From Ebook To Print Book: Five Pitfalls
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- March 13th, 2009 |
- Comments
Has anyone else noticed a trend of books, both self-published and from commercial publishers, that were originally ebooks and have not completely shaken the abject signs of their origin?
1.Since ebooks can be oversubscribed easily at 80-100 pages, but print books cannot, the book variant gains length finished appendices that accept up one-third of the page count. Sometimes the appendices are quite irrelevant to the main issue, and other times they contain golden information that should have been better integrated with the main content. Thither’s also padding evident inside the book, especially a lot of large illustrations, cartoons or Powerpoint slides that add little to the reader’s learning experience.
2.Because ebooks are often oversubscribed with a lot of time-limited bonuses, these books also contain bonuses printed in them &ndash bonuses that have already expired when the book was purchased! This just happened to me with a hardcover 2007 book from John Wiley purchased finished Amazon.com - not from any aftermarket author. What were they cerebration?!
3.Ebooks, both free and for-fee, often function as a first deputise a marketing funnel, with a disproportionate emphasis on moving the reader into the next, higher-priced offering, much as a boot camp or seminar. I’ve read cardinal hardcover books recently that have also prominent and also pushy a pitch for the author’s real expensive seminar. A book should be a collected information object, with other offerings mentioned but not with a hard sell. All promos should be placed after the main matter, not inside the chapters.
4.It’s common to create and sell or distribute an ebook anthology by asking contributors to send something in on a loosely defined theme and accepting all the contributions, with wildly crinkled quality and relevance to one another. If it’s got a salable appellation, people will buy this kinda abstraction as a print book also, but reviews will be so-so at best, and the book is destined for a quick death.
5.Above all, laziness abounds. Since most ebooks have a abbreviated ridge life, thither’s little cerebration given to making the contents essential enough to fight the evolution of the marketplace for a year or cardinal. People who buy books for their personal library don’t deprivation something that will make little meaning when they pull a intensity down from their ridge in III years’ time.
People can be fooled once, but book lovers won’t buy that author’s “books” again when it’s really an ebook in the accessory of a book &ndash without a book’s feeling. Additionally, one of the big benefits for an author of publishing in print is getting books into libraries. Librarians don’t normally purchase books with the above weaknesses.
Deprivation to activity an ebook into a print book that fully works in its new format? Give it depth, organize it advantageously, consume quality control if coordinating multiple contributions, make it functional and relevant for years to come, and keep self-promotion low-key. So you’ll have readers eagerly awaiting your next book &ndash and the next and the next &ndash to add to their personal libraries.