Digital Book World reports that lots of companies are
jumping onto the ebook bandwagon:
“AskMen [one of the top men-focused lifestyle sites on the web] is part of a growing list of non-book-publishers that are entering the ebook publishing business.
Most recently, Newsweek/Daily Beast entered into a partnership with Vook to publish ebooks.
Playboy launched a series of shorts for the Kindle, the Washington Post announced an e-book program, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, a trade publication focused on the higher education field, launched an e-book business.
Other notable companies to jump into the space are magazine publishers Conde Nast and Hearst and NBC News, a division of NBC Universal.
And the Wall Street Journal has recently rejuvenated its e-book program."
It makes sense. AskMen has 20 million unique visitors per month, why not sell them ebooks on popular topics?
For writers it offers the chance to get your book published by companies that have powerful marketing platforms. Although many things have changed, one that hasn't is that it's difficult to make people aware of your book. If you can team up with a company that already has access to a large number of readers who might be interested in your work, why not do it?
One tip: Don't wait for these companies to come to you. If you have ideas that fit their target audience, take action. Find out who is handling their ebooks division and reach out to those people.
(Another thing that hasn't changed is that what you write has to be good. For friendly guidance from idea through to publicaiton, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)