eBooks vs software: what’s on your computer-like device?

Posted on August 12, 2008
Filed Under All, Apple, Context, Gulker labs, New Life, Technology |

So yesterday we were thinking about software and how, in my case, I’m not buying much thanks to all the great new products, mostly free (and mostly Google) that are available for my Mac and iPhone.

What I am buying, it occurred to me as I read from my Kindle during a solo lunch an hour or so ago, is content. As I checked email at the table, I saw this link on a tech writer’s list: ebooks sold more than $40 million in Q1 of this year, up 25% from Q1 2007.

Compared to a projected $100 million for iPhone Apps in the first 3 months of the App Store, eBook sales may not seem overwhelming. But then again, $40 million per quarter is a pretty good business in the normally threadbare world of content. And those figures only represent relatively large publisher’s sales: there are a whole host of smaller eBook publishers that are probably flying under analysts’ radar - Adam Engst’s ‘Take Control’ books come to mind (although I now see those titles in places like Amazon).

What this says to me is that writers have an opportunity similar to the one that has made successes of any number of one-man-band programmers. You may have wondered why so many programmers offer perfectly wonderful, if usually small and focused, applications for prices like $9.99.

The reason is that if you sell 10,000 copies off your web site, you can make on the order of $100,000. Should you sell 100,000 copies, you’ve made a million dollars, before expenses (which include credit card transaction fees and pizza - basically pretty small). I’ve known at least a few programmers whose products have produced these kinds of numbers.

It would now seem, witnessing phenomena like Take Control and the plethora of self-published content on Kindle (much priced at $9.99 and even less), that writers now have the same sort of opportunity. Write an engaging or useful book, price it right, and either promote it yourself or with the help of a publisher, and voila, some interesting income could be yours.

Unlike print publishing, the incremental cost of publishing is very low, and you don’t have to deal with returns, shipping, retail space et al. Unlike software, you won’t spend an eternity answering support questions. And you may never have to do a book signing…

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