It’s Super Bowl Sunday. I’m not a football fan, but I’ve enjoyed some fun gatherings (and food) around the event over the years.
These parties remind me of some of my book launch celebrations. Once my three daughters threw me a party on the large patio of a local outdoor bookstore and invited around 100 people. That was super fun.
These days, however, releasing a new book simply means shifting into higher gear with promotion. The only semblance of festivity is a high five or a few “atta-girls” as the neighbors (or my grandsons) help us unload boxes of books from the freight truck.
There is no fanfare with the publication of an ebook, however. The fact is that ebooks are fairly obscure/invisible. There’s no excitement of a big shipment arriving at our doorstep. There’s nothing to show off in person or to place on bookstore shelves. Producing an ebook is kind of a silent victory except where the computer is concerned. When you hatch an ebook, the Internet becomes your very best friend and a hard-working tool. And the author must work even harder than ever to get the word about the secret he doesn’t want to keep.
Have you all checked out my latest ebook or any of my ebooks? If you are a successfully published author with extreme knowledge about the publishing industry, then I probably do not have a book for you. If, however,
• you hope to someday become an author.
• you have one or more books that aren’t selling very well.
• you are about to come out with your first book.
• you are working on a book,
you really must take a look at two of my ebooks—The Successful Author’s Handbook
and The Author’s Repair Kit. http://www.matilijapress.com
If you’re not accustomed to purchasing and handling ebooks, here are a few suggestions:
1: Print the ebook out on 3-hole punched paper and store it in a binder for easy reading and reference.
2: Save it in your computer where you can read it and refer to it at any time.
3: Purchase a handheld reader.
There’s still a lot of controversy about the current and future popularity of ebooks. What is your experience/feeling about them? Do you buy or publish them? How do you use them? What do you believe about the future of ebooks?