London - Everyone has a book in them and thanks to the internet, yours could be an e-book that ends up making you a millionaire bestselling author.
The internet has the advantage that you do not need a book deal to write that great first novel. Nor do you have to pay for vanity publishing – where you stump up the cash for someone else to publish your book.
And if you hit the mark with readers – as EL James did with the erotic thriller Fifty Shades Of Grey – your e-book can snowball into a multimillion rand franchise.
Since it was first published online three years ago, Fifty Shades has been turned into a trilogy with book sales and a host of spin-offs making the author £33 million (R572m) last year.
The book is now being turned into a Hollywood film directed by English filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood and will be released in February.
Andy Leeks, 34, from Headcorn in Kent, has already sold more than 40 000 e-books – and in the process become an Amazon Top 100 bestseller – earning “a five figure sum” (six figures in rand) while still doing an accountancy day job.
Leeks has found writing can be fun as well as lucrative as the author of As They Slept: The Comical Tales of a London Commuter, which he wrote last year.
He says: “I was just sitting on the train going to work one day and I looked around – everyone else was fast asleep.
“It seemed an incredible waste of good time so there and then I decided to start writing about commuter experiences.
“It was easy to publish as an e-book and fortunately many readers seemed to like it and before long I was selling 500 copies a day with lots of people downloading it on to tablets and book reading devices such as the Kindle.”
Turning pen to paper – and then a downloadable book – can be done through an online store such as Amazon by clicking on the “Independently Publish with Us” link and agreeing to sign up to Kindle Direct Publishing.
You get 70 percent of the royalties – most of the sale price – if you decide to sell between £1.49 and £7.81.
Outside these price ranges, royalties are paid at 35 percent.
The e-book also has a delivery fee depending on file size.
For 70 percent royalty deals, that is typically 5p a download.
A printed book might provide you with royalties of only 10 percent of the purchase price if you are one of the few to find a publisher.
Uploading the book is simple. Writers just have to provide a cover design and put the book in a downloadable format, such as in Word or PDF form.
It can then be read on a Kindle, tablets such as an iPad, and on most smartphones if you download the Kindle app.
You may struggle with competitors’ book readers such as the Nook or Kobo, but if you download the Kindle app, you should hopefully be able to use them.
Although Amazon is the biggest online publisher, others work much the same way. For example, Kobo publishes free in an ePub format though a “Writing Life” connection to its website. Kobo books can also be read on a variety of devices.
It pays 70 percent royalties on e-books selling for between £1.99 and £7.99 and if you decide to charge less or more, the royalty falls to 45 percent.
As with Amazon, Kobo takes the rest of the money as its cut for offering a “free” e-book service.
Andy adds: “Writing the book was just the start – I also had to market it to ensure potential readers knew it even existed.
“I handed out leaflets on the train and asked if people might be interested in downloading the book. By not being greedy and initially charging £1.99 – then temporarily dropping it to just 77p, the ball started rolling with sales.
“Word of mouth and people using social media such as Facebook and Twitter also helped spread the word.”
Last year e-book sales in the UK rose 20 percent from 2012 and now account for one in every four book sales.
Readers also spent £300m on 80 million e-books in Britain with one in five being self-published titles, according to market researcher Nielsen.
Damien Fahy, who runs money saving website MoneytotheMasses and is author of e-book 30 Day Money Plan, says: “Social media can be a powerful marketing tool and really help push up sales but there is still room for old-fashioned marketing such as holding a large book launch party.
“It might also be worth offering a free copy of the book before launch for an honest review on Amazon – positive reviews will help to sell the book.”
Although costs are relatively small, Fahy advises budgeting at least £300 for help with artwork for the cover.
Also consider paying someone to professionally edit your copy.
He also suggests setting up a Facebook page as a forum for sharing thoughts on the novel.
Providing updates may also get people returning to the site while “special offer” discounts boost sales.
John Lewis, data editor for book industry magazine The Bookseller, points out that although e-book sales have rocketed in recent years, the market is still in its infancy.
Lewis warns: “The e-book is being used by a lot of publishers for debut authors as it involves little or no financial risk.
“But, in some instances, books are selling for as little as 20p or even being given away and people downloading them are not bothering to read them.
“It is not the same with paper novels which offer a clearer guide to what books are being read.” – Daily Mail
TIPS TO MAKE IT FLY OFF THE E-SHELVES
Writing a book – hardback or ebook – requires a lot of commitment. Here are some tips to improve your chances of success.
l Don’t just talk about it – write it. It requires discipline and time should be set aside almost daily. It will be hard work and you should expect to churn out failures and do many rewrites. Do not publish until the book is in a shape of which you are proud. Think about genres – chick-lit and sci-fi are popular.
l Judge the book by its cover – others will. Take time over it and consider paying for expert advice and getting help from computer-savvy friends to get an image and title to capture the eye and imagination. Then give it a catchy blurb. This is a short, sharp sales pitch to grab attention that is key to promotion. The book should also be professionally edited.
l Market yourself. Word of mouth, online forums, launch parties, local media and book shop promotions are the way forward. This should be supported with your own social networking website. Do not be shy.
l Make sales, not money. Don’t be in a rush to become a multimillionaire. Keeping the price low boosts sales. You must find readers first before making money. – Daily Mail