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E-book publishing is more like regular publishing that most people would like to believe. If you are determined to publish a book someone will do it for you. You may have to pay them money (which is against my religion as a writer). Some will do it for free but it is entirely up to you to market your book. There are those who will pay you for your work. Some publishers only pay a writer if they actually sell something. Others will give an advance, but the writer has to sell enough books to pay back that advance before they get any more money.

Then there are those publishers who will buy a writer's work outright; in this case the writer usually gives up significant, or even all, rights to the piece of work. Be very careful about this kind of deal because you may discover you can't even write in whatever the field ie without getting in trouble. A good thing about e-books is that it is possible to get a world wide audience for your book. A bad thing is there is a LOT of competition out there.

The cost of the e-book is one that can range from free to hundreds, even thousands of dollars, depending on content and audience. A check on the regular book selling market will reveal a similar disparity of price. What is contained in the book and who is buying it? While an e-book does not need paper, that is virtually the only way it is less expensive to reproduce and market than traditional books. The seller must maintain a site where people can get the book. Even a simple internet connection and site is going to cost money.

The more commerce involved with a site the more the cost to maintain and protect it. Just having a connection to the web and a site can run a person a hundred or so a month. Then there is equipment to be considered. The computer(s) will cost something, anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. Peripheral hardware runs the cost still higher. Software is the big expense though. Whether the person creates their own software (a huge expense when you start counting up the dollar hours) or purchases ready to use programs they are costly.

The biggest reason to be careful about publishing an e-book is that it is much easier to pirate an e-book than a regular book. However, if someone is determined to plagiarize a work they will find a way to do it. Even ordinary paper-based publishing has a problem with piracy. Regardless of whether you are self-publishing, or selling your work, I recommend finding a publisher with a good track record and working with them. This holds true for both traditional publishing AND E-book publishing. Reputation is everything.

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth J Baldwin.
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