Print Books Vs. eBooks: Why not both?

There was a time when eBooks were taking over the book publishing market. However, while digital media has more significantly disrupted other tangible press (think of newspapers and CDs), people continue to love owning physical books. 

Physical books still outsell e-books, and according to Nielsen Book International, genres that do well in print include nature, cooking, and children’s books. At the same time, people prefer to read crime, romantic novels, and thrillers via e-reader. Physical books still outsell e-books, according to studies. 

When it comes to self-publishing your book, considers this – print book vs. eBook: why not both?

Print Books Vs. eBooks

The Gutenberg printing press is one of the most significant inventions in history, making the printed book a means to make information widespread, and eventually to be able to read for pleasure whenever you have some spare time. 

As time and technology advanced, a new and convenient way of reading books via eReaders became available to remove the need to go to a bookstore or have a bookshelf to store the printed books. 

The decision is personal when deciding whether to read from a printed book or an electronic device. It could depend on the preferred setting of reading books, or for others, how convenient it is to carry multiple books on a single device.

Print Book Benefits 

The touch and smell of a new book in your hands is unbeatable. An eBook may be convenient to use and carry around, but the experience of having a physical copy of a book is special in itself.

From a publishing point of view, there are certain other print book benefits. For example, the back cover has the all-important book description and author blurb to entice readers. 

Also, visual elements such as the folios, running heads, and typesettings. So much thought goes into this part of your book’s presentation, but much of it becomes irrelevant in a digital version where multiple size screens adjust and mutate this presentation.

eBooks Benefits

As mentioned, eBooks are convenient to carry around as they are typically lighter than even a single book, let alone multiple books. With an eReader, you can buy a book on the go instead of having to go to a bookstore. 

For an author, having your book readily available at your audience’s fingertips is a powerful proposition. You can also enhance your story with full digital color illustrations, maps, and visual details that are made to adjust with the screen size. You could even add hyperlinks to the text to provide more value and give your readers a new reading experience altogether. 

Why should your book be available as both a Print Book and an eBook? 

Ultimately, we know readers have good reasons to choose their preference for ebooks or print books, so why not produce an ebook and print edition of your book and cover both markets?

If this sounds appealing, just take these considerations into account as well. You can decide to print your book for advance review copies or only a small initial print run for your projected audience interest, but then compensate for a larger audience by having the digital version available. 

Of course, you’ll have to consider how many books you want to print initially and the printing quality for those books. When printing your book with a publisher like Palmetto Publishing, while authors are not required to use our printers, we do have the highest quality printers in the United States. Price-per-copy depends on trim size, paperweight, hardcover or paperback, dust jackets, page count, and quantity ordered.

At the same time, Palmetto Publishing would help you oversee your manuscript’s conversion into an eBook via EPUB file, which can be used on most eBook devices and platforms such as Kindle, Nook, and iBook. We can also create both Flowable and Fixed Layout eBooks.

For a new author, choosing both print books and ebooks will let you reach a wider audience and is easy to do. If you’re ready, contact us today to get started!