Un-Job: eBooks
E-Book? Don’t let the word scare you. I know when I first heard it, I thought… “Oh you’ve probably got to have some sort of fancy machine to read these books”. But although you can purchase devices specifically for reading e-books, you can also view and read them on your computer. An e-book is simply a book that has been provided to you in a digital or electronic format.
E-Books have grown tremendously since their introduction in the 1990’s, and I’ll go on to tell you more about that in a minute. But writing your own e-book (or 2 or 10) is something you might want to consider if you’re looking for something enjoyable to do (fun?) while earning an additional income (job?). Here are some reasons to make an e-book and ideas to ponder…
- you love to write (that means good English, punctuation, spelling)
- you have a gift of gab (you’ve got lots of good stories to share)
- you could write about your career from an informational point of view
- you could write about your career from a humorous angle
- you could write about a life altering experience that others might be going through and need to hear
Today, people want information. We ALL have information within us that can be shared. Many of us have had encounters or adventures that people would be interested in hearing. And, think about this. If you can’t find anything from your own experiences to write about, go out and interview someone that YOU find fascinating. People love to talk about themselves, and are usually more than happy to share their knowledge. For instance, I’ve often wondered about Cable Installers going into all sorts of homes. Imagine all the different types of households they’ve been in, what they’ve seen, stories they could share about how different people live… funny, sad, strange and everything in between. I’d buy that ebook, just out of curiosity. And then there’s a retired bus driver I know who has tons of funny stories from his years on the bus route. He’s a hoot to listen to, and his e-book might be just the humor that people could use to put a ‘lift’ (pardon the pun) in their day. Your options are endless!
Now, here’s why e-books are growing at such a fast rate:
- It costs the same to make one, as it does to make 100. Of course that’s because there’s no cost for paper stock, manual labor, shipping and other various expenses.
- Its a welcomed convenience to many people who are concerned with preserving our environmental resources.
- You don’t need to have a publisher, unless of course you want someone to handle distributing the digital files for you (but you can hire an Internet assistant to that). The Internet has given everyday people the opportunity to advertise their goods, right alongside of the major brick and mortar businesses.
- Text can be searched for instantly. You can cross-reference via hyperlinks (a link you can click to bring you directly to the related info).
- There’s no out-of-print date, because they can be corrected, and the updated versions forwarded to your purchasers easily.
- Less physical space to store: Approximately 500 books (which would take up shelves in a library) can be stored on one CD as e-books.
E-books can easily be read by text-to-speech software programs so you can listen on your PC. You can also create audio files such as MP3, WAV and more, so that you can use them on portable devices like an iPod or CD player. You can get a free download at Alive Text to Speech. There’s also a free trial of Text Aloud at NextUp where you can choose from different voices. Need more control? You might want to purchase a full-blown program like Audio Utilities that provides lots of “how to” info, and can be purchased for $24.95. If you’re interested in any of these text-to-speech software programs, as always, do your research and compare to see what each system will provide. There’s a variety to choose from, so you’re sure to find one to fit your particular needs.
One downside to e-books is that because they are so easily distributed, they can hacked into, altered and then re-sold without your permission. Of course you will want to place a Copyright on it, which in the United States just means adding Copyright/Date/Your name to your creative works (see how I copyright my info at bottom of this article). But you might want to look into Digital Rights Management also, which can track your e-book viewings.
Why not check out an e-book today. You can visit the Gutenberg Project and discover loads of free e-books. If you think you may be interested in writing your own e-book, you’ll want to also visit the International Digital Publishing Forum for pointers.
Got an Un-Job idea of your own? Drop me a line!
Treasure wisdom… For wisdom finds treasure - KC
Quote for the day: Man is the best computer … and the only one that can be mass-produced with unskilled labor.
