- eBook, hardcover, soft cover, audio books,
it's like lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
What is the right format for you
when you're self-publishing a non-fiction book?
If you're wondering that, stick around,
this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie The Book Broad,
author and founder of a fabulous
self-publishing services company called Book Launchers
where we help you write, publish, and sell
a business and brand-boosting non-fiction book.
Today's video is in response to one of my fabulous
YouTube bestie's questions.
LaTonea asks, what format is best for your book,
eBook, paperback, audio, or hardcover
and what should you start with?
You're gonna love my answer - it depends.
It depends on, what is your budget,
who is your audience and what are your goals.
Ideally you're doing an eBook a print and an audiobook.
As a non-fiction author you're missing out on readers
if you don't do all three.
So if you have some money to budget to this
and reaching the widest possible audience
is important you, then do all three.
And if you wanna do high-end consulting,
high-ticket speaking engagements
or you expect to do a lot of media,
you may also wanna do a hardcover
so in that case four formats.
But to me the absolute minimum is an eBook
and a soft-cover book.
Non-fiction still sells largely in print.
Our clients will often see
as much as 90% of their sales in print.
A few times when we've checked post-launch stats
we'll see the split around 70% print and 30% eVersion
but people want print books for non-fiction sales.
So if you're writing a non-fiction book,
you must have a print book.
There are other reasons too and I talked
about many of them in this video right here:
"Are Print Books Dead?"
You should watch this one, we did some funny stuff.
I tried reviving a book.
I mean try signing an eBook, it's lame.
And there's value in that printed book
that's never matched by the eVersion.
Print books makes you feel like a real author.
There's a lot of reasons to do print books.
Audio is a bigger question and it's really hard to answer
for everyone generally.
The truth is, audio books are expensive to produce
and you can do audio books on a budget
but Audible may reject your book
and listeners could give you bad reviews
because the quality expectations are high.
So if you do an audio book, it has to be
part of a bigger plan.
If you're a podcaster or a speaker, do an audio book.
If you're market is under 40 or people
who have long commutes, I highly recommend
you do an audio book and frankly it's a good way
to stand out in a less-competitive book market.
But if you're on a budget, an eBook and a soft-cover book
will do to begin with.
And adding hard cover isn't that expensive
because really, the big difference is now
you just need to do another cover design
and a little bit different interior.
So maybe another 500 bucks will get you there
but it's totally up to you.
There are other strategies you might consider
when making this decision like if you wanna make
the hardcover best-seller list versus the paperback.
So you then you might only release the hardcover at first
to drive all sales there.
Or if your dollar-per-book sold is most important to you,
the money you're making, you might focus on eBook sales.
But really, most non-fiction authors
want exposure, credibility, leads and business growth
and that happens when the most possible people
read your book or at least see it, trust it,
and know about it and that's going to happen
when it's available in the most formats possible
and the format your reader expects to get from you.
One thing I will mention
is that you can add formats post-launch.
All formats don't have to be available when you launch.
And there are merits to that from an Amazon best-seller
flagging perspective 'cause each format
has its own ISBN and if you wanna hit best-seller lists
it's based on ISBN, not the title.
But know that you're marketing efforts
are the strongest around your launch
and if someone finds out about your book, goes to buy it
in their desired format or from their desired platform
and it's not there when they go,
you may lose that sale forever.
So it's a risk, you have to decide what's most important
because a lot of times, they won't check back later
and they'll forget.
So there's a lot to consider.
What is going to be your approach?
Share it in the comments below
and when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some sweet Book Launcher swag.
Like every once in a while, this #noboringbooks mug,
no, shirt, and mug, like this, and of course,
to make sure you know when a video is released
you should subscribe to the channel, I think it's down here
and turn those notifications on.
I almost always respond to every comment on YouTube
but I respond the fastest and with the most enthusiasm
on the day a video is released.
Now, have you seen this really incredible video?
It'll make you laugh, and you'll learn.
But if it's not your jam then this new one
has some great content to help you out.
Go ahead, click on the one that you wanna watch next.
I'm waiting for you.
(upbeat music)