E-books: Why you should publish one

By Michael Botur, July 3, 2020

Across May and June 2020, I worked on three electronic books.

An electronic book is a digital publication, usually 10-30 pages in length.
If set up correctly, an e-book can be given to customers via your website, or sent to your mailing list with a few clicks.
An e-book can have a paywall and be exclusive, or it can be freely and cheaply given to your audience
The most common and practical format to distribute an e-book is PDF (portable document format), because it’s searchable, copyable, readers can flip through the pages easily and it’ll display on most devices
Need an e-book written, proofed or edited? Contact mike@kiwiwords.co.nz / 021 299 0984.

The e-books I wrote in May and June included:

A guide to an Auckland renovator/building company with personal messages from the founder and lots of case studies. The purpose: To give past, present and future customers detailed information and persuasive photos to demonstrate the thoughtful solutions offered by the company
A guide from a Kaitaia realtor about how and why people can or should sell their own houses. The purpose: To let the reader know that our expert is available to provide sales services if, after having read the book, the reader is still finding the job too challenging
A children’s book about evolutionary biology called My Animal Family. The purpose: education and entertainment (I’ll be trying to get an experienced publisher to put this book in front of children around the world, but until then, I need an easily-sendable document, created with Adobe, which can have its text easily updated.)

The e-books I created for clients this year had the following in common:

Landscape orientation, white background
Easy to print if the business wants to put a paper copy in a customer’s hands (high resolution photos; large headings)
2000-6000 words, meaning not so brief that the book doesn’t leave an impression, and not so long that the reader gets lost or bored.
Drafted on Google Docs. Google Docs is perfect because it’s simple to set up, easily shareable and editable, and you can save your e-book as a PDF or Word doc any time you like.

The differences between these e-books were the following:

The renovation expert’s e-book identified ten customer segments, and focused on visual proof with calls to action and bold, clear headings. The takeaway message: the renovator can provide the building work required to create a customer’s dreams
The realtor’s e-book downplayed calls to action, with a more biographical storytelling approach, and a soft sell. The persuasive message: The realtor told the story of how he became a master expert real estate salesman, learning from his mistakes, letting the reader know that he/she could have the same learning journey

Typically, e-books are used to achieve the following:

When a customer is sitting on the fence about using your services, an e-book which contains persuasive, carefully thought-out information should convince a prospective customer to say Yes
An e-book sent out occasionally will remind a customer that you would like the customer’s business
E-books build expertise – they tell the world you know your trade thoroughly enough to write a whole book about it
E-books are intelligent advertising.
E-books add thoughtfulness as one of your brand qualities, while your competition/opposition appear less intelligent than you if they haven’t published an e-book
E-books are simple to share. A converted customer can easily share your book with a yet-to-be-converted customer.

In previous years, I’ve created the following for clients:

A Northland property management company wanted ebooks persuading warm customers to rent out their houses
Northland DHB asked for my input on creating a number of health publications, usually in PDF and printable layout
I’ve helped a housing project in Te Kauwhata create PDF ebooks to help persuade warm customers to say Yes.
I’ve turned a number of family memoirs into e-books and published these in print and on media such as Issuu, which is flippable and easy to share with a single click.

Want an e-book written? Want me to proofread your e-book?

Email mike@kiwiwords.co.nz / phone 021 299 0984.