Hype, Hype...Hooray!

We received this posting the other day...

I feel there is a lot of hype surrounding the ebook market. I am just curious how you or any ebook publishing company attract customers. The question who reads them and how they arrive are the most intriguing to me. What do you think.?

Catherine Hodge, DPP's C.T.O. offered this response:

Great Question –

We solved our customer conundrum by opening a retail outlet. We not only feature the titles we publish, but we are aggregating the content from the independent publishing community in order to offer customers a wide array of content. Once you have something to sell, attracting customers involves; Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Link Placement, and community building. These are efforts that are essential for any internet based business.

As to the “hype”, I believe that eBooks are under hyped. They are an exciting new medium for entertainment, information and communication. eBooks offer certain advantages that paper books do not.

They are:

Portable -- Now you can have an entire digital library of books and magazines with you on your laptop, PDA, Smartphone or portable eBook device.

Convenient -- You can download eBooks instantly and read them anytime, anywhere!

Easy to use -- Turn the page with the click of a button, set a bookmark, search for a specific phrase, or use the built-in dictionary to find definitions.

Inexpensive – On average, eBooks retail for 75% of the trade paperback price.

Who reads them? The demographics of eBook readership are expanding. Many business travelers were among the first to adopt the technology since it was so convenient for them. To see how this market trend will move in the emerging eBook market in the US – look to Japan and Europe, where you may see anyone from school-children to great grandparents avidly pouring over their eBook device.

How do they arrive? eBooks are most commonly sold as digital downloads. You can find our selection of titles at the DPPstore.