.  Of course, after you publish, the more you properly promote your book the more quickly you will see success. 

Keep on writing your new book, and keep on learning!