eBooks and South African Authors.

eBooks have a taken a fragmented author community and brought it together, thanks largely to the efforts of the world’s largest eBook retailer – Amazon.com. Let’s begin with why you would wish to publish your books in eBook format.

The Technical Benefits of eBooks for Authors
1. Unlimited Return on Investment –Once published the sales of your eBooks can ensure a regular income.
2. Instant feedback, eBooks sold online can be instantly published or updated at the click of a button.
3. Quality Reporting – Sales reports no longer require the services of (often unhelpful) staff and are available immediately in most cases.
4. Higher Profits, Worldwide customer base versus a much smaller local audience.
5. Reduced cost of publishing versus the high cost of hard-copy publishing.

Selling your eBook – The South African Scene.
The largest eBook retailers remain Kalahari.net and Exclus1ves.co.za however these avenues are only viable for those authors lucky enough to have the backing of a publishing house. This has led to numerous local websites dedicated to the self-published community springing up over the past few years.

Selling your eBook – The International Scene.
This is currently your biggest avenue to market. Firstly you need to understand what you will need before venturing into US Based eBook stores. The most obvious is a correctly formatted eBook in one or both of the following formats

.MOBI – Only used on Amazon.com and all Amazon reading devices such as the Kindle
.ePUB – Used almost everywhere else and every device outside of Amazon.

The undisputed champion of eBook stores is Amazon. Another platform of interest would be eBook aggregator Smashwords.com who will take your eBook and distribute it not only within its own bookstore but also distribute the eBook via Apple and Barnes and Noble platforms free of charge. This means one platform would control sales in a few different stores and it is a very powerful tool in your marketing toolkit.
South African self-published authors can access Amazons Author backend or KDP (Kindle Desktop Publishing) Dashboard via this link https://kdp.amazon.com/
Access is quick and free, I have loaded numerous eBooks and seen them appear live normally within a few hours.

Pros
• Biggest Market World Wide Share (~65%)
• Most helpful interfaces allowing self published eBooks authors incredible control.
• 70% royalty payments to authors when your eBook is sold for more than $2.99 and less than $9.99
• Great Affiliate Program to help authors make additional revenue.
• Create your Author Profile Page using Amazon’s free Author Central tool

Cons
• Whispernet Surcharge means your list price has $2 added (for South African Customers.)
o (See the article I have written for more information on the surcharge: http://www.myebook.co.za/amazon-secrets-for-south-african-authors-whispernet-surcharge)
• Royalty Payment to South African Authors is posted via Cheque.

Conclusion.
With the sales of eBooks outstripping printed books, do not get left behind the rest of the world.
eBooks are cheaper to publish and open your writing up to the rest of the world in a way that normal prints never could.
Whilst South Africa is behind the rest of the world in recognizing the importance of eBooks, thanks to the internet the playing field has largely been levelled and all that most authors will need is an investment of their time to create a simple marketing strategy for their eBooks.

By David Henderson