A targeted e-book publishing and bestseller plan can get you in the public eye and onto certain bestseller lists (such as the Wall Street Journal’s) more quickly than a print publishing and bestseller plan.

Here are some facts about the state of digital publishing. Print books are still strong, but e-books are growing. The book-tracking site Author Earnings recorded that during the last three quarters of 2017, there were $1.3 billion in e-book sales.

Some 266 million e-books sold in 2017; 141,311 of these were self-published.

About 26% of e-book sales came from the traditional Big 5 publishers. Some 35% from combined independent self-published or no-listed publishers, 105 from Amazon, about 12% from trade publishers of different sizes, and the rest from a variety of other publishing models.

The thing is, today readers and authors have an option. They can publish in print or electronically. Some prefer to do both (we encourage our authors to offer their works in all formats). Our authors, in fact, are published in traditional print format as well as in e-book format (and sometimes in audiobook format). This ensures that readers can find and enjoy our authors' works in the format that best suits their preferences.

Here are the benefits of digital publishing:

• Fast turnaround. You can write a book and have it online for free downloading or for sale within days, even hours. Unlike traditional publishing, your lead time is virtually nonexistent.
• Wide distribution. Buyers, readers and clients can access your book pretty much anywhere, via an internet or wifi connection. Getting your information out isn’t bound by the constraints of physical distribution or the size of a bookstore or the limits of its physical selling space.
• Reduced production costs. You won’t be paying for paper or physical distribution. You will still need to ensure that your work is professionally edited and designed. But any length of book is possible. If you want to publish a pamphlet-sized work, no problem. If your book is going to run to several volumes, again, no problem. (Whether you really should publish a multi-volume work is another question, however.)
• On-the-go editing. If you need to update or change your content in anyway, you can do it almost immediately. If your approach changes, if facts change or if you spot an error -- you can correct it all fast. In traditional publishing, you often have to wait months to correct or update something (if it’s done at all).

Here are the downsides of digital publishing:

• Perception of less prestige. Print editions carry more prestige for entrepreneurs. It still means something if your work is visible on the shelves of a bookstore. And it still means something if you can make a physical appearance and talk about your book -- with eager readers lining up to have you sign their copies. It’s not just ego: it’s visual marketing.
• Mixed marketing. A digital product can be quite effective, but it can carry less marketing impact than a physical book, which is a reminder of an author’s brand, business and message.
• Lost possibilities. Digital books can be widely distributed and become online bestsellers. But there is a bit of a risk that they’ll get lost amid the hundreds of thousands of other digital products out there.

Digital publishing is only one publishing model offered by Marshall Goldsmith Publishing, take time and research and discover what model is best for you.

Does digital publishing sound like the smartest option to publish your book and get it out to the world? We would like to hear more about you and your book.