Developing eBooks: What Makes an eBook Valuable?
At Content Customs, we receive a high number of orders for eBooks. If you place an order for an eBook, you obviously have given some thought to what the overall intent and purpose of the eBook is designed to accomplish. At an average of 20,000 to 40,000 words per eBook it is well worth the time to precisely define the objective of the eBook as this can quickly become an expensive service.
So, many people that do not understand the value of content often question the value of a well written piece of content. However, there is a great deal of work that goes into developing eBooks.
It is never as simple as just writing a 20,000 word article. Hopefully, this post will shed some light on the process of developing an eBook and how they can be valuable to web site owners and marketing wizards alike.
Research, Research… Research
The first step in developing an eBook is a graduate thesis amount of research. As most eBooks are designed to be sold as “electronic textbooks,” people that purchase such content are looking for a stand alone resource. eBooks can serve as membership benefits to a web site or even (as we have written before) company employee handbooks, training manuals and helpful guides. Whatever the purpose of an eBook, it requires a great deal of research. I typically estimate that 5 hours of research both on and offline is required for each 10,000 words of content.
Writing a Special Type of Content
At Content Customs, we have writers specifically trained to handle the stress and special considerations of writing an eBook. They normally have deadlines as little as 2 days. This means that the writer will likely work two 14 hour days, at least. eBooks really are comparable to writing short stories.
Consider how much it would cost to hire a writer to draft a classic book like “Animal Farm” or “1984” (George Orwell has been on my mind). This service could cost $10,000 to $12,000 at the best of prices. In fact, this is often the price that you would expect to pay a good individual freelance writer.
Why Do People Pay So Much for eBooks?
To put it simply, eBooks are some of the most valuable pieces of content on the Internet. Not only can they be broken up to fill an entire web site worth of content, they can be a great way to attract memberships to web sites or be distributed at a flat fee to customers.
You might be surprised to learn that most manuals or short books that you purchase on Amazon or another related web sites were actually eBooks when they were produced. The customer published them in their own name and resold them as a physical book. By hiring a ghost writer, this is something that you can do as well. If the subject matter is current and valuable to a wide audience, you can break even in as little as a few weeks. Following that, it’s pure profit.
If you are turned off by the high price of having an eBook produced, think again. If you are serious about your content or business, having an eBook drafted (or taking the time to draft one yourself) can be one of the best ways to quickly boost memberships, site traffic and overall sales.