CREATING AN EBOOK

Lots of instructors I talk to fancy writing and publishing an ebook. This could be on any topic that will be of interest to your customers. A workout book, recipe book or whatever you specialise in.  Of course you could just write your book in a word document, add your graphics to a funky cool cover and turn it into a PDF, but to give it a really professional edge and open it up to a wider audience you could publish on Amazon Kindle or Apple ibooks. Both platforms are relatively straight forward in getting your book onto and, of course, you get instant expert author status, which is a huge accolade to have and great for bragging rights on social media! PLUS will bring you in a passive revenue once written and published

Kindle
In-tablet purchasing—If you’ve ever downloaded a Kindle book from your Kindle reader, you know how easy they make it to purchase. From the time you search for a title (or just browse), to clicking the “Buy” button, less than 30 seconds will pass before that book is loaded on your personal reader to enjoy. It satisfies the instant gratification humanity craves, and Kindle has tapped into that craving to result in selling more e-books.
Free Samples—Besides the brilliant “Look Inside” the book feature on Amazon.com, Amazon also allows you to download a sample (usually the first chapter or so) of an e-book. Then, once you’re hooked on reading that e-book there’s a convenient “Buy” button at the end of the sample. It’s really hard to not push that button, which will immediately download the rest of the book to the Kindle and charge the credit card Amazon has on file.
KDP Free Promotions—As part of their 90-day exclusive agreement for Kindle authors, Amazon allows you to choose five out of those 90 days to give your e-book away for free. This can generate a lot of buzz and add a bump to your sales after the free promotion is over.
Kindle Lending Library— In another brilliant move, Amazon created Amazon Prime, an annual membership gadget. As an added bonus, Prime members can download any single Kindle title that’s listed in the Kindle Lending Library (part of KDP exclusivity) to read—one per month.
You can go onto the Amazon Kindle website and it walks you through the exact step by step process to get your book published on the platform.

Apple ibooks

Up to now, iBooks holds only 5% of the market share. However, that number is also rising as e-books get more sophisticated, more enhanced, and more app-like.
With the recent release of ibooks auther Apple is once again setting a standard in technology. EPUB technology has the ability to be highly interactive, yet Amazon’s Kindle is still having trouble reading EPUB files cleanly since they use and prefer their own MOBI file format.
What’s really nice about iBooks Author is the app is free, creates gorgeous, interactive iBooks, allows for custom fonts, and brings to life an otherwise plain e-book.
The main downfall of iBooks Author is it’s only supported on the iPad. This exclusivity cuts out the majority of the market (currently 95%). However, as more authors make use of this amazing tool and create higher quality e-books, iBooks will probably rise in popularity. Knowing Apple as we all do, the market share will definitely be increasing really quickly and the other bonus is your book can be read on an iphone via the app, and as most people have an iphone this is huge selling point. You can also get the Kindle app and read Kindle books on iphone/ipad via the app.

Again, a complete step by step guide with getting your book published can be found on the apple ibooks page.

If you have published a book on either platform I’d love to hear from you, so email me and I’d be happy to feature it here in the C2Go Newsletter. tweet me @RachelHolmes Now all you have to do is get writing.