Why You Should Publish Your eBook As A Physical Book

If you have been on the internet for any amount of time you have probably seen calls to action that ask for your email in exchange for a free download of a niche eBook. So what do you do? You type in your email and moments later an email comes through with a link to your very own digital copy. Will you ever take the time to read it? Maybe. Maybe not but who am I to judge, I’ve done it too.

Whenever you do this you are helping expand the person’s credentials, email list, and ultimately reach. It costs you absolutely nothing but it’s helping them grow their own business. They set up a few automations once and it’s now working for them. That same system could have been sending out copies of their book for years for all you know.

I want to take a second to talk about the flip side of this scenario. I’m speaking to the person who wrote an eBook and uses it as a lead magnet. You spend a few hours, a few days, or even a few months working on this small but mighty compilation of information. It may cover your particular niche, be a series of thoughts, or even a novella. Knowing that the overhead is low, you figure you’ll give it out for free or for a few dollars and now you’re the person who is growing in credentials, collecting emails, and expanding reach.

Let me ask you this, have you ever considered publishing it as a physical book?

In 2021 I self-published my first book Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence and will be briefly discussing some of the perks that came with it throughout this article. Albeit, it didn’t start as an eBook, I later created a digital version which led to increased distribution but I’ll save that for another day.

Misconceptions About Publishing A Book

Let’s get all of the reasons you may have about not publishing a book out of the way.

Requiring A Publisher

Publishing a book in 2023 is not the same as publishing a book in the 1900s. In times past, the only way you could become a published author was through a publishing house that would make you sign a massive contract in exchange for your figurative soul (i.e royalties). The majority of people wouldn’t have even made it to that stage because their work wasn’t of a high enough quality, they were scared, or they weren’t thinking big enough to even pitch an editor.

Publishing a book also required technology that wasn’t as efficient or available as it is today. Who had access to the technology and connections back then? The publishers.

Financial and Time Barriers

Many people also believe that publishing a book requires thousands of dollars and immense amounts of time. I’m not here to say that it doesn’t cost money or any additional time, but it isn’t nearly as much as you may think. I go more in-depth on the requirements later on.

It Needs To Be Hundreds of Pages Long

When I was early on in my writing process of Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence I was concerned that it would not be long enough. I knew that I didn’t want it to be anything all-too-intensive, but would it be too short? A reasonable question. It clocks in at 55 pages long and has helped multitudes of people understand personal branding better. Publishing a book doesn’t require it to be a massive feat, second only to Don Quixote. What the text contains is more important than the amount of text.

You Have To Handle the Distribution

Distribution is handled by the company that you choose to have your book printed by. You will upload all of the files, they will print and bind your book, then handle fulfillment (shipping) according to where the book is purchased. Unless you want to order what are known as author copies and sell signed books yourself, you don’t have to touch a stamp or package. This can be compared to the dropshipping model in e-commerce.

Benefits of Being A Published Author

The Credibility and Title

Published author. Imagine being able to call yourself that. Vanity metrics aside, it does carry weight. Whenever you are introducing yourself, or someone is introducing you they can throw that little tidbit of information on top of whatever accolades and titles you have. It can get you into new rooms and circles. It’s something new and leverageable.

A New Income Stream

I have to be very clear, you will not make money from your book unless you scale and promote, promote, promote. I am also not speaking to the person who wants to solely be an author. This article is on taking your eBook and publishing it after all. You will likely spend more money initially and not break even until several months down the road. This is okay and is to be expected. Once you are in the green, however, you can expect residual income coming in every month as long as sales are being made. If you pair your book with your current and future offers and integrate it into your marketing there is no reason why you can’t rake in a few sales every now and then. Plus, as your personal brand grows, more people will be interested in grabbing your work.

A Personal Brand’s Best Friend

This goes hand and hand with the last two subtitles, but being an author instantly helps boost your personal brand. For the rest of your life, you can be regarded as the author of “XYZ Book”. There are so many ways you can leverage being a published author and you can now hand copies out to quality people in your network, host book signings, and create content specific to your work. Although your book might not directly make you a ton of money, indirectly it can give you the credibility to charge more and trigger a person to say “yes” when you ask for a close.

I have integrated my book Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence directly