Publishing across multiple formats may seem like a lot more work and money, but it makes sense to put your book in front of as many people in as many formats as possible to improve the chances of selling it.
Publishing across multiple formats and platforms should be considered an investment in you as an author by you. When you publish your book as an eBook only, you’re immediately limiting yourself to the number of potential customers you are marketing to. While many articles predicted that eBooks would kill paperbacks early in 2010-2013, paperbacks are still selling well and have managed to survive the technological onslaught of Kindles, eReaders, and iPads.
Don’t fall into the trap of just doing ebooks or paperback books while ignoring other formats!
Digital books may be a large percentage of the market and continue to attract a lot of attention, but it’s also a very competitive market. Take one of Clive Cussler’s books, Flood Tide is listed on Kindle at $3.12 US. For an Indie Author, that’s about the starting price for many of their books. It may be easy for Clive Cussler to convince someone to buy one of his eBooks at $3, but for an unknown author, it’s a huge challenge. You can bet that authors like Clive Cussler are publishing across multiple formats and platforms!
As far as we can tell, there are close to 3.4 million eBooks currently listed on Amazon. That’s a huge market for any new author to crack into, especially if you only publish an eBook. Another interesting factor is that there are also almost 45 million books in total on Amazon. Amazon is crazy huge! It makes sense that to give your book the biggest chance possible, you market it to as many people as possible.
Even if you decide to publish exclusively on Amazon through their Kindle Unlimited program, you still have the choice of publishing eBooks, audiobooks, and paperbacks on Amazon. Then, you can look at other platforms like Ingram Spark to add a hardcover option for your book. If you choose to opt out of Kindle Unlimited, you have a variety of different eBook publishing options, such as Smashwords, iBooks, Nook, and Ingramspark, just to name a few.
Despite the popularity of eBooks, many readers still like to sit and read a paperback copy of their book, and there are several benefits to publishing a paperback copy of your book. Before you skip past paperback book formatting, there are some things that you should consider.
Some of the benefits of paperbacks are:
- Schools, libraries, and other organizations prefer hardcover books over paperback books and generally don’t look at eBooks at all. Hardcover books last much longer than paperback books and give them a longer shelf life on their investment. While creating a hardcover version of your paperback may cost more to print and sell less, it gives you more options when you’re trying to market to libraries and other organizations.
- Despite eBooks being very popular, many readers still prefer the feel of paperback books in their hands. Turning pages and absorbing books feels so much better when you have a real book in your hand, not just a tablet.
- Different genres of books sell differently across different formats. You may find that adult romance books sell very well as an ebook but don’t sell as well as a paperback. Children’s books, on the other hand, sell as well as paperbacks and hardcovers but get less interest than ebooks.
- When you go to market your new book, book events are going to go a lot better when you can physically give away or sell copies of your book rather than codes or discounts for eBooks. Being able to hand across copies of your book to potential new readers is a massive aid in selling and marketing yourself as an author.
- When people buy books as gifts for other people, in most cases, it’s paperback books that they choose. Books at Christmas time and other holidays is a huge market and can make or break your entire year, helping to fund more books and better marketing.
- While Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited requires you to remain exclusive to them with your eBooks, paperbacks across multiple platforms are fair game. One of the biggest achievements of many new authors is to see their books in their local bookshop. Listing your paperback on multiple platforms and distributors could make this dream a reality.
Why Publishing Across Multiple Formats Makes Sense! – Conclusion
There you go! Why publishing across multiple formats makes sense.
Ultimately, the more places you can publish your book, the more visibility it’s going to have, so publishing in multiple formats and across multiple platforms makes sense if you’re trying to sell books and build your author profile. If you’re interested in formatting your book, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Indie Publishing Group! We’ll help make your dream of becoming an indie author a reality.
At Indie Publishing Group, we’re proud to assist Canadian and North American authors in self-publishing their work. If you are in the process of writing a book and need any assistance with paperback or ebook formatting, cover design, professional editing, or uploading to self-publishing sites such as Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us.
Our experienced and professional self-publishing team is standing by to assist you with your self-publishing dreams.
