EDITING & PUBLISHING

BOOK EDITING

In the past two years, eReaders including Amazon's Kindle and the iPad have taken off and it's changing the landscape of book publishing. eReaders represent the future of books because they have made publishing a book economically viable.

Traditional publishers pay very little of what they earn to the author - usually between 2-5% of the cover price. Due to the cost of printing, publishers only select books likely to sell millions of copies - niche books and new authors are of little interest to them.

Electronic publishing is now the best way for new authors, especially fiction authors, to find an audience for their writing. eReaders changed the nature of the publishing industry, taking power from huge publishing corporations and placing it back with the author.

• The Author decides the price of the book, and keeps up to 75% of the selling price.
• The Author decides who edits his book. Instead of being handed an anonymous junior with little interest in his genre, he can select a professional editor he trusts. Editors can be paid on contract, or a percentage of sales.
• The Author has complete creative control over the design of the cover, the advertising "blurb", where and how the book is marketed.
• The Author no longer needs to share profits with an "agent".

The result is better quality books that retain the passion and enthusiasm of the author, who is fairly remunerated for his creativity and time.

eBooks can be marketed and sold on Amazon - the world's largest book retailer. A number of smaller niche book portals are available - the South African electronic Book portal for authors and people who love reading is www.kindlebooks.co.za.

About Kindle, iPad and other eReaders

Reading PDF's on a computer was never going to be popular, but the new generation of eReaders - combined with low book pricing - has changed all that!

The average cost of a "best seller" ebook on Amazon is $10, with prices as low as $2. Most of the "classics" of literature are available free from numerous online bookstores.

After ordering online from Amazon or other online bookstores, readers can instantly download their new book to a computer, smartphone, or dedicated eBook device and start reading. You can adjust the size of the text and choose a different font or line spacing to suit the lighting or your eyesight.

Student textbooks are well suited to eReaders. Students can search through the text for a specific word or phrase or add digital bookmarks. With the cost of text-books today, and the continual updates required, Universities are pressuring text-book publishers to "go digital" as quickly as possible.

Probably the most important feature of an eReader is the sheer number of books that can be available any time. You can fit an entire library into a single reading device - read a book to suit your mood and the reader will always remember where you are in each book.

If you read on airplanes or travel, Amazon's Kindle eReader can operate for a month on a single battery charge. Like smartphones and iPads, a Kindle will also link to the internet giving access to email worldwide. Most eReaders can also be used to read PDF's and other digital formats.

• Learn more about eBooks
• Buy a Kindle