Should you write an eBook?  Should you publish one?  What does that even mean?  I get asked these questions all the time by people understandably confused by the sudden explosions of options in publishing thanks to the Internet and the lack of a coherent response by the traditional publishing industry.  In this blog, I’ll describe some of the options that seem most promising right now, with a bit of background.  Because the publishing industry is changing so fast, I encourage you to weigh in with your experiences.  What has worked for you?  No one person can keep up with all the permutations of publishing, so let’s help each other. 

First, a brief bit of context.  Publishers used to do 5 things for authors.  They used to acquire, edit, print, distribute and market books.  Each of those activities is an important step along the way to fame and fortune for an author, and the bad news today is that traditional publishers now only consistently do one of those five activities:  acquire books.  They’ve outsourced the rest – for the most part. 

If you’re a celebrity author (think Bill Clinton or Shaquille O’Neal) then it’s still the case that a traditional publisher will pay you a huge advance based on your proposal for your book; that’s the ‘acquire’ step.  The publisher will assign you an editor that will help whip your prose into shape.  The publisher will print the book, distribute it to the 5 big wholesale distributors, and market it aggressively in the hope of earning that advance back.  The publisher, finally, will pay you royalties based on every book sold after you’ve paid back the advance.  That’s traditional publishing, and that’s the way it used to work for all authors. 

Today, after the more ordinary author receives an advance, no one edits the book, unless the author makes separate arrangements.  Someone called a line editor will proofread your copy and correct your most egregious grammatical errors, but that’s it.  Then, the publisher will ship the manuscript somewhere – perhaps China – to have the book printed.  The publisher will ship the printed books to those 5 distributors, and no one will market the book unless, again, the author makes separate arrangements.   Most of the traditional jobs of the publisher have been outsourced, and left up to the author.  

It’s this lack of activity on the publisher’s part that has driven people like Seth Godin to start self-publishing and experimenting with a variety of online options.  Since the publisher isn't doing much, why not keep more of the profits yourself?  But the difference between Seth and most authors – or wannbe authors – is that Seth has an enormous megaphone, and most authors don’t.  When Seth writes a book and tells the world, the world pays attention.  When another author adds her book to the 1,000,000 or so published in the US alone every year, the world only rarely and quixotically pays attention.  Yes, that is one million, not a typo.  

So what should the rest of us do?  Here are some of the current e-options that have sprung up around traditional publishing and self-publishing. 

1.  Write an e-book and put it on your own website or blog.  There are a variety of possible formats – pdfs, slides, and even Word.  You can charge for the book, or give it away free.  The issue here is that you need to find some way to distribute and market your book, since the web is vast and growing faster every day.  How are people going to find you?  Perhaps it’s enough to use the book as a marketing tool itself, and perhaps your network is big enough that you’ll get all the distribution you need.  And of course, sometimes these things do go viral . . . .

2.  Write a book and self-publish it with a print-on-demand site.   Amazon and others now offer a print-on-demand option, which is a step forward from traditional ‘vanity’ publishing.  With the old model, you had to contract for a certain number of copies, like going to Kinko’s – 5,000 or 10,000, say.  Then you had to store them while you tried to sell all those copies you’d bought.  Now, Amazon and its competitors will publish them one at a time, as people order them.  No issues of storage, and the system appeals to the environmentally-minded, since presumably there are fewer wasted books.   You still have all the challenges of marketing, so this option makes sense if you have a way of getting the word out, and you don’t need the implicit endorsement of quality that traditional publishing brings. 

3.  Write an e-book and sell it through Amazon or one of its competitors.  You can make a deal with Amazon only to sell the book (or mp3, or video, or whatever) electronically, to Kindle or Kindle-like devices.   The same questions arise as with the print-on-demand options.  How are you going to market the book?  What’s your plan for getting the world’s attention? 

4.  Write an e-book and give it away through an online group like 800-CEO-READ.   800-CEO-READ began as a traditional bookstore that offered a service to busy executives – telling them the best business books to read.  Over the years, the company has earned a reputation as a smart purveyor of the best business books.  A few years back, it began its Change This manifesto series, which are short e-books, in pdf form, distributed for free through its strong marketing channel.  The author gets editing, marketing and distribution, but of course no money. 

5.  Write an e-book and publish it through a non-traditional online publisher.  A relatively new option is growing up amidst the wreckage of the traditional publishing world.  Companies like New Word City are acquiring ebooks, editing them, marketing them and distributing them – all online via Amazon and iTunes.   If the book does well, you and the publishing will share the profits, much like a traditional publisher in the old print world.  

Which of these options will dominate in the future?  Will all most content become free, as some argue?  Will that reduce most authors to penury?   Will paying models endure? 

And finally, what should you do?  The key questions to ask yourself are, how can I distribute and market the book?  Do I want the implicit endorsement of a third-party publisher?  And what do I hope for the book?  Do I want to make money, or simply share something with the world?  As in most things, it’s up to you to define success, and then pick the option that will make your success possible.  

What have you tried?  What has worked – or not?  Where do you think the publishing world is headed?