Episode Summary: A behind-the-scenes look at Mike's self-imposed writing challenge, the "Write the Life" project — publish a self-published eBook by April 15, 2018 — plus a quick overview of eBooks in general.
What You'll Learn
- A quick overview of eBooks: what they are, where to buy them, and typical pricing
- The self-imposed "Write the Life" eBook challenge: publish by April 15, 2018
- Why Mike chose eBooks as the next content format after podcasting and video
- The vision behind building a passive-income content platform through self-published books
37 days remaining in the challenge at the time of recording.
What Is an eBook?
An eBook — electronic book — is a digital book made of text, images, or both, readable on computers, phones, or tablets. The digital counterpart to a printed book.
Benefits of eBooks
Generally inexpensive, an endless catalog to choose from, and convenient to read on a phone, tablet, or dedicated e-reader like the Kindle. eBooks let you highlight, bookmark, add notes, and search text — and take up zero luggage space.
Where to Buy Them
Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo, among others — though Amazon and the Kindle Store dominate the market and make self-publishing highly accessible. Amazon was Mike's primary focus, with distribution to smaller sellers planned too.
Pricing
Generally under $10, with the most common Kindle Store price points around $2-3.99, and plenty of free or $0.99 titles.
Purchasing and Reading
Dedicated readers like Kindle or Nook allow direct purchases on-device. On iPhone or iPad, purchases happen through Amazon first, then sync easily to the free Kindle app — Mike's own preferred way to read, primarily on an iPad Pro.
What Was WritetheLife.com?
A new blog built specifically to force a public commitment: publish an eBook on Amazon by April 15, 2018. The reasoning leaned on Parkinson's Law — work expands to fill the time you give it — the same logic that got this podcast launched in 30 days with zero prior podcasting or audio-recording experience. The challenge: self-publish an eBook and document the whole process, tools included, on the blog, with a companion 5-10 episode podcast series and a class planned alongside it.
Why Start This Project?
Read the complete show notes and resources on mikemurphy.ai.
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