Why write e-books is a good question to ask. Of course, many books are written as printed books first and converted to other formats later. That is not what I am talking about. Why publish only as an e-book or why publish the e-book first?
Some time ago I wrote non-fiction books for conventional publishers. (See Margaret Adams’ author page on Amazon.) I worked in this way for seven or eight years and had a number of books published. More recently I have chosen to write e-books and publish them.
My reasons for this are simple.
- I see lots of people reading books on their Kindle devices or on their tablet computers. Some of the people who are comfortable reading on-screen tell me that today they read e-books rather than paperbacks or hardbacks. They make their preferences clear via their purchases.
- Short books and, in particular, books that are written on a single theme, are popular as e-books. People often do not want to read an enormous tome on a subject. They prefer something short and relatively straightforward, especially if they are looking for an introduction to a topic.
- If a writer can write about a single topic in an accessible way, and produce an e-book that is readily available, for those people who want help with that topic, then it is both cost-effective and fairly simple to produce and publish guidance – in the form of an e-book.
In my case I have used the e-book format for guides such as:
Warning! Your Job Is Not Your Life
For the moment, there is just one final thing to say about e-books. Most e-books are inexpensive. I like the idea of getting my ideas into people’s hands without them having to worry too much about the costs. Writing an e-book on a subject that matters to people is a modern way of helping people succeed.
Q Why write an e-book then?
A Readers like them.