Today when we speak of the book publishing industry, we're talking about not only the traditional trade book publishing industry, but the self-publishing industry as well, which include both print and electronic books (eBooks). While the market for print books remains as strong as ever, it sometime difficult for beginning writers without an agent to attract attention of a major trade book publisher, which is why so many authors continue to turn to self publishing. Thanks to the internet, many authors can now be published electronically by one of the many ebook publishers on the web. If you are primarily interested in electronic publishing, you will find hundreds of resources on the web simply by doing a search with your browser for keywords as "ebooks" or "electronic publishing". At this point, I'm still doing my own research on electronic publishing, but it appears that few beginning writers are making serious money from the sale of their ebooks.

Exceptions are Web entrepreneurs who are selling technical information and know-how on computer-related topics currently in demand by would-be Web entrepreneurs, such as Web site design, eBook or newsletter publishing,electronic marketing strategies, and so on. Generally speaking ebooks are more difficult to sell than "real books" because people don't like to (or have time to) read books on their computer screen, and today hand held ebook reader are still to expensive and unrefined for serious book readers to consider. This is not going to stop the electronic publishing industry, however, and the market for ebooks may change dramatically in the near future. Meanwhile, thousands of ebooks have already been published, and electronic publishing continue to attract the interest of many writers and Web entrepreneurs. Several publishers have begun to make many of thier title available electronically, and there is no question that this trend will continue. In fact, according to information found on ebookmall.com, consumers are already downloading thousands of ebooks everyday, and an estimated 250 million people will be reading ebooks by 2005. Some experts with their own websites and ezines are successfully selling their informational-packed ebooks in the $30-$99 range while others are simply offering free ebooks designed to sell other electronic products or business services. The majority of ebooks, however, are priced much lower, with $9.99 quickly becoming the most popular price for an ebook. Many beginning writers are breaking into this field by working with established ebook publishers. Some charge an up-front fee to edit, publish, and promote an author's book while others do this work without charge, but take a higher percentage of each sale. When researching this topic on the Web, remember that eBook publishing is a new industry without set standards. Publishers make their own rules and set their own standards, so be sure to read all the fine print in any contract you sign.